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posted by FatPhil on Wednesday July 25 2018, @05:46PM   Printer-friendly
from the choose-life dept.

This Bold Plan to Fight Opioid Overdoses Could Save Lives--But Some Conservatives Think It's "Immoral"

With Ohio beset by a massive public health around opioid use and overdoses--more than 4,000 Ohioans died of opioid overdoses in 2016--the Cleveland Plain Dealer sent travel editor Susan Glaser to Amsterdam in search of innovative approaches to the problem. While there, she rediscovered Holland's long-standing, radical, and highly effective response to heroin addiction and properly asked whether it might be applied to good effect here.

The difference in drug-related death rates between the two countries is staggering. In the U.S., the drug overdose death rate is 245 per million, nearly twice the rate of its nearest competitor, Sweden, which came in second with 124 per million. But in Holland, the number is a vanishingly small 11 per million. In other words, Americans are more than 20 times more likely to die of drug overdoses than the Dutch.

For Plain Dealer readers, the figures that really hit home are the number of state overdose deaths compared to Holland. Ohio, with just under 12 million people, saw 4,050 drug overdose deaths in 2016; the Netherlands, with 17 million people, saw only 235.

What's the difference? The Dutch government provides free heroin to several score [where a score=20] hardcore heroin addicts and has been doing so for the past 20 years. Public health experts there say that in addition to lowering crime rates and improving the quality of life for users, the program is one reason overdose death rates there are so low. And the model could be applied here, said Amsterdam heroin clinic operator Ellen van den Hoogen.

[...]"It's not a program that is meant to help you stop," acknowledged van den Hoogen. "It keeps you addicted."

That's not a sentiment sits well with American moralizers, such as George W. Bush's drug czar, John Walters, whom Glaser consulted for the story. He suggested that providing addicts with drugs was immoral and not "real treatment," but he also resorted to lies about what the Dutch are doing.

He claimed the Dutch are "keeping people addicted for the purpose of controlling them" and that the Dutch have created "a colony of state-supported, locked-up addicts."

Your humble Ed (who rechopped the quoting, so head off to the full article(s) to see the full story) adds: of course, this is quite a contentious issue, digging deep into moralistic debate, and where clearly there's little agreed-upon objective truth and plenty of opinions. However, we are a community dotted widely round the globe, and so I'm sure there are plenty of stories of what has or has not worked in different locales.

Previous: Tens or Hundreds of Billions of Dollars Needed to Combat Opioid Crisis?
Portugal Cut Drug Addiction Rates in Half by Rejecting Criminalization


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  • (Score: 2, Flamebait) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday July 25 2018, @07:11PM (4 children)

    by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Wednesday July 25 2018, @07:11PM (#712583) Homepage Journal

    They have the ultimate penalty. And, by the way, they have much less of a drug problem than we do.

    When I was in China -- and other places, by the way -- I said, "Mr. President, do you have a drug problem?" "No, no, no. We do not." I said, "Huh, big country, 1.4 billion people, right? Not much of a drug problem." I said, "What do you attribute that to?" "Well, uh, the death penalty."

    I talked to the President of Singapore. He said "We have a zero tolerance policy. That means if we catch a drug dealer, death penalty." And they don't have a lot of problems. With opioid or anything else.

    They have a big drug problem in the Philippines. Not for long. President Duterte says they have 3 million addicts. But he's getting it under control. He's doing many many executions, I think he's done 12,000. Probably more by now. No Due Process, very efficient. Very quick. And he'll kill them all if he has to. He says he'll kill them all. And I believe him. He doesn't play games. He's doing an unbelievable job.

    Think of it. You kill 5,000 people with drugs, because you’re smuggling them in and you’re making a lot of money and people are dieing, and they don’t even put you in jail. They don’t do anything. But you might get 30 days, 60 days, 90 days. You might get a year. Not a lot. And then you wonder why we have a problem. That’s why we have a problem, folks. And I don’t think we should play games. We can't just keep setting up blue ribbon committees to talk, talk, talk. We have to get tough. Probably you'll have some people who say "oh, that's not nice." But we have to do something. Eventually.

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  • (Score: 1) by gtomorrow on Wednesday July 25 2018, @07:28PM (3 children)

    by gtomorrow (2230) on Wednesday July 25 2018, @07:28PM (#712602)

    Excuse me, Mr President, but just to be clear: are you advocating emulation/adoption of the aforementioned asian nations' policies? Do you believe the United States of America should have a no-due-process death penalty for drug dealers?

    • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday July 25 2018, @08:19PM (2 children)

      by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Wednesday July 25 2018, @08:19PM (#712642) Homepage Journal

      China & Singapore, they have Due Process, it's very quick. Not like here. They have death penalty, they have zero tolerance -- and they have very few problems. Very few.

      Philippines, they elected a very tough guy. And he's doing great. 3 million people, it's a lot. How do you do the Due Process on that? It's too much. So he said, we won't do that. Just shoot them. And he's getting great results. Very tough, it's working.

      USA, hopefully we can get much tougher. Death penalty works, maybe we can try that here. I'd love to try that here. See how that one works out for us. And if there's a way to handle these people immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, even better. By the way, we need that for our immigration too, we need to send them back with NO Judges, no Court Cases. As I've said. Our Judges are very busy. We're doing Quotas for Judges. Must go faster!

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 25 2018, @08:50PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 25 2018, @08:50PM (#712674)

        The punishment should fit the crime. Theft? Cut off a finger. Drug dealer? Feed them what they were selling. Aggravated Murder? Public hanging. Cheating on your wife? You get a choice, have your willy chopped off or you get to park it in goatse.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 26 2018, @12:00AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 26 2018, @12:00AM (#712796)

        Washington Post would have a hissy fit about "human rights". You should reverse-pardon Bezos first.