No longer can police and courts assume that a person was in possession of drugs just because they had them on their person, or were near them in some capacity. Now, the state must prove that someone knowingly possessed drugs. The consequences of this ruling for people with current and former drug convictions cannot be understated.
There are a wealth of social problems connected to the American criminal legal system. Instead of a harm reduction or a medical approach, our nation mostly addresses mental health issues, drug and alcohol addiction, and poverty and homelessness through arrests, citations, convictions and incarceration. In fact, the three largest psychiatric care providers in this
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