Oregon Recriminalizes Drugs

[Monkey]

https://apnews.com/article/oregon-dr...f16c4a7c405144

I wonder who is shocked that this made things exponentially worse.

Before they decriminalized, they should have had state funded counseling and rehab and prohibitions against using in the street. There needed to be a step between going willy-nilly with this one. Now they have reinstated punishment for possession… (I read the article, where is the counseling and rehab? Who will the courts refer these people to? What agencies are making bank on government contracts for no results?) and have done nothing to provide help to people struggling with addiction.

It was stupid to decriminalize opiates and amphetamines. Period. They need to be on a schedule and need to be controlled. Full stop. Y

“What’s the solution?”

Here you go:

You get caught with illicit posession of either for personal use? 180 days hospitalization for detox and rehab followed by 180 days sober community living with treatment, social services, and work/education opportunities-mandatory sentence.

You get caught selling or trafficking? The dealers and traffickers are given the same year of rehab, followed by 5 year per dose in possession at the time of arrest mandatory sentence in prison. 2 years and the opiate nightmare will get under better control than it is now.

[Premium Parrots]

Thats a bit harsh, 5 years per dose.

[Link]

"Researchers have said it was too soon to determine whether the law contributed to the overdose surge, and supporters of the decriminalization measure say the decadeslong approach of arresting people for possessing and using drugs didn’t work. Lawmakers who opposed the bill voiced those concerns. Some called it a return to the war on drugs that disproportionally impacted and imprisoned millions of Black men."

So biggest overdoses in US history and these people even use the race card to continue genocide via drugs.

[Monkey]

"Researchers have said it was too soon to determine whether the law contributed to the overdose surge, and supporters of the decriminalization measure say the decadeslong approach of arresting people for possessing and using drugs didn’t work. Lawmakers who opposed the bill voiced those concerns. Some called it a return to the war on drugs that disproportionally impacted and imprisoned millions of Black men."

So biggest overdoses in US history and these people even use the race card to continue genocide via drugs.

I grew up in NYC during the crack epidemic of the 80’s. It was terrible.

I always in college during the first wave of the opiate crisis. It was terrible.

Addiction is tough, and the government seriously needs to change the way they handle it from legislation, the justice system, health care, and the cops on the street. Burn it down and try again because this ain’t it.

[Link]

I grew up in NYC during the crack epidemic of the 80’s. It was terrible.

I always in college during the first wave of the opiate crisis. It was terrible.

Addiction is tough, and the government seriously needs to change the way they handle it from legislation, the justice system, health care, and the cops on the street. Burn it down and try again because this ain’t it.

Whats crazy to me about this latest drug cycle is the amount of laced product these days. Youd think that alone would curb things, but maybe that laced rumor is overblown. I dont know. Or maybe thats why all the overdoses.

[Monkey]

It’s a little overblown. In my experience most “lacing” is packaging different substances on the same table without sanitizing it. if you pack a whole bunch of fentanyl, don’t wipe down the table and then package a whole bunch of cannabis then you’re gonna have some cross contamination and people are going to get sick and/or overdose.

Oh, so this seems sketchy to post without context, I have a MSW in substance misuse and mental health, and I’m working on my license now. I am informed by schooling and field experience…plus I used to use addictive illicit substances myself in the past…so that’s direct experience from both sides of the issue.

[Monkey]

Thats a bit harsh, 5 years per dose.

For illegally selling opiates and amphetamines I think that’s an adequate deterrent. No jail for users, just rehabilitation.

Federal guidelines for sentencing for schedule 1 and 2 drug are a minimum 5 years to max of 40 years first offense. If there is a death involved, minimum 20 with a maximum of life. That sounds harsh but it still isn’t a deterrent. People sell these substances all of the time.

States all have their own sentencing guidelines that they use, and are usually less harsh than the federal guidelines…but some are harsher. A true deterrent to selling is going to have to be harsh. Getting it off the street is an important step to ending the overdoses, and punishing people who are using because of addiction doesn’t stop it. It has to be stopped at the source.

The other part of the answer is to level the playing field and eliminate poverty and the conditions and systems that lead to many people using these drugs as a coping mechanism. Do that, create robust resources for addicted persons, and eliminate dealers/suppliers. We have the money to do it as a country, maybe shuffle a little of the defense budget around…and give our troops a raise while we are at it, they deserve it.

Honestly, the response to the opioid crisis has been ineffective thus far and some of the resources have been grossly mismanaged along the way. It is still a terrible problem. Don’t click the link if you don’t want to see the trajectory of the impact of these drugs over the last 20 years…cause it’s not getting better.

https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics...se-death-rates

[Premium Parrots]

5 years per dose? Dealers may have hundreds or thousands of doses. I think if they actually charged, tried, sentenced them and they actually put them in jail would be fine. No early release or parole. Too many get light sentences for their deeds.

How bout the doctors that prescribe fentanyl? My younger lost her life to prescription fentanyl prescribed by a doctor. She had been prescribed them for years. She got a resistance to them, got hooked on them. She saved a few pills up and took them all at once to try and curb her pain. That was long before fentanyl was even heard of in public.

Fentanyl is like 60 times more powerful than morphine.

[Link]

Monkey is like the Judges in my County. You come 'round here and mess up, fuggedaboutit.

Was told a story about the Judges around here over a little family squabble that invloved someones "momma" and where "momma" was to be buried. So on funeral day, friend of the momma did his friend a solid and he takes off with momma and the hearse while eveyone was standing at the graveyard with open mouths.

You know that there Judge gave that poor good ole boy 15 years in Federal Prison for that little "mistake" of taken off with "momma" in the hearse?

[Monkey]

5 years per dose? Dealers may have hundreds or thousands of doses. I think if they actually charged, tried, sentenced them and they actually put them in jail would be fine. No early release or parole. Too many get light sentences for their deeds.

How bout the doctors that prescribe fentanyl? My younger lost her life to prescription fentanyl prescribed by a doctor. She had been prescribed them for years. She got a resistance to them, got hooked on them. She saved a few pills up and took them all at once to try and curb her pain. That was long before fentanyl was even heard of in public.

Fentanyl is like 60 times more powerful than morphine.

PP I am sorry for your loss…and you’re right. The public didn’t know what they were taking and how dangerous it is.

The problem with the dealers and doctors and pharmaceutical company pushers is that they don’t do the time. A year and they’re back in the street. Doctors rarely get reprimanded. If the sentence is always going to be dumbed down, then increase the sentencing. The problem is the justice system is broken as well. It’s an all around mess.

All of this doctors that pushed fentanyl should lose their licenses and be in jail. The medical field knew what opiates were about. The pharmaceutical companies are complicit as well, they knew what opiates were about. They should all be paying. Opiate addiction has been well known for decades. I have zero tolerance for everyone who pushes it. Pill mills, even the FDA is complicit in every death from opioids. Heroin was bad, but put it in a pill and that makes it much more accessible. Prescribe it without limit and that creates an epidemic.

My biggest problem is that now, in society it becomes the burden of those who are addicted, and the system that created the problems is left mostly untouched. Fines don’t mean anything to big pharma, and the doctors aren’t even on the radar for handing these dangerous drugs out like candy.

I switched career paths because of how many funerals I have attended in my life to these drugs, and if I wasn’t lucky it could have been me as well. Every day I have to willfully not relapse. It sucks, opiate withdrawal is the absolute worst…once was enough for me. No one should live that way and we shouldn’t be in a place where new addicts are created.

Medically do these drugs have a use? Sometimes…but it needs limits. Real, structured limits and real, long term care for people who became addicted.

I will not stand for the lack of effectiveness in battling this problem. I will not stand for the lack of accountability for the damage people have created. I have no compassion left for those who knowingly put profits over people’s lives regarding opiates from the pharmaceutical CEO to the dealer on the street and everyone in between.

Harsh, sure. But how many more losses do we have to take before an effective, holistic approach that addresses all aspects of this crisis is taken to see a change?

[Monkey]

Monkey is like the Judges in my County. You come 'round here and mess up, fuggedaboutit.

Was told a story about the Judges around here over a little family squabble that invloved someones "momma" and where "momma" was to be buried. So on funeral day, friend of the momma did his friend a solid and he takes off with momma and the hearse while eveyone was standing at the graveyard with open mouths.

You know that there Judge gave that poor good ole boy 15 years in Federal Prison for that little "mistake" of taken off with "momma" in the hearse?

That’s a stupid sentence. There are problems in the justice system that can’t be remedied with the current structure…and a single person as a judge with no real accountability is always a dangerous thing.

[Link]

That’s a stupid sentence. There are problems in the justice system that can’t be remedied with the current structure…and a single person as a judge with no real accountability is always a dangerous thing.

Let me know when you figure out the structure is structured to be structured that way and the builders dont care what "smart" people think.

[Monkey]

Let me know when you figure out the structure is structured to be structured that way and the builders dont care what "smart" people think.

Well, at the end of the day it doesn’t matter what is good, it’s about money and influence…and agreement…but that doesn’t mean that I’m not going to continue work to fix the system…or at least help as many as I can along the way. Apparently if you have the money and influence, the world is your burrito. I just have the burrito.