The Trump administration says they want to fight the opioid crisis and are considering many options to do so. But they once again showed that when it comes to the opioid crisis, they’re not actually open to all solutions, writes Joseph Misulonas.
Three U.S. cities, San Francisco, Seattle and Philadelphia, have recently opened facilities known as “drug injection sites,” which allow heroin users to inject the drug with supervision. These facilities are meant to both provide resources to addicts to get clean, but also prevent drug overdose deaths by having staff on stand-by just in case. Canada and Australia have run programs for an extended amount of time and seen successes with them.
However, the Trump administration says that it does not support these facilities and may take legal action against them.
“Supervised injection facilities, or so-called safe injection sites, violate federal law,” a DEA spokesperson told Buzzfeed. “Any facilitation of illicit drug use is considered in violation of the Controlled Substances Act and, therefore, subject to legal action.”
Studies of drug injection sites show that they reduce the number of overdose deaths in their area and do not lead to further drug abuse.
This once again shows how the Trump administration’s big talk about the opioid crisis is exactly that: talk. Despite research showing that states with medical marijuana have less opioid abuse, the administration refuses to support medicinal cannabis as an alternative to the dangerous drugs. And while they’ve pledged more money to the issue, their strategy seems to be nothing more than a slightly modernized version of the “Just Say No” campaign from the 1980’s.
Luckily the local governments running these drug injection sites say they will fight any legal action taken against them. So even if the Trump administration continues to do nothing about opioid abuse, at least state and local governments will.
credit:420intel.com
