User Profile

This is a secondary journal I started to write about my experiences as one of the first people to be sentenced for a drug offense under California's Proposition 36, the first large scale attempt of the American legal system to defer non-violent drug offenders into treatment and counseling rather than incarceration. This is a dramatic change of course from twenty years of policies which have clogged the jails and courts and, in my opinion, violated our basic civil rights.

I don't claim to be objective. What I present is partly my experience, partly a documentation of the development of a controversial change in drug policy that could have huge ramfications for American drug laws.

This journal is not a documentation of my day to day life. It covers the events and experiences that happened between my first arrest for possession of narcotics in August 2001, and my release from probation in March 2003.

A little background: I am a 30 year old heterosexual female of mixed ethnicity. I self-identify as an Italian American of diverse heritage. My background is Catholic, but not exceedingly so. I was born and raised in a small town in Eastern Kansas and moved to Southern California with my mother and sister at 15, and I have resided here most my life since then. My parents divorced when I was 12 and I have had little contact with my father since then. I have a worked primarily as a diner waitress, secretary, exotic dancer, and gift shop manager. I am currently employed as a secretary at a plumbing company where I have worked for over a year. When I'm not working, I'm usually doing my creative projects or spending time with my boyfriend of a few months, or as I like to call him, "my old man", who is a successful recording engineer and artistic photographer in his late 30's who resides in North Hollywood with our black cat. We adopted her at the ago of 8 weeks and we have become quite attached to her.

My educational background is spotty at best, though I have been an avid reader most of my life and have educated myself on the topics that interest me; primarily philosophy, world religion, sociology, anthopology, and women's studies. I hope to return to college and eventually become a journalist or teacher. For about one year I was heavily involved in an activist group in Portland Oregon that provided health outreach servies to sex workers and ran two needle exchange sites. I was a speaker at the 2000 North American Syringe Exchange Conference. My topic was "Sex Work & Needle Exchange". I do not belong to any organized political party, religion, or civic organization. My biggest goals in life are to be happy and creatively fullfilled and write The Great American Novel. I was married at 23 and divorced at 27. I am childless and will most likely remain so.

I didn't drink, use drugs, or get into trouble when I was growing up. I came late to the use of substances but spent the about half of my twenties loaded on something and can honestly say I regret very little of it. I became physically and psychologically dependent on concentrated derivatives of the opium plant shortly after leaving my husband at age 27. I spent the majority of the next two years alternately attempting to maintain and get away from my addiction to heroin.

I was arrested for felony possession of a controlled substance and misdemeanor unlawful possession of a hypodermic syringe in August of 2001, and oce again on the same charges in September of 2001. I was incarcerated at the Los Angeles County Twin Towers facility for 16 days and released to probation and treatment. I was found to be in violation of my probation and served an additional 9 days in March of 2002. I was then released to the custody of a drug treatment program where I successfully completed a 90 day residential program followed by a six month outpatient program. I was released from probation in March 2003.

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