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For immediate release:
Drug Treatment component missing from new Welfare Policy
The National Party's latest Welfare Policy promises to cancel Benefits if a recreational drug user refuses to apply for
a job or does not get one because of a failed drug test.
Sensible Sentencing's Spokesperson on Drug Issues, Christine Davey says that “nowhere is there mentioned the proviso for
mandatory Treatment of these recreational Users of illicit drugs.
Furthermore, if the Government would provide families with the means to intervene in their family member's illicit drug
use BEFORE they become unemployable, or end up in jail due to crimes committed as a result of their illicit drug use, it
would reduce the need for the very expensive ambulances at the bottom of the cliff.
With no intervention in this already illicit activity, these family members go on to become the two-thirds of offenders
entering prison with dependency issues.
We need to break the cycle before that happens!
This country has been held to ransom by illicit drug use for far too long. The Government's own statistics continually
show that of the hundreds of people who have sought help from the Helpline and website, two-thirds are “concerned
others”.
John Key promised families help in the P Plan which was launched in October 2009 – and we're still waiting.
On their behalf, Ms Davey begs the Government again - to listen, to keep its promise, and to do something to help them,
the drug user and the tax payer who is footing the bill.”