It is also obvious that legalizing in a HUGE area will scatter harms, but never fear, with legal drugs, there is so much harm to go around that it will expand to fit the need every time.
Posted on 01/20/2015 10:24:15 AM PST by ConservingFreedom
Local law enforcers, such as Rock Island County State's Attorney John McGehee and Quad City Metropolitan Enforcement Director Kevin Winslow say the solution to the heroin problem is to stop the dealers.
"We don't focus on addicts and users," Mr. Winslow said. "I think law enforcement as a whole wants to get the source of the problem."
In 2014, local officials filed their first case of drug-induced homicide against Jamil Steward, 26, of East Moline, who was accused of selling heroin that caused the overdose death of Michael Reid, 26, of Silvis.
Mr. Steward entered an Alford plea on Dec. 8 to felony unlawful delivery and is serving seven years in prison. In an Alford plea, the defendant doesn't plead guilty but admits there is enough evidence to convict him.
Similar cases have been brought to federal court, where the penalties are stiffer.
Prison not the answer
Not everyone thinks prison is the answer.
Former Davenport police officer Brian Gaughan was 20 when began his career in 1980. He said he became disenchanted with the War on Drugs while working as an undercover cop in Chicago.
He said he befriended a drug dealer to gather information against him and, at one point, was taken aside by the dealer's mother, who thanked him for being a positive influence on her son, who had gotten involved with the wrong crowd after his father died.
That conversation was life-altering, said Mr. Gaughan, who left police work for a career in firefighting. Now a speaker with the national nonprofit Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, he advocates for decriminalization and regulation of controlled substances in the United States.
"Arresting a dealer doesn't solve any problems at all," he said. "In fact, it exacerbates problems.”
Game of whack-a-mole
He believes the theory that "going after dealers will mean less drugs" is misguided, comparing it to a game of whack-a-mole -- "You arrest one guy and three more pop up.”
Mr. Gaughan said there's an endless supply of drug dealers to replace ones who are arrested, and that can lead to turf wars and gang violence.
He supports reform of the criminal justice system, saying more resources should be allocated for drug treatment and social support on the front end to reduce demand and curb drug-related criminal behavior.
“We spend an awful lot of money in jailing people. We don't spend nearly as much money treating them,” said Mary Engholm, executive director of the Rock Island County Council on Addictions.
Overcrowding and lack of local treatment providers has led to lengthy wait times for treatment and limited long-term case management, she said.
That's created a “different class of criminal,” including users -- some homeless and without proper help -- who commit petty crimes and cycle in and out of the courts like a "revolving door," Ms. Engholm said.
More people have been able to access treatment since the Affordable Care Act was passed, but RICCA's long-term residential facility remains filled to its 34-bed capacity, she said.
Naloxone for overdoses
In Iowa, activists are seeking to pass a Good Samaritan law similar to ones passed in Illinois and 19 other states that allow people to report an emergency overdose without fear of being arrested.
"It could save lives," said Kim Brown, of Davenport, co-founder of the QC Overdose Awareness Walk, an annual event that started last year. The bill would allow over-the-counter purchase of Naloxone, a drug carried by paramedics that can reverse opiate overdoses, she said.
According to the Trust for American Health, a national group concerned about a prescription drug “epidemic,” from 1999 through 2013, the number of drug overdose deaths quadrupled in Iowa and increased by 49 percent in Illinois.
Ms. Brown, whose 33-year-old son Andy died from an overdose in May 2011, believes those numbers could be reduced if Naloxone were more readily available.
She said her son was a fun-loving man who played football and loved his two sons. She doesn't know when his addiction began, but she speculated it may have been after he was prescribed opiates following a surgical procedure.
No one wants to be an addict
“Nobody's born saying they want to grow up to become an addict.” Ms. Brown said, adding that addicts often are “stigmatized and shamed” rather than treated. “We've got to find a better way.”
Mr. Gaughan points to places such as Portugal, where drug use was decriminalized in 2001, and Switzerland, which offers heroin addicts access to clinics with clean needles and pure heroin as part of drug treatment services, as examples to emulate.
“Putting someone in a cage doesn't solve the problem at all,” he said.
Mr. Winslow said he realizes "we're not going to arrest our way out of this."
He recommends a coordinated effort by local police, courts and treatment centers to identify and treat the source of addiction for users, while halting those who profit from heroin distribution.
Wow, so 100 dead people overrides the Constitution? Guess we better ban guns too.
Mind-reading again? That's not what the article says.
' APAIC reviewed drug use in Indonesia and found the following; between 2006 and 2010 the use of meth, barbiturates, heroin, and cannabis resin increased, while the use of ecstasy and cocaine remained about the same. APAIC also found that domestic production of meth and ecstasy is on the rise. Evidently the death penalty and decades long prison sentences are not deterring drug users or drug dealers.'
No comment?
A woman wrote to U.S. President Roosevelt and described the death of her daughter: “The first time I ever had occasion to call in a doctor for [Joan] and she was given Elixir of Sulfanilamide. All that is left to us is the caring for her little grave. Even the memory of her is mixed with sorrow for we can see her little body tossing to and fro and hear that little voice screaming with pain and it seems as though it would drive me insane. ... It is my plea that you will take steps to prevent such sales of drugs that will take little lives and leave such suffering behind and such a bleak outlook on the future as I have tonight.”
The nerve of this woman. She needs go back and read the Constitution!!! We don’t need no stinking FDA!
You are a special case of slime, and you need to get kicked off of this website. You need to be denied a forum where you can continue to spread your advocacy and lie about what happened in the country's history. Where you can mislead people who might not actually know and understand the truth.
It's not your eyes which are faulty, it is your thinking organ that doesn't seem to be working properly. Show me specific enumerated power to stop Anthrax.
What, you can't? It's not in there? So are we to presume that it is LEGAL to bring weaponized Anthrax into this country?
How about the specific enumerated power to stop Sarin gas attacks? Oh, that's not in there either? Well I guess it just must be legal to use Sarin gas here in this country, because if the constitution does not have some clause in there that specifically tells people they can't use Anthrax or Sarin, then there must not be anything we can do about it.
Again, you are a little child who is making little childish arguments that any adult would be ashamed of.
We have an UMBRELLA clause that covers anything which is a danger or a threat to the people of the United States, especially imported into this nation from a foreign country.
If covers Nuclear material, Chemical agents, Biological agents, explosive agents, Toxic agents, and anything else that can be demonstrated to be harmful to the population of these united states. And you are indeed a silly @$$ if you think it doesn't also cover drugs.
No, that's just Libertarian Anal blowing smoke. Drugs have actual BODY COUNTS. They aren't made up phantoms, they really maim and kill people.
They are a real, actual, threat to the population of these United States, and they are therefore addressable by that part of the constitution which gives the government the power to neutralize threats.
Perhaps if you tried it, you might actually find out!
Sure. Ever hear of the "War" on drugs? How about the "War" on Terror?
Drug dealers and Terrorists are a lot alike in regards to the Nation's ability to attack and destroy them. They may not be a nation state, but they are agents of destruction and our constitution authorizes us to destroy them.
Have you had any luck finding that specific, enumerated power we discussed earlier? Maybe your eyes are better than mine because I’m having a devil of a time finding it.
It’s not your eyes which are faulty, it is your thinking organ that doesn’t seem to be working properly. Show me specific enumerated power to stop Anthrax.
What, you can’t? It’s not in there? So are we to presume that it is LEGAL to bring weaponized Anthrax into this country?
How about the specific enumerated power to stop Sarin gas attacks? Oh, that’s not in there either? Well I guess it just must be legal to use Sarin gas here in this country, because if the constitution does not have some clause in there that specifically tells people they can’t use Anthrax or Sarin, then there must not be anything we can do about it.
Again, you are a little child who is making little childish arguments that any adult would be ashamed of.
We have an UMBRELLA clause that covers anything which is a danger or a threat to the people of the United States, especially imported into this nation from a foreign country.
If covers Nuclear material, Chemical agents, Biological agents, explosive agents, Toxic agents, and anything else that can be demonstrated to be harmful to the population of these united states. And you are indeed a silly @$$ if you think it doesn’t also cover drugs.
It is also obvious that legalizing in a HUGE area will scatter harms, but never fear, with legal drugs, there is so much harm to go around that it will expand to fit the need every time.
Isn’t learning about the Constitution fun?
Perhaps if you tried it, you might actually find out!
Yeah, Article 2 section 8, Article 1 section 8 whatever it takes.
My sympathies! And is why I have always advocated swift trial and execution for major drug dealers. Hanging or by firing squad.
Sure. You are citing a UN organization, so it is an utter crock right out of the gate.
Where did you guys go? I thought we can all talk like adults now? I have some “medicine” I want you to try out.
Don’t let those FDA loving jerks run you out of here. I’m on your side. You can trust me.
“What do you think of the 100 patients who died due to sulfanilamide medication poising?”
I’m familiar with it and it was awful. I believe they paid out substantial monies in compensation. And there was already plenty of law on the books to deal with it.
And you are a winy brat that argues like a child.
"ConservingFreedom" depicted below as he actually appears to rational people:
Seek help. And education. I’d recommend the mental health help first, though.
If its a “war” then why isn’t the 101st Airborne conducting operations domestically?
L
Beat me to it!!
A lot cheaper than prison and quicker!!
They really must have grown up in an excessively indulgent household. They just want what they want and nothing will deter them from the belief that they have a right to get it.
Yeah, the Nation has a right to regulate drugs, and that includes to the extent of banning them completely.
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