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With deaths from drug overdoses surpassing traffic accidents as the No. 1 accidental killer of Americans, a group of community stakeholders Wednesday stressed that a different approach to fighting the problem has to be taken.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, May 5, 16 @ 1:39 pm

Comments

Perhaps paying front-line social service providers with state contracts for the work they are doing to help addicts kick would be a start.

It’s a crazy idea, but it just might work.

Or maybe we should hold out for a term-limits bill.

Priorities and morality are seriously out of whack in this administration.

Comment by wordslinger Thursday, May 5, 16 @ 1:47 pm
But marijuana is the real drug problem here. It has absolutely NO medicinal purposes other than for those near death. We must keep prohibition in place if we want to save our state!

/s

Comment by MacombMike Thursday, May 5, 16 @ 1:50 pm
and that different approach will be… ?

1. absolutely nothing!
or
2. the same as we’ve been doing since Nixon, but bigger and more expensive!

Comment by Homer J. Quinn Thursday, May 5, 16 @ 1:51 pm
A politician can argue that this is the result of such a great job they’ve done reducing traffic accident fatalities….

Comment by Qui Tam Thursday, May 5, 16 @ 1:56 pm
Traffic accidents not such a problem anymore? I knew those free state motorcycle safety lessons would pay off. This guy has some great ideas if we would just give them a chance.

Comment by Henry Francis Thursday, May 5, 16 @ 2:03 pm
Illinois is going to make this problem worse. That anti-heroin law passed last year basically is requiring the state Medicaid plans to pay for unlimited access to these opioids - and they are not even allowed to restrict access at all.

We’re going to allow over-doses and we will be paying for it too!

Comment by hockey fan Thursday, May 5, 16 @ 2:13 pm
By all means, don’t bill the health insurance companies for the addiction treatment they are supposed to provide by law, including individual policies and subsidized policies obtained through the ACA. To do so might cut into insurance companies’ generous profits. And we can be sure they know who their state legislators are.

Comment by Cassandra Thursday, May 5, 16 @ 2:16 pm
This article doesn’t make the tie to the state budget crisis, but an SJR from last week noted that at least two people in Central IL have overdosed and died while on a waiting list since the impasse began.

Comment by Bull Moose Thursday, May 5, 16 @ 2:49 pm
There’s a lot of profit in encouraging the use and abuse of prescription opioids. Not much in finding alternatives or providing addition services.

http://www.vox.com/2016/5/5/11600276/opioid-epidemic-oxycontin-purdue-pharma

Comment by Wensicia Thursday, May 5, 16 @ 3:58 pm
Sorry, “addiction” services.

Comment by Wensicia Thursday, May 5, 16 @ 4:00 pm
My wife used to work as an RN in a drug rehab and treatment program (28 days) some years ago. They found out that treatment failed at extremely high rates even in the best programs. Recidivism was at about 90% IIRC. It’s a tough problem that cuts across all racial, regional and cultural lines. Government couldn’t solve the problem with an extremely costly interdiction program, and treatment fails at overwhelming rates. There’s no current solution that taxpayer or insurance money can fix. It seems about the only way to combat drug abuse is to set up such a severe social stigma that no one wants to start. That approach was highly effective until the 1970s when religion was strong in American culture. That’s not the case anymore, and sadly the disappearance of the moral codes, social stigmas, and cultural taboos seems to have opened Pandora’s box of suffering through out of wedlock sex and drug abuse. As the song said, “You never know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.”

Comment by Zonker Thursday, May 5, 16 @ 4:36 pm
“sadly the disappearance of the moral codes, social stigmas, and cultural taboos seems to have opened Pandora’s box of suffering through out of wedlock sex and drug abuse.”

tl;dr - Make America Great Again

– MrJM

Comment by MrJM Thursday, May 5, 16 @ 5:46 pm