Topic: legal problems

As soon as they were feeling better, the guys would gather in the lounge to swap stories of high-level burglaries and shoplifting expeditions on a grand scale.

Traditional middle class jobs with career prospects replaced by a lower-paid, less stable workforce– perhaps more vulnerable to outside influence?

What legalization can’t do is fix any problems inherent in drug use itself.

But if a community treats a correctional institution as a kind of locked flophouse, what else we can expect?

Nobody should have known about this in the first place. Somebody broke Josh’s confidentiality, and sources within the team are a prime suspect.

A big fine, for instance, isn’t necessarily a better deterrent than a lesser one that is administered quickly and effectively.

It’s not just what you present to your client — it’s how you present it. By following a few simple rules, you get better results. It’s not a perfect system, by any means. But it should improve outcomes.

Kids like to bring up the fact that alcohol kills many times more Americans than marijuana (or heroin, or cocaine). So why are those drugs illegal, their use subject to harsh punishment, when alcohol isn’t?

First, they don’t understand why they’re in treatment, or how it could possibly benefit them. Second, they’re ticked off about having been coerced.

Having a judge or a parole officer holding the big stick on them may be enough to get them into treatment, but it’s usually not enough motivation to get them beyond the minimum of compliance.