‘Enormous mistake': Business leaders, residents fed up with blue state drug laws issue 2024 ultimatu

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/en...fed-blue-state-drug-laws-issue-2024-ultimatum

didn’t take them long to wake up and smell the needles. What blows me away is that the article goes on to say that there have been some success to the program like clean needles….. are you kidding me…. Your measure of success is clean needles to overdose with and get addicted to drugs with. What a success. The idiocy of this plan to begin with is astoundingly unmeasurable. What did they think would happen? That drug users would all the sudden say hey look… drugs won’t put me in jail so now I’ll quit. How utterly moronic is that?

 

Pff, Fox News. They show a graph of increasing overdose deaths in Oregon. Guess what happened in the rest of the country? Same thing. At least later in the article they do at least quote an expert telling them this very thing. No association between drug overdose and decriminalization.

I think the law is a good thing. It doesn't appear to be any kind of silver bullet to reducing drug use, but at least people's lives aren't being further screwed up by being put in prison just for using drugs. If helping with the problem of drug use is the goal, demand reduction is the only way to do it. Decriminalization is just a way to stop the government from making things even worse.

Forced treatment? Maybe as a diversion for real crimes they commit due to drug use like burglary.

Clean needles are a very good thing. If somebody is going to use drugs either way, it is better they're not also spreading disease.

 

https://apnews.com/article/oregon-drugs-decriminalization-pushback-bb209e6ba9835c69f95b093c8ee00279#

is that a better article for you? And yes clean needles while they’re overdosing will definitely prevent disease. These people likely don’t even use condoms. They’re dumb enough to spread through needles they’re dumb enough to spread through sex too. Clean needles has zero evidence of slowing disease among drug addicts.

it also goes on to say in the OP article and the AP article that they are facing calls to reverse 110. So unlike you they have seen personally the effects and are willing to get rid of this idiocy.

 

Let me also address that prison for chronic use is likely one of the best rehabs there is. It’s also a deterrent. Doing what Oregon done just gave a green light to use and experiment. Taking jail/prison time away is moronic

 

Um no the threat of prison drives use underground and makes it more likely they will be unable to get help if they need it. And prison sure as hell doesn't reform people, it takes away legit opportunities and replaces it with criminal training. If you're really worried about their lives, promoting the widespread use of naloxone would be a helpful step. Currently looking into your other post, though limited on time today.

 

Maybe better, but incomplete. Here's better: ‘It’s crazy out there’: The reasons behind Oregon’s deepening drug crisis - OPB

Basically, Oregon's issue with drug overdoses stems in part from an unusual underinvestment in treatment. It's not a state that likes to spend money. Decriminalization didn't make that issue worse, but it did little to help it either. I am not sure that it should have. Higher fines would have been reasonable to fund treatment, but I'd prefer a different funding source.

The 13 fold increase cited by the AP was a bit of misleading cherrypicking. Incredibly low starting numbers in 2019 in Oregon. Why? It wasn't much of a thing in Oregon before 2018, and Oregon was slightly slower to catch that wave than other places.

Instead of looking at raw data, not even corrected for per capita, it is better to use an actual controlled study with statistical analysis. Such a study found that decriminalization did not increase overdose deaths. To their credit, Fox actually cited this study, though they didn't emphasize it much: One-Year Association of Drug Possession Law Change With Fatal Drug Overdose in Oregon and Washington | Substance Use and Addiction Medicine | JAMA Psychiatry | JAMA Network

''Conclusions and Relevance This study found no evidence of an association between legal changes that removed or substantially reduced criminal penalties for drug possession in Oregon and Washington and fatal drug overdose rates."

Clean needles do help prevent disease: "SSPs are a tool that can help reduce transmission of viral hepatitis, HIV, and other blood-borne infections. SSPs are associated with an approximately 50% reduction in HIV and HCV incidence.11 When combined with medications that treat opioid dependence (also known as medications for opioid use disorder [MOUD] or medication-assisted treatment) HIV and HCV transmission is reduced by more than two-thirds.22,23"Summary of Information on The Safety and Effectiveness of Syringe Services Programs (SSPs) | CDC

 

Factually speaking the threat of prison worked. It used to be in California judges would tell addicts to either successfully complete rehab or go to jail. That was powerful motivation for people to actually make rehab work so they can stay clean. Now? You not only can't provide the rehab or prison option but you also can't force anyone to go to rehab so the addicts just continue being addicts despite free rehab being available. Many of them, far to many really, just end up O.D.ing and dying on the streets.

 

It appears that liberalism and logic rarely see eye to eye.


Logic says that when you remove the consequences from people's actions, they tend to just keep doing the same actions because there's no consequences.

I don't understand what's so challenging about understanding the concept.