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.”
Which question?
Many people who use (and abuse) heroin and alcohol are damaged people from various forms of abuse and neglect that they’re not even aware of. Most of them aren’t aware because of their notions of “normal”. You want to throw them away.
The numbers who recover and stay clean are small, BUT those who do positively influence an average of six other addicts or alcoholics in ways that even good professionals can’t do.
“Throw in a high probability of arrest and a long prison sentence and it is not worth the risk.”
The higher the risk, the higher the price they can demand for their product, until it is enough to justify taking the risk. You will never eliminate such a profitable industry as long as it can stay profitable.
You’re welcome. It saddens me to see so many of our fellow citizens who feel the need to escape reality. The drug dealers are cruel to aid this behavior. The Democrats are cruel to aid this behavior. The drug dealers and the Democrats, by profiting from human misery, have, in my belief, turned their back on God. This is, in my understanding, the one unpardonable sin. So, while they may claim to be Christians, they have arrogantly turned their face from God and their actions betray them.
It is time to quit ignoring those in pain and to start to heal them with The Word.
I understand. I worked at 2 veterinary hospitals. Though most of my coworkers were fine people, I’m sorry to say that there were a couple of issues with the controlled substance safe, resulting in immediate terminations. The second place had a very fancy, high tech electronic safe that was also in plain view of everybody.
We’ve got a diabetic cat. I wish the insulin we buy from the vet was as cheap as the Vicodin I get from the pharmacy.
I’ve heard that Vermont has a large population percentage of trust-funders, people who’ve inheirited wealth that they never worked for, and whose only job each month is going to the mailbox to pick up their dividend checks. They are Green Mountain Green-Scene libs driving Subarus and Prius while voting for Howard Dean and Bernie Sanders. Hard to blame them for wanting to stay stoned all the time in that environment, even if it is of their own making.
I think that catologues like Foster and Smith have pet meds. Things like insulin that arent controlled, I mean.Veterinarians discourage this for obvious reasons. They used to make a big deal of getting Advantage. I would avoid online sellers that might be unsafe Chinese counterfeits or something. Then shipping might offset the savings. Talk to somebody involved in pet rescue. They know a lot of secrets to saving money on things like this.
I haven’t belonged to Costco for many years but they might have stuff like this.
Thanks! I might look into that. He’s a pretty old cat. We might not need to buy it many more times :(
Actually, I am. If he had died as a result of drugs, so be it.
So a someone who NEVER did Heroin can be a Heroin addict?
Brett Farve was a Heroin addict because he abused Vicodin?
Based on what you say I could call him a recovering Heroin addict.
If one opiate is no different than the other why does the FDA have different Drug SCHEDULES for them?
“The higher the risk, the higher the price they can demand for their product”
The price can only go up a limited amount. Most drug addicts do not have an unlimited source of funds. The higher the price, the fewer people whose lives are destroyed by drugs. The higher the price, fewer drug related crimes and drug related costs to society. The higher the price, the fewer families that suffer from a drug addicted family member. The more drug dealers in prison with their assets seized the fewer new people will get involved.
Maybe you don’t eliminate 100% of the problem, you eliminate 90% or more.
“So a someone who NEVER did Heroin can be a Heroin addict?”
They can be addicted to it, yes, certainly. If you are addicted to ANY form of opiates, you are addicted to them all. There are slight chemical differences between them, but from a functional standpoint, they affect your brain chemistry exactly the same way, and really only vary in potency.
You probably wouldn’t call someone who hadn’t done heroin a “recovering heroin addict”, but if you put heroin in front of them, while they were in withdrawal from vicodin, well, don’t expect that heroin to be there when you get back.
“If one opiate is no different than the other why does the FDA have different Drug SCHEDULES for them?”
Good question, but one that you will have to ask the FDA.
World trade in heroin really is a mystery, ain’t it?
Don’t judge it as “corruption”; see it as “regulatory capture”, which is normal...
Sure, there is a limit to how much people can pay for a drug, but with the most addictive drugs, addicts don’t limit themselves to their own budget. If they don’t have money to pay for the drug, they will go out and do anything to get the money. So, I think your idea that you can eliminate 90% of use this way is very optimistic. Maybe you can reduce it 20 or 30%, but I doubt much more than that.
Well, in your case you maybe weren’t very heavily addicted, or just have strong willpower? Some people can develop addictions and manage to resist temptation to relapse fairly easily, but that isn’t the case for most addicts.
Also, when opiates are legitimately being used to treat pain, their addictive effect can be less pronounced. So, if you really need that vicodin to alleviate symptoms, it may not trigger much dependency, so long as you don’t overdo it.
Most of the serious addicts I’ve known get the vast majority of their money through theft, so in some ways the do have unlimited resources, if the price goes up they just steal more, which means you get MORE drug related crimes and costs to society.
We've also got at least one othe person, just on this thread, with about the same experience. You might want to re-think that "once you've been addicted to any opiate, you're forever addicted to all of them" theory.
And how does whatever the number of non-functional opiate addicts is, compare with the number of non-functional alcoholics in the state?
“If they don’t have money to pay for the drug, they will go out and do anything to get the money.”
Even if addicts quote “do anything” to get the money they are limited in their ability to get money. You are very unrealistic in your belief that drug addicts have some enormous ability to make money.
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