Our traditional justice system has been inadequate to the task of breaking the cycle of substance abuse and crime. Four out of every five offenses are committed by someone with a drug or alcohol problem; and we just keep locking them up!
In just the past 20 years alone, state prison systems have added 1 million new cells to incarcerate the 2.3 million adults now behind bars in the U.S. That’s far more than any other country on the globe with 1 out of every 100 adult Americans currently serving time. Approximately one-half of these individuals are addicted to drugs or alcohol and most do not pose a serious threat to public safety.
Prison for these individuals has accomplished little to stem the tide of crime or substance abuse. Upon their release from prison, two thirds of drug abusers commit a new crime and virtually all relapse quickly to drug abuse. And yet, despite these disappointing figures national expenditures on corrections well exceed $60 billion annually. On average, states spend $65,000 per bed, per year to build new prisons and $23,876 per bed, per year to operate them. Despite the staggering cost to incarcerate these individuals, most return to their communities without treatment, without jobs and without hope.
Given the abysmal outcomes of incarceration on addictive behavior, there’s absolutely no justification for state governments to continue to waste tax dollars feeding a situation where generational recidivism is becoming the norm and parents, children and grandparents may find themselves locked up together.

The addicted in prison truth is:
We want them to have self-worth
So we destroy their self-worth
We want them to be responsible
So we take away all responsibility
We want them to be positive and constructive
So we degrade them and make them useless
We want them to be trustworthy
So we put them where there is no trust
We want them to be non-violent
So we put them where violence is all around them
We want them to be kind and loving people
So we subject them to hatred and cruelty
We want them to quit being the tough guy
So we put them where the tough guy is respected
We want them quit hanging around losers
So we put all the losers in the state under one roof
We want them to quit exploiting us
So we put them where they exploit each other
We want them to take control of their lives, own problems and quit being a parasite on society
So we make them totally dependent on us

I am speaking up about this matter because I have personally been addicted to Meth for 17 years (other drugs and alcohol 30 years total). I am clean and sober for many years, but unfortunately I had to go to another state (other than my home state of New Mexico) to go to Rehab. A recovery friendly community made all the difference in my miracle

Please help stop the war on drugs. Prohibition has never worked and never will.
Thanks, Ken Larson

My name is Ken Larson and I am a recovered 30 year drug and alcohol user. I am recovered only because a judge believed in me and let me go to a drug rehab. All my life I was in and out of jail never getting the help I needed. I did not wake up one day at 12 years old and say “I think I want to be an addict when I grow up.” I do not think any of us do. Because of people that believed in me and did not treat me as a Monster under the bed, I am a strong pillar of hope and that we do recover from a hopeless state of mind and body. In Alamogordo I have been a part of helping start Crystal Meth support groups, community forums, I speak in schools, I am in a DVD that was done in New Mexico called Just 4 Teens, I am Vice Chair of my local collaborative 12 and I am a member of the Otero county health council, Otero county substance abuse awareness coalition. I believe in HB 441 because I have been there and done that and this is the change we need to see in New Mexico. The Drug Policy Alliance is also a big of part helping me focus on what my passion in life is, a reality based drug education and helping others. Our state is suffering from a serious fiscal crisis. Drug treatment will save New Mexico millions of dollars every year. House Bill 441 will offer substance abuse treatment in lieu of incarceration for people arrested for drug possession and drug-related probation and/or parole violations.

A few points to ponder:
• Offenders need treatment.
• This legislation will make communities safer.
• We need to break the cycle of addiction.
• Treatment will not be more expensive.
• People will get treatment from appropriate, community-based treatment services.

Thanks for your time and please help make a difference in my life and others just like me that want help and not to be locked up, have a great day!
Ken Larson
1143 San Miguel
Alamogordo, New Mexico 88310
575-442-5668

Single payer, national health plan, call it what you will, our country needs to be free of the ghoulish perversion that the health insurance industry has become. It should not require great insight to understand that our health care system is a major factor in our economic woes. Where else in the world did a nation, a people decide that employers were to be responsible for providing the citizenry with health care?