Everyone Agrees Opioid Epidemic Is A Problem. But Ideas On How To Treat It Are Hotly Debated.
Clean needle exchanges, for example, often bring opinions on either side. "We don't have a free-case-of-beer-a-month program for alcoholics," says Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery. But others point to research that shows the programs are helpful.
It's no secret why drug users come to George Patterson in a mall parking lot just outside Phoenix to get their clean needles, syringes and other supplies on Tuesday afternoons, instead of heading to the pharmacy down the street. "It's really low-barrier the way we are doing it," Patterson says. "All you have to do is find us." (Stone, 12/19)
In other news on the crisis —
In what has emerged as one of the nation’s largest public health threats, the problem of drug addiction — and opioid dependence, specifically — has in just a few years cost thousands of Massachusetts residents their lives. ...Fortunately for some, there are relatives willing to step in before the state takes at-risk children away from their families. (Tangney, 12/19)
