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Free Heroin Anyone?
If you’ve never heard about the “Safe Supply” movement, it quite literally is giving drugs to addicts for free. I heard of this the first time like many of you did: from someone who heard about it and said, “Seriously! That’s what they’re doing! Are they nuts?” And yeah, I thought it sounded pretty nuts, but a few years ago I looked into it, mostly because I was working with young men and women who may have or have had drugs in their lives. As it turns out, they may be on to something.
For starters, we should understand that our problem with drugs in this country is not simply a matter of bad guys trying to sell drugs to people who are “looking for a good time,” and that some regrettably fall for it. It’s far more complicated than that.
As for opioids, remember they started off as legal drugs that were offered to innocent people, young and old. And not by skinheads with skull tattoos. No, it was pharmaceutical companies who were thrilled with these drugs that seemed to work great and were turning a good profit. Until the profit kept growing and the effectiveness irrelevant.
Second, drugs like heroin and cocaine aren’t simply used by people who gave in to peer pressure in college. Many have gone through trauma resulting in a deep, dark depression. Never, ever underestimate the power of depression. It is a vicious killer. Just think of how many overdoses and alcohol-related deaths started with depression that lead to abuse.
Many were prescribed pills. Many were young, impressionable, and rebellious when they first experimented. There are many paths that can lead to it, and no one knows that they’ll become an addict, let alone what it’s like living as one. The reality here is hard to face: This can happen to you just as it has to others. The fact that it hasn’t may say more about how fortunate you are than whether or not you chose not to put yourself in such a situation.
Turning our attention to those who have devoted their lives to help fight drug addiction and drug crises… I have more respect for such people than most anyone I can think of. Many of them lost loved ones to overdoses and don’t want to see this happen to anyone else’s child, parent, or friend. With the opioid crisis specifically, volunteers and professionals alike found out that the first thing they needed to do was somehow slow down the death toll. Yes, not stop it, slow it down. Like, literally try and keep the morgue from getting overcrowded. A dead addict is not a solution, and you can’t help someone addicted to a drug when they’re dead.
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Just ask the people of Portugal. For years they struggled hard with a heroin epidemic, too many of them dying after living through hell (and dragging their loved ones through hell). But it was there in Lisbon that saw some of the early adopters to this strategy. They treat drug use, possession, and addiction as a sickness, not an offence. And it’s worked. They have found the solution to their crisis.
We don’t need more villains in our lives to make us feel like
Congratulations Traffic. This is your week.
And the Oscar goes to…
Best Actress:
Halle Berry as Audrey Burke in Things We Lost in the Fire
Best Actor: Other than Del Toro, I think our best actor would be Michael Douglas as Robert Wakefield in Traffic.
Best Quote: “You’re asking me how a watch works. For now we’ll just keep an eye on the time.” Benicio Del Toro as Alejandro in Sicario.
You can read more about the above subject here:
Also check out the limited documentary series The Pharmacist on Netflix and Beautiful Boy starring Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet on Amazon Prime.
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