
Nearly every major city across the United States has been affected by a wave of heroin abuse and overdoses in recent years, but none have responded with the radical but proven approach that Seattle-area officials now plan to take.
A county-level heroin task force recommended Thursday that the city and surrounding municipalities open places where addicts can inject or smoke opioids without fear of arrest and with access to clean needles and treatment.
After unveiling a 99-page report on the subject, which outlined the myriad public health benefits from similar experiments elsewhere in the world, King County Executive Dow Constantine told reporters why he decided to endorse "safe consumption" sites.
"If this is a strategy that saves lives, if there are people who are going to die if we do not do this," he said, "then regardless of the political discomfort, I think it is something we have to move forward with."
Nearly every key local official and agency is on board with the plan, including Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, who reportedly did not say precisely when or where the facilities would open, but vowed to fight the potential "blowback" at the neighborhood level.
Lindsay LaSalle, a senior staff attorney at the Drug Policy Alliance, said that while cities such as New York, Boston, San Francisco, and Baltimore have all inched in the same direction with harm reduction programs, Seattle is the first to fully commit to establishing supervised injection sites.
"It's thrilling," LaSalle said. "The support of someone like a mayor is pretty groundbreaking."
Heroin and illicit opioid use will still technically be illegal at the facilities, but police and prosecutors are willing to stop arresting people there and pressing charges. It's the same principal that led to the establishment of syringe exchanges, which are now fairly common across the US. But while some syringe swaps have what LaSalle called "an active bathroom," where users are tacitly allowed to get high, this will the first local government to sanction use.
Related: Severe opioid addicts can now get heroin prescriptions in Canada
"It's just an exercise of discretion we see law enforcement make all the time," said Patricia Sully, a member of the task force and a staff attorney at Seattle's Public Defender Association. "The public health authority has the power to operate a facility like this as a public health emergency measure."
The argument for safe spaces is that it's better for both users and the public to have addicts injecting indoors in a place where they won't die, rather than in a high-risk place like a park, alley, sidewalk, or indoors alone. In addition to providing sterile needles, staff members at safe injection sites typically carry the overdose antidote naloxone.
Just a few hours north of Seattle in Vancouver, British Columbia is Insite, North America's first and only supervised injection facility. Insite has seen its guests inject more than 3 million doses of street drugs since it opened in 2003, according to spokesperson Anna Marie D'Angelo, and it has not had a single fatal overdose. Insite also works closely with Vancouver's police, D'Angelo said.
"They'll put out resources saying 'There's a bad batch, go to Insite, don't inject alone,'" she said. "There's a partnership."
Related: America's new deadliest drug is fentanyl
But as advocates like Sully point out, "supervised consumption sites don't exist to prevent just overdoses." Insite visitors are offered comprehensive medical care under Canada's public health system, and, beyond reducing fatal overdoses in Vancouver by nearly 10 percent, the program reversed what one researcher called "the most explosive epidemic of HIV infection that had been observed outside of sub-Saharan Africa." British Columbia now has one of Canada's lowest HIV infection rates.
Seattle is expected to place its facilities at locations where users can already access rehab programs, clean syringes, and basic health care. A recent survey of Washington syringe exchange participants found that 75 percent were interested in getting help reducing or stopping their use, but only 14 percent were enrolled in treatment. The city and nearby areas saw 132 overdose deaths last year, a slight decrease from 2014 but still way up from 49 opioid-related deaths just five years prior.
The supervised consumption sites in Seattle aren't being pitched as a panacea the heroin task force report suggests a comprehensive approach that includes county-wide expansions of treatment and prevention programs but the Drug Policy Alliance's LaSalle says that if the facilities prove successful, they could catch on nationwide.
Related: Here's how zero-tolerance drug policies have damaged public health worldwide
The mayor of Ithaca, New York proposed opening injection facilities earlier this year, but his plan has faced resistance from some local officials and state lawmakers. Opponents claim giving addicts a place to get their fix will only lead to more drug use, but research from Vancouver's Insite has shown this fear to be largely unfounded.
"It seems like a really radical idea, but we need to help people to understand that it's an incremental step," LaSalle said. "[Users] are already going to exchanges to get clean needles, [but] they're still walking out the door and using somewhere. It makes a lot of sense both medically and politically to reduce all the nuisances around public injection. You improve public safety, and there's all these health benefits for the users themselves."
Follow Keegan Hamilton on Twitter: @keegan_hamilton
Poster Comment:
#13: misterwhite To: hondo68 (#0)
They're not saving lives. They're merely postponing deaths.
Besides, is this the best use of taxpayer dollars -- saving the lives of heroin addicts? How about using that money to save the lives of innocent children from abusive parents?
And what about those who say, "Drug use only affects the user and should, therefore, be legal"? Looks like it affects the taxpayers, too, when the bleeding heart liberals get involved.
misterwhite posted on 2016-10-07 09:49:03 Reply Private Reply
#14: misterwhite To: Roscoe (#12)
I thought that was where they were building the new LGBT community centers.
misterwhite posted on 2016-10-07 09:52:08 Reply Private Reply
#15: Justified To: ConservingFreedom (#10)
No such animals. Heroin addicts are either pre-addicts or active addicts. There is no refraining from heroin accept through market forces(price & availability).
I guess my thought is I know progressives. Once its established they will say hey we can not have them come here and beg for money, steal or prostitute so they can get high. We must prove safe clean needles and drugs.
Justified posted on 2016-10-07 09:56:44 Reply Private Reply
#16: misterwhite To: ConservingFreedom (#7)
Of course not. Not right away. That's not how liberals work. Citizens would object.
But they will give away heroin when addicts become sick or die from the contaminated heroin they bring with them. Plus, they'll proclaim, free heroin at the clinic eliminates the crimes committed to purchase the heroin on the street.
That has been the experience of the heroin clinics in foreign countries. Then again, those are socialist countries, so this program fits right in.
misterwhite posted on 2016-10-07 10:24:15 Reply Private Reply
#17: misterwhite To: ConservingFreedom (#10)
So you're asking if more people would use heroin if it was safer to use. Sure they would.
"However, several sources indicate an increase in new, young users across the country who are being lured by inexpensive, high-purity heroin that can be sniffed or smoked instead of injected."
You knew that, right? Yet you asked the question anyways. Typical troll.
misterwhite posted on 2016-10-07 10:37:03 Reply Private Reply
#18: nolu chan To: ConservingFreedom, Justified, redleghunter, Gatlin, misterwhite (#10)
Yeah, treat it like it was a mob racket. They took the numbers racket and turned it into a government program to benefit education. They can turn the pushers into government civil service workers and tax the stuff to assist with Obamacare. They can even have Obamacare provide free counseling for parents whose child turns of age and has a legal right to go to the government shooting gallery. The parent cannot intervene without violating the addict's right to use heroin.
Of course, the government facility must ensure the quality of the smack or face liability claims, so it will have to step in and regulate the manufacturing and distribution of the stuff. And before we know it, the junkies will buy their government approved smack with their EBT card, paid for by the taxpayer. Because everyone has a right to free college, free health care, and free heroin.
What jobs are heroin addicts eligible to have, and capable of keeping? How do they make the money to support their habit?
Does the right to use, and be addicted to heroin, come with a free house and food?
Does an addict's right to use heroin extend to a pregnant woman shooting up at a government-sponsored "safe" injection site?
http://libertysflame.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=48095&Disp=7#C7
How is it "safe" to shoot up heroin bought off the street?
Does shooting up at a government sponsored shooting gallery make it safe?
http://libertysflame.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=48095&Disp=10#C10
What addict has ever refrained from shooting up because he lacked a "safe" injection site?
Because a state-sponsored shooting gallery would be a criminal enterprise under Federal law, it would invite Federal charges against all involved, including government officials and those at the "safe" sites.
http://libertysflame.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=48095
No, it is not an exercise of discretion. It is a Federal crime.
Gonzales v. Raich 545 U.S. 1 (2005) at 14:
United States v. McIntosh, 15-10117 (9th Cir. 16 Aug 2016)
Footnote 5 at 32-33:
The same goes for every controlled substance, including heroin.
nolu chan posted on 2016-10-07 13:29:22 Reply Private Reply
#19: ConservingFreedom To: Justified (#15)
I'm not talking about heroin addicts or even heroin users. I'm talking about people who have refrained from heroin use (NOT users, NOT addicts) only because of the previous lack of safe injection sites ... the people on whose existence in substantial numbers your statement "Im seeing a major disaster heading their way" logically depends.
ConservingFreedom posted on 2016-10-07 13:53:35 Reply Private Reply
#20: ConservingFreedom To: misterwhite (#16)
Then those users Justified was talking about will be waiting for quite a while. Hope they bring magazines or some knitting with them.
ConservingFreedom posted on 2016-10-07 13:55:51 Reply Private Reply
#21: ConservingFreedom To: misterwhite (#14)
That would be hilarious!
ConservingFreedom posted on 2016-10-07 13:57:30 Reply Private Reply
#22: ConservingFreedom To: misterwhite (#17)
So your theory is that there are a substantial number of people who have been thinking they'd like to become homeless, helpless, worthless bums ... if only there were safe injections sites to shoot up at?"
No evidence that this is about "safety" rather than an instinctual aversion to needles.
You knew that, right? Yet you dragged in the red herring anyways. Typical troll.
ConservingFreedom posted on 2016-10-07 14:01:27 Reply Private Reply
#23: Justified To: ConservingFreedom (#19)
I think that is a mute point. Either you are a users/addict or not. Will people run up there that have never used heroin and start using because its a safe haven. No. What you will have is many junkies go up there because they will not be harassed.
Is that clearer?
Justified posted on 2016-10-07 14:06:49 Reply Private Reply
#24: ConservingFreedom To: nolu chan (#18)
So we should ban everything we don't want the government to give away for free?
I didn't invent the term; I agree that clean needles still leave heroin use dangerous.
Exactly my point - since the absence of "safe" injection sites didn't decrease heroin use, their presence won't increase it.
ConservingFreedom posted on 2016-10-07 14:07:33 Reply Private Reply
#25: ConservingFreedom To: Justified (#23)
I agree - so why are you "seeing a major disaster heading their way"?
ConservingFreedom posted on 2016-10-07 14:09:34 Reply Private Reply
#26: Justified To: ConservingFreedom (#25)
Because I see half the junkie population going there because its a safe zone for junkies. They will have no job or the ability to hold job. Which means stealing and prostitution. Then I see progressives saying we have to help these people by providing clean needles and clean drugs.
Justified posted on 2016-10-07 14:18:40 Reply Private Reply
#27: misterwhite To: ConservingFreedom (#22)
I'm saying there are a number of people who have been thinking they'd like to try heroin if it was safer and consequence-free.
"No evidence that this is about "safety" rather than an instinctual aversion to needles."
Just as there is no evidence that this is about an "instinctual aversion to needles" rather than about safety.
misterwhite posted on 2016-10-07 14:24:38 Reply Private Reply
#28: ConservingFreedom To: misterwhite (#27)
Using heroin will never be consequence-free - for reasons that matter much more to any remotely sane person than does needle hygiene.
Exactly my point: it proves nothing.
ConservingFreedom posted on 2016-10-07 14:28:18 Reply Private Reply
#29: ConservingFreedom To: Justified (#26)
Ah, so by "their" you meant the vicinities of the 'safe consumption' sites rather than the city as a whole. Sure, the sites will attract some users from elsewhere in the city ... but the greater the number of sites, the less the impact at each one. Also, police can be redeployed accordingly. I'm not seeing a "major disaster."
ConservingFreedom posted on 2016-10-07 14:32:05 Reply Private Reply
#30: misterwhite To: ConservingFreedom (#28)
Or it proves both.
misterwhite posted on 2016-10-07 14:49:42 Reply Private Reply
#31: nolu chan To: ConservingFreedom (#24)
Son, the government does not give away anything for FREE. Somebody PAYS for it. I'm not interested in paying for your drugs or drug-related expenses. If you can't pay for your own habit, quit. If you steal to pay for your habit, prison. There is no right to be a junkie on the government tit. You should rehandle as ConservingLiberalism. Your tagline can be "Free drugs for everybody."
You are the one who used the impossible to be true term.
You are the one who supports the establishment of state government sponsored shooting galleries for unsafe injection of heroin. Heroin is not only unsafe, it is deadly. We have no plague of elderly lifelong heroin addicts. Lifelong for a heroin addict just isn't that long.
Government subsidizing of anything increases consumption. Government sponsorship of heroin use will increase its use. Your tortured logic appears to come from an addled brain.
Some of the points you hid from:
If the government sponsors a shooting gallery, at what age do children have a right to shoot up heroin?
When is the parents' right to intervene overcome by the child's right to use heroin?
Do pregnant women have the right to shoot up heroin at a state sponsored shooting gallery?
If the government sponsors heroin use, and heroin addiction, who pays the living expenses for the addicts?
What possible defense would any participant have to Federal criminal charges?
United States v. McIntosh, 15-10117 (9th Cir. 16 Aug 2016)
Footnote 5 at 32-33:
While the CSA remains in effect, states cannot actually authorize the manufacture, distribution, or possession of marijuana, heroin, or any other controlled substance.
nolu chan posted on 2016-10-07 15:34:10 Reply Private Reply
#32: nolu chan To: ConservingFreedom, misterwhite (#22)
More people would remain homeless, helpless, worthless addicted bums if encouraged to use state sponsored shooting galleries to continue their addiction until they die.
nolu chan posted on 2016-10-07 15:41:09 Reply Private Reply
#33: ConservingFreedom To: nolu chan (#31)
YOUR word not mine.
I used the common (albeit inaccurate) term for something - what of it?
You're contradicting you previous statement - do let me know when you make up your mind.
ConservingFreedom posted on 2016-10-07 16:11:43 Reply Private Reply
#34: ConservingFreedom To: nolu chan (#32)
Provide evidence that any junkies quit because of lack of state sponsored shooting galleries.
ConservingFreedom posted on 2016-10-07 16:13:39 Reply Private Reply
#35: Roscoe To: ConservingFreedom (#34)
Junkies quit when they OD for the last time.
Roscoe posted on 2016-10-07 16:17:22 Reply Private Reply
#36: nolu chan To: ConservingFreedom (#33)
Meaningless. You want to give away FREE shit that other people pay for. Rehandle as ConservingLiberslism.
You use inaccurate terms for everything. In other words, you constantly try to bullshit the reader.
Unscramble your drug addled brain.
Addicts do not refrain from shooting up because they lack a "safe" injection site. They are addicts.
When government subsidizes something, consumption of that something increases.
Those statements do not conflict or contradict each other.
And what you continue to hide from:
What possible defense would any participant have to Federal criminal charges?
United States v. McIntosh, 15-10117 (9th Cir. 16 Aug 2016)
Footnote 5 at 32-33:
While the CSA remains in effect, states cannot actually authorize the manufacture, distribution, or possession of marijuana, heroin, or any other controlled substance.
Don't run and hide, child. Step up to the plate and take responsibility for the alligator mouth that overloaded your canary ass.
Do pregnant women have a right to shoot up at one of your state-sponsored inspirational shooting galleries?
What is your possible defense to a federal bust?
nolu chan posted on 2016-10-07 16:46:58 Reply Private Reply
#37: ConservingFreedom To: nolu chan (#36)
False.
Witless blather.
From which it would follow that in the absence of a subsidy consumption is less than it would otherwise be - yet you say the opposite in your first sentence.
I'm under no obligation to play 20-stupid-questions with you.
Stupid question - nobody here endorses heroin use or addiction.
Of course not - another stupid question.
Stupid question - nobody has a "right" to use the site; the issue is whether turning away or arresting pregnant women who show up at the site has a good or bad outcome. Once the word gets out and pregnant addicts avoid the sites and shoot up where they always did, is that better or worse for their babies?
Stupid question - the sites confer no "right" to use heroin.
Same as the age for using the deadly addictive drug alcohol, I suppose.
Stupid question - the sites are not sponsoring heroin use or heroin addiction.
Stupid question - to refrain from arresting a user is not to authorize the manufacture, distribution, or possession of heroin.
ConservingFreedom posted on 2016-10-07 17:05:45 Reply Private Reply
#38: nolu chan To: ConservingFreedom (#34)
Unscramble your drug addled brain.
Addicted junkies do not quit because of a lack of state sponsored shooting galleries. Addicts look for their next fix wherever they can get it.
[nolu chan #18] What addict has ever refrained from shooting up because he lacked a "safe" injection site?
Read it again. Where does your bullshit question come from?
What you are avoiding:
Come on, you little weasel. Deny it. You would just keep them addicted until they die.
They develop tolerance and need more and more to achieve the same effect. They destroy various body organs in the process. They die young.
In one of the less glorious aspects of being a junkie, heroin is a very powerful anti-diarrhea medication. Junkies get to suffer fecal impactions. They may help each other in pairs at manual removal. Perhaps you could volunteer to help a junkie out.
nolu chan posted on 2016-10-07 17:26:28 Reply Private Reply
#39: ConservingFreedom To: nolu chan (#38)
Exactly my point: the number of those who remain homeless, helpless, worthless addicted bums has nothing to do with state sponsored shooting galleries.
ConservingFreedom posted on 2016-10-07 17:44:03 Reply Private Reply
#40: nolu chan To: ConservingFreedom (#37)
You are the first to give government goods and services for free. You must tell everyone how the government provides good and services for free and nobody pays anything. And, while you are at it, you could rehandle to ConservingLiberalism.
Is that what you want to call your bullshit? Witless blather? Ok. You use witless blather for everything. I would say terminological inexactitudes, but Winston Churchill objects from the grave.
Your response is that of a doper asshole without an answer.
Your logic is obviously drug addled.
When government subsidizes something, consumption of that something increases.
Addicts do not refrain from shooting up because they lack a "safe" injection site. They are addicts.
One does not contradict the other.
Your response is that of a doper asshole with not answers. As we know, it you had answers, you would jump at the opportunity to serve one up.
You endorse and encourage the continued addition of addicts until they die. There are no elderly lifelong heroin addicts.
As you encourage continued addiction at state-sponsored shooting galleries, how the junkie gets the money to pay for his smack is not a stupid question. Is he supposed to hold a job? Is he supposed to steal? Or is he supposed to be given free money to buy heroin?
Your response is that of a doper asshole without an answer.
You encourage junkies to continue their addiction at state-sponsored shooting galleries until they die.
How is a junkie supposed to support himself? The really messed up junkie is as close as we come to the walkers on The Walking Dead. And that is alright with you. They should continue that existence with as government sponsorship.
As the government would sponsor lifelong addiction, what would it do about the housing and food needs of the sponsored addict?
Your response is that of a doper asshole without an answer.
Who is permitted entry into the state-sponsored shooting gallery for the purpose of shooting up heroin?
Is this a public facility whose access is governed by equal rights laws?
Is there any criteria whatever for who gets to shoot up at a state-sponsored shooting gallery?
Your response is that of a doper asshole without an answer.
So, when the child turns 21, the parents can no longer seek intervention.
I have known old drunks, but have never known an old heroin addict. They do not live to get old.
Your response is that of a doper asshole.
The state-sponsored shooting galleries would be perpetuating the drug addiction of the addicts. They must support their habit and pay for living expenses somehow. As you encourage their continued, state-sponsored addiction until death, how do they pay the bills? Do they hold down a job that pays the bills, do they steal, do they engage in prostitution? Or do you give them someone else's money to pay for their smack?
Your response is that of a doper asshole.
Your response is that of a doper asshole.
To establish a state-sponsored shooting gallery is a federal crime.
The possession of heroin is a federal crime.
You did not answer the question of what possible defense would anyone involved have to a federal prosecution.
A government strong enough to impose current federal standards did exactly that it imposed those federal standards on every Federal jurisdiction in the nation, and that includes all 50 states.
That government is strong enough to change those standards. It has NOT done so.
What possible defense would any participant have to Federal criminal charges? Heroin is contraband.
United States v. McIntosh, 15-10117 (9th Cir. 16 Aug 2016)
Footnote 5 at 32-33:
While the CSA remains in effect, state cannot actually authorize the manufacture, distribution, or possession of marijuana, heroin, or any other controlled substance.
Opening a state-sponsored shooting gallery is a federal crime as set forth in 21 U.S.C. § 856.
http://law.justia.com/codes/us/2014/title-21/chapter-13/subchapter-i/part-d/sec.-856/
See also, 21 U.S.C. § 848, Continuing Criminal Enterprise
nolu chan posted on 2016-10-07 18:44:20 Reply Private Reply
#41: nolu chan To: ConservingFreedom, A K A Stone (#37)
So, you are going to have a state-sponsored shooting gallery that no one has the right to use.
And how would you know if a woman who shows up to shoot up is pregnant? What will you do? Ask a junkie? Give them all a pregnancy test?
You would knowingly take a pregnant woman in to shoot up?
And you think that could possibly have a good outcome?
Yes, you would knowingly have a state-sponsored shooting gallery take in a pregnant woman to shoot up heroin.
Because your drug-addled brain thinks that would be better for her baby.
You are one sick puppy.
Your response is that of a doper asshole.
nolu chan posted on 2016-10-07 18:48:36 Reply Private Reply
#42: Hondo68 To: nolu chan, scofflaw, Bill of Attainder, US Constitution, Corruption of Blood, inocent unborn baby, ConservingFreedom, A K A Stone (#41)
You would work "corruption of blood", Bill of Attainder, against an innocent unborn child, and punish them for the sins of their mother! This could very well be fatal for the child, as well as the mother.
What's the difference between you and an abortionist?
Hondo68 posted on 2016-10-07 19:50:30 Reply Private Reply
#43: Justified To: ConservingFreedom (#29)
Sounds like Bush when he said they would welcome us in and the rest of the ME would love us.
I see every junkie that has the ability to move will move there. When they can not find work they will start steal or start prostituting themselves. When that doesn't work well enough because like a college town you can never find a job because everyone there is looking for the same job they will spread out. Hard drug junkies are not the same as normal druggies such as pot smokers and cocaine freaks. Its all about the high and doing whatever it takes to get high again.
But hey its not my town so go for it!!!! ;)
Justified posted on 2016-10-07 20:28:42 Reply Private Reply
#44: nolu chan To: hondo68 (#42)
You do not know what the hell you are talking about and should not try to use legal terms you do not understand. It only makes you look ridiculous.
I would never consider enabling a pregnant woman to shoot up with heroin.
You scumbag druggies are like an abortionist in that you value no life but your own.
Even if the baby survives to birth, and is lucky enough not to have birth defects, he or she will certainly be born addicted to heroin. Way to go shitbag.
I would have your expectant baby mama taken into custody for child endangerment, and keep her there until the child is born.
You would take her to a shooting gallery to shoot up with heroin.
And that is the difference between me and an abortionist.
nolu chan posted on 2016-10-07 22:35:12 Reply Private Reply
#45: nolu chan To: ConservingFreedom (#39)
You only prove that druggies can rationalize anything.
More people would remain homeless, helpless, worthless addicted bums if encouraged to use state sponsored shooting galleries to continue their addiction until they die.
That's what you would do. You would encourage them to stay addicted until they die.
Come on, you little weasel. Deny it. You would just keep them addicted until they die.
And you would knowingly have a state-sponsored shooting gallery take in a pregnant woman to shoot up heroin, druggie rationalizing that would be better for the baby than taking the expectant mother into custody. You are sick.
http://libertysflame.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=48095&Disp=41#C41
nolu chan posted on 2016-10-07 22:47:00 Reply Private Reply
#46: Hondo68 To: nolu chan, Barbary Pirate slaver, kidnapper, statist thug, false god (#44)
What's the difference between you and a Barbary Pirate slave trader?
Hondo68 posted on 2016-10-07 22:47:59 Reply Private Reply
#47: nolu chan To: hondo68 (#46)
I would not engage in the slave trade involving you or your addicted baby mama.
A Barbary Pirate might do so.
And that is the difference between me and a Barbary Pirate slaver.
nolu chan posted on 2016-10-07 22:53:09 Reply Private Reply
#48: Deckard To: nolu chan, ConservingFreedom (#45)
Why hardly anyone dies from a drug overdose in Portugal
Portugal decriminalized the use of all drugs in 2001. Weed, cocaine, heroin, you name it -- Portugal decided to treat possession and use of small quantities of these drugs as a public health issue, not a criminal one. The drugs were still illegal, of course. But now getting caught with them meant a small fine and maybe a referral to a treatment program -- not jail time and a criminal record.
Whenever we debate similar measures in the U.S. -- marijuana decriminalization, for instance -- many drug-policy makers predict dire consequences. If you make any attractive commodity available at lower cost, you will have more users," former Office of National Drug Control Policy deputy director Thomas McLellan once said of Portugal's policies. Joseph Califano, founder of the Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, once warned that decriminalization would "increase illegal drug availability and use among our children."
But in Portugal, the numbers paint a different story. The prevalence of past-year and past-month drug use among young adults has fallen since 2001, according to statistics compiled by the Transform Drug Policy Foundation, which advocates on behalf of ending the war on drugs. Overall adult use is down slightly too. And new HIV cases among drug users are way down.
Now, numbers just released from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction paint an even more vivid picture of life under decriminalization: drug overdose deaths in Portugal are the second-lowest in the European Union.
Deckard posted on 2016-10-07 22:58:15 Reply Private Reply
#49: Deckard To: nolu chan, hondo68 (#44)
Rather ironic (or is it hypocritical) for someone who worships SCOTUS to say - after all, aren't they the ones who legalized abortion in the first place?
Deckard posted on 2016-10-07 23:01:40 Reply Private Reply
#50: nolu chan To: Deckard (#48)
Eleva seu nivel de vida, caga de pé.
nolu chan posted on 2016-10-07 23:40:44 Reply Private Reply
#51: nolu chan To: Deckard (#49)
I do not worship SCOTUS but recognize their legal authority.
You, on the other hand, say that SCOTUS opinions do not matter. Are you being ironic or hypocritical?
nolu chan posted on 2016-10-07 23:44:08 Reply Private Reply
#52: buckeroo To: nolu chan (#51)
There was this "under the US Constitution" thingy for the US Supreme Court. But you regard the Supremes as the interpreter of US Constitution. You are pretty weird.
buckeroo posted on 2016-10-08 00:33:08 Reply Private Reply
#53: Deckard To: nolu chan (#51)
You recognize their right to make it legal for women to murder their unborn children, as well as their denying the use of medical cannabis to thoise who have found that it is a viable medical alternative.
You (and the DEA) claim there are no medical benefits yet you will not allow any research.
Like I said, the days of federal over-reach into the affairs of the individual states are numbered.
Your life will be meaningless when that happens.
Deckard posted on 2016-10-08 00:44:01 Reply Private Reply
#54: Deckard To: nolu chan (#50)
Oh - Latin?
I am so impressed! < / sarcasm >
Once again, you refuse to consider successful alternatives to the current War on Drugs which in case you haven't noticed is a trillion dollar failure.
I think I got you figured out - you're a prosecuting attorney specializing in drug cases.
No wonder you're such an obnoxious and unthinking little prick.
When the drug war ends (and it will) you'll have to go back to ambulance chasing you spineless little shyster
Deckard posted on 2016-10-08 00:57:04 Reply Private Reply
#55: redleghunter To: hondo68 (#2)
But government is sponsoring this addiction and providing a nice comfortable setting to shoot up.
There's a big difference between letting people destroy themselves in the privacy of their abode and the government providing endorsement and aid to their demise.
redleghunter posted on 2016-10-08 03:30:48 Reply Private Reply
#56: ConservingFreedom To: nolu chan (#40)
Liar. Produce the evidence.
ConservingFreedom posted on 2016-10-08 14:07:16 Reply Private Reply
#57: ConservingFreedom To: nolu chan (#41)
They will often be permitted to use it, while not having a right to insist - just as anyone may enter my house if I allow it, but only me and my family have the right. Is this really so difficult for you to understand?
It's YOUR scenario - so it's up to YOU to tell ME. Painted yourself into a corner again.
I notice you didn't answer the question. I'll bet you never will.
I'll say it again: As a logician you're a great copy-and-paster.
ConservingFreedom posted on 2016-10-08 14:13:53 Reply Private Reply
#58: ConservingFreedom To: Justified (#43)
Ability and motivation cut the percentage way down. I'm confident that even many junkies already in Seattle won't bother themselves to change their routine and go to these sites.
ConservingFreedom posted on 2016-10-08 14:42:31 Reply Private Reply
#59: ConservingFreedom To: nolu chan (#45)
Logical consequences are not "rationalizations." You argue incoherently in support of your predetermined conclusion; have fun with that, but you'll have to play without me.
ConservingFreedom posted on 2016-10-08 14:45:50 Reply Private Reply
#60: ConservingFreedom To: Deckard, nolu chan (#54)
Galician, according to https://translate.google.com/#auto/en/Eleva%20seu%20nivel% 20de%20vida%2C%20cag a%20de%20p%C3%A9 ... which unhelpfully renders it as " Elevates your standard of living, shit standing." Which, come to think of it, is as sensible as anything nolu spam has ever posted.
ConservingFreedom posted on 2016-10-08 14:50:23 Reply Private Reply
#61: nolu chan To: buckeroo (#52)
It is astounding that a Constitimatutional scholar, such as yourself, does not recall the jurisdiction given to the Judicial branch by the Constimatution. You are a weird fellow.
Article 3, Sec. 2
nolu chan posted on 2016-10-08 15:44:25 Reply Private Reply
#62: nolu chan To: Deckard (#53)
When trapped like the little weasel that you are you fall back on your favorite tactic. You lie.
SCOTUS does not have a right to make it legal for women to murder their unborn children. Murder is a criminal offense punishable. Neither does SCOTUS have the right to establish your right to lie.
SCOTUS has the delegated power to interpret the Constitution. It has jurisdiction over cases and controversies. If a case or controversy requires an interpretation of the law, SCOTUS is lawfully empowered to do it.
Article 3, Sec. 2
That was firmly established over two centuries ago.
Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803)
nolu chan posted on 2016-10-08 15:45:15 Reply Private Reply