A better option to treating the opioid crisis is to help those in need now … rather than waiting to see how their suffering will affect them and society as a whole.
The costs are always the same … either be a conservative and villainize these people and let them become a burden on society and costs go towards police, security, emergency health care, judicial and negative social effects from their destroyed lives
… or …
Be more socially minded and spend the funds on helping these people now and prevent them from spiralling out of control and negatively affecting their lives further or the lives of others.
Here I am paying sales tax on kratom like a cuck!
Some people are genuinely in pain, e.g. those with osteoarthritis, and opioid treatment, e.g. methadone, could reduce their suffering, good for them!
Is there any NA city that implemented this that actually reduced overall drug abuse and homelessness? I always assumed the “you can do it!” Group was always loud via survivorship bias.
I just hope we’re not throwing good money after bad.
The unfortunate reality of substance abuse is not the lack of care, but the lack of commitment or motivation to get care. Same with all the resources we provide for mental illness.
We need to find more ways to get people into treatment, or at least incentivize them to do so.
I’ve heard a number of stories of people asking for assistance with mental health and being added to a list that will take them as much as 6 months to be seen even once. So what is it? Are there so few resources to help those who are asking, never mind those who have given up, or are we spending vast amounts on that with no one taking advantage of it? The evidence suggests the former.
