4 ms·

> What needs to happen for decriminalization to work is much better social support for addicts, including safe use sites staffed with nurses, free health care f

> What needs to happen for decriminalization to work is much better social support for addicts, including safe use sites staffed with nurses, free health care for addicts including detox hospitalization and substance abuse treatments, social housing including housing specifically for recovering addicts and active addicts How many productive members of society does it take to support each drug addict? Should there be any calculation, or should we say "whatever it takes"?

runarberg 3y ago
Yes, whatever it takes. A society which doesn’t take care of their sick is a failed society. Seattle is the richest city in one of the richest state of the richest country in the world. If we wanted to we could easily take care of anyone that needed it.
- eloisius 3y ago
  At some point we have to say it takes too much. If it takes 20 college-educated social workers, medical professionals, etc. just to enable one junkie to eek out a miserable existence doing drugs and sleeping on the street, it's too much. Their lifestyle is untenable. On some level, we have to accept that one can fuck up one's own life, and fuck it up so badly that others can't fix or maintain it for you.
  - defrost 3y ago
    Sure, it's a cost benefit analysis. More realistically smaller total staff than 20 dealt with 3,800 addicts in an 18 month trial a decade and a half ago with benefits to the community (reduced expenses from deaths, overdoses, central record keeping, etc) that were considered worthwhile to keep such centres going until the present day. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38608095 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38608095 FINAL REPORT OF THE EVALUATION OF THE SYDNEY MEDICALLY SUPERVISED INJECTING CENTRE https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/5706/1/MSIC_final_evaluation_report.pdf https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/5706/1/MSIC_final_evaluation_... might be of interest to some.
NoGravitas 3y ago
"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. "
- eloisius 3y ago
  So “old book says so”?
  - runarberg 3y ago
    As well as old bronze lady: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

runarberg 3y ago

Yes, whatever it takes. A society which doesn’t take care of their sick is a failed society. Seattle is the richest city in one of the richest state of the richest country in the world. If we wanted to we could easily take care of anyone that needed it.

eloisius 3y ago
At some point we have to say it takes too much. If it takes 20 college-educated social workers, medical professionals, etc. just to enable one junkie to eek out a miserable existence doing drugs and sleeping on the street, it's too much. Their lifestyle is untenable. On some level, we have to accept that one can fuck up one's own life, and fuck it up so badly that others can't fix or maintain it for you.
- defrost 3y ago
  Sure, it's a cost benefit analysis. More realistically smaller total staff than 20 dealt with 3,800 addicts in an 18 month trial a decade and a half ago with benefits to the community (reduced expenses from deaths, overdoses, central record keeping, etc) that were considered worthwhile to keep such centres going until the present day. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38608095 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38608095 FINAL REPORT OF THE EVALUATION OF THE SYDNEY MEDICALLY SUPERVISED INJECTING CENTRE https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/5706/1/MSIC_final_evaluation_report.pdf https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/5706/1/MSIC_final_evaluation_... might be of interest to some.

NoGravitas 3y ago

"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. "

eloisius 3y ago
So “old book says so”?
- runarberg 3y ago
  As well as old bronze lady: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”