Every morning I check the court docket for cases worth reporting on. Almost every morning I’m repelled by the futility and embarrassed for the judges, the attorneys, the clerks, cops and especially the defendants who are humiliated through the judicial gauntlet at our expense over idiotic drug charges that don’t belong in court. Most are for mere possession.
Next Monday a 38-year-old Flagler Beach guy is getting sentenced for possession of ecstasy. A 29-year-old Palm Coast man is pleading guilty to possession of pot. A 26-year-old Jacksonville man is pleading to possession of cocaine. A 19-year-old St. Augustine man who’s been sitting in jail since January 22 on a meth possession–Sheriff Rick Staly was involved in that arrest–is hoping to reduce his $1,000-bond: he can’t even afford to post the $100 it takes to bail out of the jail that costs us over $8 million a year to run. There are also 10 arraignments on Monday. Three are for drug possession. Those are just some of the cases set for Circuit Judge Terence Perkins’s Monday’s docket.
They’re just the tip of the judicial iceberg. Every single one of these cases on Monday is a slice in time from a long and costly journey through the police and court system–the arrest and booking, involving a number of law enforcement personnel for hours, first appearance before a judge, the days and nights in jail, the bonding process if the defendant is fortunate to have the money, the drizzle of motions and counter motions by competing lawyers, endless notices to appear, each one taking up a clerk’s time and resources, the arraignment, the discovery process–drafting lists of witnesses, sending out summonses, more notices to appear–the parade of pre-trial hearings, each one involving transporting the defendant to court (in non-covid times, anyway), bringing in the lawyers, the platoon of clerks and bailiffs, the colossal cost in time and money of taking depositions, transcribing depositions, reading and annotating depositions, then typically still more motions, more hearings, continuances, sometimes the call for expert witnesses, and if everyone but the defendant is lucky, if the system’s vises and claws work as intended, a resolution before trial, a plea, a sentencing that, in effect, makes the previous Macchu Picchu of judicial steps pretty much pointless.
It’s not over. There are fines to be paid, jail or prison time to be served, though more often in these cases it’s probation, which involves its own universe of officers, surveillance, warrantless searches, piss and polygraph tests, drug-offender counseling, violations of probation and further arrests, because probation is no picnic, and on again with the whole rigmarole described above. Escaping all that, even when the sentence has been served, there’s the criminal record and all the humiliations and limitations on the person’s life and work that entails. For possessing a joint. For possessing Oxycodone pills, a snort of cocaine, a bag of hash. Every possession. Every case. Every human being. Every one of them a Josef K.
That’s just one day in our county. One felony judge’s docket. Multiply that by the dozen or so felony judges in our circuit. Multiply that by Florida’s 20 circuits. Multiply that by 49 states. Flagler’s docket on Monday is a microbe in a different kind of entirely man-made, and unpardonable pandemic.
Or take Drug Court every Thursday, that theater of judicial indulgence that never tires of congratulating itself. Cut off from its context or compared to the current alternative, it can seem like a wonderful program. It’s certainly well-meaning. It has its successes, in its own world. But it’s a contradictory, fundamentally flawed initiative. Its participation standards are arbitrary. Participants are cherry-picked and limited by the small number of available slots. It relies on public shaming, punishment and rewards over months and sometimes years. The threat of expulsion and imprisonment always hangs over the addict. Expulsion has been fatal to three local participants in four years (Savannah DeAngelis, Anthony Fennick and Mason Brown).
For all its pandering to the self-satisfied coterie of virtue-venting donors, volunteers, graduation speakers and media–I’ve been repeatedly complicit in the pandering–not to mention the usual for-profit testing, counseling and surveillance complex that leech off of its public dollars, Drug Court draws more from police-state techniques of discipline and control than on psychology and health science. It remains in the dark ages when it comes to medically-assisted therapies. We don’t punish diabetics who oversugar, we don’t punish the obese who overeat, we don’t punish cancer patients if they miss their chemotherapy or radiation appointments, or give up. And we certainly don’t criminalize them or rank them one against the other or split them in juvenile A Teams (the good performers) and B Teams (the relapsers), or throw them out when they stumble. Why do we punish drug addicts that way? As such, Drug Court is not much removed from the old Hammurabi standard of gauging guilt and innocence by throwing a defendant in the river and seeing if he makes it to shore.
Sure recidivism rates and costs are lower than if the defendant was only punished the more traditionally sadistic way. But that’s only when you compare the rate to the police-state’s side of the ledger. Treatment works better when cut off from legal threats and penalties. Yet drug court remains the crown jewel of the judicial system’s narcotized scales because like the proud dweller in a squalid tenement, he can always point to the homeless hordes below. Drug court only looks good compared to the circles of hell below it, like Monday’s docket: case after embarrassing case, reducing some of the most intelligent and admirable legal talent in the county to bit parts in the buffoonery of a drug war lost before Richard Nixon, no slouch of pathologies, declared it half a century ago.
Federal and state lawmakers, the real source of the madness that followed, got to work weaponizing drug laws and building the foundations of the greatest mass-incarceration and judicial supervision complex in history, bar none: not even the Soviet’s gulag in the 1950s or China’s today compares. (We have nearly 7 million people in prisons and jail, on probation or parole, compared to 2.5 million in the Soviet gulags at their height. The Soviet gulags ended. Ours have not.)
You know the definition of insanity: doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result. We keep paying for this insanity, we keep playing up mass arrests, bouncing through kangaroo proceedings and hearing legislators, state attorneys, sheriffs and judges evangelize about the evils of drug addiction, as if any of them were more qualified than your average plumber or janitor to make or enforce policy on the subject. Fifty years of legislative folly has forced cops to become psychologists, judges to be M.D.’s, lawyers to be clinical counselors, the lot relying on media to perpetrate the lies.
Nevertheless most of those evangelists, including our own sheriff and state attorney, repeatedly say how “we’re not going to arrest our way out of the crisis.” They know it’s not a criminal issue. They recognize that they should have no role in the matter. They know it’s a medical issue, like alcoholism, like overeating, like any addictive behavior. Our addiction to the war on drugs included. Punishing the addicted is absurd. It’s cruel, it’s sadistic, and it’s useless. It’s a throwback to retributive justice to please the masses rather than help the individual.
Criminal justice today shines compared to what it used to be. For centuries it was thought just to cut off the tongue of a son who disowns his father, to execute a robber, an adulteress, a homosexual or a corrupt government employee, to cut off hands and pluck out eyes for offenses that wouldn’t be considered misdemeanors today. We’re not just talking Hammurabi-Code follies here. In Virginia, none other than the author of the Declaration of Independence–a fan of Cesare Beccaria, the great reformist of crime and punishment–wrote a bill calling for the castration of sexually adventurous men and the drilling of noses of sexually adventurous women. The bill failed, but only because its opponents objected to Thomas Jefferson’s wish to to limit capital punishment only to those convicted of murder and treason.
It’s been a slow trajectory, but we’ve learned to civilize our laws and debarbarize some of our punishments. Our drug laws are the exception. One of these days a great lawyer will win a case declaring the war on drugs unconstitutional on Eighth Amendment grounds. Considering our still-medieval attitudes on the subject, that day is far off.
But there’s a halfway house.
Last Nov. 3 in Oregon, 58 percent of voters approved Measure 110, decriminalizing the possession of all drugs, including cocaine, heroin, meth, oxycodone and any other controlled substance. Manufacturing and trafficking is still criminal, as it should be, starting with some of our pharmaceutical companies and their marketing campaigns. But possession of small amounts is now punishable by a maximum fine of $100. No jail, no criminal record.
Just as welfare reform in 1997 would have been irresponsible without a vast increase in the earned income tax credit and big subsidies for child care, allowing parents to work, decriminalization of drug possession would be equally irresponsible without a huge investment in treatment and recovery. Measure 110 requires the state to pay for drug addiction treatment and recovery programs funded by savings on reductions in arrests and judicial time-wasting and from tax revenue on marijuana sales, which generated $133 million last year. Legalizing and heavily taxing all drugs, not just cigarettes and alcohol, makes sense. It means users and addicts pay for their treatment, not others.
Oregon is an outlier in the United States. But Portugal has been doing this for 20 years. It decriminalized all drugs in 2001, when heroin and HIV were demolishing its social fabric. Drug users aren’t given free rein. They don’t go to jail anymore or have criminal records anymore, but they’re channeled through a health system they must comply with. Most hard-drug users get medically-assisted therapy. Portugal now has the lowest rate of overdose deaths in Europe, other than Romania. Prison overcrowding ended. Courts’ dockets and law enforcement’s energies refocused on actual crimes worth prosecuting. Public defenders had more time to give those cases instead of wasting day after day arguing motions to suppress a three-penny drug users’ errant statements during a traffic stop that turned into a drug arrest. Oregon expects the same results.
We’ve tried it the other way for 50 years. It’s not working. It’s never worked. Prohibition two generations earlier had taught us it wouldn’t work. We did it anyway. We continue to do it, hounding and marginalizing millions while millions profit off the mass-incarceration complex. Alternatives aren’t a mystery. We have data and history, we have survivors and we have no excuses. To continue with our cruel and sadistic drug war is the daily crime. The only way out is to decriminalize, treat, repair and, somehow, atone for lawmakers’ and the judicial system’s half-century assault on their own citizens.
Pierre Tristam is FlaglerLive’s editor. Reach him by email here.
Eva says
I love this perspective, it is so exactly what is needed in this country. We all know teens whose lives take downward spirals before they can even begin, with drug-related criminal records that destroy their paths in so many ways. My heart breaks for that 19 year-old, now in the quicksand. It is so wrong. I didn’t know this about Portugal or Oregon, looking to learn more now.
Mark says
Possession of anything should be legal, not just drugs. It’s what you do with said possession that may be illegal. Should you be able to posses ricin?
James Manfre says
In my opinion, this is the most important article you have written. After twenty five years in law enforcement and fifteen years as a defense attorney, I have come to the same conclusion as you. Punishing people for their addiction to drugs is not only sadistic it is counterproductive. Incarceration serves only to provide networking among other users and suppliers. Rehabilitation is the only option that consistently reduces the addictive behavior. The resources and money utilized to fight this “drug war” could be better utilized to assist users out of their nightmare life and the nightmare they create for their loved ones. As a member of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP), I have met countless sheriffs, chiefs, prosecutors, police officers and corrections officials who agree that dramatic change is necessary. Oregon will obviously be a test case. If their model is successful, perhaps momentum will build for the type of sweeping changes to our drug laws you propose.
R. S. says
Thank you for your well researched and clear statement. It’s something that must be said over and over again. And people must realize that the object of policing is to create peace in an improved society; it is NOT to punish people. Punishment will simply cause more frustration–as any parent ought to know when s/he tries to “beat” learning into his/her kids. We are far too punitive a society, no matter what we say or confess to. Deterrence does not work to any good ends. There is ample evidence of the success of kindness when we look at Scandinavian prisons: their recidivism is at a low 20 percent; ours is at a frustratingly high 70 percent. Why are we so learning resistant?
Jan Reeger says
I don’t smoke pot but “everybody” does. We need to start by decriminalizing possession of marijuana. In 1977 when I hired divorce attorneys, I was shocked to learn they both smoked pot. 44 years later, I am no longer shocked and think it is very commonplace. It would not surprise me to find that a large percentage of our lawmakers do.
Some years ago, a young gal went to prison for possession. It destroyed her life. Her father had to raise his grandchildren. I never knew how it all ended but it was so sad and unnecessary. I wish the sanctimonious politicians would get real.
Local says
LOL… You peope are idiots! You will kill jobs.. .. Increase crime and cause more deaths with this kind of thinking. I can see pot but no more. DONT RUIN MY STATE WITH LIBERAL IDEAS. MOVE TO CALIFORNIA AND LEAVE US ALONE!
Maria Davis says
Yeah let’s turn Palm Coast into Oregon or California. Liberals! Give away everything. Nothing a crime! A joke! Drugs bring more petty crime. Sometimes worse crime.
Mark says
Facts! May i add that prostituion should also be made legal. These lawmakers in Florida are insane to think the ways they are doing it will work. They are knoy hurting everyone by arresting people with drugs. Live and ket Live
R. S. says
Right you are, Mark. These are all typical victimless crimes as long as none is coerced.
R. S. says
Your state? My goodness! Methinks I’ve met the King of Florida! What a disappointment from the expectation of civil discourse.
R. S. says
Examples, please?!
Jimbo99 says
Find a cleaner hobby, I don’t want the drug addicts around, the alcoholics neither. Doubt the drug dealers are ever going to report the income & pay taxes on it. And some of them are making fabulous money doing it too. None of them want to take responsibility for the negatives of the drugs they deal. So when they get caught recruiting & ruining other’s lives, I really don’t have a soft spot for those individuals. When you have become a victim of another’s drug addiction, you’ll change your tune. The other side of that argument/debate is, how could society & the government allow that to happen ? These are the types that look for a cheat for their me first concept. They’re never going to pay taxes on revenue/sales, legalized or otherwise.
Jane Gentile-Youd says
Yes Pierre I agree with Jim Manfre. Your very best, most passionately written, highly informative commentary .
I always thought Portugal was behind the rest of Europe – how wrong I was. How much money could we save right here in Flagler County if our State Attorney and Sheriff had mindsets like those in Portugal and Oregon but more importantly how many lives would spared unnecessary anguish, humiliation as well as an permanent mark on them forever? I have been told that drug possession records can never be expunged.
In the meantime our own Flagler County jail is full of pre-trial, non violent, drug charged citizens none of whom has caused another human being any harm, all being exposed to COVID in addition to costing us untold hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Pogo says
@Pierre Tristam, thank you for your important thoughts and opinions, and your courage to voice them.
This IS one of your best. If I may, I would offer an expanded view of relevant American history:
How a racist hate-monger masterminded America’s War on Drugs
Harry Anslinger conflated drug use, race, and music to criminalize non-whiteness and create a prison-industrial complex
“In 1931, Henry Smith Williams walked into Harry Anslinger’s Washington, D.C., office to plead for his brother’s life. Anslinger and his agents had locked up every drug user they could find, including Williams’s brother, Edgar. Williams was a doctor and had written extensively on the need for humane treatment of addicts. He had spoken vehemently against Anslinger’s brutal tactics, but, confronted by the man himself — slicked back black hair, with a falcon-like visage, a thick neck, and an imposing frame — Williams was suddenly deflated. He half-heartedly made a few points about his brother not deserving such treatment; then he left. After he was out the door, Anslinger mocked him, calling him hysterical. “Doctors,” he said knowingly, “cannot treat addicts even if they wish to.” He called instead for “tough judges not afraid to throw killer-pushers into prison and throw away the key.”
With this unforgiving mentality, Anslinger ruled over the Federal Narcotics Bureau (a precursor to the DEA) for more than three decades …”
Full text:
https://timeline.com/harry-anslinger-racist-war-on-drugs-prison-industrial-complex-fb5cbc281189
Local says
Civil discourse? Isnt that how these drugs became illegal in the first place? Think before you speak! Sheesh people are ignorant these days. And or the record…florida has not had a king since 1821.
Local says
Stealing from walmart and returning the items for gift cards that they sell at 50 cents on the dollar. The steal from their parents…grandparents … Nneigbots. Some prostitute for money. …you need to come out of that liberal cave..
jim says
I knew you were stupid…I just didn’t know how much…BUT today you showed me!!!!!
Agkistrodon says
Drug addiction is not a crime. It is the acts addicts commit to get their drug of choice that are often illegal. I have no problem if you want to do drugs, but get a job and work for your getting high money. Maybe pierre is okay with his house being burglarized by an addict trying to get dope money, but stay away from my home and property, for stealing IS a crime.
Frank says
Nobody gives a poop what these people do to themselves. If they want to kill themselves, fine. But their addictions are not victimless crimes, invariably they commit crimes to pay for their addiction, or they infect others to pay for their disease. Society has the right to protect itself from these selfish individuals.
Jeffany says
First i’d like to say this is an amazing article!
without these cases…how many jobs would be lost? This is where the problem “lies” The question is..Are we correcting, controlling or creating? It’s time to look at the big picture.
Steve says
WOW and the Truth shall be told. A waste of time energy resources money and life. We are all paying for it one way or another . I for one am willing to give another direction a shot for all the reasons above and then some. Like it could be me or my Family. Once in the System it’s made difficult to get out and Unfortunately I know by experience. It’s a brave bold statement for the task at hand and I commend you for coming out with evidence of some success in other Societies who took a chance. We need to, everything to gain and a lot to lose if not changed. The revolving door has to play itself out at some point. This War was doomed to be lost.
Susan Sisk says
Tristan thank you so much for this piece, people need to realize the problem with addiction and that incarceration and penalties, i.e. felonies are not the solution. When I lived In nj my two oldest boys became involved with pot (2003). Unfortunately they got caught and where then in the system (15 and 17 yrs old ) . As parent we were required to provide legal counsel if we made over minimum wage, and the judge order in treatment drug counseling. The inner city kids almost killed my son. Fast forward a few years and they eventually became addicted to heroin…they wanted out so bad…good luck…one had insurance and one didn’t…but would not take two brothers in the same facility….by the time we could find beds they were using again….thank God we had the money to put them in private treatment, their friends Are all dead from overdoses laced from fentanyl …please don’t think this can’t happen to u….stay at home mom, class mom, boy scout secretary and volunteer in and and all their activities also a teacher in a montessori school here in this county. Punishments don’t work, help does. Look at the Scandinavian countries in and their success, we are failing and our kids are dying, wake up !! Broke but all my kids are alive, heathy and productive, absolutely no thanks to the system we have!!!!
kyp says
Decriminalizing seems fair, but saying that we should decriminalize all schedule 1 narcotics is a joke. Clearly no one here has pronounce or worked a cardiac arrest from a drug overdose. The crime that goes along with it, or the illegal organizations that thrive off the sale and distribution of it. Then shifting the issue to the healthcare system that is equally taxed and understaffed. People will shut down overcrowded prisons sure, then turn around and open mass treatment centers lol.
deb says
Well good article, but the failure started at home, the parents. Fix that and you fix a whole lot of problems in this society of ours.
Gary says
Something as a Libertarian/Conservative I can agree with a Liberal on. Of course, addiction isn’t a crime, it’s a mental health issue imo. Unfortunately, addicts often commit crimes to fuel their addiction.
The war on drugs has been nothing but a costly failure though.
Trailer Bob says
Hey honey, I’m gonna go into town and buy some heroin and crack. When I come back we can watch a movie with the kids.
Sound reasonable to me. See if the neighbors doors are unlocked…we’re getting low on cash.
The Geode says
AMAZING the sympathy we now have for drug users today. I remember the days of us being labeled “crack-heads” and subsequent laws were proposed and PASSED to ensure that a certain segment of our population received the harshest sentences possible. Where was all this sympathy and empathy then? Funny seeing the “chickens come home to roost” and everybody scrambling to build a better shelter for the chickens…
Trailer Bob says
#9 Charge Description
#10 MARIJUANA – POSSESSION 20 GRAMS OR LESS
#11 METHAMPHETAMINE – POSSESSION
#12 OPIUM OR DERIVATIVE – POSS SCH I OR II
#13 GRAND THEFT – MOTOR VEHICLE
Sounds good to me…not.
Most people don’t do a crime because of LSD use, I understand that. But LSD is not physically addictive.
I agree that we need to come to a better plan for better results, but crack and meth are not recreational drugs as you make then out to be. Even if you make these drugs legal, people will till have to steal to get the money to buy them. It is pretty difficult to be a junkie or meth-head and keep a job. The problem isn’t as simple as you think.
mark101 says
I can see it now, Free drugs for all, but you have to get some counseling to use them. Anyway, The article has some merit, but the sell of hard drugs over and over is not a mental health issue, its a greed and a money making opportunity for people that don’t care about harming others. IF this article is aimed at the once or twice person that gets caught with weed or a little pill, sure write them a citation and then what let them go, or do we as a justice system schedule them for health counseling >? , just more bureaucratic spending and new county departments that manage it and support it and then what if the person gets caught yet again and again after repeated “health counseling sessions”,, did we really fix the problem or just fuel the need to just use drugs and not get in trouble anymore. Its been proven, hard drugs kill. More than 70,000 Americans died from drug-involved overdose in 2019, including illicit drugs and prescription opioids.
So why NOT put this type of effort into Alcohol abuse, as its far worst than drug abuse..
“Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) in the United States ( under age)
People Ages 12 and Older: According to the 2019 NSDUH, 14.5 million (nearly 15 million) people ages 12 and older7 (5.3 percent of this age group8) had AUD. This number includes 9.0 million men7 (6.8 percent of men in this age group8) and 5.5 million women7 (3.9 percent of women in this age group8)
Youth Ages 12 to 17: According to the 2019 NSDUH, an estimated 414,000 adolescents ages 12 to 177 (1.7 percent of this age group8) had AUD. This number includes 163,000 males7 (1.3 percent of males in this age group8) and 251,000 females7 (2.1 percent of females in this age group8).
An estimated 95,000 people (approximately 68,000 men and 27,000 women) die from alcohol-related causes annually,15 making alcohol the third-leading preventable cause of death in the United States. The first is tobacco,
Bryan Dillard says
You hit the nail on the head with this story! We are only 5% of the world population, yet our citizens consume 85% of the world’s illegal drugs! We incarcerate 25% of the world prison population! We are at a point in our society in which the only solution is total legalization of illegal narcotics. But, the system we have now solidified for incarceration in our country is making billions of dollars for the 1% that lobby and invest in that same system of private prisons and slave labor! That is why the war on addiction will continue. We must take the profits out of incarceration in order to end it.
PL says
Thank you Pierre…a powerful article on an issue that continues to plague our society and has caused such anguish in families and communities…I agree that we have lost the “drug war” and I hope that all parties would be willing to explore options for a better way to address this terrible problem and mote effectively help the addicted
Another One Lost says
In Flagler County our jail is our ONLY treatment center. Most of these possession cases result in the defendant spending day’s or weeks in jail going through agonizing drug withdraw with little or no medical intervention. If you want to detox off of drugs in this county you must get arrested first. Crazy!
R. S. says
You are so right. And that’s why it needs to be treated as a disease and not as a crime. This is precisely the egregious wrongs that the war on drugs has led to.
R. S. says
Defund the police and shift the money to healthcare. I quite agree. Addicts should receive non-dangerous doses under controlled conditions. None need be incarcerated.
Just some guy says
…. have you ever looked into the amount of MISSING American tax money? There’s a lot. You’re worried about tax on drugs? You realize the “rich” and politicians use whatever loop holes possible to pay less taxes right?
Phillip L says
Most people would agree there is a problem, and there are some potential solutions. However, if you’re going to cite areas around the world where drug use has been decriminalized, it’s useful for the conversation to give the many examples where it hasn’t been working so well: LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver BC, etc… (yes, in effect, it’s decriminalized in those areas). Don’t just read biased reports. Visit those places.
Vancouver is often cited as a success, but visit and you’ll find that what the city has actually done is carve out a section of town that is a practical “no go” for anybody else but a drug user.
In your article, you mention Portugal as a success, and I’m glad you also included one criteria that can help lead to positive results: “…channeled through a health system they must comply with.” However, that one criteria is a detail I doubt will play out here in the states. Why? Think about it: requiring a user to comply with a health system involves some sort of restrictions.
It’s easy to simply remove aspects of the criminal justice system, but out of necessity it’s going to be replaced by something of another name. Effective decriminalizing drug use means police may not necessarily haul a drug user off to jail, but it likely will involve some sort of government entity hauling that same user off to a forced “treatment” facility. And that’s the problem: the people advocating for the drug policy change don’t seem to have the inclination to force anybody to do anything, even when those spiraling down on drugs clearly don’t have the capacity to think for themselves anymore.
There is nothing new here. Based on many texts available, from various cultures, human nature is remarkably similar around the world and it hasn’t really changed in the last couple thousand years. If you can find a working solution, then understand you also can’t cherry pick the parts you like about it and discard the rest.
I welcome anybody’s civil debate on this topic. I only ask that you keep it real, and avoid fantasizing.
larry krasner says
Yup, let’s decriminalize possession and use of a banned substance. Worked great during prohibition, wiped out the Mob. So let’s do it again.
Ld says
True and under the influence of a drug known to alter their judgement they kill. My brother at 19 was murdered by a college “friend” on LSD who confessed and pleaded temporary insanity and after a couple years in a psychiatric hospital was released back into his parents care. There are no easy answers but lives are lost due to lack of education nd availability of toxic drugs.
FlaglerBear says
As a cop I must have arrested hundreds of people for possession of marijuana during my long career. When I finally retired, I decided to try it myself, since I never tried it as a teen. It was wonderful. I also felt horribly guilty. I was responsible for incarcerating people for possession of a relatively harmless weed it seems. How could I have known? I think I’m going to hell.
Concerned Citizen says
As a retired public safety person. One who spent time in both Law Enforcement and Fire Rescue
I’m more concerned with the nonsense sentencing handed down on serious offenses like Sex and Violent crimes than I am on a posession charge. We just witnessed Pedo loving Perkins hand out a 6 month sentence for raping someone and using violence to coerce. Yet the same judge will turn around and give 5 years for a couple of ounces of pot. The same judges let repeat violent offenders go and don’t do anything to protect abused spouses. Over the years justice in Flagler County has become something of a farcical comedy at best.
I spent the last 12 years of my career as a Fire Fighter/EMT. Retiring as a Lieutenant. So when I tell you I have seen it all trust me I have. My wife is a PA and we both agree it’s heart breaking to see the repeat cycle of drug use. And a lot of that cycle is because we live in a society that touts justice before treatment. I understand there has to be consequences for actions. but just think if we eliminated the problem at it’s source? The problem though becomes what of those who don’t want change? What is the deterrence then? Quite often we see drugs as the source of other criminal activity. So do we really want folks just running around freely with Cocaine and Meth?
Mark says
Although possesion of raw magic mushrooms is legal in Florida, i think even the dried out ones should be also. They are great for for mental health and grow natural in abundace hete. LEGALIZE SHROOMS!
Fredrick says
Very good editorial. Something that we agree on Pierre. Something has to change with the current system. It does not work. However if it does not ultimately about making people take responsibility for themselves it will not work. It can not just be a continues hand out.
Land of no turn signals says says
1/2 ounce of weed,couple pounds of coke no problem,Maybe a couple packets of herion lets party!
Land of no turn signals says says
JUST SAY NO!! Problem solved.
Betty says
Absolutely insane. Heroin, cocaine, LSD, pills… legalize it all. Crazy.
And let’s let children under the age of 18 get sex change surgery.
And just because a male identifies as female let him compete in women’s sports.
The left is destroying the greatest country on earth and FlaglerLive is doing its part to help.
Ray W. says
In 1764, Cesare Beccaria published On Crimes and Punishments, in which he introduced the idea that any sentence that is one day longer than that necessary to deter a particular prohibited conduct was cruel. I accept the argument by legal philosophers that our founding fathers adopted Beccaria’s writings by including the prohibition of cruel and unusual sentences in state and federal constitutions of their day.
Florida’s Criminal Punishment Code contains Section 921.002(1)(b), which reads: “The primary purpose of sentencing is to punish the offender. Rehabilitation is a desired goal of the criminal justice system but is subordinate to the goal of punishment.” Florida’s legislature clearly favored punitive justice in passing this bill in 1997 and arguably favors it to this day.
Indiana’s Article 1 of its Constitution, titled “Bill of Rights”, contains this gem in its 18th individual right: “The penal code shall be founded on the principles of reformation, and not of vindictive justice.”
Two states, two entirely different perspectives on justice.
When I was a senior prosecutor in the State Attorney’s Office about 25 years ago, I repeatedly cautioned other prosecutors that the most difficult part of their job would be their ability to discern which defendant would be deterred by 10 days in jail and which defendant would be undeterred by 20 years in prison. Florida’s legislature has basically taken that discretionary idea out of current prosecutorial thought. Let’s just punish them all to the maximum, which is certainly a popular political position in certain circles.
In my opinion, R. S. is right on point in decrying the punitive nature of our state’s criminal justice system and the toll it takes on many who are exposed to its wrath. I take the position that honor demands vengeance and respect commands justice. In looking back on the 25 years since I left the SAO, I have to wonder whether we have shifted away from a justice system based on respect towards a system based on punitive vengeance, though I do not imply or suggest that we ever suffered from a lack of prosecutors and legislators who were vengeful prior to 1997. Although there will always be those who recognize reform and rehabilitation as a better way to reduce the recidivism rate of those whom we must incarcerate, all we have to do is read comments to any variety of Flagler Live articles to know that vengeful people will always live among us and support prosecutors and legislators who promote revenge as the primary purpose of our criminal justice system.
Concerned says
Everyone is missing the fact. The government is making to much money to legalize drugs. There are to many high paying jobs at stake. police, court system, and jails the list could go on. Government is out of control and there extortion needs to end. Police and politicians are a bunch of out of control children.
N. Joseph Potts says
End the drug war, expunge the records of all arrested for possession, and use some of the money saved on prisons to pay them reparations.
All of these.
Now.
Paul C Pritchard says
Your commentary on addiction is worthy of broader distribution AND a statewide campaign. I am not a drug user, recreational or otherwise. I am a retired military officer. My wife is a MD and certified pain educator. Four children, now adults, has taught us the lunacy of our legal system regarding addiction.
Thank you.
Paul Pritchard
Trailer Bob says
This shouldn’t be about pot, which is pretty much the cousin of alcohol. But I doubt you understand crack, heroin, cocaine, if you think they are all the same. Been there, done that. It is hell and many never survive.
Never thought I would be a 65 years old and an ex-hippy, hearing such BS. And some wonder why liberals are so clueless? Hey honey, call the kids…of course that would be after we shoot some smack and snort some coke. SMH on this one.
YAPOS says
All they want to do is keep throwing them in jail and then bitch about how many arrests they have had. They ought to be able to tell by now that jail is not going to fix the problem and they need to do something more. No treatment or programs are around and AA and NA won’t cut what most people need. All we keep doing is pouring money into something and getting negative results. Florida has more inmates than any other state in the nation, and the US has more inmates than any country in the world. Our elected officials and legislators should be ashamed. It is way past time to get the proper help for these people and stop just wasting tax payers money.
Sheila Zinkerman says
Teach your parents well,
Their children’s hell will slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picks, the one you’ll know by.” CSNY
There are 2.7 million children with a parent in prison or jail
92% of parents in prison are fathers
The number of children with a father in prison has grown by 79% since 1991
Youths in father-absent households have significantly higher odds of incarceration
Recidivism is a huge national problem
Source: National Fatherhood Initiative
Keeping non-violent drug offenders out of prison is a first step in negating these horrific statistics thrust on children when they lose their fathers to drugs and alcohol addiction. Remember, every handcuffed, convicted father is tethered to their child(ren) as they are led and locked inside prison walls. Stop incarcerating non-violent drug offenders. There are other options:
https://www.fatherhood.org/hubfs/Persona_eBooks/Fatherhood-Education-in-Corrections-NFI.pdf
Larry says
Pierre Tristam, thank you for bringing up this subject for discussion. The war on drugs has indeed been a war on the people. Privatized prisons making money incarcerating our citizens for a tiny amount of crack or a couple of joints, ruining their lives and chances of careers as medical, legal and other professions.
Portugal is the first country that has decriminalized the possession of small amounts of drugs, to positive results. Anyone caught with any type of drug in Portugal, if it is for personal consumption, will not be imprisoned. Possession has remained prohibited by Portuguese law, and criminal penalties are still applied to drug growers, dealers and traffickers. Despite this, the law was still associated with a nearly 50% decrease in convictions and imprisonments of drug traffickers from 2001 to 2015.