should heroin addicts be sent to prison?

[Flying Dog]

fry um.

[Matt Damon™]

fry um.

are you serious?

fry the dealers yes but the addicts need to be treated

[Mint]

Maybe Rehab them, and if they mess up put them in jail?

Why put people in jail if they're not harming or deceiving others? Prisons are expensive and we lose a lot of space to non-violent drug users yearly. Over half of the people serving time in federal prison are drug users, that's just stupid.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

No, I don't see how that helps anyone. Compulsory treatment, yeah, sure, but not prison. No.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Absolutely Not.. not least of all due to the need of protecting other prisoners.

While I also say no, that's a really stupid reason. You could say the same thing about sociopaths or people rather prone to extreme violent outbursts, does that mean they belong on the outside instead?

[opebo]

No.  They are doing no one any harm (and perhaps not even themselves.. look at William S. Burroughs). 

I wouldn't mind giving them a generous dole though.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Absolutely Not.. not least of all due to the need of protecting other prisoners.

While I also say no, that's a really stupid reason. You could say the same thing about sociopaths or people rather prone to extreme violent outbursts, does that mean they belong on the outside instead?

I suppose one difference is that there are a lot more junkies out there than nutters and that the threat nutters pose to other prisoners is more obvious to their fellow nutters in prison administration.

[minionofmidas]

Why? What for?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Why? What for?

The main reason is to keep them out of sight, isn't it.