Well put Cliff. I want to add context and say that it is a long running problem. News papers from the 1900 talk about opiate abuse. There was a time when the problem wasn't as "public" because addicts were tossed into jail in an endless revolving door that cost money with no true solution.
There is a difficult balance to be struct. Enforcing the law and criminalizing addicts will not end the problem, it will just pay to place it out of sight out of mind. The problem I have with this is it is not long term thinking. It reminds me of teenagers "cleaning their room" by throwing everything from the floor into the closet.
There needs to be a constellation of programs with harm reduction taking a major role. Starting with mental health and addictions training in public schools. and following up with addicts to give them a chance to seek help early. That said, these sort of long term thinking plans are difficult to gain political will and funding for.
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