What to do? What works? Perhaps another avenue to also consider?
In a previous post, King Solomon, Opium Safe Haven Law, Wise or Foolish, I commented we should consider the use on safe haven to help reduce opiade addicts to help prevent crime.
I read the following article Excerpt in the Chicago Times April 8, 2017 to support the idea, if you are interested.
Excerpt
“Then, starting in the early 2000s, Switzerland assigned addicted people to clinics where they were given opiates under supervision by a nurse. Crucially, they were also given extensive social support to turn their lives around, including therapy and help finding a job or housing. They gave you the drug, and at the same time, they dealt with the underlying pain that made you feel you needed the drug in the first place.”
“Patients can stay on that program for as long as they like, there’s no pressure to cut back, but almost everyone chooses to stop after a few years. One of the psychiatrists in the clinic in Geneva told me why. It’s because their lives get better, so they are in less psychological distress. Since the program began, there have been zero overdose deaths on legal opiates in Switzerland. None. That’s why 70 % of Swiss people voted to keep this approach.”
“We can’t solve the opioid crisis if we continue to simplistically blame the drugs, or the people who supply them. That’s a misunderstanding of what is really going wrong. Every day that we refuse to act on the second, more sophisticated story, another 78 Americans overdose on opiates.”
Johann Hari is the author of “Chasing The Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs”
King Solomon
Without consultation, plans are frustrated, But with many counselors they succeed. Proverb 15:22)
Where there is no guidance, a people falls,
but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.(Proverb 11:14)
Regards and goodwill blogging.
Sources
King Solomon Opiates HERE
Excerpt HERE
The idea makes sense, however, I would not put the government in charge of it. Instead, I would have the government license PRIVATE, charitable organizations to wean people off drugs. If we put government in charge of this, at first it will seem to be working. Then it will just evolve into yet another welfare constituency that exists only to employ government workers and feed those trapped by welfare state drugs.
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“but I wonder about the wisdom of creating a constituency that depends upon prison labor.”
Basically, it is because while in prison, they become dependent on taxpayer’s labor.
Work is a learning experience to release a person from dependency.
Learning any useful skill contributes to community. Criminal acts take away from community.
Yes, I agree, give prisoners choice whether to work or not………however put incentives to want to work to better their conditions, food, entertainment, choice of free time.
All the same things we taxpayers have to do so as not to become dependent on taxpayers.
The US is in debt and we have to start using practical wisdom solutions. Work to pay your keep is a practical solution for today and the future, in my opinion.
Prisoners have a high recidivism rate of returning to prison because they have no money when they are released or skills other than to return to crime.
Regards and goodwill blogging.
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I would hope that instead of creating new government services, it would be to make better use of existing services.
I suggested hospitals and fire station personnel trained medics to administer to an immediate need.
Then some requirements for the addicts to seek help from existing facilities that treat addicts to help them become aware of their choices.
I would estimate when you compare the costs to jail opiates addict criminals to the cost of drugs given free for a time, there would be a wash or even savings in taxpayers over time. Perhaps even a better life over time for the addicts.
In either case, what is being done now about drugs is not working.
Another avenue is economic. If government would crack down on the sources of supply and make the cost of drugs so high it would discourage young uses and steer addicts to help.
Up to now government has always known how and where the drugs are being shipped to USA across borders.
I sometimes wonder why they have not really done anything effective to stop the flow. Is it complicity rather government resolve?
Regards and goodwill blogging.
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The point of putting PRIVATE organizations in charge is their funding comes from donors. Government employees unions twist arms via our political leadership. When they become that powerful, they also stop producing useful results. Look at our schools.
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Donors are good. Private donors are even better. Taxesrs lead to political powerful politicians and twisted outcomes, in my opinion.
Yes to Donors. Perhaps, more would donate if they could afford to if they did not have to pay and are paid livable wages?
In Ancient times tax collectors were hated because they lived on commission of how much they collected. Kinda like the high pay and benifits our way too many needed both local, state, and national politicians receive. Some obtaining
‘commissions’ on the side by having advanced information to know what to buy and when. Or by informing the ‘right people’ of the same.
Regards and goodwill blogging.
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