Welfare Solution #389

At 07:30 AM 8/22/97 +0200, Anonymous wrote:
>
>Welfare Solution #389:
>  Many in the welfair class have their basic needs met by the government
>and then steal to buy heroin.
>  How about this? - When a person on welfare is busted for heroin use,
>or theft to support a habit, the State thereafter sends the person's
>welfare check to a Crime Restitution fund and lets the person keep
>stealing, only now it is for the purpose of supplying their own
>basic needs.

In NY, when a defendant gets convicted of a crime including a drug offense,
s/he has to pay a mandatory surcharge part of which is a Crime Victims'
Fee.  [Query: who is the victim in a drug case? -- but I digress...].
Also, if it was a crime where the victim suffered financial losses, the
defendant not only has to pay the Crime Victim's Fee but also restitution
to the victim.

Additionally, pursuant to Federal Law, anyone convicted of a drug charge
and, who is residing is federally-subsidized housing, becomes subject to
eviction proceedings.  [Quirk: if one family member is engaged in such
business activities, the entire family is captured under the law's umbrella
but, again, I digress..].


>  The crime rate stays the same, but the victims receive some amount
>of recompensation.

So-called crime rates are subject to the compilation *and* interpretation
of statistics, and for those of us who were lucky enough to have studied
Statistics, we know that these so-called statistical rates are ripe for
producing the desired results versus providing an accurate statistical
account.

Case in point: Prior to Reagan's Administration, the Armed Forces were
never included in the employed or non-employed categories.  Reagan added
the Armed Forces to the employed category, and the masses were tickled pink
when the government announced that employment rates increased dramatically.

 
>Damn, I'm smart...

Since I don't know you, I am in no position to comment.  You may be smart,
highly  intelligent, or a genius - or you may possess the analytical
processes of a gerbil.  Whichever category you are within, perhaps you
should keep in mind the old saying: "It's a thin line between genius and
insanity."  [A little appetizer for thought...].




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Lynne L. Harrison, Esq.     |    Lazlo's Chinese Relatively Axiom:
Poughkeepsie, New York      |    "No matter how great your triumphs or
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DISCLAIMER:  I am not your attorney; you are not my client.
             Accordingly, the above is *NOT* legal advice.

Lynne L. Harrison writes:
> At 07:30 AM 8/22/97 +0200, Anonymous wrote:
> >
> >Welfare Solution #389:
> >  Many in the welfair class have their basic needs met by the government
> >and then steal to buy heroin.
> >  How about this? - When a person on welfare is busted for heroin use,
> >or theft to support a habit, the State thereafter sends the person's
> >welfare check to a Crime Restitution fund and lets the person keep
> >stealing, only now it is for the purpose of supplying their own
> >basic needs.
> 
> In NY, when a defendant gets convicted of a crime including a drug offense,
> s/he has to pay a mandatory surcharge part of which is a Crime Victims'
> Fee.  [Query: who is the victim in a drug case? -- but I digress...].
> Also, if it was a crime where the victim suffered financial losses, the
> defendant not only has to pay the Crime Victim's Fee but also restitution
> to the victim.
> 
> Additionally, pursuant to Federal Law, anyone convicted of a drug charge
> and, who is residing is federally-subsidized housing, becomes subject to
> eviction proceedings.  [Quirk: if one family member is engaged in such
> business activities, the entire family is captured under the law's umbrella
> but, again, I digress..].
> 
Kicking a drug addict out of his home, or taking away his one source of
income is not going to solve anything. It'll only make things worse. Worse
for the addict and for society. This will only serve to remove the addict
even further from society and thereby make him more of a burden for that
same society.

Here in The Netherlands we treat drug addiction more as a disease than as
a crime. We try to intergrate him/her back into the normal world of having
a house, paying rent, getting a job, etc.

I Switserland they've gone even further now, and started supplying hardcore
herion addicts with free heroin. The results were quite dramatic. Most of the
addicts gave up stealing/etc and some even managed to get and hold a normal
job. As it turned out, supplying them with free heroin was much cheaper than
having them hang around and steal/rob/etc. It also served to reduce the call
for extra police, and the call by the police for more rights/weapons/etc.

Criminalizing drug offences is a Bad Thing. Unfortunately our own government
is slowely succumbing under the international pressure, and soon we'll have
our own War On Drugs here. This will serve no one, not the addict, not the
casual user and not the general public. Probably it'll only serve the various
law enforcement agencies.

Alex

/// I dabble in techno-house and sometimes,
/// I do that badass hip-hop thang...
/// But the F U N K gets me every time!

At 04:47 PM 8/22/97 +0200, Alex Le Heux wrote:
>I Switserland they've gone even further now, and started supplying hardcore
>herion addicts with free heroin. The results were quite dramatic. Most of the
>addicts gave up stealing/etc and some even managed to get and hold a normal
>job. As it turned out, supplying them with free heroin was much cheaper than
>having them hang around and steal/rob/etc. It also served to reduce the call
>for extra police, and the call by the police for more rights/weapons/etc.

Of course there is another solution: legalize drugs. The reason why addicts
have to steal to support their habit is that the costs of narcotics have
been artificially inflated due to prohibition. Medical cocaine wholesales
at about $0.50 per gramm. Heroin should be in the same price range. Nobody
would have to steal to come up with a few dollars a day.

As ususal, the government created the problem and then proudly comes up
with a solution involving even more government. As the case is in
Switzerland. First they make it too expensive to buy and then they discover
they have to give it away to reduce the negative consequences of a
situation they created in the first place.



--Lucky Green <shamrock@netcom.com>
  PGP encrypted mail preferred.
  DES is dead! Please join in breaking RC5-56.
  http://rc5.distributed.net/

On Fri, 22 Aug 1997, Lucky Green wrote:

> As ususal, the government created the problem and then proudly comes up
> with a solution involving even more government. As the case is in
> Switzerland. First they make it too expensive to buy and then they discover
> they have to give it away to reduce the negative consequences of a
> situation they created in the first place.

Making things more expensive rarely works.  Infact, it has the opposite
effect.  Case in point: I recall many years ago back in high school one of
the first business simulations out there came out; the class was split up
into different teams, each a company selling competing products.

Our team won by raising the cost of the items to the highest price
possible.  We still had enough simulated suckers purchasing the product to
make more money than all the other corporations. 

Not that this is reflective of real life, but the point is that if you
make something very very expensive and hard to get, then you will still
have people buying it, not as many as if it were free, but if there is
enough demand, you'll make a lot more money than if you were selling
volumes of the stuff.  Hence the illegalization (is there such a word?) of
drugs serves only to make the drug dealers rich.  The mob got rich the
same way durring prohibition.

Want to end the drug problem?  Sell the drugs dirt cheap.  Treat driving
while high the same as driving while drunk.  Treat drugs the same as
alcohol.  Treat junkies the same as alcoholics.  

The dealers will go out of business, or give them drug selling licenses -
same as liquor licenses, and yes, the junkies will get even more addicted,
but at least the ones that OD will be evolution in action and will be
removed from the gene pool.   Certainly, you'll no longer have drug
related murders, or dealers buying BMW's.

(On a side note: Though I still think selling alcohol on Sundays should be
legal, especially to non-xians.  This is one law that certainly crosses
the separation of church and state...  If one isn't Xian, non drinking on
Sunday mornings being enforced is discriminatory against non-Xians.)

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On Mon, 25 Aug 1997, Ray Arachelian wrote:

[...]

> Want to end the drug problem?  Sell the drugs dirt cheap.  Treat driving
> while high the same as driving while drunk.

Of cause such actions should be done within the context of a harm
minimlisation scheme (needle echanged ect)

- -- 
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In <Pine.LNX.3.93.970826025239.104E-100000@shirley>, on 08/26/97 
   at 02:55 AM, ? the Platypus {aka David Formosa}
<dformosa@st.nepean.uws.edu.au> said:

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>On Mon, 25 Aug 1997, Ray Arachelian wrote:

>[...]

>> Want to end the drug problem?  Sell the drugs dirt cheap.  Treat driving
>> while high the same as driving while drunk.

>Of cause such actions should be done within the context of a harm
>minimlisation scheme (needle echanged ect)


Amuch better solution would be to put a synthetic Morphine out on the
streets that had a mortality rate of say 1/5 for every uses.

At least these junkies would the be serveing a usfull purpose as worm
food.

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At 7:47 AM -0700 8/22/97, Alex Le Heux wrote:
>I Switserland they've gone even further now, and started supplying hardcore
>herion addicts with free heroin. The results were quite dramatic. Most of the
>addicts gave up stealing/etc and some even managed to get and hold a normal
>job. As it turned out, supplying them with free heroin was much cheaper than
>having them hang around and steal/rob/etc. It also served to reduce the call
>for extra police, and the call by the police for more rights/weapons/etc.

The Swiss friends we visited earlier this week agree that this policy has
had positive effects.  We passed a park in Zurich that had formally been
used by heroin addicts as a "shooting gallery", and was now being used by
ordinary citizens including families with small children.  They mentioned
the change in the park as one of the benefits of the new policy.


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