Ohio Has So Many Overdoses They’re Considering A Three Strike Rule

[240B]

The Daily Caller
STEVE BIRR
2:15 PM 06/28/2017


A city councilman is proposing a three strike rule for repeat heroin offenders in Ohio, requiring community service before first responders will aid in a third overdose.


Dan Picard, a councilman in Middletown, Ohio, wants the city to implement the three strike rule to save money on the community’s supply of Narcan, the overdose reversal drug. Heroin abuse is rampant in Ohio and officials in Middletown have already spent more on orders of Narcan this year than they did in all of 2016, reports WSAZ.


Picard argues that the rate of overdoses is draining the resources for the police and fire departments in the city, and says they simply cannot sustain the cost of Narcan at the current rate it’s being used. The proposal would require anyone who has been revived from two drug overdoses to complete community service before first responders will respond to a third drug overdose.


(full article)
http://dailycaller.com/2017/06/28/ohio-has-so-many-overdoses-theyre-considering-a-three-strike-rule/

[SunkenCiv]

[snip] ...for repeat heroin offenders in Ohio, requiring community service before first responders will aid in a third overdose... to save money on the community's supply of Narcan, the overdose reversal drug. Heroin abuse is rampant in Ohio and officials in Middletown have already spent more on orders of Narcan this year than they did in all of 2016, [/snip]

Gosh, it's almost as if the wide availability of Narcan is enabling behavior.  Who saw that coming?

[TomSea]

Ohio has a real problem, I posted the article about two months where an airline pilot and his wife overdosed and died. And they had lovely children per pictures with the story.  It really must be all over there. Ohio must be the epicenter of the epidemic, Kentucky and West Virginia are bad too. But more or less, it seems across the nation; if it happens in a few places a lot, tomorrow could be your state.

It's the fentanyl that heroin is cut with that is killing folks, generally speaking, fentanyl or similar substances.

Just do a news search on heroin and you see this problem in many places.

Missouri:

Judge Wood: Heroin A ‘Cancer’ in County - Taxing Resources, Taking Lives

    By Gregg Jones, Missourian Staff Writer 43 min ago (0)

Presiding Circuit Judge Gael D. Wood said he has witnessed the growing heroin epidemic play out in his courtroom every week.

Judge Wood cited strains on the community due to increased costs for law enforcement and the courts, and the growing number of overdoses.

In 2003 there were 269 drug-related charges filed in the 20th District Associate Circuit Court. In 2016 there were 1,229 — a 238 percent increase in 13 years.

http://www.emissourian.com/local_news/county/judge-wood-heroin-a-cancer-in-county---taxing/article_06e4c847-639f-57af-a2a6-d4b094f4d37a.html

And if it isn't heroin, some other states have problems with other narcotics such as methamphetamine.

[TomSea]

Here must be one of the worst of the heroin stories of the past week, Albany NY:

Police: 470 envelopes of heroin found in traffic stop

ALBANY -- An Albany woman faces multiple charges after police report finding heroin in her vehicle during a traffic stop Friday evening.

Officers stopped a vehicle on Quay Street at about 8 p.m. Friday, for a violation of vehicle and traffic law. During the stop, police say, officers discovered 470 glassine envelopes of heroin, totaling 14.3 grams, inside the vehicle.

Driver Velvet Davis was charged with two counts of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the 3rd degree.

Continued: http://cbs6albany.com/news/local/police-470-envelopes-of-heroin-found-in-traffic-stop

A lot in NJ and NY and the Eastern Seaboard; but I attribute that largely to this area being a population center.

[truth_seeker]

So highly lame people opine, heroin is the epidemic drug now, due to availability. Even doctors shoot or smoke it?

Gee, liquor stores abound all across the country. You would think people would be doing overdoses all the time, that way.

But in the case of heroin, opioids these days, uncle sugar will send you to Cadillac Obamacare "treatment," over and over.

I say once, and you are done. For those who wonder, government mandated "treatment, is NOT old fashioned hardcore AA or NA, whereby the people you harm are the victims, not the alcoholic/druggie.

It is watered down, feel good psychobabble. The user is the victim, merely needing to discover their inner selves.

[unite for individuality]

Gosh, it's almost as if the wide availability of Narcan is enabling behavior.  Who saw that coming?

Continuing drug use is NOT a choice, it's an addiction.
The first thing these drugs do is impair the user's thinking.
They keep doing the drugs not because they choose to,
but because their brain is damaged - by the drugs.
It is very rare for someone to quit drugs on their own.
Most have to be kept in custody at least partly against their will.

One thing that's been happening is,
drug users get put in jail,
and can't get any drugs for however long they're locked up.
Then they get out and use again.
They re-start at their old dosage,
which is now an overdose,
because they've been off drugs,
and have lost their tolerance.

I think that maybe in some cases, all that can be done is
put the more determined drug users in a walled ghetto
where they can't harm outsiders.
Just let them use all they want.
Nobody can be saved against their will.

Have a gate in the wall.
If anyone decides to leave,
they have to go through treatment.

[Frank Cannon]

This seems like a self correcting problem. Stop offering Narcan and let the chip land where they may.

Wanna take a hotshot? Pay the consequences.

[Smokin Joe]

So highly lame people opine, heroin is the epidemic drug now, due to availability. Even doctors shoot or smoke it?

Gee, liquor stores abound all across the country. You would think people would be doing overdoses all the time, that way.

But in the case of heroin, opioids these days, uncle sugar will send you to Cadillac Obamacare "treatment," over and over.

I say once, and you are done. For those who wonder, government mandated "treatment, is NOT old fashioned hardcore AA or NA, whereby the people you harm are the victims, not the alcoholic/druggie.

It is watered down, feel good psychobabble. The user is the victim, merely needing to discover their inner selves.

In the old days, people who wanted to quit went to AA or NA. Now court ordered people go there, with no real intention nor desire to quit, because it is a condition of their parole. If they don't go they don't get their license/freedom back. Some fail even then.

I'd wager the success rates were considerably higher among those who really wanted to quit, and would be greater even now if the programs were not infused with people by court order who don't want to.
There is no sense of mutual support for quitting in that, and it can easily go the other way.

[SunkenCiv]

Continuing drug use is NOT a choice, it's an addiction. The first thing these drugs do is impair the user's thinking. They keep doing the drugs not because they choose to, but because their brain is damaged - by the drugs. It is very rare for someone to quit drugs on their own. Most have to be kept in custody at least partly against their will. One thing that's been happening is, drug users get put in jail, and can't get any drugs for however long they're locked up.

Thanks for the lecture, I actually have worked in addiction treatment for fifteen years now. Motivations for addiction are complex, while the actual drug use is merely a habit, and starting up the first time, or starting up again, is entirely a choice, just a really lousy one. Getting drugs during long periods in incarceration is also no problem.

[unite for individuality]

Thanks for the lecture, I actually have worked in addiction treatment for fifteen years now. Motivations for addiction are complex, while the actual drug use is merely a habit, and starting up the first time, or starting up again, is entirely a choice, just a really lousy one. Getting drugs during long periods in incarceration is also no problem.

The FIRST time someone uses a drug  (and probably the next few times, too)  is indeed a choice.

Getting drugs while in jail is easy or difficult  depending on how tightly the jail or prison is run.