The Cook County Jail in Chicago, IL has trained hundreds of inmates on how to use the opioid overdose-reversing drug naloxone, and has given doses out to inmates upon release:
Cook County now gives at-risk inmates the overdose-reversing drug naloxone upon their release from jail and Los Angeles is poised to follow suit, putting the antidote in as many hands as possible as part of a multifaceted approach to combatting the nation's opioid epidemic.
Cook County Jail, the largest single-site jail in the country, has trained about 900 inmates how to use naloxone nasal spray devices since last summer and has distributed 400 of them to at-risk men and women as they got out. The devices can undo the effects of an opiate overdose almost immediately and are identical to those used by officers in many of the country's law enforcement agencies.
[...] It is too soon to gauge the effectiveness of Cook County's program, but Dart said anecdotal evidence suggests that the kits have saved lives, including a man who was arrested again, returned to jail, and told of how a friend he had trained to use the kit had done so when he overdosed. In New York City, more than 4,000 kits have been distributed to friends and relatives of inmates at the city's jail at Rikers Island since the program there was launched in 2014.
Related: Kroger Supermarkets to Carry Naloxone Without a Prescription
Obama Administration Expands Access to Suboxone Treatment
One Upside to Opioid Overdoses: More Organ Donors
Development of a Heroin Vaccine
(Score: 1, Troll) by jmorris on Monday July 31 2017, @06:58PM (13 children)
People taking that stuff obviously want to die, so why are we meddling? It is evolution in action.
Seriously, we are spending a lot of money rolling emergency services to these junkies, in many cases many times, and most eventually succeed in killing themselves eventually. Show me a treatment regime where at least half the junkies end up tax paying productive citizens within two years and I could be convinced to support expending dwindling tax resources on them. Otherwise I can't improve upon; "If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @07:02PM
Are there no workhouses? Are there no prisons? Oh wait.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday July 31 2017, @07:16PM (6 children)
I've attempted in a serious way twice.
However psychiatric treatment got me back to work. I'm now a tax paying citizen.
I'm not an addict but "the mentally ill" is commonly said in sentences that include "addicts".
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @07:53PM (5 children)
There's a big difference... You're a good guy, the others are not and most of them will commit serious crimes again.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @08:23PM (4 children)
MDC has charmed you with his gift of the gab, proving yet again that sociable extroverts always win. Why don't you give personality tests in school, brand the introverts as losers, and fucking kill them all to put the bad shits out of their misery before they commit crimes against your society where bullshitters are the good guys.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @09:26PM (3 children)
That's funny considering I'm an INTJ, graduated from high school with honors, four women fell in love with me within 4 years, educated myself because I couldn't afford a higher education, started working at 14 and went full time the day after graduation, worked my ass off, raised a family with 4 kids without govt assistance, bought a house in SoCal and paid off the mortgage in 13 years, and was able to retire at age 55.
What were you saying about introverts again?
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday July 31 2017, @11:57PM
This means you were born 1962 or earlier. In those times introverts had a better opportunity in some ways. And the job opportunities were different.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 01 2017, @12:55AM (1 child)
Congratulations for being able to rote memorize a bunch of information and spew it all back on assignments and tests on command.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 01 2017, @02:47PM
I didn't study before finals or any other test, and didn't start assignments until the last minute. Also I think the I's have a better grip on life and love than the E's who just blissfully skate through life ignorantly.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @07:21PM (2 children)
No they do not obviously want to die, otherwise they wouldn't be taking a pleasure drug more than once.
There is something seriously wrong with you and quite a few others on this site. The solutions proposed by people like you are often the first steps towards crimes against humanity.
Try to embody the positive traits of humanity like compassion and charity instead of cynicism and hate.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @07:35PM (1 child)
Kill yourself.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @08:18PM
You first :D
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday August 01 2017, @12:34AM
<sarcasm>Ummm... have you tried distributing cyanide?
You can pose as their benefactor at a much cheaper price. </sarcasm>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 01 2017, @08:53PM
I know a guy who got off opiods and is now a teacher.
So, basically, if you think people who get addicted to drugs are worthless and/or beyond help, think again.