Here is another post written by one of my clients with some suggestions for dealing with and ending the opioid crisis.
Some Suggestions for Dealing with the Opioid Crisis
by Paul Brakke
In the previous articles in this series, I discussed the President's suggestion that the death penalty should be imposed on drug traffickers, why it is justified, and yet how its implementation would create severe practical difficulties. If not this approach, what other strategies should be pursued? Alas, there is no one simple fix, so several different strategies need to be pursued simultaneously.
The President recommended mandatory minimum sentencing as a penalty for distributing certain opioids, and this recommendation has been seconded by Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, with sentencing duration dictated by the amount of substance seized. This crackdown may help reduce supply, but it will need to be supplemented with greater interdiction efforts at all ports of entry and along our borders. Another reason for greater border security!
The President also recommended expanding access to proven treatment and recovery efforts. This recommendation is primarily aimed at reducing demand rather than supply. There are many treatment centers and plans, some more effective than others. Once the best strategies are determined, such treatments should be carried out on a mandatory basis on addicts in prisons and jails, even if that requires segregated facilities for them. Otherwise, they will easily relapse once released and revert back to a life of crime to feed their habit. Different treatment plans could be tried out on prison populations in order to determine which are the most effective. Sentences could be reduced for those who "come clean," by both stopping use and identifying their own suppliers.
Finally, the President recommended broadening awareness and education of the crisis. By now it is likely that most adult Americans are familiar with the crisis, which suggests that adolescent youth and their parents should be targeted. An educational campaign in all schools, including a series of videos about the dangers of addiction, deaths due to drugs, and the crackdown on drug dealers, might help reduce the influence of adolescent peer pressure. Videos should also be produced for parents advising them what to be on the lookout for and giving them advice on dealing with their adolescent children on this issue.
Although all three of these sets of recommendations in the President's plan have been proposed previously and represent more conventional approaches than the death penalty, they are all worthwhile, and the President must be complimented on putting them forth and implementing them with actual spending. Kudos to the President.
Following are some additional suggestions of my own:
1. Create a separate drug sales court to deal with death penalty for drugs trafficking cases. This approach will help to streamline the justice process by putting these cases in a separate track in the court system. Also, this separate track will enable these cases to be heard by a drug sales court judge, rather than being heard by a jury. This judge will be more knowledgeable and less likely to be moved by emotion or the political controversy that can be associated with these cases. This streamlining will also cut down the cost and length of time of dealing with these cases. No bail should be permitted for alleged opioid traffickers.
2. Set up a separate division in the prisons or separate prison wings to house drug traffickers. This separation will contribute to making the prisons more efficient and cost-effective through isolating drug traffickers. This isolation of the traffickers will also provide better monitoring of the visitors to those prisoners, since they might still be involved in drug trafficking. Additionally, this separate treatment for dealers will put their visitors on notice of the risks of remaining involved, and therefore contribute to their leaving the drug trade, too.
3. Publicize the names of the individuals sentenced under the new laws. This notification will help to remind the members of the community of the penalties for dealing drugs and discourage their own involvement.
4. Set up a tip line for information that leads to the arrest of drug traffickers. This tip line can be set up so that callers can protect their anonymity, as well as claim substantial rewards by providing information that leads to the arrest of high-level drug dealers who are subject to the death penalty. These rewards can be tiered, so that those who target higher-level drug dealers can earn more, and an encrypted system can be set up so that tipsters can both remain anonymous yet claim a reward.
5. Provide more funds for research into better addiction treatments. As mentioned previously, the President wishes to increase access to proven treatment programs. Present treatments are only moderately effective and relapse occurs frequently. More effective treatments are sorely needed. The opioid epidemic is every bit as critical as the HIV/AIDS epidemic was, and yet addiction research receives only a fraction of the funds that AIDS research did. Opioid users are not able to mount the kind of concerted lobbying effort that homosexuals managed, because they are debilitated by their addiction and scorned by society. The families of opioid users have not been able to lobby for them either, since often addicts are estranged from their families and families are too often ashamed. Thus, providing funding for developing and researching treatment options is one arena where the federal government has to intervene.
In making these recommendations, I acknowledge that I am a researcher at a biomedical institution, but I suggest these strategies solely as a concerned citizen. My own research has nothing to do with addiction.
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Paul Brakke is a research scientist, who has written 6 books on issues in criminal justice and American society. He is the publisher of American Leadership Books, which is designed to present a conservative perspective on these topics. The company's website is at www.americanleadershipbooks.com.