Pubdate: Thu, 28 May 2015
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2015 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340
Website: http://bostonglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Lisa Newman-Polk

CRIMINALIZING ADDICTION IS NOT THE ANSWER

RE "Mobilized against a hometown scourge" by Brian MacQuarrie (Page 
A1, May 17): We need to face the evidence - criminalizing addiction 
is not the answer. As an attorney and licensed certified social 
worker, I have represented and treated countless individuals addicted 
to opiates and other substances. I have seen firsthand that efforts 
to curb opiate addiction through law enforcement and the criminal 
justice system do not work.

When a probation officer's job includes watching probationers 
urinate, we have to question whether something is terribly wrong with 
our system.

Instead of spending countless tax dollars investigating, arresting, 
prosecuting, incarcerating, and probating individuals on drug crimes, 
we should invest our money in building treatment facilities in every 
town - facilities where people can walk in off the street to be 
detoxed 24 hours a day and provided with long-term residential 
programming and outpatient services, regardless of their insurance or 
ability to pay.

Lisa Newman-Polk

Groton
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom