Posted on 01/10/2014 8:28:53 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Vermont’s governor dedicated his entire state of the state address this week to the scourge of drug addiction, stressing that the uptick in heroin use is more deadly that guns or “all of the other things that we keep talking about.”
“What started as an OxyContin and prescription drug addiction problem in this state has now grown into a full-blown heroin crisis,” Peter Shumlin said of the 770 percent increase in opiate treatment in his home state since 2000.
The White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy has also reported the number of deaths involving heroin jumped 45 percent between 1999 and 2010.
“I mean, obviously, it’s no more serious than the other states around us. I think, I hope that the difference is that I’m willing to confront it and, as governor, take it on head on. And, listen, here’s the challenge. We have lost the war on drugs. The notion that we can arrest our way out of this problem is yesterday’s theory,” Shumlin told PBS.
“This is one of the real battles that we’re facing that we have got to win. And we have got to do that by changing the discussion and changing the policy, so that we say that what heroin addicts and folks that are addicted to opiates are facing is a public health issue, not a crime issue. And we have got to be willing to fight it from that vantage point.”
Shumlin said he feels especially strong about the issue because so few leaders seem to want to talk about it.
“Governors don’t like talking about it because we’re afraid that when we move our policy from law enforcement, and the belief and the fantasy that you can beat this just with law enforcement, and, in fact, have to treat it with treatment and with services that will help folks move from addiction to recovery, that something will go wrong, and that therefore we don’t dare take any risk,” he said.
“So I say the risk for Vermont, frankly, the risk for the other states around the country is, we have got more people dying from opiate addiction and from drug addiction than is killing us in automobiles, killing us with guns, killing us with all of the other things that we keep talking about,” Shumlin continued. “So let’s start facing this as the health crisis that it is and change our policies, so that we can start actually making progress and moving people from addiction to recovery.”
When asked if there’s a profile of the person who’s using, the governor replied, “Everybody.”
“We tend to live under the fantasy that we’re talking about folks who are only growing up in poverty and have no opportunity and no hope. Now, listen, that’s a problem. It definitely afflicts folks who have no opportunity and no hope,” Shumlin said. “But it also afflicts people who have huge opportunity and who are wealthy. So it crosses all economic lines.”
In bigger cities, heroin can be bought for $6 or $7 a bag, he noted. In Vermont, it sells for $20 or $30 a bag.
“So you can do the math. A short drive up the interstate, and you are going to see a huge profit. So the challenge we’re facing is that, as this did begin as an OxyContin and prescription drug crisis, now heroin is cheaper than OxyContin on the streets, and it’s frankly more available,” he said. “So that’s the challenge that I’m facing as a governor. Now, the question is, how do you deal with it? And the answer for me is, I have got people who are ready for treatment. The biggest challenge with opiate addicts, an opiate addict, a drug addict, they’re the best liars and the best deniers you’re ever going to meet.”
“But there is a window of opportunity, all the research suggests, where you can convince them that treatment is the best option. And it tends to be when they’re busted, when the blue lights are flashing and when you have an opportunity. Now, the problem with my judicial system and probably every one in the country is that there is a huge gap between that moment of opportunity to talk them into treatment and the court process that it takes weeks or months to wind your way through,” Shumlin added.
“So I’m changing the judicial process that I give my prosecutors and my judges a third-party independent assessment to go right in, right upon the bust and figure out, you know, who we should be mad at, disappointed in, and who we should be afraid of.”
“It sounds like another incompetent liberal who along with other liberal failures is incapable of enforcing the law and arresting drug dealers.”
You arrest all the drug dealers, and then what? Tomorrow there is a whole new crop of dealers, because you’ve done nothing to eliminate the profit motive.
No, indeed. Do all prescription pain reducer users become heroin addicts? Not even close. It’s a false premise used to try and make recreational drug use appear to be something that more citizens are involved in, and that’s just not true. We have to start being truthful about recreational drug use. People are medicating themselves. Why? They can’t face their reality. OK. They need to face reality. The thing about reality is that it’s always there. Recreational drug users can escape it for a few minutes, but hitting yourself in the head with a hammer will make you forget about everything else, too. And using recreational drugs hurts the whole country. The OPPORTUNITY COSTS associated with recreational drug use is astounding. Could we reduce welfare with the money spent on recreational drugs? Yes. The biggest cost,though, is to our national character. We sit here at Free Republic and wonder why people vote for Democrats. A big part of that is people who are afraid to face reality. The Democrats don’t really care if recreational drugs are legal or not, just so long as people remain afraid of reality. You want a better America? Have better citizens. You want better citizens? Have strong people who can face reality and who will WORK to change reality instead of using recreational drugs to HIDE from reality.
“Do all prescription pain reducer users become heroin addicts?”
If they get addicted to opiate pain killers, then yes. Even one has never done heroin, if you become addicted to opiates, you are then addicted to any and all opiates you can get your hands on.
I don’t pretend to have solutions to these complex problems. But how many of you have tried living in a neighborhood where large numbers of people were on heroin and/or other hard drugs? If not, there are some vacancies in my building you can try. Add to it the fact that Everett evidently hasn’t recovered from the housing bubble crisis and some other social ills. Now we are readying for legal marijuana. Maybe it will solve some of our problems. Maybe it will create others. Maybe it won’t matter. Who knows?
If you think other people’s addictions don’t affect you as long as the people aren’t on welfare, you should rethink that. We are in this together. Even if there is no economic or physical effect on me, I will always care what happens to our culture. Unlike Vito Corleone in the Godfather, I believe the addicts have souls. That’s one of the reasons I’m on this forum. People here seem to share my concerns about the culture.
Hear! Hear! Well said.
You avoided my question. Why?
Good post. Thank you.
If you arrest them you dramatically change the risk reward ratio. The fact is no one can deal drugs profitably unless they have political corruption and people look the other way.
Dealing drugs is very risky. You are not dealing with solid citizens. Many drug dealers end up getting ripped off or worse. Some end up dead. Throw in a high probability of arrest and a long prison sentence and it is not worth the risk.
You should also arrest drug users. They are vulnerable and will identify other dealers and users.
Most of America is HIGH on something...
To Wit; the election of Barry Half-White................ TWICE..
The country is pretty much doped up...... dopey... dopestirs... Dopes..
The quality of people in Congress and the White Hut..... PROVE IT..
UNLESS........ massive voter fraud is the source of it..
But .... What IF it’s BOTH?..
I guess he didn’t want to talk about ObamaCare and a bunch of other things. Spending a whole state of the state address on one topic sounds like he is avoiding stuff
An ex girlfriend’s brother became addicted to Oxycontin after a doc prescribed it to him for a while then cut him off.
His life went into the toilet after he started smoking crack when he could no longer get Heroin.
One night he smoked up at the crack house and didn’t have the cash to pay up; the dealer and his enforcers broke both his legs.
I was prescribed painkillers for a back injury many years ago, and before it healed I experienced all the signs of physical addiction - increasing tolerance and withdrawl symptoms when I stopped taking it. I currently have a presciption for generic Vicodin for occasional flare-ups of IBS. I keep a couple in my desk drawer at work, and the rest are in the medicine cabinet at home. There's maybe 10 gone from a refill of 60 I got around the first of November.
Opiate abuse is opiate abuse. It is wrong to say that if one is addicted to Percocet then that makes them a heroin addict.
I have a heroin addict(20 years) in the family. He told me Heroin is the end of the line. Once you do it NOTHING else really matters. It is all they seek. Give a Heroin addict 50 Percocets and he will sell them for Heroin every single time. Opiate EFFECTS(Euphoria etc.)are similar. That is true. That doesn’t mean that they are the same and will be used interchangebly.
And what before all this was the gateway drug for many?
Great idea to legalize that as well.
You must work with trustworthy people. I wouldn’t keep anything like that at work, unless its locked. But congratulations on using the painkillers responsibly. I’m the same way. When I get them for a tooth extraction or something, I tell them to give me just a few. If they want to give me a dozen, I tell them just 6 or 8.
Somebody earlier mentioned Rush Limbaugh. His story is pretty typical—it starts out with something like a back injury or surgery. For me it was a wake up call—if it can happen to him it can happen to anybody. It made me more vigilant.
Sounds like we're using the wrong one.
I work for a financial institution. Everyone is required to lock their desk every night before they go home.
I’m getting more inclined to what to keep a supply on hand. Pretty soon it may get to be a 3 week wait to see a dentist. You just have to understand that when it starts taking more get the same relief, you’re building up a tolerance and it’s time to do something else.
“It is wrong to say that if one is addicted to Percocet then that makes them a heroin addict.”
If one is addicted to opiates, you’re addicted to opiates. They all trigger the same receptors in the brain. This idea that you can be only addicted to some lesser kind of opiate is like saying an alcoholic can only be addicted to beer.
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