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: 4, Insightful) by kaszz on Tuesday August 01 2017, @12:07AM (3 children)
The problem is not the prolonging of their lives. The problem is that they provide a quick fix for a side effect symptom. What should be done is to do away with jail sentences and put drug addicts into forced rehabilitation. Release upon successful treatment. Then they won't need the quick fix and there will be a lot less crime.
But it needs to deal with addiction. AND the underlying problems that pushed the person into the addiction to cover up the underlying problem they could not handle on their own. That unfortunately will collide with the punish them hard mindset. And treat them like humans even though they won't treat others that way always.
It's kind of funny how when it comes to other problems. There will be analyze and trying different methods. And do what has been proven to work. Except for crimes. Then it's punish and revenge. And if it didn't work.. try the same again and expect a different result.
Don't ever let scientific method stand in the way of tribal instinct! ;-)
(Score: 2, Troll) by jmorris on Tuesday August 01 2017, @02:41AM (2 children)
Where do you live where unproductive or outright defective practices are examined and changed? What are your immigration laws?
Our war on poverty created more poverty, encourages people to remain mired in the web of the welfare state. Any suggestion that we might have made a wrong turn there only gets you labeled a hater.
If tax and spend, socialism lite, could create prosperity we would have one example in the world to hold up by now. Good luck getting any elected official to consider stopping.
No matter how many times it is shown that simply increasing the minimum wage increases unemployment and generally hurts the people it is intended to help, the fact it is a vote getter means it keeps happening.
And so on. Seriously, show me a modern example where we actually learn from a mistake. I need some good news, it ain't fun being an Eeyore .
(Score: 2, Informative) by c0lo on Tuesday August 01 2017, @04:26AM
Your? But of course. Because you just make-believe playing you are doing it.
Like the Scandinavian countries, you mean? Or Germany, which can afford to offer free tertiary education for anyone that wants it, foreigners included?
Riiiight! They obviously failed, they are only social-democracies and this didn't even defend them against opening a Surströmming in a public place [thelocal.se] (or... was it the Bowling Green Massacre [wikipedia.org]?).
You aren't able to learn from your own mistakes, much less from other's successes [soylentnews.org]
(e.g. while 900 people died of drug overdoses in British Columbia [soylentnews.org] from a population of 4.6 million, Spain managed to have a 556 drug-induced deaths in a population of 46.77 million, spending 0.03% of their GDP)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Interesting) by sjames on Tuesday August 01 2017, @04:50AM
The problem isn't social programs. The problem is sabotaged social programs. Giving poor people aid is helpful. Demanding that they aren't allowed to have any savings and that they be cut off the instant they show the slightest sign of improvement keeps them poor. So quit sabotaging the social programs and perhaps we can make some progress.