Drug Related Imprisonment

In this day in age, there are many things that are deemed controversial and that continue

to fight people’s beliefs. It will soon be a new decade, yet our country -among the world- seems

to have the worst companionship among one another. It seems that violence will always be a

constant in our world, yet there are so many people who don’t deserve it. These people consist of

your children, your parents, friends, distant relatives, and complete strangers. We always look at

these situations and think, “Why are all of these bad things happening to us? Good people don’t

deserve these things, and what makes someone so evil for the things they do?”. However, what

about “bad” people experiencing worse? What about the thousands of people a year who are

imprisoned on unfair charges?

This issue is something that for some time now, I have had an issue comprehending.

There can be many reasons someone goes to jail that seem immoral to others. This can be

because of false accusations, prejudice, racism, and many other things. Yet to me, one of the

larger ones that can be solved, has not been. There are so many unfair charges, especially in this

day and age, related to drugs. These people are being sentenced into prisons with murderers,

rapists, kidnappers, the worst kinds of humans. I believe that they are there for a reason, but do

you consider a man sentenced for 13 years fair for just the holding of marijuana? What about

being sentenced for life for selling crack one time, or a 20 year sentence for just organizing one

deal of cocaine? People at such young ages have got life sentences for just distribution, a 19 year

old facing life in prison, a 25 year old in life for dealing LSD to someone. All of these are real

cases that I have read about on Business Insider, and I know there are many more. All of these
people were breaking the law, but considering the reasons they were all sentenced, wouldn’t

there be better ways to discipline them? Handling and dealing of drugs more times that not

implies the consumption of them. These people were facing struggles to have the incentive to

illegally sell them, like being broke or addicted. Yet we send them all to a place where we put

people who are much worse, and for some times just as long. These decisions they make are

normally due to a hard background in their own life.

I believe that we should send these people to different facilities, ones that can help with

their addictions or can turn their lives around for the better. If the people who are going to court

for these actions haven’t done anything more than consume these drugs or sell them, I believe it

is unfair to send them to prison for up to life. Give them therapy, help them. They may not seem

to want it, but will eventually be grateful for having their lives saved.