One politician’s solution to the overdose problem: Let addicts die

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/06/28/a-
council-members-solution-to-his-ohio-towns-overdose-problem-let-addicts-
die/?utm_term=.b27a0135bda2

Under a plan by a city council member in Ohio, people who dial 911 seeking
help for someone who's overdosing on opioids may start hearing something
new from dispatchers: “No.”

In response to the opioid epidemic that swept the nation — including the
small city of Middletown, population 50,000 — council member Dan Picard
has floated an idea that has been called more of “a cry of frustration”
than a legitimate solution.

At a council meeting last week, Picard proposed a three-strikes-style
policy for people who repeatedly overdose: Too many overdoses and
authorities wouldn't send an ambulance to resuscitate them.

Picard told The Washington Post that he sympathizes with anyone who has
lost someone to drug abuse, but said that responding to an ever-increasing
number of overdose calls threatens to bleed his city dry.

“It’s not a proposal to solve the drug problem,” Picard said this week.
“My proposal is in regard to the financial survivability of our city. If
we’re spending $2 million this year and $4 million next year and $6
million after that, we’re in trouble. We’re going to have to start laying
off. We're going to have to raise taxes.”

Across the country, opioids killed more than 33,000 people in 2015, more
than any year on record, according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.

The epidemic is ravaging populations across racial and socioeconomic
lines, according to The Post's Joel Achenbach and Dan Keating. Spurred by
overdoses, the death rate for Americans rose 8 percent between 2010 and
2015.

And Ohio and other Rust Belt states are at the center of the epidemic.
Opioid-related deaths in Ohio jumped from 296 in 2003 to 2,590 in 2015 — a
775 percent jump, according to the Ohio Department of Health.

There's also an economic toll: One study estimated that the cost of the
prescription drug opioid epidemic costs American society $78.5 billion.

[VIDEO: Users of opioid painkillers often grapple with risking addiction
or living with pain]

In Middletown, it costs $1,104 to send paramedics to an overdose scene to
dispense a dose of the drug Narcan, according to a report provided to city
council members that Picard quoted from. Narcan, also known as Naloxone,
is a medication that can reverse the results of an opioid overdose.
Increasingly, first responders like paramedics and firefighters are
carrying the drug for overdosing addicts they encounter.

There are also hospital costs and expenses associated with the police
response.

So far in 2017, Middletown paramedics have made 598 overdose runs, a 300
percent increase from this point last year.

The city has spent more than $2 million responding to overdoses, nearly 10
percent of what it collects annually in tax revenue, said Picard, who has
been a council member for nearly eight years but won't be running for
election when his term ends this year.

Picard's plan calls for the city to issue a summons to people who overdose
on illegal drugs. It would also require them to do community service if
convicted. Punishments would double after a second conviction.

The proposal also calls for the city to create a database of overdose
victims who paramedics have responded to.

“We'll have that list and when we get a call, the dispatcher will ask who
is the person who has overdosed,” Picard said. “And if it's someone who
has already been provided services twice, we'll advise them that we're not
going to provide further services — and we will not send out an
ambulance.”

An addict, he told the Journal-News, “obviously doesn’t care much about
his life, but he’s expending a lot of resources, and we can’t afford it. …
I want to send a message to the world that you don’t want to come to
Middletown to overdose because someone might not come with Narcan and save
your life. We need to put a fear about overdosing in Middletown.”

He told The Post that a decision to not save repeat overdosers would be
one of many that communities make about how much care they'll provide to
dying people.

“If you have a toothache and you call Middletown, we’re not coming,” he
said. “For your heart attack, we’re not going to do the stint or your
bypass. Decisions have been made about what services we’re going to
provide. We need to make a decision about overdoses.”

[As opioid overdoses rise, police officers become counselors, doctors and
social workers]

Picard said the city manager is waiting for the legal department to give
an opinion about whether Middletown can deny service to repeat overdosers.

Other council members did not respond to requests for comment. Neither did
Middletown's fire chief, who is in charge of paramedic services.

Daniel Raymond, the deputy director of the Harm Reduction Coalition, which
advocates for polices that reduce the human consequences of activities
such as drug use, said he was “disappointed,” noting that Picard's plan is
insulting to the families of people struggling with drug addiction.

“Ohio is an epicenter of the heroin epidemic … and you can empathize with
the frustration, but not with this type of solution,” Raymond told The
Post.

Picard said most of the people overdosing in his city are transients who
don't live in Middletown, which is located between Cincinnati and Dayton.

Solutions, Picard told The Post, require out-of-the-box thinking.

Still, he said he has received dozens of angry emails, phone calls and
Facebook messages as news of his proposal spread. But he said his worst
critics don't understand how bad the heroin problem has gotten in his
community — with no sign of abating.

For example, he spent Tuesday defending his proposal to reporters and
television cameras and was waiting for one to arrive at his house when he
said he noticed something suspicious: “I saw two cars on opposite sides of
the street and one pulled up to the other. One pulled out money, another
pulled out a baggie, and they swapped drugs right there.”

Good idea. Kill off the addicts and the market will dry up. No more drug
problem.

--
Donald J. Trump, 304 electoral votes to 227, defeated compulsive liar in
denial Hillary Rodham Clinton on December 19th, 2016. The clown car
parade of the democrat party has run out of gas.

Congratulations President Trump. Thank you for ending the disaster of the
Obama presidency.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp.

ObamaCare is a total 100% failure and no lie that can be put forth by its
supporters can dispute that.

Obama jobs, the result of ObamaCare. 12-15 working hours a week at minimum
wage, no benefits and the primary revenue stream for ObamaCare. It can't
be funded with money people don't have, yet liberals lie about how great
it is.

Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $20 trillion in the eight
years he was in office, and sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood queer
liberal democrat donors.

[Nomen Nescio]

In article <XnsA7A48C3A69...@0.0.0.1>
"Leroy N. Soetoro" <leroys...@bho-rejected.com> wrote:
>
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/06/28/a-
> council-members-solution-to-his-ohio-towns-overdose-problem-let-addicts-
> die/?utm_term=.b27a0135bda2
>