Time to do something radical

NEWT GINGRICH: OPIOD ADDICTION WON'T BE CURED BY TOUGH SENTENCES

Frankly, putting people battling opioid addiction in jail rather than in treatment programs could lead to more opioid-related deaths. 

A huge body of evidence shows opioid addiction is a chemical brain disease – not a behavioral or lifestyle decision. Because of this, many people who are chemically predisposed to opioid addiction become hooked after taking lawfully prescribed opioid-based painkillers following a surgery or an accident. Once the prescription runs out, they turn to the illegal market to feed their addiction. These are not people with malignant intentions, they are suffering from an addiction – a medical condition.

How do we know imposing tough sentences doesn’t work to stem the tide of drug use, trafficking, and addiction? Because we tried it in the 1980s by assigning strong sentences to crack cocaine violations – and it failed miserably.

Over the last 30 years, the federal prison population has ballooned from 24,000 to about 200,000. In that time, taxpayers have spent billions financing this failed experiment. About half of those 200,000 federal inmates are incarcerated on drug charges – and only 14 percent of those convicted of drug offenses are major traffickers. Many in the remaining 86 percent of drug offenders don’t even have prior criminal records. Meanwhile, the number of people who self-report using illegal drugs has increased, and recidivism for drug offenders has been largely unaffected by stiff sentences.

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