It was interesting for me to think about just how much of law is unwritten, and decided by individuals, making up a larger system. This makes for vastly different approaches to drug charges, not only in our country but around the world. It’s bizarre to think about how relaxed other developed countries are compared to our legislation regarding the same offences, to the point that a charge could be considered a felony in the United States and a reason for assistance and medical attention in Europe.
I recently went on a field trip for my newswriting class to a criminal courthouse to watch night court arraignments. There were several people that were charged with possession of marijuana, cocaine, or heroin that were allowed to leave the court freely. I don’t understand how something that our country views as serious enough to be considered a felony can at the same time be released as they are considered to be at flight risk. We had an opportunity to speak with the judge, and when asked about this said that drug laws are on the decline and this is why they are treated less harshly. It was fascinating to observe just how much of the decision process was under his control. Of course he had the written law to objectively follow, but there are inevitably some subjective qualities in his sentencing process.
I thought this was a good example of how harm reduction needs to be targeted towards both aspects of governance: the governmental regulations themselves and those in power to make real changes. With drug laws changing slowly but surely, and these changes slowly being reflected in key figures like judges, the United States is hopefully on the way to more of a harm reduction based model. But will our country ever be on the level of Europe in terms of our approach to drug laws?
-Jacqui Larsen
I can’t answer whether our country will ever be on the level of Europe in terms of our approach to drug laws but I can see it very slowly on its way to getting closer. As you said, the strictness and harshness with the drug laws are gradually diminishing and that is a good sign in that drug usage is not taken as critically and have become in a sense, more acceptable in society. Like I mentioned in my post, I see the Coney Island van we visited on our trip has connections to the European harm reduction model so perhaps we’ll see things change sooner than we think. However, our biggest obstacle is the government of course. Over so many years in American history, we were inculcated that drug users and such are considered felons and that they should be punished harshly for their actions instead of having others help these drug users better themselves. Right now, it would seem ridiculous if we just went ahead with the Dutch model per say, giving out free drugs, syringes and condoms, and not putting these people in jail. But who knows, since our country’s debt is just unbelievably tremendous and growing, maybe we will end up having no other options to decrease our nation’s spending but to stop spending so much money on arresting, and putting these drug convicts in jails and prisons and go for another approach to deal with these people.