News

23406 readers

4308 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.

2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.

Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.

5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.

6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.

7. No duplicate posts.

If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.

8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.

9. No link shorteners.

The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.

10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

265

The opioid crisis has gotten much, much worse despite Congress’ efforts to stop it (www.politico.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

50 comments fedilink hide all child comments

America’s drug overdose crisis is out of control. Washington, despite a bipartisan desire to combat it, is finding its addiction-fighting programs are failing.

In 2018, Republicans, Democrats and then-President Donald Trump united around legislation that threw $20 billion into treatment, prevention and recovery. But five years later, the SUPPORT Act has lapsed and the number of Americans dying from overdoses has grown more than 60 percent, driven by illicit fentanyl. The battle has turned into a slog.

Even though 105,000 Americans died last year, Congress is showing little urgency about reupping the law since it expired on Sept. 30. That’s not because of partisan division, but a realization that there are no quick fixes a new law could bring to bear.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's unfortunate that Oregon didn't setup the necessary infrastructure and processes that are used by countries who have successfully decriminalized drugs. Cops often walk by people doing hard drugs on the street rather than doing their jobs. There isn't anyone forcing addicts into treatment if there's continued recidivism, and perhaps most importantly - the biggest factors driving people on the streets to use drugs (no money, no stable housing, no mental health counseling, etc.) are not being addressed.

Many people would rather see measure 110 fail so they can go back to prohibition (which obviously doesn't work). Decriminalization and legalization are cheaper and more humane, but progress requires multiple parts of the government to actively help people.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago

Yup. Everyone talks about wanting to follow "The Portugal model", but failed to recognize:

a) Portugal still has punishments for non-compliance.

b) Portugal has universal health care.

Decriminalizing drugs without those two key things isn't going to work.

https://www.opb.org/article/2023/09/18/oregon-measure-110-portugal/

"In Portugal, drug users must appear before a commission that determines whether the person needs treatment or should pay a civil penalty.

“They don’t just assume that everybody will pop into treatment on their own,” Humphreys said.

And the system includes other measures that don’t exist in Oregon. For example, the commission could suspend the driver’s license of a cab driver until after treatment, he said, giving state officials leverage over users.

In Oregon, police officers write $100 citations that are not criminal penalties. Drug users are supposed to pay the fine or call a hotline to be assessed for treatment. But addicts often ignore the citation and don’t follow up with treatment, according to news reports."