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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
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday July 25 2018, @07:59PM (7 children)
I ran into him in downtown Portland one evening. He told me that he had to go do something, but would return in an hour.
I waited four. That was three years ago; he never returned.
He once asked to use my MacBook Pro to download his iPhone photos from iCloud. I still have all those photos. In all of them, Anthony is quite a lot more muscular. In most of them he is with friends and family - in happier times.
I asked the staff of the Portland Rescue Mission if they'd seen him. "No, he doesn't come round here any more."
"I really miss Anthony. He's a great guy."
"Yeah, when he's not strung out."
"He shoots up?"
"Yes."
Later that same day I found a mugshot from one of his heroin possession arrests.
I searched the inmate rosters of the Multnomah County Jail in Portland as well as the Oregon and Washington State Prisons.
I miss you Anthony.
Requiescat In Pace.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Wednesday July 25 2018, @08:35PM (6 children)
I've had to bury 2 friends so far: Adam was a musician who started on opioids for pain relief after an operation and couldn't quit and couldn't get clean, so he eventually gave up and shot himself. Caitlin got hooked again via medical prescription after recovering from her ex-husband beating the crap out of her, tried to clean up, met a guy in rehab, and they ended up ODing together.
Given those stories, if a doctor were offering me Oxy, I'd at least consider refusing it.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 25 2018, @08:57PM (4 children)
The 1st could have been helped with government health services running a sane rehab program and the 2nd would have been helped by better safety regulation to prevent accidental ODs. Two stories showing how a lack of societal support led to sad consequences.
This comment is more a reply for others, not some critique of your story.
(Score: 3, Touché) by DannyB on Wednesday July 25 2018, @09:04PM (3 children)
Bu, bu, but . . . societal support would be
terrorismcommunismsocialism!The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday July 25 2018, @09:49PM (2 children)
needlegun!Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 25 2018, @10:20PM (1 child)
If that is what it takes to make you understand the need to support civil society, then sure I'll let the irony ride out. Selfish narrow minded behavior is not a *good thing* bub.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday July 26 2018, @01:30PM
Some people (especially corporations) are too dumb to see any kind of long term view. Everything must be short term focused. My immediate needs. Right now!. What I want. Screw you! I'll shoot myself in the foot if it helps
this quarter's profitsmy short term interest. I don't want to pay for public education but I am too dumb to realize what would happen if we end up with a world full of uneducated dolts like Trump.The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday July 25 2018, @09:00PM
As a counterexample, I use hydrocodone, occasionally, for the past ten years (come next January). I use it when I need it. I ignore it when I don't need it. It is a tool. Nothing more. It improves my quality of life. I don't build up a tolerance to it, so when I do need it -- it works! I have a great life and don't want to screw it up with narcotic pain killers. I'm more afraid of the drugs than of the pain. But if it feels like a wire saw cutting through my bone, then I'll take the drugs.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.