Posted on 01/20/2015 10:24:15 AM PST by ConservingFreedom
Local law enforcers, such as Rock Island County State's Attorney John McGehee and Quad City Metropolitan Enforcement Director Kevin Winslow say the solution to the heroin problem is to stop the dealers.
"We don't focus on addicts and users," Mr. Winslow said. "I think law enforcement as a whole wants to get the source of the problem."
In 2014, local officials filed their first case of drug-induced homicide against Jamil Steward, 26, of East Moline, who was accused of selling heroin that caused the overdose death of Michael Reid, 26, of Silvis.
Mr. Steward entered an Alford plea on Dec. 8 to felony unlawful delivery and is serving seven years in prison. In an Alford plea, the defendant doesn't plead guilty but admits there is enough evidence to convict him.
Similar cases have been brought to federal court, where the penalties are stiffer.
Prison not the answer
Not everyone thinks prison is the answer.
Former Davenport police officer Brian Gaughan was 20 when began his career in 1980. He said he became disenchanted with the War on Drugs while working as an undercover cop in Chicago.
He said he befriended a drug dealer to gather information against him and, at one point, was taken aside by the dealer's mother, who thanked him for being a positive influence on her son, who had gotten involved with the wrong crowd after his father died.
That conversation was life-altering, said Mr. Gaughan, who left police work for a career in firefighting. Now a speaker with the national nonprofit Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, he advocates for decriminalization and regulation of controlled substances in the United States.
"Arresting a dealer doesn't solve any problems at all," he said. "In fact, it exacerbates problems.”
Game of whack-a-mole
He believes the theory that "going after dealers will mean less drugs" is misguided, comparing it to a game of whack-a-mole -- "You arrest one guy and three more pop up.”
Mr. Gaughan said there's an endless supply of drug dealers to replace ones who are arrested, and that can lead to turf wars and gang violence.
He supports reform of the criminal justice system, saying more resources should be allocated for drug treatment and social support on the front end to reduce demand and curb drug-related criminal behavior.
“We spend an awful lot of money in jailing people. We don't spend nearly as much money treating them,” said Mary Engholm, executive director of the Rock Island County Council on Addictions.
Overcrowding and lack of local treatment providers has led to lengthy wait times for treatment and limited long-term case management, she said.
That's created a “different class of criminal,” including users -- some homeless and without proper help -- who commit petty crimes and cycle in and out of the courts like a "revolving door," Ms. Engholm said.
More people have been able to access treatment since the Affordable Care Act was passed, but RICCA's long-term residential facility remains filled to its 34-bed capacity, she said.
Naloxone for overdoses
In Iowa, activists are seeking to pass a Good Samaritan law similar to ones passed in Illinois and 19 other states that allow people to report an emergency overdose without fear of being arrested.
"It could save lives," said Kim Brown, of Davenport, co-founder of the QC Overdose Awareness Walk, an annual event that started last year. The bill would allow over-the-counter purchase of Naloxone, a drug carried by paramedics that can reverse opiate overdoses, she said.
According to the Trust for American Health, a national group concerned about a prescription drug “epidemic,” from 1999 through 2013, the number of drug overdose deaths quadrupled in Iowa and increased by 49 percent in Illinois.
Ms. Brown, whose 33-year-old son Andy died from an overdose in May 2011, believes those numbers could be reduced if Naloxone were more readily available.
She said her son was a fun-loving man who played football and loved his two sons. She doesn't know when his addiction began, but she speculated it may have been after he was prescribed opiates following a surgical procedure.
No one wants to be an addict
“Nobody's born saying they want to grow up to become an addict.” Ms. Brown said, adding that addicts often are “stigmatized and shamed” rather than treated. “We've got to find a better way.”
Mr. Gaughan points to places such as Portugal, where drug use was decriminalized in 2001, and Switzerland, which offers heroin addicts access to clinics with clean needles and pure heroin as part of drug treatment services, as examples to emulate.
“Putting someone in a cage doesn't solve the problem at all,” he said.
Mr. Winslow said he realizes "we're not going to arrest our way out of this."
He recommends a coordinated effort by local police, courts and treatment centers to identify and treat the source of addiction for users, while halting those who profit from heroin distribution.
Give them as much as they want...after you fit them for the right sized casket. Let nature take place and lessen civilization as necessary.
Stupid hippies.
Destroyed this place.
And this is mush head liberal claptrap.
Second, they can't go back to the same circle of people they left when they were using, or there is a solid chance they'll be back on the stuff.
Yep, there likely are a few exceptions, but for the most part, forced (court-ordered) treatment will fail.
Then they become treatment-wise, know all the right things to say, spew it better than any Oscar winner, and as soon as they cut loose are back on the drugs.
It is utterly tragic, but most are a lost cause.
Remember, that crack ho' was once someone's 'baby girl'.
Just legalize the stuff. Problem solved.
/liberdopian thinking.
Heroin and Oxy destroyed my family. The answer is rehab, as well as nailing dealers to the wall.
...or better yet putting dealers in a locked room with a surviving Parent or Spouse, no questions asked, baseball bat provided. :)
Yeah, ex-cops are like that. /s
CF never tires of pimping for legalizing drugs
Your family destroyed itself using the drugs.
It could have destroyed itself with weapons or with other intoxicants.
It is the urge to destroy oneself that needs to be addressed, and as long as an item which is neutral until used gets pegged as “responsible,” that urge won’t be addressed. Satan will hide quite nicely behind that non-sentient front.
Even the bible knows about this (it is not a stupid book).
Legalization addresses the problems created or aggravated by criminalization, of which there are many; the problem of people ruining their lives with substances, legal (e.g., alcohol) or illegal, is beyond the competence or authority of government to solve.
“We spend an awful lot of money in jailing people. We don’t spend nearly as much money treating them,”
Yeah. Let’s spend more and more on new government programs.
You posted thus liberal mush head garbage.
Did rehab work for your family member?
Powerful substances and items are at best only a very poor proxy for the devil when dealing with the devil’s actions.
Ban one successfully, the devil finds something else. He is not stupid.
There is no real way out of this conundrum without raw, strong gospel power. And that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
“CF never tires of pimping for legalizing drugs”
Dope heads love their dope.
Your compassion is overwhelming. Jerk.
OF COURSE I KNOW THEY DID IT TO THEMSELVES.
Should we ban oxy?
nailing dealers to the wall.
Brian Gaughan and the other current and former members of the law enforcement and criminal justice communities in Law Enforcement Against Prohibition disagree.
The best remedy COULD be offered free in churches without the government getting caught up in it at all (other than making room, by abolishing silly restrictions like making Christians bake gay wedding cakes).
However there is a catch — now you have to get up on your feet before God (after having first gotten down on your knees).
Yes, I am a jerk for telling you the truth. The truth is the door to the only answer that actually works.
You want a roomful of bandaids or you want a cure???
“The best remedy COULD be offered free in churches without the government getting caught up in it at all (other than making room, by abolishing silly restrictions like making Christians bake gay wedding cakes).”
I think it is offered free already.
Not enough take the offer.
I'd prefer redirecting the money we now futilely spend on apprehension and incarceration - but I'd like best of all leaving that money in the pockets of those who earned it.
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