Oldman, There has never been and probably never will be a “drug free” country. One thing is for sure, the drug war mentality of locking people up and taking away their ability to earn a living when they get out is making things worse not better. Whatever we do we should apply the law equally to everyone and seek to improve things not take away a person’s hope. Look at Oliver North. Him and other high ranking Regan administration officials smuggled cargo planes full of cocaine into this country and sold it to fund their illegal backing of the Contras. They openly lied to Congress and subverted the Constitution. Countless innocent people died as a result and North and many others got a slap on the wrist. To end the vast majority of so called “drug related” problems all we have to do is remove the profit motive, which can easily be accomplished. Then we can concentrate on the REAL drug problems. Doctors can help addicts, jail does not.

Just Say Know, my problem with Reed would be wondering if he was really “sober” or if he was high as a kite when he went into surgery.  Some people do a great job of hding these things.  I think that is why his ability to practice as a doctor has been taken away from him.  Would you want a surgeon operating on you that had a drug problem or a doctor prescribing medications if he wasn’t running on all eight cylinders?  People that deal with the public, whether doctors or a school bus driver, need to think of these things before they ruin their lives by doing drugs of any kind.  My other question has to do with his girlfriend.  Is she the one that got him turned onto drugs or was he doing it before they met?  We may never know.  And making the kind of money he was making and the prestige he had as a surgeon, what would cause anyone to do what he did?  It just does not make sense.

Tell me this, what will this Dr. do when he gets out if he can’t practice medicine? Effectively dealing with drug use and addiction should be what our drug policy is designed to do. The illegal drug trade could be easily and instantly ended with rational policy the Swiss program mentioned in another post. Drug prohibition often forces people to get into the illegal drug trade once they have a criminal record and can’t get a well paying job in the legitimate world. This failed drug war policy often forces people with a criminal record to do the very things the drug war claims to be against. It’s time to say enough is enough and demand rational drug policy that is in the best interest of everyone instead of the failed insane drug war policy now on the books. We should be effectively dealing with drug use and addiction instead of devastating society needlessly with this drug war.

String, the sad part out of all of this mess is that his life is now ruined forever. He will not be allowed to practice medicine anywhere in the country once he is paroled if I understand the media right. What a total loss of a life. With the kind of money he was making, what on earth could have possessed him to just throw it all away like that? I have questions about maybe his girlfriend being the influence behind it but we’ll probably never know. Bottom line is we’ve lost a good doctor/surgeon and he has lost his future to do good for his fellow man. Sad. Very sad.

I’ve been saying they need to legalize every drug for years even though I’m totally opposed to drug use as it is the only way to end crime and make these sick individuals get help for their SICKNESS as drug users are sick and prison ruins their lives forever along with ruining their children and families lives. They need help and education to quit or the government can track and register them,give them their FIX so they don’t rob grandma, it puts dealers out of business,pulls their drivers license and would empty out overcrowded prisons which have over 50% incarcerated for drug crimes at over $50,000 a year,per inmate, of OUR money. They can choose to continue their HABIT until they kill theirselves or get treatment at any time if they want help to quit. This would be much cheaper and lower overall crime rates for robbery,prostitution,home invasions,etc.
The Europeans have it RIGHT on Health Care and Drug Crimes. We have it wrong as you can see, by statistics.

What do you think about this program? In Switzerland they set up government run clinics where heroin addicts can go and get pharmaceutical grade heroin. If you don’t have the money to pay for the drug it’s free. That instantly put every illegal heroin dealer in that country out of business… they can’t compete with free. Anyone that wants heroin can go into a government run clinic up to 3 times a day and inject it. There are medical personnel on hand and anyone that wants to kick their habit is given counseling and help toward that goal. The results are that there has not been a single heroin overdose there in more than 13 years. Switzerland has the lowest AIDS and Hepatitis infection in all of Europe. Crime fell by 60% because no one is stealing or prostituting their self to pay for their heroin and after a 10 year study, they documented that there has been an 82% decline in new heroin users. Now please tell me why our drug war seems like better policy than that.

Why not change our failed drug policy in favor of something that really works? Read this article: http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/90295/ Go ahead, really read it… it makes sense!

More information about drug laws from Just Say Know:
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Doctor Reed’s is a good man, he’s done allot to help out most of his patients but he did something that was not right and now he got to pay for it. I hope that he can clean up his personal life, and come out still doing good for the people that his around him.