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Bill Proposes Safe Houses For Illegal Drug Users

So? Why is it up to you what people put in their bodies?

It's not. But if you're a danger to society, then you shouldn't be a part of society.
 
It's not. But if you're a danger to society, then you shouldn't be a part of society.

You still haven't explained how drug abusers are any more dangerous than anyone else who leads an unhealthy lifestyle.
 
There's a very strong, well established link between drug use and crime.

http://alcoholrehab.com/drug-addiction/crime-and-substance-abuse/

You'd do well to read the links you offer; you wouldn't be so embarrassed perhaps.

"The use of illegal drugs is considered a criminal act in nearly all countries around the world, and drug use is almost automatically associated with criminal behavior. This act alone means that there is a link between drugs and crime. Research does suggest, however, that the majority of illegal drug users will not go on to commit other crimes such as robberies or assault. In other words, drug use does not necessarily lead to an increase in crime, even among people who are regular users or who have developed an addiction."
 
Yes, but people won't/can't stop on their own. It could literally kill them.

I've always believed drugs should be decriminalized, legalized, taxed and the revenue put into a lockbox budget for free rehab facilities.

Your first sentence is incorrect. Here I am. When I had enough, I quit. I had one relapse after the first week. Been almost 4 years now cold turkey. The thought of returning to it, repulses me.
 
How many overdosed from marijuana?

Safe houses prevent overdoses, that is why they exist.

They don't prevent ODs. They merely have a better response time to the OD if the patient happens to be in the place.
 
Being a recovered alcoholic/addict I have seen first hand what is happening. At first I was opposed, as I led the total abstinence model.

But to oppose this is to show ignorance of the disease of addiction, think heroin is the most dangerous drug [it isn't, it's easier to kick than methadone] and also assume the addict wants that life. They don't. What "Insight" and it's now three satellites do is keep the patient alive and reasonably stable for that one moment in time when the addicts head clears sufficiently to ask for detox and rehab. And they do. The problem now is getting enough seats in rehab and preventing kids from starting.

Where it doesn't work is when fentenyl and the other heavy **** hit the street, people die without making it to Insight. There were 904 OD deaths in Vancouver last year. Not one of them was an Insight patient.

I have what we call "sponsored" a couple of guys who rehabbed through Insight, and each of them swears that they would be one the other side of the grass today had not Insight been there.

I wish California well, and would hope that right wing Americans for once become open-minded and not fight the solutions that are working

They desperately need it here in Northern NM. The North part of Santa Fe County and into Rio Arriba County there's a swath that has the highest per capita death by heroine OD in the US. It's been here for generations and grandparents are shooting up with their grandchildren its been here so long.
 
That's what you see. They are dirty and homeless and look diseased because they are at the end of their addiction journye. They were likely neighbors like yours when they started that journey.

The cycle looks like this. Mr. A down the street has an accident and requires pain killers. They give him some morphine based product like oxycontin, and when that effect started fade, they stepped up to over the counter but illegally sold drugs, than on to the street ****. I have met or been in the same room with addicts for the last 27 years, and not one of them ever chose to get hooked.

Lastly, addiction is a disease, your comments not withstanding they are not garbage as you imply. Maybe that's why the United States leads the industrialized world in drug use.

I don't think of them as garbage. I think I can't trust them and trust is my number one relationship ingredient. Be it friendship, love, work... whatever. I get bothered when I'm being lied to and addicts at that point in their addiction will say anyting at all to try and seperate you from your money or your possessions it seems. However, if someone tells me they are hungry and they aren't near food place.. I instantly call bs. If they say they are hungry and are next to a mcdonalds or such, I offer to buy them food. About 50% of the time they take me up on it and I oblige.

I know I'm not angel on the topic and could be better minded about it... I'll work on it.
 
How quaint, you make a statement and you think that overrides actual statistics.

How quaint, you still think marijuana is a gateway drug.
 
They don't prevent ODs. They merely have a better response time to the OD if the patient happens to be in the place.

Its about overdose deaths.
 
You still haven't explained how drug abusers are any more dangerous than anyone else who leads an unhealthy lifestyle.

Well, people don't normally get high on pork chops or hot dogs, but a guy high on PCP a few months ago was trying to decapitate another man until he was shot to death by a police officer. Does that qualify?
 
Well, people don't normally get high on pork chops or hot dogs, but a guy high on PCP a few months ago was trying to decapitate another man until he was shot to death by a police officer. Does that qualify?

Ah, you're all for the reintroduction of alcohol Prohibition?
 
Well, people don't normally get high on pork chops or hot dogs, but a guy high on PCP a few months ago was trying to decapitate another man until he was shot to death by a police officer. Does that qualify?

Pretty sure murder is illegal whether you're high on pcp or not. Has anyone NOT high on pcp ever committed attempted murder?
 
Ah, you're all for the reintroduction of alcohol Prohibition?

He was asked to explain how drug abusers were any more dangerous than anyone else who leads an unhealthy lifestyle. A reasonable person would conclude that someone trying to cut your head off is pretty dangerous, but the rule still applies to an alcohol abuser. I wouldn't want to get on an airplane flown by a drunk pilot any more than one high on crank, blow, or horse. I wouldn't worry as much about a fat pilot, even though he could drop dead of a heart attack at 36,000 feet.
 
Pretty sure murder is illegal whether you're high on pcp or not. Has anyone NOT high on pcp ever committed attempted murder?

Yes, but someone whacked out and delusional on PCP or LSD isn't going to trouble himself with the law. At least you have a chance with the fat guy.
 
He was asked to explain how drug abusers were any more dangerous than anyone else who leads an unhealthy lifestyle. A reasonable person would conclude that someone trying to cut your head off is pretty dangerous, but the rule still applies to an alcohol abuser. I wouldn't want to get on an airplane flown by a drunk pilot any more than one high on crank, blow, or horse. I wouldn't worry as much about a fat pilot, even though he could drop dead of a heart attack at 36,000 feet.

Again, I'm pretty sure even if drugs were legal it would still be illegal to Pilot a jet airliner while high on drugs. What does any of that have to do with the Draconian practice of putting drug addicts in prison?
 
Again, I'm pretty sure even if drugs were legal it would still be illegal to Pilot a jet airliner while high on drugs. What does any of that have to do with the Draconian practice of putting drug addicts in prison?

I would put them in treatment first. If that didn't work, then I'd lock them up, where at least they couldn't rob people or commit burglaries to get money to support their habits. It would also put a dent in street demand for illicit drugs. Giving them a "safe space" to get high is lunacy, but about what I expect from what passes for progressives these days. Even Karl Marx couldn't have dreamt that one up.
 
I would put them in treatment first. If that didn't work, then I'd lock them up, where at least they couldn't rob people or commit burglaries to get money to support their habits. It would also put a dent in street demand for illicit drugs. Giving them a "safe space" to get high is lunacy, but about what I expect from what passes for progressives these days. Even Karl Marx couldn't have dreamt that one up.

Locking them up hasn't worked, despite over a century of trying it.

It hasn't put a dent in street demand.

But not knowing history is part and parcel prohibitionist stupidity and irrationality.
 
Drugs are a blight to humanity as old as time itself, neither prohibition or enabling will work. You give a junkie a place to shoot up and think at some point you can convince them to quit? That is not going to work but on a tiny, tiny fraction.

I don't know what the answer is, but either option is not good.
There has to be very real life consequences to get thru to a junkie, watching friends around you drop dead is one way.

Prison is not much of a deterent.
 
I've read about how well this has worked in Vancouver. I sure hope it does well in California. It drives down HIV, and Hepatitis cases. Saves more money from not imprisoning them than the program costs. And they aren't shooting up just anywhere. So the needles given to them are clean and the needles they use are disposed of properly. I hope it passes.

Bill Proposes Safe Houses For Illegal Drug Users

Safe houses where heroin and other illegal drug users can access sterile supplies and be under the supervision of a doctor are a step closer to reality in California.

Assembly Bill 186 by Assemblywoman Susan Eggman, D-Stockton, would establish facilities in eight California counties where people could use controlled substances under the supervision of staff trained to prevent overdoses and refer people to drug treatments and housing.

“We are in the midst of an epidemic, and this bill will grant us another tool to fight it – to provide better access to services like treatment and counseling, to better protect public health and safety, and to save lives,” Eggman said in a statement.

The idea is modeled after a site in Canada, where people can use drugs like heroin with sterile supplies and a doctor standing by. The Vancouver facility claims it has prevented 6,400 overdoses in 13 years and placed more than 4,500 people into treatment.​

Except it doesn't work, the lower mainland of BC sees up to 1000 opioid OD deaths a year, their OD deaths are increasing and far in excess of comparable US figures. Very few, as few as one in 13 users seek the treatment services and if you've ever been to the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver (I have) it's like a freakin favela. It doesn't help users at all

Not to mention new varieties of nalaxone resistant opioids are now being sold so medical supervision won't even help you soon
 
Except it doesn't work, the lower mainland of BC sees up to 1000 opioid OD deaths a year, their OD deaths are increasing and far in excess of comparable US figures. Very few, as few as one in 13 users seek the treatment services and if you've ever been to the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver (I have) it's like a freakin favela. It doesn't help users at all

Not to mention new varieties of nalaxone resistant opioids are now being sold so medical supervision won't even help you soon

Except it does work. People don't die in the safe houses. OD deaths drop. Not to mention that it drops HIV and HepC transmission. So it works and works well. You seem to want it to cure all illnesses magically or else it's a failure. It has huge benefits for society.
 
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