Treatment, Not Felonies

In response to the rash of heroin overdoses last week, and hoping to generate public awareness for their cause, a group of advocates gathered outside the Santa Barbara Courthouse yesterday to talk about the troubles faced by area residents who suffer both mental health issues and drug addictions.

Sponsored by Families ACT!, a grassroots organization formed in 2007 to address what it feels are policies that lead to the unnecessary and oftentimes cyclical incarceration of people with co-occurring disorders, the event kicked off a series of forums, teach-ins, and press conferences scheduled for the coming months. The efforts will culminate, organizers said, in the November election when Measure S (the local jail tax measure) and Proposition 19 (the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010) hit the ballot.

Families ACT! founder and director Suzanne Riordan said the system of locking up Santa Barbara residents for drug offenses “has got to change,” explaining that stays in residential treatment facilities, compared to jail or prison stints, are much more effective in changing lives for the better. She also said the criminal justice system makes it so that residents who are struggling with addiction and mental disorders are reticent to seek help in the right ways. “We want to bring this whole issue of drug use and drug overdose out from the shadows, out from under the veil of stigma, shame, guilt, and grief,” she said.