I like you.
That's a valid point.A bill probably wouldn't work.The only thing I can come up with is identifying the addict at that moment if possible (again, probably not viable, but maybe detaining him until ID'd?) and if he is encountered again, has a note on his file of the times he was revived, and then maybe not administering narcan after one or two times? IDEALLY an officer/EMT would see 'Hey, I've revived this guy before' or 'Hey, I see that we've given this guy narcan like 4 times, he's past his limit'.
But then we get into all sorts of ethical issues. So I can't really come up with a great solution myself.
>we get into all sorts of ethical issues
Exactly. The knee-jerk reaction is to say..."fuck that junkie, I don't want to pay for that". The fact that we're dealing with repeat customers getting multiple narcan shots doesn't help. But the alternative literally ends up with bodies in the streets, and people don't want to see that either.
For me, my first thought is how'd that junkie get to that moment, when he needs a public hand-out to stay alive. The answer tends to be that they were prescribed way too many opiates for way too long a time. Those opiates were then suddenly cut off and a shit-ton of people switched to heroin.
If you're looking for a target, consider the pharmaceutical industry. They're the ones that decided to jack the price for epipen and they're the ones that caused our opiate epidemic.
I agree, Big Pharma is a prevalent and dark entity in our world. At the same time, I want people to be held accountable for their actions, without blaming something else for their addiction.
For example, say someone has a bad accident and is on high doses of painkillers for a while. Their doctors decide it's been long enough an (ideally) starts waning them off said painkillers. They're addictive, they make you feel better. But that doesn't mean you immediately find other ways to fuel your habit. Go get help instead of picking up some heroin, once you notice that you're dependent. At some point, the people who are addicted and the rest of the world need to realize that there isn't always someone else to blame.
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