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Arresting people for drug use can make them virtually unemployable because of a criminal record.
At a time when finding employees is difficult already, a punitive response to drug use is only adding to the challenge.
I’ve seen this play out firsthand. Four years ago, I was working in Human Resources for a manufacturing company east of Hattiesburg.
A candidate named Brett aced his interview and asked all the right questions about the job and our company.
He really couldn’t have made a better impression on me, and I was ready to hire him. There was just one small hang-up. On his application, Brett was honest and disclosed that he had just been released from prison after serving a 2.5-year sentence.
Six months after falling into a dangerous cycle of addiction, this young man entered our state prison system following an arrest for heroin possession.
![](https://www.supertalk.fm/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/BrettMontague-200x300.jpeg)
At the time, he was 23 years old. Taking note of Brett’s disclosure, with the intention of still making an offer of employment, I took the application to my boss for approval. He vetoed my decision, concerned that hiring someone with a felony who had struggled with addiction would set a bad precedent.
I walked away from this conversation, asking myself some hard questions. How could Brett’s story be different if he’d gotten help instead of being locked up?