COURTS ARE THE WRONG TOOL TO DEAL WITH ADDICTIONS

Editor: Richard Paey could be the poster boy for the failure of drug
prohibition.

How could this man be charged with and convicted of trafficking in
painkillers when there was no evidence that he gave away a single pill? Why
was it the business of the criminal justice system whether a chronic pain
patient self-medicates to the point of addiction?

Why was the jury not allowed to dispose of this case in a compassionate
manner? How come the judge, if he does not toss out this conviction, must
send this man to prison for 25 years?

The report suggests that Richard Paey resisted the plea bargain offered for
house arrest and probation because he knew he was not guilty of anything
except addiction to painkillers. But I suspect there was another reason: If
he'd taken the plea, he could then have been sent to prison at the
discretion of his probation officer for violation of probation. Paey then
would have had not even the protection of an in- the-dark jury and a judge
hamstrung by mandatory minimum sentencing laws.

The criminal justice system, even if used simply to enforce treatment, is
the wrong tool against addiction. How can you treat addiction in a man who
has unending chronic pain?) We should have Paey at home on a drug
maintenance program and send the criminal justice system out to fight real
crime.