Photo courtesy; Associated Press.Where else could this come from but the hotbed of social liberal sickness that is the city of San Francisco.
Yesterday the health officials of this bastion of iniquity, announced that it is taking the first steps in the attempt to open a 'safe' drug injection room for users of illegal narcotics.
This brilliant idea is being sold as a viable answer to some of the problems created by drug abuse, according to the city's Department of Public Health.
The problems they hope to address? The high rate of deaths caused by drug overdose, the ever increasing financial burden on the city and state caused by the emergency response to care for these folks, and to help clean up the unsightly clutter of used needles in Golden Gate park.
As I listened to this on MSNBC, and read the article on Lycos News I was sadly shocked to realize that nowhere was there to be offered counseling and help to those addicted in this plan. After all, why ruin a good high with the glaring reality that our public officials have given up on those in need.
What this will accomplish is the removal of the problem from our immediate perception, and so less attention will be paid to addicts and their plight. We will be able to more easily go about our lives in our comfortable consciences, while the hopelessly addicted can trudge their way to a slower death out of the public eye. The benefits are tragically wonderful. As these 'safe' drug rooms will be a haven from the law, (it is planned that anyone using the service will be exempt from arrest and prosecution for possession of a controlled substance, as to encourage users to come there rather than shoot up elsewhere) police will be freed up from dealing with many drug related operations and paperwork. Dealers of heroin and cocaine will gain a legitimate place in society and see increased profits. The citizens of San Francisco can better sell their city and all it's vices to the rest of the nation, perhaps in it's public relations advertisements, a fun visit to the 'safe' drug room for a blast of H or coke can be marketed as a place to wind down, or rev up after a day at the Folsom Street Fair.
Perhaps best of all, money will be saved. Numbers of emergency calls to rescue overdosing addicts will sharply drop, along with their expense, thus giving a happily validating news bite to the left leaning media, who if this succeeds, may begin to pose the question, why do we fight a war against drugs? Then again, why fight against anything at all when it's easier to just give up.
6 comments:
Good post, MKZ.
We seem to have a growing tendency to avoid the real problems of our society. This dilemma is also reflected in the recently publicized proposal to provide birth control to kids in middle school. Our "solutions" to bad situations create conflicts with existing laws and the confusion escalates as to who is really in charge.
Scary as it is, for now the world system is in charge, and I feel liberalism is the worst end of it. California is now banning the use of the words 'mother' and 'father' for fear of offending gay couples, as you stated birth control is being considered for children as young as pre-teen. And, if Hillary is elected things like this and worse will happen. I hope and pray we as a nation, and we as Christians will wake up soon, rub the sleep out of our eyes and realize that the bed is not burning, we are!
I had planned to stay out of this one, but I can't help myself, so I will weigh in...
I have spent many years in ministry with addicts, so I have seen the damage of alcohol and other drugs up close. I also know far too many of God's children who also have contracted HIV from IV drug use. Addiction is tough enough disease to battle, HIV/AIDS is simply "piling on."
My thoughtful, prayerful, compassionate response to this problem is to conclude that the "war on drugs" needs to be abandoned in favor of a war against addiction. I think that steps like the one referenced in this blog ought to be seen as positive. As a nation we failed in an attempt to outlaw alcohol. We should have learned from Prohibition that outlawing a substance does not take it away, it only makes it more dangerous to get.
My humble suggestion is that we legalize drugs and regulate them in a way similar to alcohol. The savings in law enforcement and imprisonment should then be used for education, prevention and treatment. In fact, this could be an area of mission outreach for the church.
I simply ask that you consider the implications of this approach as a way of reducing the devastation of addiction since the current approach doesn't appear to be working. I firmly believe that keeping an addict alive for another day is an act of compassion that brings hope that is superior to washing our hands of a "sinner" who might otherwise die of their addiction.
Good to hear from you Ian, I was wondering if you had given up blogging altogether!
As an addict of drugs and alcohol,I could not wait for the day I could get anything I wanted from the corner drugstore. When I was a successful tattoo artist I was able to command almost any substance I wanted, at almost any time.
The problem with this, is that the more drugs and alcohol you put into your system the more damage you do. After a while the damage becomes irreparable. I still suffer from the effects, both mental and physical of the drugs I could get illegally. I can't imagine how bad off I would be if my supply had always been unlimited.
I wonder how committed to your idea you are. I am not trying to get personal, but hypothetically, if three of your children decided they wanted to use cocaine, and could legally buy it, would you let them earn money doing chores around the house to buy it? If so why? If not, why not, seeing as it is legal, and prevention education is available, and presumably medical cost would be covered for them if they suffer short or long term health problems.
Aside, I also believe that ministering to the addict is mandatory, but feel supporting legalization of the substance is hypocritical. The further the consequences are reduced, the less reason the addict has to quit. Each time an addict is arrested, fined, ripped off, hung over, overdosed, or down and out broke, is another inch closer he is to the point of rock bottom, and therefore the beginning of the path to recovery. I know this from my own experience, and from hundreds of personal accounts given in various recovery groups I have been in. Ask any recovering addict, he or she will tell you that legalizing drugs is the expressway to insanity.
I actually have to side with Mike on this one. You can make the "everything legal" argument and then regulate the you know what out of it, but in the end, some substances are bad, and some are lethal. I would say that I'd be in favor of legalization of pot, since it's threat is far less than Cocaine or heroine, and in some cases, less than alcohol. Like the whole "safe sex" argument, you open this up to a mentality of "they're going to do it anyway" and so you make the delivery system more accessible, which makes teen pregnancy go up. Birth control pills are responsible for the sexual revolution which has lead to more infidelity, more STD's a more sexualized culture. I can't imagine what would happen if Cocaine, heroine or LSD were legal and easily accessed. In a utopian, responsible society, Ian's idea might be plausible, but the temptation is too great, and our collective will too weak.
Thanks Dave,
It just seems good sense to me not to feed the beast.
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