Oklahoma approves largest single-day commutation in US history

[Papageorgio]

Legalize it, tax it and track it. This might be the formula to help curb the addiction issue. If it is legalized, we know that it won't be laced with cyanide, fentanyl or other crap. Tax it and use the money to fund rehab centers. Track it and when it is sold legally they know who needs the help and work on a solution.

This can't be worse than our current way of handling the issue.

 

[okfine]

How about that? This is but one small step in what should be a nation-side effort--minor drug offenses and non-violent crimes need not bring harsh multi-year sentences---save prisons for the violent and the repeat offenders..and save us, the taxpayers, millions!

Oklahoma approves largest single-day commutation in U.S. history

"In a flurry of signatures Friday afternoon, Oklahoma moved one step closer to shucking its distinction as the state with the highest incarceration rate in the United States. On Monday afternoon, 527 people serving low-level drug and nonviolent offenses will go free in what Oklahoma lawmakers are calling the largest single-day commutation in both state and U.S. history.
The commutation is a success for criminal justice reform efforts in a state that has a long history of harsh sentencing practices and high incarceration rates. It’s also evidence of the Republican-dominated legislature’s willingness to move closer in line with the majority of voters who favor a less punitive approach. The historic commutations come amid nationwide efforts to reduce punishment of low-level crimes and move the U.S. prison system in a more rehabilitative — or at least less punitive — direction."

Good job OK. I hope all return to society as productive, viable citizens.

 

[okfine]

I'm not advocating for people shooting up in the streets.

Maybe instead of making drugs legal, we should just stop throwing addicts in jail. It is poor man's rehab around here and let me tell ya, it doesn't work. Drug Court works a lot better but it's expensive.

The addicts get thrown in jail because of public intoxication or possession.
So if drugs are still illegal, most would still be thrown in jail.

No, the way it works is, rather than jail if an addict is arrested (and often it's for theft so they can buy drugs) the Court sentences them to a strictly monitored and intensive drug rehab program and if they misstep they spend a weekend in jail; if they misstep twice they're in jail to serve their sentence. We have quite a large community in recovery around here that has struggled through drug court, stayed out of jail and kicked their addiction all at the same time. It's good to see.
How does that sound?

I would imagine you have heard of many that followed in their parents footsteps. And of their parents usage, how it affected them.

Sometimes. Not as many as you are probably thinking. More times than I can count, grandparents stepped in to keep the kids safe. This is a very rural, economically depressed area that is within spitting distance of Canada and a coastline that has invited smuggling since it was settled a couple hundred years ago. We had a full blown opiate epidemic twenty years before it hit the southern part of the state where the legislators live--and then it suddenly became a "concern." It started with prescription oxycontin and lots of people with very little money. Some got hooked and wanted more, and people who had a script figured out they could make a tidy profit selling what they had left over and then folks tried it recreationally and liked it and the kids got into it and then....the best shit was coming from Canada for years, then when they put the brakes on that, the heroin started coming up from New York and Massachusetts and it still is.

Grandparents are the lifeline for many kids. And babies. I know by experience as one of those GP's.

 

[OldLady]

Maybe instead of making drugs legal, we should just stop throwing addicts in jail. It is poor man's rehab around here and let me tell ya, it doesn't work. Drug Court works a lot better but it's expensive.

The addicts get thrown in jail because of public intoxication or possession.
So if drugs are still illegal, most would still be thrown in jail.

No, the way it works is, rather than jail if an addict is arrested (and often it's for theft so they can buy drugs) the Court sentences them to a strictly monitored and intensive drug rehab program and if they misstep they spend a weekend in jail; if they misstep twice they're in jail to serve their sentence. We have quite a large community in recovery around here that has struggled through drug court, stayed out of jail and kicked their addiction all at the same time. It's good to see.
How does that sound?

I would imagine you have heard of many that followed in their parents footsteps. And of their parents usage, how it affected them.

Sometimes. Not as many as you are probably thinking. More times than I can count, grandparents stepped in to keep the kids safe. This is a very rural, economically depressed area that is within spitting distance of Canada and a coastline that has invited smuggling since it was settled a couple hundred years ago. We had a full blown opiate epidemic twenty years before it hit the southern part of the state where the legislators live--and then it suddenly became a "concern." It started with prescription oxycontin and lots of people with very little money. Some got hooked and wanted more, and people who had a script figured out they could make a tidy profit selling what they had left over and then folks tried it recreationally and liked it and the kids got into it and then....the best shit was coming from Canada for years, then when they put the brakes on that, the heroin started coming up from New York and Massachusetts and it still is.

Grandparents are the lifeline for many kids. And babies. I know by experience as one of those GP's.

Thank you for being an angel!

 

[OldLady]

TNHarley
Alcohol Consumption During Prohibition
Jeffrey A. Miron, Jeffrey Zwiebel
NBER Working Paper No. 3675 (Also Reprint No. r1563)
Issued in April 1991

We estimate the consumption of alcohol during Prohibition using mortality, mental health and crime statistics. We find that alcohol consumption fell sharply at the beginning of Prohibition, to approximately 30 percent of its pre-Prohibition level. During the next several years, however, alcohol consumption increased sharply, to about 60-70 percent of its pre-prohibition level. The level of consumption was virtually the same immediately after Prohibition as during the latter part of Prohibition, although consumption increased to approximately its pre-Prohibition level during the subsequent decade.

Alcohol Consumption During Prohibition

 

[TNHarley]

TNHarley
Alcohol Consumption During Prohibition
Jeffrey A. Miron, Jeffrey Zwiebel
NBER Working Paper No. 3675 (Also Reprint No. r1563)
Issued in April 1991

We estimate the consumption of alcohol during Prohibition using mortality, mental health and crime statistics. We find that alcohol consumption fell sharply at the beginning of Prohibition, to approximately 30 percent of its pre-Prohibition level. During the next several years, however, alcohol consumption increased sharply, to about 60-70 percent of its pre-prohibition level. The level of consumption was virtually the same immediately after Prohibition as during the latter part of Prohibition, although consumption increased to approximately its pre-Prohibition level during the subsequent decade.

Alcohol Consumption During Prohibition

Looks like we both have good sources that contradict each other lol

 

[okfine]

The addicts get thrown in jail because of public intoxication or possession.
So if drugs are still illegal, most would still be thrown in jail.

No, the way it works is, rather than jail if an addict is arrested (and often it's for theft so they can buy drugs) the Court sentences them to a strictly monitored and intensive drug rehab program and if they misstep they spend a weekend in jail; if they misstep twice they're in jail to serve their sentence. We have quite a large community in recovery around here that has struggled through drug court, stayed out of jail and kicked their addiction all at the same time. It's good to see.
How does that sound?

I would imagine you have heard of many that followed in their parents footsteps. And of their parents usage, how it affected them.

Sometimes. Not as many as you are probably thinking. More times than I can count, grandparents stepped in to keep the kids safe. This is a very rural, economically depressed area that is within spitting distance of Canada and a coastline that has invited smuggling since it was settled a couple hundred years ago. We had a full blown opiate epidemic twenty years before it hit the southern part of the state where the legislators live--and then it suddenly became a "concern." It started with prescription oxycontin and lots of people with very little money. Some got hooked and wanted more, and people who had a script figured out they could make a tidy profit selling what they had left over and then folks tried it recreationally and liked it and the kids got into it and then....the best shit was coming from Canada for years, then when they put the brakes on that, the heroin started coming up from New York and Massachusetts and it still is.

Grandparents are the lifeline for many kids. And babies. I know by experience as one of those GP's.

Thank you for being an angel!

The Kids and Families Program was a big help, along with CASA.
For those out there with some extra time you could help, as well.

Kids & Families Together

Be a CASA Volunteer

 

[bodecea]

If I were an Oklahoma resident I’d be sitting outside these prisons with a high powered rifle, a scope, and as much semi as I could carry; just pooping balloons as each one comes out the front door on release day.

Suuuuuuure you would. You know, nothing (including not being from Oklahoma) is stopping you from following thru.....except for you being all talk, no action.

 

[okfine]

If I were an Oklahoma resident I’d be sitting outside these prisons with a high powered rifle, a scope, and as much semi as I could carry; just pooping balloons as each one comes out the front door on release day.

Suuuuuuure you would. You know, nothing (including not being from Oklahoma) is stopping you from following thru.....except for you being all talk, no action.

Don't temper the crazy.

 

[EvilEyeFleegle]

It's a done deal:

Nearly 500 Prisoners Freed on a Single Day

"Across Oklahoma on Monday, 462 inmates doing time for drug possession or similar nonviolent crimes had their sentences commuted as the first step in an effort by state officials to shed the title of the nation’s incarceration capital.
“This is truly a blessing, to be able to get out on something like this, when you get overlooked so often,” said Ms. Faircloth, who plans to return to Willow, Okla., and hopes to attend college and score a job at a Hobby Lobby store.
As she and the other prisoners left the Dr. Eddie Warrior Correctional Center, they embraced relatives, some of whom they had not seen in months or years. Camera crews crowded around, recording a scene that would have been unfathomable in the state just a few years ago.
For more than a decade, legislators in several states have sought to send fewer nonviolent, low-level offenders to prison, in an effort to save money on incarceration and reserve resources for going after more serious criminals. Those efforts have occurred in states led by both Democrats and Republicans, including neighboring Texas.
But change has been slower to come to Oklahoma, which continues to vie with Louisiana for the highest per-capita imprisonment rate in the country.
Voters forced the hand of Oklahoma lawmakers in 2016 when, by a wide margin, they approved a plan to shrink prison rolls by downgrading many felonies to misdemeanors, including simple drug possession and minor property crimes."

 

[Jarlaxle]

If I were an Oklahoma resident I’d be sitting outside these prisons with a high powered rifle, a scope, and as much semi as I could carry; just pooping balloons as each one comes out the front door on release day.

Is it time to call the FBI on psycho boy here yet?

 

[Jarlaxle]

Opium den - Wikipedia
Inside the Story of America’s 19th-Century Opiate Addiction | History | Smithsonian
Peek at these, just fyi. Recreational opiates that are highly addictive waste a society. People can't function. It's not like pot or even for most people beer that they can take or leave. It's gonna get you addicted; it's miserable as hell when you can't get it. It is not just psychological but physical.
THAT's why you don't want to open it up to free use by anyone that wants it. We've been there before and done that already.

Actually, many can function fine as long as they get their drugs. (Thousands of morphine addicts did fine after WW1.)

A lifelong opiate addict only revolutionized medicine. You know someone alive because of his work.

 

[RoshawnMarkwees]

Drugs should be legal
What people put in their body is their own problem. There is no reasonable objection to it.

Like all of those young people dying from opioid overdoses. Nothing wrong with that.

 

[OldLady]

Opium den - Wikipedia
Inside the Story of America’s 19th-Century Opiate Addiction | History | Smithsonian
Peek at these, just fyi. Recreational opiates that are highly addictive waste a society. People can't function. It's not like pot or even for most people beer that they can take or leave. It's gonna get you addicted; it's miserable as hell when you can't get it. It is not just psychological but physical.
THAT's why you don't want to open it up to free use by anyone that wants it. We've been there before and done that already.

Actually, many can function fine as long as they get their drugs. (Thousands of morphine addicts did fine after WW1.)

A lifelong opiate addict only revolutionized medicine. You know someone alive because of his work.

I know a lot of people dead because of opiates.

 

[initforme]

What other people do to themselves is none of my business....pretty clear cut. These are family issues.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Drugs should be legal
What people put in their body is their own problem. There is no reasonable objection to it.

Same for prostitution using the exact same logic

 

[OldLady]

What other people do to themselves is none of my business....pretty clear cut. These are family issues.

They make it everyone's business by ... stealing your stuff to buy their drugs, driving too high to see and killing your daughter on the road, taking a job with you and then not showing up to work two days out of five, causing havoc in your business... I could go on. It affects you, if you know it or not.

 

[TNHarley]

Drugs should be legal
What people put in their body is their own problem. There is no reasonable objection to it.

Like all of those young people dying from opioid overdoses. Nothing wrong with that.

The biggest driver of opioid overdoses is illegal cutting processes. If they were regulated, they wouldn't be cut with crazy shit like fentanyl

 

[TNHarley]

Drugs should be legal
What people put in their body is their own problem. There is no reasonable objection to it.

Same for prostitution using the exact same logic

Prostitution is the oldest form of capitalism on the planet! Lol
Seriously though, I cant believe that is illegal.. blows my mind!

 

[TNHarley]

What other people do to themselves is none of my business....pretty clear cut. These are family issues.

They make it everyone's business by ... stealing your stuff to buy their drugs, driving too high to see and killing your daughter on the road, taking a job with you and then not showing up to work two days out of five, causing havoc in your business... I could go on. It affects you, if you know it or not.

Millions of other things cause that too.