Pubdate: Fri, 17 Jun 2016
Source: Chattanooga Times Free Press (TN)
Copyright: 2016 Chattanooga Publishing Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.timesfreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/992
Note: Paper does not publish LTE's outside its circulation area
Author: Blake Moore

NEW APPROACHES NEEDED FOR DRUGS

Everyone seems suddenly concerned about drug use and drug addiction. 
After years of losing the "War on Drugs," many are trying new 
approaches. An example is the police chief who has set up a voluntary 
program whereby users and addicts can hand in their drugs and agree 
to submit to treatment. No criminal charges are made. The humanity of 
the program is captured in the insistence the word "junkie" will never be used.

So what's going on with the chief and his program? Obviously he has 
plenty of firsthand contact with countless users/addicts. He knows 
real progress is not in a jail cell but in medical and or psychiatric 
treatment.

He knows users are human beings who are suffering from one or more of 
the causes of drug use: (1) Isolation/alienation (2) Trauma/psychic 
injury, or (3) The drug itself. More often than not, it is a "failure 
to adapt" in a society that alienates.

And of course, we and the chief know that criminalization is an 
arbitrary designation we the people can change at anytime. That time 
has come. Criminalization and the war are completely 
counterproductive and cause problems after problems.

Blake Moore
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom