Malaysia: No more prison, only rehab for addicts under new law

[danieldemol]

'KUALA LUMPUR: Drug abusers and addicts will be rehabilitated instead of being sent to jail when the proposed Drug and Substance Abuse Act replaces the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 later this year.

Home minister Hamzah Zainudin said the change of approach towards drug abusers and addicts – from prison sentences to rehabilitation and treatment programmes – will happen this year and would remove the stigma they carry in society, which looked negatively at abusers and drug addicts.'

Read more here: No more prison, only rehab for addicts under new law

Seems like a positive step to me.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

I would have thought the stigma as users will remain. Even if it does not follow you as a prison term would.
But it seems a very positive move in terms of getting people off drugs.

 

[Vinayaka]

'KUALA LUMPUR: Drug abusers and addicts will be rehabilitated instead of being sent to jail when the proposed Drug and Substance Abuse Act replaces the Drug Dependants (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act 1983 later this year.

Home minister Hamzah Zainudin said the change of approach towards drug abusers and addicts – from prison sentences to rehabilitation and treatment programmes – will happen this year and would remove the stigma they carry in society, which looked negatively at abusers and drug addicts.'

Read more here: No more prison, only rehab for addicts under new law

Seems like a positive step to me.

And prison beat capital punishment, at one time.

Editted ... Oops ... my mistake, capital punishment is for traffickers, not users. Capital punishment for drug trafficking - Wikipedia

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

A very good step in a humane direction. Now they just need to decriminalize all drugs and make it a legal non-issue in general. Still, it's light years ahead of the US.

 

[Twilight Hue]

That will never ever happen in the states.

The US incarceration rate still leads on the entire face of the planet , with millions and millions of people rotting away in prison.

Nobody in power has lifted a finger to actually stop it.

 

[Twilight Hue]

A very good step in a humane direction. Now they just need to decriminalize all drugs and make it a legal non-issue in general. Still, it's light years ahead of the US.

It turns "Land of the free" into a mockery, a tragic joke.

Those deserving prison are the violent ones.

 

[Sunstone]

That will never ever happen in the states.

The US incarceration rate still leads on the entire face of the planet , with millions and millions of people rotting away in prison.

Nobody in power has lifted a finger to actually stop it.

Follow the money.

 

[Sunstone]

And prison beat capital punishment, at one time.

Editted ... Oops ... my mistake, capital punishment is for traffickers, not users. Capital punishment for drug trafficking - Wikipedia

The Chinese communists could figure out no better means of solving the long lasting opium addiction that was still crippling China in their early years, other than to execute every addict they could until opium addiction became exceedingly rare in China.

I'm guessing they could be numbered among that group of people who don't see how addictions can be seen as solvable medical problems.

My hunch. To the Chinese communists, it was a moral problem. That seems typical of folks who can't see it as a medical problem.