Bigger welfare state 'reduces hard drug use'

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

Reducing the use of drugs would be better tackled by having a bigger welfare state, rather than criminalising addicts, according to research.

The work, published today, shows countries that provide a generous social security system have low levels of injecting drug use, irrespective of how punitive the drugs policy is. Charities have used the study to argue that the government's welfare cuts will see a rise in drug addicts.

Alex Stevens, professor in criminal justice at the University of Kent, said countries that imprison swaths of drug offenders and that have a limited welfare state, such as the US and to a lesser extent, the UK, consistently have "serious drug problems". However, countries such as Germany and the Netherlands, which offer generous benefits, have dramatically curbed the spread of hard drugs such as heroin.

Stevens said his book, Drugs, Crime and Public Health, showed social inclusion was needed to reduce drug use, rather than a programme of "mass incarceration".

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/nov/02/bigger-welfare-state-drug-use

---

OK, remind me again why conservatives hate welfare?

[Drale]

1. They hate welfare because

they think it costs them money that they would otherwise horde under their beds.

[KILL THE WISE ONE]

2. how did you know where my hoard was ?

[NOLALady]

3. TPTB

does not want to reduce drug use.

What in heavens name would happen to the profitable prison industrial complex?

[Amonester]

12. Not to mention what would happen with TPTB's mega profits in

all the so-called 'secret' international network of drug smuggling in exchange for guns, and/or mega-corruption...

We are 'controlled' by mafiosies who pretend to be legit pols...

[laughingliberal]

16. +1000 nt

[xchrom]

4. Recommend

[MikeW]

5. sorry but ...

I worked with hardcore addicts (mostly crack and meth) you give them more money all they will do is steal less

but they will still buy more drugs to feed their habit.

This would only work wiht alternative drug treatments offered like methadone.

[Jackpine Radical]

6. I think the issue is one of primary prevention.

You're talking about treatment after people are already addicted. That's always a sort of losers game because you can't keep up, and the standard treatments aren't all that effective. However, if people feel less despair in their lives, their temptation to escape with hard drugs is much less. A humane society produces lower rates f despair, and therefore lower addiction to hard drugs.

[Demeter]

7. I rec your reply

Thing is, Conservative types WANT everybody else to be miserable, because then THEY THEMSELVES are elevated, favored by God, etc.

That's why Conservatives hate welfare---if nobody is miserable to the point of despair, what is the reason for the existence of the Chosen People (and I don't mean the Jews, in this context).

[Viva_La_Revolution]

8. sorry but...

I WAS a hardcore addict, and I never would have gotten hooked if I felt like I had a chance to live a decent life before I ever took that first hit.

on edit: exactly as Jackpine says above.

[ProudDad]

14. You work with addicts (as I do) during prohibition...

It's the criminalization of a Public Health problem that makes it HARDER to deal with!

Drug criminalization is based on racism and bullshit religious fundamentalism -- there is NO rational basis for criminalizing any drug.

But, decriminalization won't happen because like war and cancer, it's good for the GDP -- cops, courts, judges, lawyers, jails, prisons, probation and parole officers, cheap labor once the stigma of "felon" has been attached, voter suppression -- all positive side-effects of the phony "war on drugs(tm)" that the capitalist masters just LOVE!

-----------------------------------

By the way, you DO know that methadone is harder on the body (especially the liver) than heroin is...right?

[bemildred]

9. Ya THINK?

How many studies of this problem have their been now, all coming to this same conclusion?

[defendandprotect]

10. Prohibition is insane --

[ProudDad]

15. It's good for the GDP though -- follow the money...

[defendandprotect]

17. Hugely costly for taxpayers in the corruption of government, elected officials, courts....

judges, lawyers, police enforcement -- and all the toys that are required for

this game playing --

PLUS huge corruption of banks with money laundering!!

[ProudDad]

23. That's what I said...

It's good for the GDP -- the gross domestic product...

USAmerica = GDP of USAmerica

Nothing else matters...

Anything that "wastes" huge quantities of money (keeps it circulating) is good for the GDP... Any spending that's actually effective hurts the GDP...

War, cancer, phony drug war(tm), phony war on terra(tm) -- ALL good for the GDP...

Affordable housing, preventive health care, drug treatment instead of incarceration, peace instead of war -- NOT so good for the GDP...

[defendandprotect]

24. You're saying ... car accidents and crime are good for America and taxpayers....???

It certainly is a humorous way to look at things -- :evilgrin:

However, reminds me of IKE standing against the insanity of purchasing BOMBS

and how much better we'd all be if the money was put into ... think it was TOASTERS?


We can spend the same amounts of money -- let's just put it into something more like

TOASTERS!!




:)

Hugely costly for taxpayers in the corruption of government, elected officials, courts....
judges, lawyers, police enforcement -- and all the toys that are required for

this game playing --

PLUS huge corruption of banks with money laundering!!

[ProudDad]

28. I'm saying that according to the only measure recognized as valid

here in the USAmerican Empire...

That is, the GDP...

That according to that only "valid" measure car accidents and crime are better for the country than peace and resilient local economies...

This is NOT MY VIEW -- but it is the view of the corporate capitalist masters who run both right-wings of the Corporate War Party and the media here in the Corporate States of America...

I to cringe when the GDP goes up or the stock market does well because that means that the misery index for the majority of USAmerican folk is also rising!

[defendandprotect]

29. Thanks ... and, of course, elites and their capitalistic system are suicidal .....

in their exploitation of nature and humans!!

Somewhere in one of these millennia we have to find a way for the many

to control the few violent and crazed among us!!

:)

[applegrove]

11. Poverty hurts in a myriad of ways. Why letting it grow in a nation is a crime.

[defendandprotect]

25. Poverty breeds crime .....

We need our government to be putting more emphasis on this class war by wealthy --

and to hear Obama and Dems speak more often of the impoverished and homeless!!

:)

[ProudDad]

13. Conservatives hate "welfare" because they're terminally selfish assholes (n/t)

[demgrrrll]

18. M. McConnell has announced he will advise the house to not fund

the new Health care reform. Just popped up on the MSN front page. Here we go!

[crim son]

19. If only the establishment actually gave a shit

about human life, this research would be valuable.

[defendandprotect]

26. The elites are suicidal .... in their capitalistic war on nature and humans ...

trust more Americans will figure that out soon!!!

:)

[La Lioness Priyanka]

27. or if the citizenry cared about facts and science

[Beartracks]

20. Awesome! More science for Repubs to blow off! n/t

[time_has_come]

21. REMINDER -

As you know, Conservatives will say they believe everyone should support themselves by working and/or live within their means.

I think your question is asking why, in light of this news, they wouldn't support it. Conservatives don't care about hard drug users. They chose to take drugs, and so are personally responsible for that decision, and if they die why should anyone care?

[Uncle Joe]

22. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, alp.