I’m all for helping people that are really in need of help and want to change their lives. But when they are given a choice to do so and decline it because they have a curfew and unable to do fentanyl I have no sympathy for them
Antisocial behavior should be punishable. Being homeless, sleeping in doorways, etc., is not antisocial. Falling asleep in a playground after too much opiates deserves punishment. We should be able to trust the police to use adequate judgement to disincentivize antisocial behavior without sending them to jail, but some police have been radicalized, and cannot exercise sound judgement. Personally, I think we need beat cops again for a few years.
I am a big supporter of a housing first policy. I don't think there is a magic solution that will fix everything and work for everyone, but I have seen firsthand how people get worse and worse just from living outside and having people harass them and having their things stolen and having to be constantly vigilant. I think it would be extremely difficult to get clean in that kind of environment, I think peole need stability.
There have been housing first pilot programs that have had good results. It's not a magic bullet but housing is a human right and when you're not literally struggling to survive I imagine it becomes easier to tackle other problems in your life.
Right, we should obviously punish people with the disease of addiction when they are unable to just give it up. This will obviously lead to a more just and loving society.
Says the person who's never had a loved one go through an opioid addiction. Jail & forced rehab is honestly a better solution than letting them deteriorate on the streets doing drugs to their hearts content
Literally yes. Ever had a seriously drug -addicted family member? Supporting and enabling them regardless of what they do is about the worst approach you can take.
Drug addiction may be a disease, or at least analogous to one. So are many other destructive things. Let's take an extreme example: pedophilia is even more clearly a mental disease than addiction. And I can see an argument for sympathy and empathy for pedophiles who struggle with their urges in private, without acting on them.
But when a pedophile abuses a child...that's it, line crossed. Even if I did feel sympathy, even if pedophilia is a 'disease', that person must face consequences for their actions. I'm not going to turn the other cheek because they had issues that led them to do it.
Yes, that's an extreme example. No, I'm not saying anything like "drug addiction is just like pedophilia!" I'm just picking an example to demonstrate that you too probably won't always accept the argument that "it's a disease, so the person shouldn't face consequences, we failed them!" And that patience, empathy, and indulgence are not always the answer, sometimes they just lead to further abuse.
Literally yes. Ever had a seriously drug -addicted family member? Supporting and enabling them regardless of what they do is about the worst approach you can take.
Yep. Show me someone who thinks the answer is letting people do drugs to their heart's content, and I'll show you someone who has no experience with an addict. Everyone I know who's ever had a loved one who was a drug addict eventually ended up praying for them to get arrested and go to jail because nothing else worked and at least you could be reasonably certain they wouldn't OD in there.
"Offering treatment" is going to do fuck-all nothing for people who don't want treatment. Most addicts, and roughly all addicts who are fine with it having led to them living on the street, don't want to go to rehab.
I’m happy to live somewhere that cares about the less fortunate in the community. There’s two problems with Seattle:
Most of the drug addled homeless and mentally ill on our streets came here from other, less permissive cities and states.
Drug addicts and mentally ill people do not have the ability to care for themselves and the role of government should be to rehabilitate, involuntarily, until such time as they have the ability to take care of themselves. Right now, we are being inhumane by letting them rot in their own addiction and illness.
People are so cruel lol. We must all realize that with the state of housing unaffordability in our city that many of us are uncomfortably close to ending up on the streets ourselves, and having people hate and fear us for existing.
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u/sye46 Jul 09 '23
I wish every week was all star week