Well we made possession of heroin, meth and cocaine

[upaloopa]

a misdemeanor in CA last night.

[meadowlark5]

1. What was it before? nt

[upaloopa]

2. Felony

[meadowlark5]

5. No kidding?

Holy shit. What was the reasoning behind that?

Is CA trying to compete with Washington and Colorado for the funnest drug state?

[MH1]

6. I'm guessing to a) reduce need for prison space

and b) reduce the number of people with TOTALLY effed up lives after a "relatively minor" offense.

Not sure I would agree in all the details, but if those are the goals, I applaud the intent.

[Comrade Grumpy]

7. Prison overcrowding. And basic humanity.

This is going to keep tens of thousands of low-level, non-violent drug possessors out of California's jails and prisons. It's going to save the state and its counties hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

The sponsors were the San Francisco DA and the San Diego police chief.

[meadowlark5]

10. Well then good on them

I forgot about possession of small amounts of drugs that can send someone to the state pen for years. I rmember how many people would land in prison for small amounts of pot. Crazy.

[ryan_cats]

45. And how much is it going to cost when these methheads commit crimes?

And how much is it going to cost when these methheads commit crimes?
Meth is deadly, there's only three ways out, 1, get arrested, 2, quit and 3, die.

I could care less if pot is legalized, in fact I was surprised Ca. didn't vote to legalize it.

Meth, Heroin and coke are extremely dangerous drugs. I know what people will say, as long as the heroin user gets his dope, he's OK, except for when he has to steal to get it.
Coke and Meth turn you into a hyperactive monster, there is no medical use for Meth except for when the USAF gives it to pilots on long missions and then they stop.
The prison overcrowding is a excuse to let these people6 free.
Would you like a methhead living next door to you, would you like it if one dated your sister?

[MH1]

46. My understanding is that there are many non-problematic coke and heroin users.

Not everyone succumbs to addiction. Similarly to how many of us can drink alcohol socially and not become alcoholics, yet for others, alcoholism comes quickly after starting to drink.

I'm not saying I agree wholeheartedly with the measure, because I don't know the details. Even though many people can handle even coke and heroin, I consider them highly dangerous and would want to know the details. But I probably would have voted for it as the lesser of evils.

The total cost of crimes committed by druggies not intercepted, will probably be less than the total cost of the former system of locking so many people up (including the relatively harmless) and ruining their lives completely. The total cost in ruined lives is probably less, too. But yes, some will be hurt that might have been "protected" by being caught and locked up sooner. It's a tradeoff. I'll take the side where less people get locked up.

[XemaSab]

55. I get the sense

that there are more casual meth users than you would expect.

I have had four pretty good friends who had done meth in the past, and with at least three of them, you wouldn't guess it.

[Alittleliberal]

56. Both Meth and Crack get a really bad rap for being "poor" drugs

Even our most addictive illicit drug (Heroin) is only a 22% addiction rate. Way more casual drug users of all kinds then people think.

[Warren Stupidity]

50. Everywhere decriminalization and/or legalization has been implemented it has reduced crime.

[ryan_cats]

57. Really?

Last edited Sun Nov 9, 2014, 12:47 PM - Edit history (1)

In Colorado where pot is legal, DUIs went up 11% due to pot and I support pot legalization.

It is insanity to legalize meth or coke and don't give me the I've known coke users you couldn't even tell they were on it. B.S. I knew a lot of meth, coke users and their entire life's goal was to score more drugs, yes, let's legalize that. Oh yeah, when one of my acquaintances wife had to decide between meth and her kids, guess what, she dropped her kids off at a relatives. Yeah, let's leaglize that.

[Alittleliberal]

59. Tragic

However it has little to do with what should be legal or not. There is plenty of destructive behavior that isn't illegal nor should it be.

[RedCappedBandit]

51. Prison doesn't help people struggling with addiction.

Addiction is not a criminal issue. It is a medical issue. It has no place in the criminal justice system. By sending people to prison for drug offenses you simply further entrench them into a world of crime and diminish the possibility that they will have a brighter future.

[JonLP24]

54. Desoxyn is prescription meth

prescribed in treatments of ADHD and obesity.

Meth is a class 2 felony in this state but it doesn't stop anyone who wants to.

To answer your question, I live in an apartment complex and have a few that live near me. Don't bother me. If I had a sister, I wouldn't get in her business. If she was dating one it probably means she is using the stuff too.

[upaloopa]

14. We spend too much money locking people up

[Moondog]

60. Interesting. n/t

[WhiteTara]

3. Wow. That should be an interesting experiment.

Is pot still schedule 2?

[Comrade Grumpy]

9. Marijuana is decriminalized in California. We'll legalize it in 2016.

[sandpan]

43. Pot is a schedule 1 drug.

[MH1]

47. Federally. nt.

[Travis_0004]

4. Also shoplifting, check and credit fraud, forgery, theft and possession of stolen goods.

As long as the amount is less than 950.

[dilby]

8. As it should be.

Possession is only harming yourself and I have seen individuals who make a mistake get busted and then can not get a job after that because they have a felony on their record which leads them further down the rabbit hole of a life of crime.

[mahina]

11. what happens to all the people in jail for posession

Last edited Wed Nov 5, 2014, 02:21 PM - Edit history (1)

Of same I wonder?

[Comrade Grumpy]

13. They can apply for sentence reductions.

About 46,000 are eligible.

Imagine! 46,000 people in prison who didn't do anything to anybody, but just possessed the wrong substance. That's insane.

[SoCalDem]

12. Now if we can use the money we'll save on incarcerating them

for real treatment centers for the ones who want to quit, it's a win-win

[upaloopa]

15. That is already happening. I work for Santa

Barbara County Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Services. We have been getting increases in grants for substance abuse and mental health treatment. In the millions in our county alone.

[oneshooter]

16. Is there an upper limit for possesion?

Or can everybody carry a key or two with them.

[KamaAina]

28. Yes.

Possession of more than a certain amount is considered "possession with intent to sell", which remains a felony.

[derby378]

17. I don't think this was such a great freakin' idea

If you want something to push the limits of Obamacare, it'll be patients who are strung out on this stuff. Pot usually isn't a problem unless it's adulterated - just keep them from getting behind the wheel and it'll be fine.

[upaloopa]

18. If you make it so tough to get help for

addiction then people won't seek help. If their reward for getting help is prison you will never get them to voluntarily seek treatment.
It costs a hell of a lot more money to lock them up than to rehabilitate them. So basically we are taking the money we would have used to warehouse them and treating them instead.

[derby378]

19. Why not keep it a felony, but refuse to press charges against those who seek treatment?

I think certain areas of Texas are trying that, including my hometown. If a cop busts you while you're holding, sure, that won't help your case, but it seems like there's been more of a push to get addicts to seek treatment.

One of my in-laws was addicted to meth. After a couple of rehab centers and a drastic change of scenery that didn't involve jail time, he's free and clear of the damnable stuff. I know kicking it is hard to do, but he pulled it off.

[Comrade Grumpy]

20. Why make a criminal of someone who isn''t doing anything to anybody?

Why should the state be able to throw you in prison for possessing a sugar packet's worth of a powder? Really.

And you presume that drug users need drug treatment. Maybe some do. Plenty don't. And plenty quit without ever going to treatment. They just grow out of it.

[dilby]

21. Because Felony Drug charges clog up our Courts and Jails.

They also make it super hard for people who have Felonies on their records to get decent jobs later in life. I have a friend who made some stupid mistakes in life, he was a programmer for Silicon Valley software company making 6 figures when he made these mistakes. A year later he can't get a job at a startup company because of his felony drug record.

[upaloopa]

23. People addicted to drugs are sick not criminals.

We would rather take in a starving dog or a bird with a broken wing than a person with a drug habit.

[Alittleliberal]

26. Why should drug use

Of any kind be a felony?

[derby378]

29. A little marijuana or hashish probably isn't going to harm anyone...

We've all been through the Reefer Madness propaganda and the talk that smoking pot inevitably leads to the harder stuff, and we realize all of that is hogwash now.

There are some drugs that are simply too dangerous. They can produce violent and unpredictable behavior in people. They often kill over time - just look at Billy Mays and his slow but unnoticed downward spiral from cocaine use. If you're going to have a national healthcare framework like Obamacare in place, this hurts the taxpayer in the long run.

Unchecked drug use is a public safety issue as well as a public health issue. There's an argument to treat firearms as falling under both auspices, so why not apply the same logic to meth or cocaine?

[upaloopa]

34. Hey the tax payer pays more to warehouse them

then the cost of treating them. Get off that taxpayer bull shit.

[derby378]

39. If the grants keep coming in to provide more beds and treatment for addicts...

...I wish you and your fellow workers the best. I've seen good people brought low by drugs, and I know their hold can be tough to break. And if your intervention helps empty the prisons, how could I say no to that?

If I might ask, are there still felony charges for dealing, in most cases?

[upaloopa]

41. I think it is a felony to sell drugs

Grants are getting bigger. This year alone we got 9 million for crisis intervention crisis residential treatment and three crisis teams.

[upaloopa]

44. Check us out

http://www.countyofsb.org/admhs/

[Alittleliberal]

42. The right to experiment with ones consciousness

Should be fundamental. I'm a pothead. But because my vice of choice isn't as dangerous that doesn't mean other people don't have the right to use theirs.

[grahamhgreen]

35. $65,000/yr to imprison them. Treatment is cheaper.

[Warren Stupidity]

49. throwing people in prison for years for using drugs is the number one harm caused by illegal drugs

By a mile.

If you are trying to reduce the harm caused by drugs, step one is to stop throwing users in prison. On the other hand if you just want to punish people for doing things you disapprove of, carry on.

[hunter]

58. Yep.

Addiction is an illness.

Prison is an expensive, utterly insane way to treat an illnesses.

Quite a few mentally ill people who don't use drugs or fail in their attempts to self-medicate end up in prison too.

[JonLP24]

53. Whether its a misdemeanor or felony won't stop people from being strung on the stuff

Meth possession is a class 2 felony in Arizona the same as kidnapping, child porn, manslaughter, and sexual assault but it hasn't made a difference. Still users all over the place.

[Le Taz Hot]

30. Posession.

Not manufacturing. Manufacturing is still a felony. Besides, busting for possession sure hasn't worked well. There are as many crack heads now as there have ever been. Let's try treatment instead.

[Warren DeMontague]

33. WHADDAYA MEAN???? THE DRUG WAR RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's been a HUGE SUCCE$$!!!!!!!!!!$$$!!!!!!!!

[Boom Sound 416]

37. Agreed.

What I said was just too quick of a response

[Warren DeMontague]

32. Awwww. Elmer Fudd, Authoritarian Drug Warrior, haz a sad.

"WHAT ARE THOSE WASCAWWY WABBITS DOING TO MY NICE GWAVY TWAAAAAAIN?????"

[Blue_Tires]

24. Wow...Coke is a misdemeanor now?

Might as well call that law "The Hollywood Exemption"

[MerryBlooms]

40. heheheheh, good one.

[Warren DeMontague]

25. Good.

What is the point of putting drug users in prison?

[hifiguy]

27. Possession for personal use should be at MOST a misdemeanor.

[Hekate]

31. Good, so it passed. This country has got to get out of the zero-tolerance, imprison everyone...

...privatized prisons business. I'm glad my state is moving on it.

[grahamhgreen]

36. What other drugs on that list?

[upaloopa]

38. I read "personal use of most illegal drugs"

[grahamhgreen]

52. I read Schedule 3,4, & 5, whatever those are....

[Bluenorthwest]

48. Good for my old Home State....the west coast took care of some stuff yesterday.

nt