Portugal decriminalized drugs and overdoses dropped 93%. We chose prisons, profits, and blame. Here's how policy (not willpower) created the opioid crisis, and what real accountability would look like.
Why don't they make an emoji with me doing a finger gun and blowing the smoke off the barrel? If you're a writer and you have ever felt like this after a post.... show me some love.. share restack. Maybe even keep me caffeinated...
I appreciate how you pull addiction out of the shadows of shame and place it in the wider context of systems, stories, and unmet needs. It reads like someone gently turning the camera angle so we see people, not just “problems.” It made me rethink how often we confuse moral judgment with understanding.
Thank you for your comment. That means a lot and I really do think that it needs to be put in a different light…. When I was researching this, one of the counselors told me that he starts off all this conversations telling people that he was a heroin addict and he's been clean for 13 years and I imagine this and I don't think I could do it but his reasoning was playing impossible to argue with because he said if somebody is going to judge me for that then I don't need to be around them so I may as well get it out of the way before I'm relying on them for anything in life
It's all a big fucking mess isn't it? Really a masterclass in how shitty humans can be. Ugh.
My husband lost a step-sister to Meth a couple years ago. She left three children. She died in police custody. It was a total shit show.
The thing is, addiction happens in a vacuum. Addiction is a response to some kind of psychological struggle... trauma, depression, peer pressure, loneliness - you name it. So, if any individual, group, or society wants to tackle addiction FOR GOOD, they need to address the psychological changes that happen to people as and before they become addicted. But, as you point out in this post, there is never much incentive for individuals, groups, or societies to address these root causes. Well, I personally think that a world without addiction is a GREAT incentive, but, as you point out, it seems like THAT is peanuts compared to control, and oh I almost forgot - MONEY. This is of course why Portugal succeeded, because they had the courage to break out of the cycle they were perpetuating and make effective changes on a social psychological level. The question is, how do we get more countries to do what Portugal did? How do we readjust the psyche's of the guys in charge so that they actually prioritise people?
*BTW I loved your usage of the term 'morality porn'. Very good.
It is a mess. So much lost life. I can't believe that they would have left someone to die in police custody... One of the doctors that I interviewed told me the following :
"Enjoyed your substack, well said, the one bit about the criminalization I agree somewhat, but the idea of real and severe consequences for not changing the behavior is sometimes the only thing that has helped quite a few of my patients, and actually going to jail or the fear of it has saved their life. I wish there was a better option than jail but until there are real and severe consequences for people's decisions, not everyone responds to all the treatment in the world.."
- This is someone that I respect very much and I understand this point too... but i know that's there are so many different types of addicts and some stay in jail to get drugs. Plus the same amount of money to put them in jail as it does to put them in treatment and God knows why they don't do that. To me it really seems like certain problems aren't fixed because there's already too many people in this country to live comfortably and the more people that screw up the more of them can be written off and this is a great way to do it and I hope I'm wrong but I can't see any other reason that we don't reform the entire system.
Really appreciate this comment. I didn't have addiction as part of my original 25 fixes for America but I needed to get it in there because I am too affected by it. Lost so many friends and loved ones either to jail, death, or god knows what because they're off the grid... And I've been fortunate enough to keep my eyes open while everyone points out that there is this new war on opioids and that Sackler thing with all the TV shows and movies and court cases while they don't get jail time it was almost like big Pharma funded a PR campaign to take all the attention off of every other pharmaceutical company that makes oxycodone, whether they Market it or not, and put it all the weight on the private company because even billionaires don't seem to have enough power to lobby like big Pharma . And the fact that Portugal did this 30 years ago and this showing tangible results just shows us that we're not trying to fix this. I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist and say that we wanted to keep going but we definitely don't want to look at the facts and arrive at any conclusions that resemble a reasonable.
Why don't they make an emoji with me doing a finger gun and blowing the smoke off the barrel? If you're a writer and you have ever felt like this after a post.... show me some love.. share restack. Maybe even keep me caffeinated...
I appreciate how you pull addiction out of the shadows of shame and place it in the wider context of systems, stories, and unmet needs. It reads like someone gently turning the camera angle so we see people, not just “problems.” It made me rethink how often we confuse moral judgment with understanding.
Thank you for your comment. That means a lot and I really do think that it needs to be put in a different light…. When I was researching this, one of the counselors told me that he starts off all this conversations telling people that he was a heroin addict and he's been clean for 13 years and I imagine this and I don't think I could do it but his reasoning was playing impossible to argue with because he said if somebody is going to judge me for that then I don't need to be around them so I may as well get it out of the way before I'm relying on them for anything in life
It's all a big fucking mess isn't it? Really a masterclass in how shitty humans can be. Ugh.
My husband lost a step-sister to Meth a couple years ago. She left three children. She died in police custody. It was a total shit show.
The thing is, addiction happens in a vacuum. Addiction is a response to some kind of psychological struggle... trauma, depression, peer pressure, loneliness - you name it. So, if any individual, group, or society wants to tackle addiction FOR GOOD, they need to address the psychological changes that happen to people as and before they become addicted. But, as you point out in this post, there is never much incentive for individuals, groups, or societies to address these root causes. Well, I personally think that a world without addiction is a GREAT incentive, but, as you point out, it seems like THAT is peanuts compared to control, and oh I almost forgot - MONEY. This is of course why Portugal succeeded, because they had the courage to break out of the cycle they were perpetuating and make effective changes on a social psychological level. The question is, how do we get more countries to do what Portugal did? How do we readjust the psyche's of the guys in charge so that they actually prioritise people?
*BTW I loved your usage of the term 'morality porn'. Very good.
It is a mess. So much lost life. I can't believe that they would have left someone to die in police custody... One of the doctors that I interviewed told me the following :
"Enjoyed your substack, well said, the one bit about the criminalization I agree somewhat, but the idea of real and severe consequences for not changing the behavior is sometimes the only thing that has helped quite a few of my patients, and actually going to jail or the fear of it has saved their life. I wish there was a better option than jail but until there are real and severe consequences for people's decisions, not everyone responds to all the treatment in the world.."
- This is someone that I respect very much and I understand this point too... but i know that's there are so many different types of addicts and some stay in jail to get drugs. Plus the same amount of money to put them in jail as it does to put them in treatment and God knows why they don't do that. To me it really seems like certain problems aren't fixed because there's already too many people in this country to live comfortably and the more people that screw up the more of them can be written off and this is a great way to do it and I hope I'm wrong but I can't see any other reason that we don't reform the entire system.
Really appreciate this comment. I didn't have addiction as part of my original 25 fixes for America but I needed to get it in there because I am too affected by it. Lost so many friends and loved ones either to jail, death, or god knows what because they're off the grid... And I've been fortunate enough to keep my eyes open while everyone points out that there is this new war on opioids and that Sackler thing with all the TV shows and movies and court cases while they don't get jail time it was almost like big Pharma funded a PR campaign to take all the attention off of every other pharmaceutical company that makes oxycodone, whether they Market it or not, and put it all the weight on the private company because even billionaires don't seem to have enough power to lobby like big Pharma . And the fact that Portugal did this 30 years ago and this showing tangible results just shows us that we're not trying to fix this. I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist and say that we wanted to keep going but we definitely don't want to look at the facts and arrive at any conclusions that resemble a reasonable.