[BraveMan]

Video at the link.

[nathanbedford]

We just came to the realization that we weren't really doing anything to solve the problem.

This recognition and acknowledgment that the war against drugs has been lost is just one more milestone on the way to inevitable legalization.

The sooner the better.

[cyclotic]

Heroin is a key focus for my county Sheriff as well. It’s a huge problem.

I guess since they’ve tried prosecutions and it doesn’t work, it can’t hurt to try another approach. But, you also can’t force these addicts to stay clean.

I know a couple guys who have gone through a seriously good Christian based program and it’s been life changing for them. One was something like 15 years ago and he’s still in good shape. The other is only a couple years back, but the Lord has dramatically rewritten his life.

The recitivism rate for addicts is about 90%. Without a faith based approach replacing the need for getting high with something better, like God, they are still fighting an uphill battle.

[coloradan]

Gradually people are coming to terms with the fact that the way to win the war on drugs is to end it. Addiction is a medical or psychological problem, not a crime problem, but fighting a war against it kills people and makes crime pay (by supporting prices in the black market) without doing anything to address the underlying problems. There are no other medical problems that are fought with bullets, raids, forfeitures, surveillance, destruction of civil rights and mass incarceration, and there is little reason to think the present approach is successful in any way, except in terms of rights lost, property seized and people jailed or killed.

[MrEdd]

220 deaths?
It’s a self correcting problem.

[IronJack]

No one with God in his life would be a heroin addict. So the solution would be to introduce these addicts to the thing that’s missing, that absence that’s causing them the pain they try to subdue with junk. Instead, the State steps in and tries to act as God with a lot of secular claptrap and humanist bilge that doesn’t work and costs millions.

Still, I suppose it’s more effective (and no more costly) than just locking people up.

Grace is free.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

Their solution is to offer treatment as an alternative to arrest and prosecution.

Do they realize that 99.99% of the people that they arrest don't want treatment? That this is probably a huge waste of money? The solution to the policing issue is easy -- don't arrest casual users simply for using. Only arrest them if they are creating some other type of disturbance. Or arrest them if they are in public areas and aren't out of sight in some abandoned building. Otherwise, let them use and end up killing themselves. If they want help, they can come and ask for it and it will be available. But the cold hard truth is that most of them don't want help and if they are hooked on heroin, are probably going to die a miserable death.

[Robert DeLong]

Nothing novel at all in this idea. It has been tried in other countries with varying degrees of success.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Greenfield, WI to offer treatment instead of incarceration for heroin addicts. (and how many cases have you read about where the patient goes directly from re-hab to overdosing as soon as they are released? I know of two right off hand in Ozaukee County.)

FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.

[r_barton]

I’ve had alcoholic or drug addicted relatives. The best possible outcome for those affected and abused by the addict is to have the bastard die as soon as possible and quit causing heartache and troubles to other peoples lives. There is so much relief (after brief false grief) after they are gone. Take if from someone who has lived through it.

[grumpygresh]

“It is looking at several bills that would track prescription drugs, because prescription drug abuse can lead to heroin addiction.”

Wake up retard reporters at WISN, WI already has a statewide controlled substance database that pharmacists enter every time a controlled substance prescription is filled at a WI pharmacy.

“One bill would require pharmacists to enter prescriptions into a statewide database within 24 hours.”

Pharmacists already have to enter controlled substance prescriptions into the state database within 7 days.

Now the Fascist state of WI has AB 366 which will FORCE pain clinic physicians to maintain a database (under penalty of $100) daily fine and or loss of business)(registration) of financial information of any uninsured (or uncovered) patient that receives a controlled substance prescription. Patients w/o coverage or insurance will NOT be able to use CASH because it’s not traceable. Moreover the totalitarian nut jobs at the WI State Medical Board will have free and easy access to patient financial information w/o patient consent because they have administrative subpoena and don’t need a judge’s approval. The WI rino legislature and rino AG Brad Schimel are all on board and Walker will likely sign it.

So why are these POS rino doing this? They are control freaks and the rinos are intentionally creating a template/legal mechanism for this system (cash bans and forced registration) to be use for gun and ammo registration. The Leftist cities and town are set to enact gun registrations and cash bans on gun stores and gun dealers after they get this bill thorough and it survives legal challenges.

[apocalypto]

Some are actually pushing for legalization of black tar heroin, which is far more horrible than street heroin. It is the most addictive drug, one that turns users into zombies. The pushers are all illegal aliens from Mexico, and they victimize even immature children as they distribute free samples and false sales pitch outside schools. One odd factor: they are under orders to sell only to whites and focus on white neighborhoods.

I cannot understand how anybody could favor legalization of black tar heroin. The OD rates are huge as well as the misery it causes.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

The central problem is that you cannot get people to recognize their responsibility outside of their immediate circumstances. They want to get high, and are oblivious to the costs they transfer onto society at large, and to people in other nations (e.g., Central America.) If you legalized substances like heroin, you would have much larger populations of wasted, aimless, unemployable folks. With the economy shifting to activities that require the best and highest of human capabilities, the last thing we need to do is degrade the population further by tacitly accepting addiction.

In the Milwaukee Journal recently was an excellent and long overdue piece on a typical shooting in Milwaukee (black victim, former resident of Milwaukee, back visiting for a high school reunion, and is carjacked/shot by black youth.) Instead of covering it in the usual fashion they broke out a full cost accounting of a particular shooting incident that had happened in 2014. It was not a homicide, the victim recovered, with some residual disability. Cost to taxpayers? $700K+. This is what goes unstated in all of these crime stories. The transfer of costs from the perpetrator to society in general.

In the case of the drug or alcohol addict, it is the transfer of the costs of their indulgence onto the backs of the larger community and taxpayers. What needs to be reintroduced is a sense of responsibility, and a sense of shame (at having indulged in a personal desire, to get high, for example, that imposes on so many others who are not part of that discretionary choice.) How you accomplish that in this world, I don’t know.