News Mar 13, 2023 at 3:13 pm

Health Expert Says the Policy Sets Up People for Failure

Some of the people who work here plan to fail those who suffer from substance use disorder, according to an expert. Lester Black

Comments

3

‘…while also increasing their risk of overdose,” Banta-Green added.’

If that were to happen, it would be a perfect example of superfluous legislation, because overdose deaths have been rising in Washington state for decades:

“Opioid overdose deaths rose from 2013 through 2021.

“The increase in opioid overdose deaths was driven by heroin deaths, and more recently, fentanyl deaths. Deaths involving commonly prescribed opioids have declined since 2009 but have rebounded recently. Deaths involving other synthetic opioids, mostly fentanyl, are now more common than those involving heroin.

“Opioid overdose death rates in King, Pierce, and Snohomish Counties increased by more than 175% between 2002-2004 and 2019-2021. Spokane County saw a modest increase.”

(https://adai.washington.edu/WAdata/deaths.htm)

Yes, that’s all from the very same place where Banta-Green works. Maybe he needs to read more of his own school’s research?

7

It still boggles my mind that anyone can think that jailtime is an appropriate response to addiction.

"Oh, I see you have this debilitating problem which makes it difficult or impossible to achieve any of your life goals and have agency over your decisions? I know what will help here. Throw you in a cell where every aspect of your life is controlled by people who have no personal connection to! Surely you will come out of this as an emotionally mature, well-adjusted productive citizen who will never touch an illicit substance again in their life. I'm a genius!"

As for the "that's why they should choose going to rehab" excuse, this is counter-productive no matter how appealing it might seem. Dealing with addiction isn't about carrying out some behaviors that will allow an institution to claim that you're "rehabilitated". Dealing with addiction isn't even about stopping usage of the substance that you are addicted to. It's about dealing with the underlying problems that drive this maladaptive behavior. If they're going to rehab to avoid jailtime - or for any other extrinsic reason - they're not going to be doing the difficult work of learning how to process their life in a healthy way. They're going to be focusing on what immediate behaviors they need to exhibit in order to get their freedom back.

This is counter-productive because it means that you flood the system with people who won't get the long-term benefits that it absolutely can provide, meaning that it is more difficult for the people who are there earnestly to get a good amount of attention.

We should absolutely be reaching out to people and offering advice to help them become stronger. But forcing them into rehab is nonsensical, and putting them into jail is completely absurd.

8

As @6 notes, talk with people that actually work with those experiencing homelessness, and I’m sure you’ll see consensus around having jail as one tool - not the only tool, not the first one, but having it for those that won’t be motivated by anything else. This problem requires we use every reasonable solution- and jail is just one solution that should be used.

9

@7 How old are you, 10? Your naivete is mind boggling. If you have ever encountered drugged out desperate folks, you would know that "offering advice to help them become stronger " will accomplish nothing .

11

@7: If the United States, like every other industrialized democracy, had a national healthcare service, then persons with addictions could get treatment. If we continue decriminalizing controlled substances, we can offer treatment without the stigma of arrest and conviction. You’re invited to advocate for universal health care and full decriminalization.

We continue to lack both, so the threat of jail remains our best option for getting addicts off the street and into treatment. As I noted @3, drug users are dying at very high rates in Washington, so not offering treatment seems like the crueler option.

Completely missing from your comment is any concern at all for the other victims of untreated drug abuse. Addicts generally lack jobs, but the drugs they use are not free, so they steal and engage in other illegal activities, including camping in parks and on sidewalks. Where’s the concern for all of the victims of these resultant behaviors?

12

You know what has zero empathy and compassion ? Addiction. Some aspects of harm reduction are the cruelest form of enabling.

13

You give the substance abuse options...

a) jail for a criminal activity (which it is)
b). or you can have what's behind door number two (treatment).

I'd like to see a more robust treatment program ... much greater than 30 days. I think 6 months at substance abuse camp would be more like it. They wake up every morning, free of substances, exercise, work... take classes, get medical treatment and accomplish something productive.

I would re-route all the funding from the series of do nothing patch work programs and concentrate them in one facility outside the city. The savings from theft, property damage, police, ER visits, etc would probably offset any costs. The only downside is all the "little fiefdoms of social programs and executive salaries would come to an end"... these folks would actually have to find real work instead of suckling at the teats of the government coffers.

The current program of "catch and release", no prosecution thus no consequences for bad behavior is a complete failure and frankly its cruel.

The other program is little or no treatment and put them up at a hotel to do drugs in private and comfort is equally stupid.

15

“So what do they suggest as consequence for failure to get their addiction under control?”

Um, prosecution for all of the crimes committed in buying drugs, using drugs, and camping to afford drugs?

16

You want to talk about reality? Here's reality: you can't save everybody. Reaching out with support and showing people all the possibilities that their lives could have creates the environmental conditions where success is most likely. Throwing people in jail or forcing them into rehab against their will creates conditions where success, while not impossible, is less likely. Punitive responses to drug abuse are nothing more than grown adults throwing a temper tantrum because the world isn't perfect. I'm sick and tired of people hurting each other. It always makes everything worse.

19

We don’t criminalize drinking. But if you get drunk and beat up your girlfriend, you go to jail. If you drive drunk, you get arrested. If you’re drinking on the bus or Link, you get booted off (or should) and cited. And you don’t get to steal to get vodka money. Let’s crack down on the bad behavior, not the drugs themselves. Maybe that will prod some people into rehab.

21

@16: “Throwing people in jail or forcing them into rehab against their will creates conditions where success, while not impossible, is less likely.”

While leaving them in filthy, crime-ridden, drug-infested encampments does what for their chances of success, exactly? That’s the question you need to answer, because that’s where they’re living in Seattle right now. Seattle has spent seven-plus years extravagantly enabling addiction on a grand scale, making it that much harder for these addicts to get clean. Every day of delay means more enabling, more and tougher addictions, more thefts and assaults to steal drug money from innocent citizens.

You won’t answer that question, of course. You’ll just keep peddling pie-in-the-sky fantasies involving an infinite amount of money to treat persons whose addictions have been enabled for years, paid for by the very same citizens who’ve been beaten and robbed by those same addicts. Look at the recent election results in Seattle to see how well that’s now working.

22

My stepson is an addict. He is 27 and is on his third stint in prison for drug related crimes. We have always allowed him to try staying with us when he’s released. Each time he has relapsed almost immediately. The only time my wife doesn’t worry about him overdosing or hurting someone to feed his addiction is when he is in jail. Jail is a good thing for addicts.

23

@16 You are just bleating "compassion babble".

You tire of people hurting people.... so what do you think these homeless and substance abuse folks are doing all day?

Their addiction fuels a drug trade, crime, property damage, personal tragedy, abused children and needless death and yet you have the unmitigated nerve to bleat "I'm tired of people hurting each other".... as some sort of protective mantel to explain away any responsibility or consequences of their behavior.

Little wonder this problem gets worse and worse each day.

24

It's a complex and very individual situation to every person whom uses. It involves lots of community resources. It involves outreach, case management, therapy, harm reduction, community intervention. Boots on the ground, talking to those who are suffering, instead of alienation. Put yourself in their shoes for just one second. I see two things in this thread going on here, People who understand addiction, who perhaps have experienced it or respect it's trials, and those who have the fuck not, failing to do dick to come up with any meaningful solution besides complain about it. Call KOMO 4 and make another Seattle is dying piece. I'm sure they will come over and film the tent in front of your million dollar house. Jail doesn't solve the problem. it never did. It only moves people who are struggling with a legitimate disorder out of the privileged public eye while fucking them down the deep dark hole that is drug (or alcohol) addiction.
for anyone who cares: https://kingcounty.gov/depts/health.aspx

25

@24: “I'm sure they will come over and film the tent in front of your million dollar house.”

Have you an image of an encampment in a wealthy neighborhood? Because every encampment I ever saw in Seattle was in a working-class or middle-class neighborhood, or downtown.

“Jail doesn't solve the problem. it never did.”

If you define “the problem” solely as the addiction, and maybe the addiction’s effect upon the addict, then you’d need to show some statistics to demonstrate no one was ever helped out of addiction by imprisonment. It’s highly unlikely you’d be able to do this (and I doubt you’ll ever even try) for the reason you gave in your very first sentence: “It's a complex and very individual situation to every person whom uses.” Declaring a zero percent success rate denies the complexity of addiction and recovery.

As I noted @21, the question isn’t, “does imprisonment work better than any other method,” but rather, “does imprisonment work better than leaving addicts in filthy encampments, surrounded by crime and drugs?” That’s the question you must answer, and again, I doubt you’ll even try.

And again, where’s the compassion for the mom-and-pop grocery store, beset with thieving and assaults? For the trailer-park inhabitants, preyed upon by residents of a nearby encampment? The citizens of Licton Springs were not wealthy; they just tired of having their yards used as urinals, and their children’s bicycles stolen, by inhabitants of the local tiny house village. So long as you define compassion to exclude everyone but the addicts, you’ll get more sweeps, and more votes in favor of sweeps.

Finally, which of the many sub-pages at King County Public Health did you want others to read?


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