Post by Logan on Feb 4, 2016 0:16:26 GMT -6
AUGUSTA — Maine Attorney General Janet Mills asked lawmakers Wednesday to once again allow prosecutors to use the threat of a felony conviction for possession of heroin and other narcotics as a way to prod drug users into treatment.
But treatment advocates and defense attorneys said harsh penalties for drug possession creates lifelong problems for users and will do little to address the state’s drug crisis.
“We have tried to arrest our way out of public health crises and it has not worked,” said Oamshri Amarasingham of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine.
The debate was the inadvertent byproduct of a bipartisan move in the Legislature last year to reduce the penalties for low-level drug possession when the offender has no previous convictions. But that effort created a legal conflict by making possession of heroin, methamphetamine and other narcotics a misdemeanor under one section of Maine law and a felony under another.
Read more: www.pressherald.com/2016/02/03/maine-attorney-general-says-stiffer-heroin-penalties-could-prod-addicts-into-treatment/
But treatment advocates and defense attorneys said harsh penalties for drug possession creates lifelong problems for users and will do little to address the state’s drug crisis.
“We have tried to arrest our way out of public health crises and it has not worked,” said Oamshri Amarasingham of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine.
The debate was the inadvertent byproduct of a bipartisan move in the Legislature last year to reduce the penalties for low-level drug possession when the offender has no previous convictions. But that effort created a legal conflict by making possession of heroin, methamphetamine and other narcotics a misdemeanor under one section of Maine law and a felony under another.
Read more: www.pressherald.com/2016/02/03/maine-attorney-general-says-stiffer-heroin-penalties-could-prod-addicts-into-treatment/