Came to say this! Drug addicts need help, not jail. Sure, if they commit a crime police should be involved, but it’s not going to cure their addiction!
MintyFresh 0 points 2 months ago
Idk. I'm a public bus driver, am in pretty consistent contact with drug users. Not to mention living in amongst them in the poorer areas of tow. I'm not saying we should arrest them and give them lengthy sentences, but just leaving them on the street ain't working out.
I think a mandatory "time out" in a facility is in order. At least long enough to work the drugs out of their system. Maybe then they can try for a better way with a little clearer head.
But some days it feels like I'm living in a post apocalypse mad Max type place. It's bullshit that they're allowed to just trash anyplace they are. There's what's best for them, and there's what's best for the rest of us. There's gotta be something done.
Edit: downvote me all you want, just leaving the problem to fester as we are now is neither kind nor progressive
wonderingwanderer 7 points 2 months ago
Their "mandatory time out" doesn't have to be punitive, or handled by the penal system at all.
Step one: outreach and detox
A social worker could show up and interview them, ask them if they want help. If they do, great. Get them in a car, take them to a detox center. If someone doesn't want to go with the social worker (which might be a majority of patients), then the social worker gets their name and contact info if they can, gives them some brochures about the program and about the benefits of recovery, and moves on to interview others.
about non-compliant/unwilling patients:
That's just the first pass. Another social worker comes by on another day and sees if anyone changed their mind, and if so, great, they take them to the detox center.
Eventually though, something will need to be done about those who are unwilling to go; for their own benefit as much as anyone else's. This should not be done by police though. There needs to be a special task force of social workers who are trained in self-defense, weapons handling, de-escalation, non-compliance, and least-necessary-force techniques.
Basically, they show up sometime after the second or third pass and sweep up anyone who wasn't willing to go. They take them to a special detox facility, still a comfortable and professional clinic, but with higher security in place, so that these patients won't present problems for the ones who went willingly.
If they detox successfully and their behavior improves significantly, they can be given an option to move to the next step with the others. If they remain belligerent or hostile, however, they need to be taken to a special higher-security version of it where they won't be a barrier to others' recovery. (Again, a clean and professional facility, but the staff have more specialized training for dealing with non-compliant patients).
Step two: residential recovery
After they detox, transfer them to a residential recovery program with a structured regiment, complete with in-house psychosocial therapy, prescription management, and recreational therapy.
Step three: vocational therapy
When they graduate from this program, get them into vocational therapy or a job training program, with the option to either live on their own (if their recovery has progressed well enough), or have them move into a smaller share house with a peer recovery coach.
That's a three-step approach:
(outreach)→detox→recovery→reintegration.
By the end of it they'll be an active contributing member of society, have community support, hobbies, be enrolled in therapy, have their prescriptions managed, and have someone to check in on them periodically to help them maintain the good habits they've developed.
Step four: return to full independence
After maybe a year in the transitional housing then they get support searching for their own place and return to full independence with a year of sobriety under their belt, but they keep access to the same therapists, recreational groups, prescription management, and can keep in touch with their peer recovery coach.
It sounds expensive, and it does require a lot of real estate, personnel, trained professionals, food and healthcare, etc. But with how much we already spend on police and prisons, it might actually save the taxpayers money in the end. Especially with universal healthcare; this would be harder to implement in the US where prescriptions can cost over $1000 per month for no reason, but universalizing healthcare first will make it more feasible.
MintyFresh 1 point 2 months ago
Yes! This looks great! Idk who you are or where you live, but ya got my vote.
Karmanopoly -80 points 2 months ago
Doing drugs is a crime tho.
Karmanopoly -67 points 2 months ago
I mean if you want to get specific what I really want is to remind police that doing drugs is illegal and they should focus on busting those people...instead of kids having fun on scooters
HerbalGamer 27 points 2 months ago
Being this stupid should be illegal.
finalarbiter 25 points 2 months ago
So was giving shelter to undesirables in Nazi Germany. Laws are not inherently moral.
surewhynotlem 8 points 2 months ago
So is what the kids are doing. So...?
elflakoinri 7 points 2 months ago
No is not
Karmanopoly -25 points 2 months ago
The temporary decriminalization of doing drugs in British Columbia expired in January 2026
So doing illicit drugs like crack or fentanyl on the streets is currently illegal again.
Lumelore 4 points 2 months ago
Putting someone in timeout maybe works for three year olds but it doesn't work for adults even if you hold them there 1000 times longer. Restitution and rehabilitation is a significantly more effective solution and results in much lower recidivism. Only reason to lock someone in a box is if they present a significant danger to the public, and that's not to punish them, but to protect others.
AdolfSchmitler 2 points 2 months ago
So was helping slaves and Jewish people. Your point?
IrateAnteater 19 points 2 months ago
Also the cops handing out traffic tickets, and the cops doing narcotics investigations are different people.
trebach 6 points 2 months ago
This isn't new either. A song was written about it 25 years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4L20t8Dvlg
NoForwadSlashS 4 points 2 months ago
I read it as they are both bad things the police enjoys, but seeing OPs comments I don't think that was the intent.
Karmanopoly -67 points 2 months ago
If you arrest the users they'll give up the dealers
That's policing 101
FistingEnthusiast 33 points 2 months ago path: 0 25392108 25392228 25392491, hotness: undefined, score: 33, children: 0
rockSlayer 25 points 2 months ago
Arresting drug addicts in the war on drugs is part of how the US ended up with 25% of the world's prison population. End result? Same amount of drugs.
Criminalizing drug use does literally nothing except lead to the death of democracy.
HikingVet 3 points 2 months ago
Your percentage is off.
Recent sources put US prison population at ~2 million, with about that much under other supervision conditions.
US population is at ~342.75 million people.
rockSlayer 7 points 2 months ago
Good call, got some wires crossed. The US contributes to 25% of the entire global prison population
Karmanopoly -38 points 2 months ago
No I watched breaking bad
They went after the one drug user (badger) and eventually it led all the way up to the Heisenberg guy
elflakoinri 1 point 2 months ago path: 0 25392108 25392228 25392421, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 0
Fishnoodle 52 points 2 months ago
You get people off drugs by building a society where people aren't being oppressed and used as slaves. Not by putting them in jail and making their life worse.
Kids on the other hand aren't fully mature and don't realize that 'just' 30mph on a scooter can lead to a deadly crash pretty easily
Alcoholicorn 14 points 2 months ago
Teach the kids to use a scooter properly, all across asia children ride electrics without incident, but I am constantly hearing how dangerous they are back in America where barely anyone rides scooters.
Karmanopoly -34 points 2 months ago
Is that how Singapore got rid of their drug problems?
Phil_in_here 21 points 2 months ago
Yeah, when I think Singapore, I think utopia with no inequality or social pressures. The only thing bad is those pesky druggies that do simply because they're bad people and want to do the bad drugs.
alexquiniou 35 points 2 months ago
Both are stupid.
alexquiniou 3 points 2 months ago
Indeed, very good stuff. Make my blood boil.
Alcoholicorn 10 points 2 months ago
Drug use is a social problem. If I offered you a huge bag of fentanyl for free right now, would you take it? What conditions in your life would make you more likely to accept it? Lets address the things which cause those conditions for other people.
Karmanopoly -22 points 2 months ago
If you have a bag of fentanyl to give out then putting you in jail solves the problem in my view
Alcoholicorn 12 points 2 months ago
You missed the point of the question entirely. Are you just playing dumb here?
Karmanopoly -25 points 2 months ago
No they gave a 12 yr old a ticket... Well actually hey gave it to his father
Grostleton 17 points 2 months ago
Maybe they shouldn't have been doing something illegal. 🤔
Karmanopoly -19 points 2 months ago
Maybe unjust laws shouldn't be obeyed
Grostleton 25 points 2 months ago
If only you had the brain capacity to notice your own hypocrisy...
running_ragged 9 points 2 months ago
There is no justice in punishing people who’ve become addicted, and are just using to satisfy the addiction.
You know who becomes addicted? The kid who runs/drives/rides in front of a car and ends up on major pain meds. Maybe ticketing parents who let their kids do that, without regard for the evidence of its dangers is a good idea after all.
cattywampas 7 points 2 months ago
Tell that to the kid in my city who got run over by a semi truck a couple of weeks ago or the dozens per week who are admitted to the ER with scooter and ebike injuries.
MightBeAlpharius 12 points 2 months ago
Well, sorry they gave your dad a ticket
FuyuhikoDate 16 points 2 months ago
I hate the police like everybody elese, but why huntig addicts? They do nothing except to themself... But a 12yo on a scooter is mostly dangerous.
Karmanopoly -6 points 2 months ago
Addicts will steal your shit to pay for their drugs
Rooster326 1 point 2 months ago
So tell the police officers to go after thieves‽
Rooster326 1 point 2 months ago
Some of them shouldn't be used by anyone.
Krokadil comes to mind. Flocka...
Assassassin 14 points 2 months ago
ITT: OP wanting the cops to go after people doing illegal things, but only the illegal things that OP agrees with.
OP has no empathy and insists on being downvoted to hell rather than recognizing that they're being a heartless hypocrite.
HazardousBanjo 12 points 2 months ago
I mean, they shouldn't be going after drug addicts either.
AdolfSchmitler 12 points 2 months ago
Harm reduction and rehab centers where they can use in a safe environment is how you really help people addicted to drugs. Instead of locking them in a cage and pretending they don't exist.
Rooster326 1 point 2 months ago
Also isn't giving tickets to 12 years olds on illegal motorcycles a form of harm reduction?
The question is when, not if, those device will separate their life into a before, and an after, the accident.
RidderSport 12 points 2 months ago
Why would drug addicts give up their dealers? For one, they still need someone to distribute them drugs. Secondly snitching out dealers is pretty dangerous. Thirdly, why? What incentive does an addict have? Not to go to prison? That is often a better choice than staying on the streets. In prison at least you have a place to sleep, it's warm and you get food three times a day. I don't know the prison conditions in Canada. But where I live, I'd a hundred percent rather go to prison than stay on the street.
Karmanopoly -25 points 2 months ago
What if it was life in prison?
Places like Singapore don't have drug problems because they deal with it like it should be
toomanypancakes 14 points 2 months ago
Why not just shoot everyone who ever thought the word "weed" in the head? That'll clearly improve society. Then your kid can finally kickflip their scooter at 30mph and kill an elderly person in peace.
RidderSport 7 points 2 months ago
Freedom will always lead to more crime. If we want freedom, we will have to accept crime.
Also just because something is not visible, it does not mean it's not there. China for example appears to have no homelessness, but that is simply untrue. It has a major problem, but makes sure the majority of people and tourists don't get to see it. Singapur may not in fact have a drug problem, but if that is due to the radical approach of criminilisation or due to broad wealth of most inhabitants cannot be seen from outside.
Also all studies show that harsh punishments are actually detrimental to battling criminal behaviour.
Karmanopoly -2 points 2 months ago
Except for Singapore
xyro 2 points 2 months ago
Punishment in Singapore are hard for drug dealers, not drug addicts.
Singapore separates low-level abusers from traffickers, bringing them to mandatory rehabilitation and supervision centers.
DisasterTransport 7 points 2 months ago path: 0 25423681, hotness: undefined, score: 7, children: 0
Blackfeathr 7 points 2 months ago
Counterpoint: parents should be given tickets for endangering their child's lives by giving them something that can cause death or greivous injury - calling it a "toy" that goes 30+ mph ridden on public roads with no training, license, or obeying traffic signs and signals.
One of these days it's going to be a lawmakers kid that is going to get turned into a meat crayon. Then we might just get some reasonable legislation. I hate that it pretty much has to come down to many children dying for meaningful change to take place.
Karmanopoly -17 points 2 months ago
USA reports 11 deaths under 16 and Canada 10
So 21 deaths in what 15 or 20 years these have been around
Probably around 1 per year
How many kids have been killed by drug users or drug dealers... probably more than 1 per Year
USA alone has so many drug related shootings they probably can't even reliably track how many kids get shot
mrgoosmoos 5 points 2 months ago
this is a weird comparison
there are real criminals out there and OP chose drug addicts, a crime which by itself is just minding your own business
fuck, go after the drivers endangering countless people every day. far more dangerous than drug addicts that commit crimes that affect other people
content_educator_94 5 points 2 months ago
Leave the drug addicts alone!
Also legalize it man. By it I mean pretty much everything. Yowza daddy-o.
ILikeBoobies 2 points 2 months ago
I wish.
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Trying to combat drug addiction through policing has been proven ineffective time and time again. You may want to rethink that one.
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