Portugal Decriminalized all Types of Drugs

Mothers that are users in jail do not realize that it affects both of their life. For example, one of the young ladies in the video got a c-section and sugar was put on her scar. A method that was used a long time ago that was not needed because there is new technology. Inmates pregnant or not might receive little to no medical attention when in need .Cutting cost has made a terrible impact on so many inmates. Medical spending dropped thirty million in Arizona. Due to that fifty people died the first eight months of 2013, when in the last two years the total deaths were thirty-seven.

The New Jim Crow is about how the system of mass incarceration threatens to undermine everything that people have worked for. In the last twenty years Amerikka has incarcerated more people than they did in their entire history, due to drugs in low income areas. The prison is basically compared to slavery now a days. The New Jim Crow makes the argument that the war on drugs has become a new system that operates like the old system. There was a report written for the Nixon administration that demonized black people and made them seem as monsters so elections could be won. President Nixon hyped up the publicity and made them think that black people were the number one issue and called the “war on drugs”. Nixon made it seem as if black people were disposable; he made a war on children and women and everyone that was vulnerable in the lower class. The system is designed to break you, you can not rehabilitate yourself once out of prison. You can not get a job because you have a felony, you can not get housing because you are a felon, you can not vote and make a change because you are a felon. The system makes it much harder for convicts to do anything, but supposedly they want them to reintegrate into society even though it is near impossible.

Portugal decriminalized all types of drugs, yet you can still get it taken if you do not obey the amount you are supposed to have. Second offences are punishable by community work or rehab. Prison time and criminal records have been replaced with art classes. They believe that jail is not a realistic approach for a drug addict. Europe is the only country that changed its structures to show that drug use is a health problem rather than a criminal problem.

How do we move on? Obviously big steps need to be made. The first step is admitting the system is corrupt and trying to rebuild something sane from scratch. The next step is to give the low income people a voice and actually help them as well as the children. What makes someone want to sell drugs? Not enough jobs? Discrimination? Maybe Amerikkka can take a look at Portugal and take notes on what works with them and what does not and try to compromise with people.

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