• Courts uphold Virginia Police's ability to arrest the town drunk
    4 replies, posted
https://wtop.com/virginia/2018/08/court-tosses-challenge-to-virginias-habitual-drunkard-law/ RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected a challenge to a Virginia law that allows police to arrest people designated as “habitual drunkards” if they are caught with alcohol, finding that the state has a “legitimate interest” in discouraging alcohol abuse. The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholds a lower court judge who dismissed the lawsuit last year. But one of the judges sharply criticized the law, saying it “criminalizes the otherwise legal behavior of individuals suffering from a serious illness.” The Legal Aid Justice Center argued in its lawsuit that the law criminalizes addiction, punishes homeless alcoholics who have nowhere else to drink but in public and violates the 8th Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. But the court said the law “does not single out homeless alcoholics for different treatment.”
punishing people for substance abuse does not fix their substance abuse problem, it will only make it worse.
Yep... imprisoning individuals for substance abuse tends to make things worse due to the depression caused by incarceration in combination with the ease with which drugs can be acquired in prisons. Portugal's substance abuse death toll dramatically dropped when they decriminalised possession of 'personal quantities' of drugs, so we've got some pretty good evidence that this is not the best way of approaching it. Decriminalisation doesn't mean it's legal to buy, but it does protect those with addictions from further problems.
ya this law seems to take things too far in that it allows the cops to premptively arrest someone they believe will cause a disturbance due to substance abuse rather than after they have caused a disturbance. there's also nothing they are doing to really help the individual though that's a failing of a larger system.
Glad I don't live there
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.