Prevention

Voter perception and the fear of a public relations black eye is always a motivating factor in politics.

What we really need most are substantive changes on the demand side.

It’s a real challenge for the folks on the ground to fit their reality into the prescribed format of a Federal grant.

This is in part a course correction from the trend of several decades ago, when the emphasis was on cutting expenses in the naive belief all addicts could be successfully treated on an outpatient basis.

We will have to deal with electronic smoking, which has exploded among young people even as cigarette use has declined.

We should remember that Ohio’s Republican governor had to go against the wishes of many in his own party in order to achieve this.

Not Latin American cartels or Afghan warlords, but advocates for opioid treatment of chronic pain, and pharmaceutical firms with a substantial financial interest in selling opioids.

It’s these outdated attitudes towards addictions that enable the healthcare professional to ignore important information provided by the patient. 

Traditional middle class jobs with career prospects replaced by a lower-paid, less stable workforce– perhaps more vulnerable to outside influence?

The theory is that the more users we put in jail or prison, the fewer left out on the street. So why hasn’t that substantially reduced arrest and overdose statistics?