Recently in Drug Offenses Category

Drug Court plays a huge roll in both Psychology and law. It is clear that drug court is for those who have a sever addiction to a substance or alcohol. I wanted to know what exactly goes on during drug court, the requirements, and some statistics that follow drug court.

Drug court was put in place in 1989. This was a system to help felony drug offenders. It is community based that focuses on rehabilitation, treatment, and supervised programs. Drug Court is specifically designed for drug offenders. It is there to help them rehabilitate their lives with a goal of lowering the incarceration rates due to drug offenders. Approximately 1/3 of people in prison are drug offenders. That is a huge number when we know the number of people just in prison alone! The United States is the leading country for drug offenders in all.

The psychology part is the addiction itself. I think it is very hard for people to really understand how addiction works, especially in highly addictive drugs. The addiction is what makes a person a felony drug offender. It takes intense drug court to help rehabilitate them and have them back to normal society. The stress that goes along with drug users to trying to become clean is a big part of psychology as well. This all falls under behavioral psychology, clinical psychology, and sometimes abnormal psychology.

For the law part of Drug Court, is the court itself and the people who play a role in drug court.  Drug Court programs have all of law enforcement personnel into play. Some of these people include judges, prosecutors, defense counsel, substance abuse treatment specialists, probation officers, law enforcement and correctional officers, education and vocational experts and many others. All of these people play their role and helping to eliminate drug offenders.

Below are some websites to help better explain drug courts and what does into them.

http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/enforce/drugcourt.html

This is a Nation Drug Court website. It gives a brief introduction, and then gives links below to specific areas.

http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/node/36

This is a website that is fact based, It shows a graph of incarceration rates and then

 

 

 

I've always been interested in the amount of crimes that occur while influenced by either drugs or alcohol. As I was researching this, the results were slightly shocking. I found out that less than half of committed crimes were caused by people who were either on drugs, or drinking. One statistic showed that about 25% of all crimes are drug induced. Although this may not seem like a lot, it's still 1/4 of all crimes. Another statistic showed that the first time a person commits a crime, they're more likely to be sober. However, if that same person commits a second crime, the person is more likely to be influenced by a drug/ alcohol. Another statistic I found rather interesting is that 19% of all inmates are in jail because they tried to attain money from drugs. It also said that 81% of drug arrest were due to possession. I think that's pretty nuts, I mean you'd think they'd learn to hide it more or just not do it to begin with. 
Here's the link where I got all my information...
http://www.safetycops.com/drug_related_crimes.htm

I saw a comment on here earlier talking about how to salvage keeping your license if you got pulled over for an OWI this made me want to go and search some of the worst excuses for an OWI.  I have put the sight on here, it's actually kind of funny how dumb these are.

http://www.maxim.com/humor/stupid-fun/83270/worst-celeb-dui-excuses-ever.html

This is actually a smart way for an Officer to get trained on how to recognize a drunk driver.  This type of training envolves police officers getting drunk inside a controlled environment while the police officers that are sober examine the intoxicated police officers motor skills and speech.  Not only that but it will also come in handy when an intoxicated person is brought into court.

 

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2010/02/25/dnt.cops.get.drunk.wdtn 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hamedah-hasan/a-letter-from-behind-bars_b_458718.html

"As we celebrate President's Day, one prisoner asks President Obama to exercise his clemency power to commute the remaining 10 years of her 27-year sentence, which she received for a first time, non-violent drug offense."

In 2004 Carlie Brucia was reported missing by her mother after she never made didn't arrive home from her fiends house (a 15-20 min walk). Carlie was abducted in a car wash parking lot the night of the super bowl in 2004 and later that night was brutally murdered. The interesting thing about this case was not that she was abducted an murdered but it was how the manatee sheriffs department responded to her mothers request for an amber alert. Since the mother reported her daughter missing after approximately 10 min of her being abducted the police department had to inclination that a crime had been committed. It wasn't until 18 hours later when the police saw the video tape of her abductor via the car wash security camera was an amber alter released. Many people came forward stating they new who the guy in the video was; Joe Smith, cocaine addict. In the article below you read about Smiths addiction to cocaine, how he went into relapse and how the night of the super bowl his intentions were not to kill Carlie but to kill himself. The article takes you through the entire case from her abduction, her murder, and into the trial. In the end Smith is sentenced to execution.  It is apparent that if the manatee sheriffs department would have issued an amber alert sooner maybe she would be alive today.

 

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/carlie_brucia/1.html

http://www.drugabuse.gov/ResearchReports/default.html

The government's National Institute of Drug Abuse published a significant amount of research that is available on-line. These reports are a great source of information for anyone looking for a lot of general information about composition, typical users, addiction, and side effects.   They are available in both standard webpage and printable .PDF file. This link takes you to all of their reports. I will be focusing on the MDMA/Ecstasy Report.

For those of you that don't know MDMA, ecstasy or 3,4-Methylendioxymethamphetamine is a DEA schedule 1 substance.  Schedule 1 means drugs under this category have no medical use and a high potential for abuse. It is classified as a psychoactive amphetamine, meaning it has both psychedelic and stimulant like effects. Known for its relationship with Intimacy, it also diminishes feelings of anxiety, fear and depression. The positive effects include mental stimulation, emotional warmth, empathy towards others, and a general sense of wellbeing.

 Before being made a schedule 1 controlled substance, ecstasy was actually used in psychotherapy, couples therapy and to treat anxiety disorders as well as clinical depression. Though there were no formal, documented clinical trials or FDA approval.  Therapists called it "penicillin for the soul" saying it allowed the user to communicate insight about their problems.  Though DEA still deemed it schedule 1 eventually, in late 2000 FDA actually approved MDMA for 2 sessions of psychotherapy for those experiencing PTSD.  Ecstasy was actually criminalized in all members of the United Nations in a UN agreement; this is for manufacture, sale or production of the drug. There are limited exceptions for scientific/medical research.

MDMA first broke out in the club scene, mostly at long extended dance parties called raves. It was mostly used by adolescents and young adults, but this typical profile has been changing. There is now widespread use outside of the club scene. Recent research has also shown the drug is moving from predominately white users to minority users. It also appears to be a rising trend in the "urban gay male" scene. This is a rising concern because of the existing high level of sexual activity in gay males; it causes an increase in high risk behavior that may lead to many sexually transmitted diseases.

Though it is not side effect free, many users have the assumption that it is and since it a drug used almost exclusively in social contexts, it proves difficult for many users to say no. I would be interested to find out, whether the drug is simply used for pleasure or to escape? Also since it has been used for therapy and the FDA and UN is allowing certain amounts to be distributed again is it possible we will see a re-emergence in therapy?  Is it such a topic of debate that its full therapeutic potential will never be realized?  Is it a conflict of interest that while use is increasing that stiffer penalties have been enforced yet more scientists and therapists are getting permissions to use the drug? All of these points would be very interesting research questions.