Addiction: Balancing treatment, punishment [GreatFallsTribune.com]

George Bernard Shaw is credited with the quote: "To Punish a man, you must Injure Him; To Reform a man, you must Improve him; and men are not Improved by Injuries."

I also think Vincent Felitti's 2004 [english version] paper: "The Origins of Addiction: Evidence from the Adverse Childhood Experiences study" is germane to this discussion.

All addicts need grace, not just veterans.  We have many vacant buildings in our states.  Why don't we use  some of them for drug treatment sentencing.  If we were to apply 30, 60, and 90 day sentences with a medical staff and Chemical Dependency Counseling, along with an exit strategy for reentering the community, we could make an asserted impact.  Throwing addicts in jail, and then releasing them because the jails are too full, while prosecuting them, and all the beat down that comes with it, is creating a situation that is almost impossible to rise above.