Do you Oregon folks not think Oregon fucked up the implementation? You can’t simply decriminalize and not have adequate resources to handle the results.
This is the thing. Oregon basically decriminalized but didn't build or maintain the harm reduction infrastructure necessary to make decriminalizing drugs not a terrible idea. The two things support one another -- make it easier to stop using, and stop penalizing people so harshly they are scared to use services.
I don't know how many addicts y'all have been around, but in my experience no one wants to be an addict.
There are resources in place, but at least in my area, they aren't being utilized to capacity.
So while it seems logical to the rest of us that addicts don't want to be addicts, they're also apparently not willing to tap into that help.
You can argue this or that about something not being funded right, or set up right, but at the end of the day, these people have to make efforts. And a lot of them try! I talk to them! A lot just don't give a crap and have given up on life.
Then begs the question: who's going to pay for it, and from where? Our education is already underfunded, and personally I'd rather see funds go to education, particularly non-special education (already well-funded) and Career Technical Education.
Why don't they utilize them? What's keeping them from doing so? Addiction is brutal, and getting clean is not a simple process of rehab.
Getting clean requires a ton of energy and patience and it often hurts like hell. For someone who is spending 100% of their energy on surviving and managing their addiction, they might not have the reserves to try to get clean.
We need to figure out how to reach them, not write them off.
Also, "I'd rather fund x instead of y" is a trap. We can do both, and we can say the bar is fully funded education and fully funded support for addiction and recovery.
So, I'm somewhat tangental to these resources you describe. And you're right, they're not adequate or at the proper scale, but at the same time, the meager resources that are in place aren't even being fully tapped.
While it would seem likely that addicts do not want to be addicts, they're not exactly responding to the outreach and least in my metro area (3rd largest city in OR).
