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Treatment Not Jail

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Denver_0.jpg

There's More to Colorado Than Marijuana [FEATURE]

While the nation and the world focus on Colorado's legalization of marijuana, serious work on drug and sentencing reform and harm reduction has also been getting done there. Let's take a look.
Aghanistan opium poppy field (unodc.org)
Aghanistan opium poppy field (unodc.org)

Chronicle AM -- April 2, 2014

A new Pew Research poll has some surprising and heartening results, Madison (WI) says legalize it, Wisconsin passes a CBD medical marijuana bill, misbehaving cops get noticed, the Russians are griping about the Aghan poppy crop again, and more.
This crack smoker could get treatment instead of jail under a new Polish law (image via wikimedia.org)
This crack smoker could get treatment instead of jail under a new Polish law (image via wikimedia.org)

Poland "Treatment Not Jail" Drug Law Now in Effect

A new law allowing prosecutors to divert small-time drug possessors into treatment instead of prison went into effect Friday.

Florida Taxpayers Spent Hundreds of Millions Jailing Nonviolent Drug Abusers, Treatment a Less Expensive and More Effective Method

Officials across Florida are realizing that in situations where drug offenders are non-violent it would be a better use of limited resources to send them to treatment instead of prison. But, there aren't enough treatment programs and Florida currently houses 19,414 inmates for non-violent drug offenses costing taxpayers $377,971,166 a year. Mary Lynn Ulray, the executive director of a Drug Treatment Program DACCO, says she thinks the legislature is starting to understand there is a cost benefit from drug treatment. Ulray says the agency's 6 month residential program has close to a 70 percent success rate in six months at a cost of $10,000 compare that to the average 6.4 year sentence costing taxpayer $124,601 per offender.

Bill to Lessen Penalties for Some Drug Offenders Clears Kentucky Senate Panel

A Kentucky Senate committee has approved legislation aimed at reducing the state’s fast-rising prison population by bolstering drug treatment and alternative sentences for non-violent offenders. The bill cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee without opposition. Supporters say the bill would produce net savings of $147 million over 10 years.