Soc podcast prt 2

The Help You Help Us Foundation advocates for individuals with minor drug charges to receive treatment instead of incarceration. They also support the decriminalization of minor drug possession charges. By providing treatment instead of jail time, individuals have a better chance of avoiding future crimes. Decriminalizing drugs can benefit communities by reducing government spending on incarceration and increasing tax revenue. Stereotypes about increased overdoses and juvenile drug use due to decriminalization have been disproven. Cannabis use may even help combat the opioid crisis. Treating individuals with substance use disorder is more effective in the long term than incarcerating them. The story of a young lady who successfully completed a treatment program and now helps others shows the power of providing support and meaning to their lives. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Joyce Bronson. I'm with the Help You Help Us Foundation. What our foundation is is we're a group of advocates that advocate for individuals to receive treatment in lieu of jail incarceration for minor possession drug charges as well as paraphernalia charges. We also are advocating for decriminalization of minor drug possession charges as well. Because it just shows that, you know, if individuals who are suffering from substance use disorder just received treatment in lieu of incarceration, this will cause, you know, them to minimize the chances of them recommitting these crimes that they have been caught with in the past. Why we are so strong-willed into the fact that we need to decriminalize some drugs is because of the fact that this will not only boost our community by reducing the funds that the government has to pay to house individuals in jail. We can also increase our tax revenue by taxing these drugs. You know, for example, with the legalization of marijuana, not only did it increase tax revenue, job growth, and investment opportunities in Colorado when that came about, you know, the school system benefited from all the funds that was made, the roads benefited. Overall, the state, you know, received a huge increase in their tax revenues as well as other states that have followed suit. They have also seen an increase in tax revenues. Now, one of the big stereotypes that you hear as a result of legalizing or decriminalizing drugs is people would think that if we decriminalize drugs, then people are going to have a huge amount of overdoses. And while there is some countries now that have decriminalized certain drugs, for example, Mexico, Portugal, Switzerland, Czech, they are a handful of countries that have decriminalized drug use and possession for personal use, not large quantities, but personal use. And they have not seen an increase in their overdoses as a result of that. I also have read in an article that, you know, if they were to decriminalize drugs, that it would be an increase in juvenile use. But there was a study shown and they showed no increase in juvenile use as a result of decriminalizing the drugs in this area. It was actually the article in decriminalizing and legalization of marijuana in the United States. And in this article, it stated that one of the stereotypes is that using marijuana products in adolescence would be increased because children would know or young adults would be no longer scared that they would get caught with the product. And they actually did a study in New Mexico and this study actually determined that the new laws did not influence the increase in use of cannabis use. They've also been, you know, targeting and stating that cannabis use can actually help combat the opioid crisis. So I understand that it is, you know, you're treating one drug with another drug, but that's sort of similar to what like Suboxone use is. So if we decriminalize marijuana, individuals suffering from substance use disorder, well actually I should say opioid use disorder, this would help reduce the chances of them, you know, overdosing. So yeah, they can smoke a little bit of marijuana to help with their withdrawal symptoms that they have. And then, you know, that would help them maintain sobriety that way, which is always a benefit for not only the individual, but for the state as well as, you know, and again when I say it's a benefit for the state, it's because the state will reduce costs for incarceration of the individual because obviously if they have an opioid use disorder, they're going to continue to try to find ways to get the funds to support their habit. And most often than not, individuals with this disorder are not working because they're so busy and chasing the individual drug that they'll be committing crimes to get the money that they need in order to get the relief that they need from this drug. Then there's also a chance that they can, you know, get caught by the police for just having possession now that they have the possession laws. And that's why it's so strongly encouraged for us to really look at, you know, trying to treat individuals with this disorder versus just incarcerating them. I know that incarcerating them is a short fix, but it's not a long-term fix. You know, incarcerating individuals costs the state, the country millions a year just to house individuals. And half of the individuals that are incarcerated are just incarcerated as a result of drug charges. And not large drug charges, simple minor possession charges. And we had one young lady that we had advocated for. She was incarcerated for a total of 14 years. And how the incarceration started with her is she was arrested on a petty larceny charge. And then they gave her one year in jail and gave her probation. But because she was a addict and she could not stop using the drugs, she continued to fail drug screenings for probation. Then they violated her. When they violated her the third time, they told her she had to serve the full 14 years. And what happened is that her parents, or I believe it was her mom, wrote a letter to the governor and the governors of Virginia. And he went and he notified our agency and said, if you guys can find her help, we will release her as long as she successfully completes the program and does not fail another drug screening for the next three years. The young lady was released into a program. She successfully completed the program. Matter of fact, she ended up going to get her peer recovery specialist license, which is a license that helps individuals who are in the past drug users to help the new drug users. So basically giving them a message of hope. So one way that they always say an addict can help another addict is the best way to get that individual clean and sober and they will remain clean and sober. And to this day, this young lady is still sober and she is working for a local community service board helping individuals find treatment. So as you can see, no one can inspire the next individual. No one can help the next individual like another addict. So instead of incarcerating these individuals, let's have them help the new individual who is looking for help and let's help them, encourage them and give them a way of life. Give someone a meaning to their life and I guarantee they'll change it around. And again, this is Help You Help, Help Us Help You Foundation. And again, we have a lot coming up on our next podcast. Thank you guys.