Addiction to opioids and other drugs has been around since the 1800s. Every effort to combat it has failed. This includes the 1980s War on Drugs, criminalizing addiction and locking up dealers and users. Sentencing drug dealers to death makes great headlines, but fails as a strategy. But the prison population has exploded. We’ve gone from eight state prisons to over thirty in just Pennsylvania alone.
These are the observations of five panelists that include a former addict who now owns recovery houses in Lancaster County; a doctor from the Philadelphia area and a former addict himself who now treats addiction; a former Philadelphia Philly who is a former alcoholic and addict; a former addict who is in long-term recovery who is now a counselor and clinical director and finally Dale Kerns, an electrician by trade from Delaware County who is a candidate for US Senate and the sponsor of the legislation “Addiction is not a Crime”.
Jim Crossan the clinician challenged those in attendance to take the fight against addiction and make it as powerful as the movement started by the Parkland (FL) students. He emphasized the point, as did others, that overdoses, drug and alcohol, kill more Americans than guns annually. A fact that is overlooked by most including the press.
Dale Kerns, candidate for US Senate, made the case for decriminalization. He applauded the Bethlehem and Bangor Police Departments for their program that allows and encourages addicts to walk into their police stations and ask for help without worrying about arrest and prosecution. He encouraged other departments to do the same.
Matt Reeves, a soft-spoken, former addict explained what lead him down the path to addiction. He explained what his early life was like. Loving parents and family, good education and not wanting for anything. If you looked at his high school years one year he’d be the preppie, the next year a jock and finally a skateboarder. Always struggling with his inner self to fit in. The last phase lasted until someone actually asked him to skateboard. Life was still OK until it spiraled out of control in State College. Drugs had rendered him unable to function. He had hit rock bottom. Today, in recovery, he owns and operates recovery homes.
Paul Fletcher had three “cups of coffee” in the big leagues with the Phillies in 1993 and 1995 and the Oakland A’s in 1996. He spoke about his struggles with alcohol and drugs. His struggles took him to the brink of attempting suicide and cost him his marriage. He explained that in the minor leagues it was common for a keg of beer to be in the locker room post game and as a veteran a large cup of beer was always waiting for him at his locker postgame. Two years into recovery he gives back by speaking at events like Breaking the Cycle and working in the recovery field.
Dr. Raymond Bobb, D.O. expressed the need for the education system taking a lead role in this fight. The fact that drugs, alcohol and addiction aren’t a part of the curriculum is disheartening. Even in medical school, the subject isn’t given the attention needed. Twenty, thirty and forty years from now history books will certainly include the fact that we failed fighting addiction unless we change the way we are fighting it.
As Jim Crossan suggests, the effort that our high school and college students are putting into gun control and gun legislation needs to be put towards addiction, and in particular the opioid epidemic.
The panel hopes that next year, the main stream media will cover events like Breaking the Cycle. The fight against drug and alcohol addiction is just as, or even more important, than gun control.
3 comments:
rehab is the new money pit, give away all drugs for free, all you want, eliminate corruption,let people either be responsible or let nature take its course.
Well, it's all fine and well to tell people "DON'T DO DRUGS" but when they take prescription medication that is given from their doctors and they take it as instructed and within one week their brain chemistry is irreparably altered and addicted to opioids, it's kind of hard to blame that person for being an addict.
I lived a life where I blamed people for their problems related to addiction (not being an addict or even a user myself), but then I started talking to people who fell down the rabbit hole and what those conversations informed me is that no one is immune from being an addict. Sixty thousand people a year (and rising) are dying every year from drug overdoses (more than died in over a decade in Vietnam).
Is this the new outcome of natural selection.
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