Making peace, not war on drugs

As we've been saying right along, here's a study by the prestigious Research Triangle Institute as commissioned by the National Institute on Drug Abuse that proves treatment of drug abusers serves society much better than incarceration.

"The study shows that drug treatment programs for felony offenders provide great economic benefits to the criminal justice system and reduce recidivism rates among offenders, providing societal and economic benefits," said Gary Zarkin, Ph.D., principal investigator for the study. "Based on the results, policymakers should consider diversion programs for higher-risk drug offenders in addition to low-risk offenders usually eligible for such programs."

The study revealed a savings of millions of tax dollars and reduced recidivism rates for offenders diverted to treatment and they used only basic parameters.

"We did not include other potential societal benefits such as reduced public assistance, and avoided crime and victimization costs in our analysis," Zarkin said. "If we factor in those added outcomes, the economic benefit of diversion programs may be significantly larger, demonstrating an even greater value of such programs."

How can the prohibitionists argue with the logic in that?

[hat tip Doug McVay]