I agree with Seth Dawson on a humane response to addiction (“State’s drug abuse reforms should include prevention,” The Herald, April 18).
However, we are talking about a medical condition. The full term is substance use disorder, not substance abuse. Medical conditions require treatment.
Before making a choice between prevention and treatment, it is important to understand the problem. The attempt to address addiction through the justice system has a long unsuccessful history.
There is evidence in Portugal and Switzerland that improving health care policies greatly reduces the public burden of addiction. Those countries have decriminalized drug possession. However, as they did so, they put health care responses in place.
It is an urgent matter to decriminalize behavior related to addiction. I do understand the wariness of law enforcement. Law enforcement is left holding the bag without a comprehensive health care policy and funds to support a health care response in lieu of punishment.
It would be great to prevent substance use disorders, but the disease develops from complex variables, genetics, environment, developmental issues, and culture. We do not know enough about the causes to rely on prevention. Disease prevention is good, but diseases require treatment. It is inhumane to focus on disease prevention without an equal focus on treatment.
Many people recover through treatment.
Gretchen Saari
Everett
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