[DoubleCribble]

I'll give you a good reason, healthcare costs. You think all that life saving medical care after an overdose is free or cheap? It's the same reason why motorcycle helmets are required by the government in many states. The public doesn't want to pay for the un/under-insured comatose rider's prolonged stay in the hospital after an accident.

[misnome]

Does it cost more to treat an overdose than it does to hold someone full-time in prison?

[DoubleCribble]

Undeniably, yes, it costs more to treat a patient on a per/day basis.

US Federal inmates cost ~$38,000 per year or ~$107/day. (approx based on previous years' info) [0] Just the ambulance ride alone is going cost much more than that. Add in hospital admission and treatment for all those nasty needle shared diseases and maybe an organ failure or two (livers can only put up with so much abuse) and the cost skyrockets.

[0]https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/04/30/2018-09...

[gremlinsinc]

You forget all the people dying from overdoses, those people don't cost a cent, and save money because that's less drain in your hypothetical scenario because they're no longer around to drain the system. I don't know many drug users who wast 30k per year on medical, most probably don't even go to the E.R. unless someone else takes them. Many are dying just because they are not too big on self-care in the first place.

Also 38,000 seems a little low, but I guess averages. It's more than that though, you're taking away any tax dollars that person could be spending assuming they would make enough and if they're missing out on crucial years to get an education and could be higher contributors to society but aren't then you miss out on that as well.

Prison also often creates career criminals from those who maybe otherwise wouldn't have been. Legalizing all drugs (possession - not sales), the sex trade, and other crimes of 'morality' that harms nobody but the perpetrator would go along way to cut costs. After we do that we can look at ways to replace those societal habits and issues with something better.

Not saying they need be set completely free, but drug use isn't a criminal act. Often it is one of mental issues. It's more a mental medical issue than a criminal one and should be seen as such. Nobody with a mental illness should be in prison because of their illness and because they can't get treatment elsewhere.

If they have no mental issues, they should be required to do community service, as well as get an education. Let's not only make community college free, let's make it a replacement for prison for non-violent offenders so that would be career criminals can become professionals in another much more redeeming career.

[superchink]

Isn't this a false dichotomy? By putting people in prison, are we meaningfully reducing the frequency of drug use that may lead to overdose?

Serious question.