Comments on: NSW Opposition gaining credit for ATOD approach? http://www.drugblog.net/2009/01/08/nsw-opposition-gaining-credit-for-atod-approach/ News and issues for ATOD professionals Sun, 27 Nov 2011 05:07:48 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: pan han http://www.drugblog.net/2009/01/08/nsw-opposition-gaining-credit-for-atod-approach/comment-page-1/#comment-81783 pan han Fri, 09 Jan 2009 04:29:45 +0000 http://www.drugblog.net/?p=210#comment-81783 They are gearing up for a movement towards private business enterprise running our prisons. When this is implemented the need to place an individual into prison has the addition of “good business practice” behind it. The Government, your tax dollars, will be going to a few well off “investors”. Drug use is not a crime, I view people on an almost daily basis who with the help of alcohol (not a legal drug but a controlled drug, if you look at it) are destroying themselves and others, but are not heaped with the same stigma that a “drug user’ receives. Speaking with individuals who have been incarcerated in this country, there is one overarching truth. Drugs are available in prison, and are readily available, something representatives of the system deny, I believe they deny this so harshly because it is a reflection of the failure of this type of punishment. An individual is incarcerated for drug use and will become drug free through :- 1. depositing them into an environment against there will away from their family and friends 2. being in an environment occupied by individuals who have murdered, assaulted, robbed and behaved dysfunctional 3. being exposed to readily available drugs 4. isolation 5. exposure to an environment that will ensure emotional and psychological harm No, they wont, they will be exposed to behavior that will change there outlook to life in a negative way. To say people who use drugs should be sent to prison is about being a self centered egotist. How poorly these people think of themselves that they need to put others down to feel good about themselves. More resources for harm reduction, supply reduction and demand reduction initiatives rather then incarceration. More detoxes and rehabs, more counselling programs and more help for the services that work with people who use drugs, I know how my local needle and syringe program works hard at placing people into rehabs and detoxes, I would not have thought they would do this but they say it is the core of what they are about, helping people to be the best they can rather then destroying them, destroying people is too easy, so is building more prisons that’s just the easy way out. pan han They are gearing up for a movement towards private business enterprise running our prisons. When this is implemented the need to place an individual into prison has the addition of “good business practice” behind it. The Government, your tax dollars, will be going to a few well off “investors”. Drug use is not a crime, I view people on an almost daily basis who with the help of alcohol (not a legal drug but a controlled drug, if you look at it) are destroying themselves and others, but are not heaped with the same stigma that a “drug user’ receives.

Speaking with individuals who have been incarcerated in this country, there is one overarching truth. Drugs are available in prison, and are readily available, something representatives of the system deny, I believe they deny this so harshly because it is a reflection of the failure of this type of punishment.
An individual is incarcerated for drug use and will become drug free through :-

1. depositing them into an environment against there will away from their family and friends
2. being in an environment occupied by individuals who have murdered, assaulted, robbed and behaved dysfunctional
3. being exposed to readily available drugs
4. isolation
5. exposure to an environment that will ensure emotional and psychological harm

No, they wont, they will be exposed to behavior that will change there outlook to life in a negative way. To say people who use drugs should be sent to prison is about being a self centered egotist. How poorly these people think of themselves that they need to put others down to feel good about themselves.

More resources for harm reduction, supply reduction and demand reduction initiatives rather then incarceration. More detoxes and rehabs, more counselling programs and more help for the services that work with people who use drugs, I know how my local needle and syringe program works hard at placing people into rehabs and detoxes, I would not have thought they would do this but they say it is the core of what they are about, helping people to be the best they can rather then destroying them, destroying people is too easy, so is building more prisons that’s just the easy way out.

pan han

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