Scare tactics aren’t the answer for overdose crisis,
Posted: Dec 2nd, 2017, 7:16 pm
The Okanagan's Discussion Forum
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maryjane48 wrote:http://www.campbellrivermirror.com/news/scare-tactics-arent-the-answer-for-overdose-crisis-b-c-s-chief-coroner-says/
GordonH wrote:Every addict makes a choice, to either actually get clean (only if they are serious) or get there next fix. If it's the latter one they really don't care if it kills them or not, they just want that high.
Meanwhile the government is spending huge amounts of money on people, who just turn around and do it again to themselves.
my5cents wrote:There's also another application for fear.
!
Spread fear, to inform those who haven't yet become addicted.
When I was a kid, tales and the media depicting serious addition and the suffering experienced attempting to get off drugs scare the heck out of me. That's why I've never tried them.
It was fear.
Whatever works.
my5cents wrote:There's also another application for fear.
!
Spread fear, to inform those who haven't yet become addicted.
When I was a kid, tales and the media depicting serious addition and the suffering experienced attempting to get off drugs scare the heck out of me. That's why I've never tried them.
It was fear.
Whatever works.
hobbyguy wrote:GordonH wrote:Every addict makes a choice, to either actually get clean (only if they are serious) or get there next fix. If it's the latter one they really don't care if it kills them or not, they just want that high.
Meanwhile the government is spending huge amounts of money on people, who just turn around and do it again to themselves.
That is a rather simplistic response.
I have never known a person who set out to become an addict or alcoholic. Have you ever known anyone who chose that as a goal in life?
It is easy to dismiss the entire issue by dehumanizing folks and calling them "addicts" rather than recognizing them as people who fell into a trap, and one that is very, very difficult to escape. These folks are not "the other" - they are us except that "there, but for the grace of God, go I".
Life, and what it does to people, is not that simple. Many who want to remove themselves from the trap try, and fail, try and fail - everything from their circumstances to their pasts to genetics plays a role in that. To label them as "addicts" is just try to ignore that, dehumanize them, and inflate personal feelings.
I have seen good people, good workers that I managed, fall into the trap when their personal lives hit a rocky patch. I have watched, when despite the company spending many thousands on rehab, they try to get out of the trap (they want to!) but fail and relapse. It is a helpless feeling. Most of them, I do not know the outcome, as the company only tries for so long, and then they become "societies problem".
In many ways it is "societies problem". We have chosen to ostracize and label these folks. We have chosen to allow our fears to dictate how we treat these people, and it has mostly been without compassion.
None of us go through life without some rocky patches and without pain and without making mistakes.
Many "addicts" got there by the route of pharmaceutical company exploitation (oxycodone) and simple paths like car accidents, sports injuries etc. Many get there by being trapped in untenable circumstances (sexual abuse, domestic violence etc.) from which there is little escape except through getting high, and the &55h##3 dealers who "upsell" them to addictive substances to ensure a steady stream of profits. Some "addicts" are not even visible - they quietly go about trying to lead "normal" lives until they get a bad hit of fentanyl and overdose in their homes (50% of overdose deaths happen in private residences).
Some of the overdoses are not even addicted persons, but folks who were sold "recreational" drugs that were laced with fentanyl. (An old @%%h##3 dealer trick - get a low potency "batch" - dust it with something nasty - in the 1960s some dealers would "dust" low potency marijuana with PCP.)
It is anything but simple.
The way out is not through dehumanizing and labeling people. The way out is not through ostracizing people. The way out is through realistic and compassionate approaches.
How much money do we spend trying to go after dealers? Has our prohibition been successful? Yes it has, in EXACTLY the same way that alcohol prohibition was in 20th century America. It has been successful in creating organized crime gangs, it has been successful in criminalizing many ordinary folk, it has been successful in creating gang violence, it has been successful in creating a lot of petty crime to pay for contraband substances, and it is creating many needless deaths.
The alternative will not "make this problem go away" - but it will minimize the harm and costs to our society and better protect its citizens.
Decriminalization of addicts. Full supports from housing through to rehab to educational assistance and mental health therapies. And yes, legal controlled supply for those who are, and those who remain addicts.
I can see the "eyes roll". We are already spending more than that on the prohibition efforts and its fall out.
We are clogging our medical system to the point where regular taxpayers must wait 8-10 hrs and more for care in our ERs and regular taxpayers must wait an hour or more for an ambulance. Some regular taxpayers are NOT getting the care they need because we close our eyes to the addictions solution and stick steadfastly to the simplistic and unworkable prohibition path.
It goes on, but if you really think about it, and you have an ounce of compassion for your fellow human beings then you will see that it is us, society, that created the opiod crisis. It is only us, society, that can change that. It starts by accepting that our fixation on prohibition is incorrect.
hobbyguy wrote:^^ I would suggest that you look at the real world results in Portugal. It has worked.
What we are doing atm is not working. Don't believe me? Suggest you look at all the money and effort that a caring governor, John Kasic, has put into trying to solve the problem with the prohibition attitude, and how it has not worked. Kudos to Kasic for really caring and really trying, but in context, the results just are not there.
GordonH wrote:Every addict makes a choice, to either actually get clean (only if they are serious) or get there next fix. If it's the latter one they really don't care if it kills them or not, they just want that high.
Meanwhile the government is spending huge amounts of money on people, who just turn around and do it again to themselves.