Search This Blog

Friday, June 23, 2006

Their Problem Should Not Be Our Problem

This is an article from Southeast Missouri State University. It seems to me that we should lock up the habitual users for longer periods of time for each meth offense. It is not the goverment's role to provide free treatment to these people. It is not an illness, it is a bad life choice! "Meth, cooks, users and dealers pass on other meth-related to costs to law-abiding taxpayers. For almost forty years, states have been required to provide legal counsel to indigents charged with a felony. Many defendants charged with meth offenses do not have adequate financial resources to hire a private attorney. As a result, hundreds if not thousands of meth-related defendants utilize the services of a public defender or a court-appointed attorney. In either instance, budgets for such representation result from tax revenue and the law-abiding public bears those costs. The costs incurred by taxpayer’s increases with imprisonment. States vary in their reported annual costs of imprisonment but estimates of $30,000 to $40,000 per year are reasonable. Again, most states budget a significant portion of tax revenues to their Department of Corrections and those not related to the meth industry bear the costs of meth use. In some cases, meth users will be mandated to undergo treatment as a condition of probation, incarceration or diversion. The highly addictive nature of the drug requires long-term treatment by professional counselors. As previously mentioned, most meth criminals are legally indigent and the costs for mandated treatment is third-partied to the general public."