Yang, O'Rourke propose decriminalizing opioids, including heroin

[left-of-center2012]

At Tuesday’s Democratic presidential debate, candidates Andrew Yang and Beto O’Rourke endorsed decriminalizing opioids, including heroin, as a way to control the drug epidemic that has ravaged American communities.

Yang, a businessman with no prior political experience, said that doing so would help addicts “get well.”

“We need to decriminalize opiates for personal use,” Yang continued. “We have to let the country know this is not a personal failing, this is a systemic government failing. And then we need to open up safe consumption and injection sites around the country because they save lives.”

O’Rourke, the former representative from Texas, said he agreed with Yang that opioids should be decriminalized, and said that the legalization and prescription of marijuana instead of opioids was also something that should be tried.

“Anyone with drug addiction today is not a problem for the criminal justice system, they are an opportunity for our public health care system,” O’Rourke said.

https://news.yahoo.com/yang-and-o-rourke-propose-legalizing-opioids-including-heroin-025937517.html

[Cuthbert Allgood]

1. Good. We need to stop pushing users underground and get them help.

[jalan48]

2. Taking the profit out of drug use will help stop the crime associated with the use.

[LAS14]

3. I totally agree. Cigarettes hurt health, but they don't support vast criminal empires. nt

[Act_of_Reparation]

4. Decriminalizing possession won't take the profit out of the drug trade.

It will limit the retributive justice we inflict on people for simply possessing drugs to which they are addicted.

[W_HAMILTON]

5. I zoned out a little bit during this segment.

How exactly does decriminalizing opioid use prevent people from overdosing? Giving them easier access to the very thing that is killing them is supposed to solve the problem? How exactly?

[loyalsister]

6. Lessons from Portugal

It sounds like they have been paying attention to what has been successful.

"Since Portugal enacted drug decriminalization in 2001, the number of people voluntarily entering treatment has increased significantly, overdose deaths and HIV infections among people who use drugs have plummeted, incarceration for drug-related offenses has decreased, and rates of problematic and adolescent drug use has fallen."

http://www.drugpolicy.org/resource/drug-decriminalization-portugal-learning-health-and-human-centered-approach

[dalton99a]

7. From Switzerland:

https://www.northcarolinahealthnews.org/2019/01/28/switzerland-fights-heroin-with-heroin/

Switzerland fights heroin with heroin

The Swiss were the first to legalize prescription heroin in 1994 under the nation’s four pillar drug policy. The law aimed to curb drug overdose deaths and high HIV infection rates, as well as end the country’s “open-drug scenes.”

One of those four pillars includes new and expanded treatment options for opioid users, including heroin-assisted treatment.

The heroin provision was the most controversial part of the multi-prong Swiss drug policy. Many argued that it would enable drug users or cause more overdose deaths, but that didn’t happen.

The Swiss, in keeping with their national stereotype, kept meticulous records. They found data to support the program through years of scientific study and strict randomized controlled trials before incorporating HAT into the law.

Since then, the number of new heroin users in Switzerland has declined. Drug overdose deaths dropped by 64 percent. HIV infections dropped by 84 percent. Home thefts dropped by 98 percent. And the Swiss prosecute 75 percent fewer opioid-related drug cases each year.