The police chief in Gloucester, Massachusetts, Leonard Campanello, gained the attention of the nation last February when he decided to offer heroin users an alternative to prison. Campanello believes that addiction is a disease, rather than a crime, and any addict who comes to his police station and asks for help will not be charged, but will be sent for treatment. Many critics say that he does not have the authority to forgo these arrests, but many officers have found that arresting addicts rarely helps to end their addiction. In 2014, 47,055 people died because of heroin or prescription pain pills nationwide. Since the beginning of this program in Gloucester, 56 police departments in 17 different states have implemented similar programs, and more then 400 addicts have turned themselves in. Sending an addict to treatment costs a department about $55 per person, while it takes $220 to arrest, process, and hold an addict for one day.
I think this is a great program that more police departments should take advantage of. I think using the tax payers' money to help addicts and send the to treatment is much more helpful and necessary to society than imprisoning these people who have a dangerous addiction to such powerful drugs such as heroin and pain killers. This reminds me of Dorthea Dix's research that discovered that mental illnesses were not a fault of the person, but instead something they could not control. The officer in Massachusetts believes that someone's addiction is not a crime or fault of theirs, but a disease that needs to be treated.
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This sounds like money well spent, and that the government is actually saving money by giving these people more help. Its a win all around!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great idea! This looks like a far better long term solution to addiction
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