Punitive policies intended to reduce drug use by making life difficult for convicted users are counterproductive and actually lead to a vicious spiral of drug use and reincarceration.
Research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy reveals how legal punishment, withdrawal of services and social stigmatization encourage a return to drug use, increased criminal activity and ultimately re-incarceration.
Juliana van Olphen from San Francisco State University led a team of researchers who held focus groups and conducted semi-structured interviews with 17 women who had recently left jail. She said, "After carrying out this research, our conclusion was that punitive drug and social policies related to employment, housing, education, welfare, and mental health and substance abuse treatment make it extremely difficult for users and former users to live a normal life and reintegrate into society".
The kind of policies the authors refer to include the federal ban on food stamps for people convicted of a drug offense and the "one strike, you're out" policy by which first-time drug offenders are evicted from public housing. According to van Olphen, "These policies have adversely and disproportionately affected women, especially poor women, ruining their chances of finding employment, housing or education upon release". In the words of one of the participants: