An Examination of Various Legislative Acts Which Allow for Treatment in Lieu of Incarceration for Drug Related Offenses

Abstract

It would be difficult indeed to give rise to a greater paradox than was emergent between the implied intent contained in the President’s message to Congress, and the Act which was passed by the 89th Congress 2d Session P.L. 89-793 80 stat. 1438 commonly known as the Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Act of 1966. After hearing, or reading, the President’s remarks, one would have been justified in assuming that at long last there was hope that the phenomenon of drug addiction and its underlying problems would fall under enlightened and workable statutes rather than the draconian laws to which the victims of narcotic addiction had historically been subjected. Section 2 of the Act continued the ruse.

“But our continued insistence on treating drug addicts, once apprehended, as criminals, is neither humane nor effective. It has neither curtailed addiction nor prevented crime.”¹

President Lyndon B. Johnson