8mo ago

‘Our children would not be dead.’ Why these moms are advocating for safe drugs.

www.csmonitor.com ‘Our children would not be dead.’ Why these moms are advocating for safe drugs.

What’s the best way to prevent overdose deaths amid a crisis of toxic opioids? In British Columbia, mothers who have lost children are advocating for a safe and regulated supply of drugs. The public does not agree. Part 2 of a series.

1 comments

This article says, without saying it, what the issue is:
Governments know this is a problem
Governments will certainly do the cheap & easy part (legalization)
Governments might do the slightly more expensive part (safe supply)
Governments won't do the expensive part (housing, treatment) because it's expensive (if you're a neoliberal) or because it's not punitive (if you're conservative)
Everyone is twitchy about the public-safety angle, so governments won't do the challenging and expensive part (humane incarceration)
Compassion fatigue is a thing, whether advocates want to admit it or not, and the community is going to need to see that their safety concerns are considered before they'll support safe supply.
tl;dr is that this is going to take a government that's willing to burn bridges, make tough choices and spend a lot of money. Unfortunately, that's rare as hens' teeth in the modern neoliberal era, where governance is all about balancing spending the least amount of money for the result that will offend everyone the least.