The Methadone Mile (Boston, Belmont: houses, neighborhoods, live)

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by G-fused

I don't think its a liberal minded bleeding heart thing, just a much better way to handle the issue. It's no surprise that the jail approach hasn't worked at all. I'm no psychiatrist but incarceration isn't really a good cure for mental health problems.

OK, how then do we reach out to these folks to get them that help they clearly need?

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by mascoma

Then you get bleeding heart libs saying things like this:


We can’t arrest our way out of Mass. and Cass

Drug addiction and homelessness should be addressed as public health issues, not crimes.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/09/...out-mass-cass/


But they are promising a crackdown now.


Boston to crack down on tent encampments on Methadone Mile

Janey’s executive order says, “all City agencies will now prioritize enforcement of existing laws and the exercise of existing powers to prevent the placement and maintenance of these encampments in the city.”
https://www.bostonherald.com/2021/10...ethadone-mile/

It really isn't a "bleeding heart lib" thing. Drug addiction and homelessness are quite literally pubic health crises in every sense of the phrase. In what world are life expectancies declining due to growing overdoses, used needles on streets and sidewalks, human waste on streets and sidewalks, and a growing number of people sleeping out in the cold on the street no a public health crisis? That doesn't mean it can't also be a legal problem too. There are obvious elements of addiction and homelessness that are also illegal. Both of those angles should be taken into consideration. But the problem with politicizing this stuff is that people just want to take one side and scoff at the other.

Rounding up addicts and the homeless is useless unless we have the resources to provide the supports that they need. Otherwise we're clogging up prisons with people who are mentally ill and stand zero chance of improving incarcerated in a facility that's not intended to treat them. We're also tying up valuable law enforcement resources dealing with these "frequent flyers." Ask any LEO how they feel about being the defacto frontline on the mental health crisis?

While it's obviously complex, the solution is both/and. We need to support the programs that can actually serve to help these people who are using and living on the streets, and these programs need to work hand-in-hand with law enforcement and the courts to ensure that the people who need these services aren't sitting in a local prison. If you have the appropriate supports in place, it makes it a far less sticky issue for the police to come in and enforce the law. If you don't, you'll clean up the street only to find the tent city rebuilt in a few weeks.

[mascoma]

Originally Posted by G-fused

I don't think its a liberal minded bleeding heart thing, just a much better way to handle the issue. It's no surprise that the jail approach hasn't worked at all. I'm no psychiatrist but incarceration isn't really a good cure for mental health problems.

I worked in a psych hospital for years and a dose of prison is what a lot of them needed. The ones that came from prison were well behaved because they knew how bad it would be there. The ones that went straight to the hospital whined and whined, but I saw some of them end up in prison after escaping and after that they were happy to get with the hospital program if they were allowed back.

[WestieWhitie]

"Greeting zombie! Rehab or jail? Choose now, and choose wisely!"

"Greeting fentanyl peddler! Off to prison you go, ten years, no profiling, no racism, no pony-tailed bleeding heart lawyers, no judge dougans!"

Easy peasy!

Originally Posted by massnative71

OK, how then do we reach out to these folks to get them that help they clearly need?

[msRB311]

People just need to make better choices and not get themselves into these messes in the first place. Obviously it's difficult to save people when they are living a life on drugs in a tent on methadone mile.

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by msRB311

People just need to make better choices and not get themselves into these messes in the first place. Obviously it's difficult to save people when they are living a life on drugs in a tent on methadone mile.

Just saying no

What a great National strategy

[msRB311]

Well it certainly seems like there's a lot of people in need of help these days. You think they're all going to get the help they need or try to help themselves in any way?

Domestic abuse seems to be pretty bad these days as well:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/people..../%3Famp%3Dtrue

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wmu...ering/38015000

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by msRB311

Well it certainly seems like there's a lot of people in need of help these days. You think they're all going to get the help they need or try to help themselves in any way?

Domestic abuse seems to be pretty bad these days as well:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/people..../%3Famp%3Dtrue

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wmu...ering/38015000

Of course there are people in need. Getting clean is hard when you really want to, forcing people who dont want to to go to rehab is throwing money away. As is throwing people in jail.

We could, crazy thought, enact the programs and policies proven to reduce people ever trying drugs, utilize rehab programs that are both cheaper and more effective, and eliminate the petty crim done to feed addictions and the organized crime associated with the trafficking.

But we won't. So, this is what we get.

[WestieWhitie]

Well yes, it would have been a great strategy - as in no, you’re not peddling fentanyl, you’re going to prison for mandatory 10 years for starters and another 20 years if you start peddling again once you get out. Instead we have everyone and their grandma peddling poison so potent it makes Saddam’s alleged WMDs look like Splenda packets because there’s plenty of money to be made and the worst they will get if caught is a playful slap on the wrist.

Originally Posted by timberline742

Just saying no

What a great National strategy

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by WestieWhitie

Well yes, it would have been a great strategy - as in no, you’re not peddling fentanyl, you’re going to prison for mandatory 10 years for starters and another 20 years if you start peddling again once you get out. Instead we have everyone and their grandma peddling poison so potent it makes Saddam’s alleged WMDs look like Splenda packets because there’s plenty of money to be made and the worst they will get if caught is a playful slap on the wrist.

Yeah, great idea. Spend even larger amounts of money and have no significant positive result.

Maybe kill the dealers? Because capitol punishment almost did away with 1st degree murder... oh wait.

It's fascinating to me so called "conservatives" in this country want to spend more money for worse results. Almost, well, no, not almost... it is the opposite of what fiscal conservatism was supposed to be about.