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Apparently, decriminalizing hard drugs with no fear of consequence attracted rampant hard drug use, the users tore up the traffic-ticket-equivalents that they were given, and they avoided rehabilitation whenever they could.
Who knew?
Oregon Decriminalized Hard Drugs. It Isn’t Working. – WSJ
Stanford professor Keith Humphreys says “not a crazy thing to try, but I think they misunderstood addiction.” Oh, really?
Fatal overdoses in Oregon in the 12 months ending in May rose 23% from the same period a eyar earlier. Third highest increase in the nation. Overdose calls to the police have doubled in three years.
Audaces fortuna iuvat
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An old MD friend who has an Infectious Disease specialty told me this story. Had a long term hard drug user patient who he treated many times over the years often with hospitalization. The latest about 3 months, much of it ICU. (In his 40’s). He recovered and before release he had a long talk with the patient about having a new lease on life. He was clean. He regained his health. In a week he was dead of an over dose. I asked him if he had any idea of the cost of his treatments over the years. Figured it was well over a million.
I could get into Fentanyl babies here too but lets just say its worse. As to Oregon, they will get what they deserve.
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Recent experience has ICU cost at $650/hour. Figure in and out over 3 months, your friend gave you a pretty good estimate.
Here is a surprisingly balanced piece from NPR. https://www.npr.org/2021/06/18/1007022652/oregons-pioneering-drug-decriminalization-experiment-is-now-facing-the-hard-test
Measure 101 was sold to the voters that it would improve access to treatment. Access to treatment was not a problem. Getting people to treatment IS the problem.
Oregon policy makers develop programs based on the premise drug addicts are just like everyone else, the only difference is a dependency problem. That might be true, but the numbers don’t lie. Our current methods of treating addiction are not working.
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