Cameron Douglas, the troubled son of actor Michael Douglas, is still serving time for heroin possession and conspiracy to distribute narcotics. To pass the time, Cameron wrote an oped that was published by The Huffington Post on Tuesday, in which he talks about the war on drugs. He wrote that many people have been lost in the prison system just on drug violations without getting any help for their addictions.
After writing about how he had recently been given 4.5 more years on top of his original five-year prison sentence and that he’s spent two of his four years in solitary confinement, he suggests that there is a bigger problem with the country’s drug laws.
“There are half a million other people in the U.S. who, like me, will go to sleep behind bars tonight because of nothing more than a drug law violation,” Cameron wrote. “Our prisons are filled with non-violent drug offenders who are losing much of what is relevant in life.”
He says that the “outdated system pays little, if any, concern to the disease of addiction, and instead punishes it more harshly than many violent crimes. And even more exasperating is that many of the people responsible for this tragedy disregard documented medical research and the reality of our country's unsustainable prison overpopulation.”
Instead of just locking people away, he suggests that the government try to help convicts get over their addictions. It would be better to try to figure out how to make sure people do not go back to jail after they finish their sentences.
“However, I seem to be trapped in a vicious cycle of relapse and repeat, as most addicts are. Unfortunately, whereas the effective remedy for relapse should be treatment, the penal system's "answer" is to lock the door and throw away the key,” he notes.
“As for now, I can only hope that the educated, just, and decent men and women who hold positions of influence will find the courage to fight for change because they understand what is inherently right. In doing so, they will start gaining the support necessary to begin breaking these malignant molds that are such a detriment to our society and culture as a whole.”
Later he writes that he is “blessed” by a loving family that cares for him.
The oped comes after the Associated Press reported in April that the 34-year-old received an additional 4.5 years to his sentence. He will remain in prison until early 2018.
Cameron is the second member of the Douglas family to write an oped for the Huffington Post this month. Earlier, his grandfather, Kirk Douglas, wrote a piece supporting gun control.