Enabling the disease of addiction is a killer.
The Biden Administration should get out of the drug dealing business and stop killing addicts with our tax dollars and their policies. Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services’ decision to spend $30 million on the distribution of “safe smoking kits” to vulnerable communities is disgraceful. I say this as a former presiding drug court judge, and someone who saw firsthand what happens when the government enables drug use.
A policy narrated as “compassionate” is, in fact, a killer. The government, by enabling and promoting drug use, will be complicit in more than 100,000 overdose deaths in this country.
During a court session, a participant in my drug court explained he used to make a crack pipe out of an empty beer can, which makes the Biden Administration’s $30 million investment in “safe smoking kits” redundant at best. This same drug court graduate—who participated in treatment, received peer recovery services, and remained clean for 18 months—now lives a sober life with the tools learned in drug court treatment. Drug paraphernalia, provided by your United States government, certainly does not stop overdose deaths—it encourages them by sanctioning and condoning the use of highly addictive and life-threatening substances.
I have been involved in a multitude of interventions and I know the messaging that inadvertently fosters the disease of addiction, as opposed to recovery. For example, five family members can tell a loved one they need treatment and help with their disorder. But if one person says, “I don’t think you’re that bad, maybe you don’t need treatment,” that will be the one message the person will grab hold of and refuse help.
The message that drug use is acceptable is now being pushed by Biden and his administration. This message condones a self-destructive lifestyle that destroys families and tears apart homes, often resulting in further substance misuse.