Michael Douglas’s Son Faces More Time Than a Murderer or a Rapist for a Nonviolent Drug Charge
The War on Drugs is a huge failure. It’s breaking the backs of taxpayers.
Today, there are over 500,000 Americans locked up for nonviolent drug law violations.
The government is hell-bent on punishing Cameron Douglas for the crime of being an addict.
AlterNet, January 31, 2010 | Who benefits from Cameron Douglas getting at least 10 years in prison? No one. But the government is hell-bent on punishing him for the crime of being an addict.
Cameron — the son of Academy Award winner Michael Douglas — took a guilty plea this week for dealing drugs that will land him in prison for at least 10 years to a maximum of life. This stems from a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) investigation based on information from unidentified informants who were methamphetamine users and drug dealers. In other words, these rats gave Cameron up to save their own hides. In exchange for agreeing to be cooperating witnesses against Cameron, they were allowed to plead guilty to lesser charges.
I am mad as hell! Why? In the 1980s, I faced a similar fate that led to my 15-to-life sentence for a first-time, nonviolent drug sale in New York. So I know too well the routine the DEA went through to rope Douglas into a corner forcing him to take a plea deal. They scared the living crap out of him, telling him he would never see the light of day if he went to trial. Why would anyone in their right mind plead out to a 10-year minimum sentence? In the U.S., this type of behavior is standard in procuring drug convictions of low-level drug offenders who wind up doing more time than a murderer or rapist.
A good friend of Cameron Douglas told me that Douglas has been hooked on heroin for the last several years. Why else would he compel his girlfriend to bring over a toothbrush box containing 20 bags of dope while he was under house arrest several months ago? He needs drug treatment, not a decade or more of hard time in prison.
The U.S. is obsessed with punishing individuals like Douglas. I think his imprisonment is immoral and counterproductive to public safety. By locking up Douglas and those like him, our government is wasting resources that could otherwise be used to stop violent crime.
Today, there are over 500,000 Americans locked up for nonviolent drug law violations. The cost of incarcerating such individuals is draining state and federal budgets and producing idiotic solutions by politicians to make up for its burgeoning costs — like the recent cuts in health care, education, and other social service programs.
It will cost tax payers an estimated $45,000 a year to keep him in prison. His family and friends will no doubt mourn their loss while Douglas rots away in a federal prison for being a nonviolent drug addict.
Should we treat drug addiction as a criminal matter or a medical problem? For most people, treatment is a much more effective way to overcome addiction, yet our prisons are full of drug-addicted individuals. Nonviolent drug offenders should be given an opportunity to receive treatment, not jail time, for their drug use. This would be a more effective and affordable solution for the individual and the community.
Thanks to the war on drugs, and especially mandatory minimum sentencing policies, average drug offenders like Cameron Douglas are sentenced to extraordinary amounts of time in prison. We need to end these draconian drug laws by offering drug-addicted individuals treatment instead of prison.
Related posts:
bbop
cdva
cmm
cpr
d29
dc
dfc
dvsw
fogr
fojv
ieP
ip
MO
ORO
rc
rs
rsp
rt
sos
SR
SYMAC
yvc
Well let me ask you Branson. Whether the drug laws are fair or not, he obviously knew by his pleading guilty that he violated the law. He bought his ticket and took his chances. If he thought the law was unfair he should have worked within the system to change it.
What you are saying is because Prohibition was in your opinion wrong we should now beatify Al Capone as a saint. Capone and other bootleggers knew that they were violating the law. Just because Prohibition was repealed did not mean that they were all released from prison either.
I’m seeing a pattern here, you find some ultra rich as the bad guys when they do things like start corporations or give money to political campaigns all within their legal rights to do, but have no problem with a ultra rich dope fiend breaking existing laws, then burdening his hard working parents and society because you think the drug laws are to strict.
There is a big huge difference between the legalization of Pot argument and the sales, use and distribution of Heroine. In this case, in my dictionary of life, sympathy is somewhere between shit and syphilis.
To be quite honest I think they should use the Soviet method of drug rehab on him, a double tap behind the ear and save further heartache of his parents and the $45k a year to house him.
Michael Douglas does not deserve the aggravation.
Immediately above is one of the most ridiculously skewed comment you’ve posted. Should we treat drug addiction as a criminal matter or a medical problem? It would benefit you to read the post.
Al Capone would have been out of business with the signing of a prohibition legislation.
Distribution of Heroine? I’m sure you really don’t have a grasp of the heroine trade in Afghanistan.
Encouraging a double tap behind the ear for users? Now that makes a big bunch of sense. Killing does not solve the problems brought by drugs.
No Branson, that article was the most asinine article you ever cut and pasted. I would give money on the chance that Mr. Douglas SR. would rather have his son in prison alive than worrying about him breaking into his home for money or dead in some alley with a needle stuck in his arm.
There is a quantum leap from a pot user to a heroine addict. So using your legalization of pot arguments in the case of heroine use is like apple and oranges. You’ll not find many anywhere other than the fringes of the left and libertarians, that will find agreement with you or the author of the above article Anthony Papa.
Surely you’re loose at the lips with someone else’s son. No parents wants their sibling being confined like an untouchable mute for a treatable disease.
I hardly think Dougles’ son is in want of money for a fix. The best show in town is to treat the disease. Not lock it away and make monsters out of human beings for being, after all, human.
You are far too smug, glib and errantly shoot your gun from hips into the netherland.
What we all have to recognize is that not any one of us has all the answer. Does Dan have a special vision of how society should work, from locking people down like insane monsters, for non violent offenses, for addiction, such is a dim vision.
It’s seeing monsters and shadows where none exist. People make bad choices. Not all of us can be as upstanding and moral as Dan O’brian.
Many can try to emulate Dan O’brian but most all of us fall.
This is no flame but rather an attempt to pry open locked minds. Very often a useless endeavor in the valley of the dark. But like the The Myth of Sysiphus, fools such as I will try.
From your post Branson…
“…the son of Academy Award winner Michael Douglas — took a guilty plea this week for dealing drugs…”
Did you not see the word “DEALING” Sir?
Do you think dealing drugs is a victimless crime?
What is it about disease you refuse to comprehend, Mike? You appear to be all to anxious to further ruin the life of the son of a wealthy American icon. A sick son that desperately needs treatment.
Other modern nations treat addiction, you want to punish it Mike.
Why waste my time on such foolishness.
“We have more people in jail than China.” — Dan O’brian
Let’s do the math Mike:
China: 1/4 of the world’s population.
U.S.: 303,824,640 people.
Do you get it Mike?
WOW Branson: What the heli was that? I didn’t even make a comment yet you tear me a new one and presume to know what I think on this matter because I ask a simple question!
Just forget about the question, it’s too freeking tough for you!
It was the continuous nature of your comments that stopped me.
I just read in USA Today where the drug cartels have huge controls over Mexican governments. Drug cartels threaten Mexican stability. President Felipe Calderón describing his crackdown as a fight for territory and “the very authority of the state.”
Meanwhile, the War on Drugs is a foreordained failure. We have to tax drugs and decriminalize its use. Locking up people is not solving much of anything. It causes more problems than anything else. It isn’t serving much good.
“It was the continuous nature of your comments that stopped me.”
What comments Branson??? Where?
I say again, I made no comment. Try taking a another look!
You are confused! Are you having dizzy spells too?