The Editorial Board responded to a complex issue with a simplistic solution: “Push addicts to seek recovery.” Oregon’s experiment didn’t live up to its promises because of, not because of a lack of punishment sufficiently harsh to drive drug users into treatment programs. The solution that the Editorial Board offered, drug courts, in many settings, “have not achieved their intended results,” experts told the United Nations.
One of the reasons the United States continues to lose its battle with the substance-use-disorder and overdose crises is the repeated dehumanization of people who use drugs. I started readinghoping the paper would take an informed, compassionate, thoughtful approach to this very complex human issue. Instead, I found cruel, stigmatizing phrases such as “junkies wandering through the streets of Portland with needles in their arms.
Stigma around addiction often ends up placing the blame on individuals instead of the social structures that enable addictive behavior. The enablers are sportsbook companies, online gambling operations, professional sports leagues that have partnerships with these companies and the states that have developed their own dependence on the tax revenue generated by gambling. To truly tackle the issue of sports gambling, we must be willing to have a conversation about addiction as a whole.
In addition, many environmentalists have gotten used to using the National Environmental Policy Act to delay and kill development projects. Habits are hard to break.