Pubdate: Fri, 08 Jul 2016
Source: Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Copyright: 2016 Morning Journal
Contact:  http://www.morningjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3569
Note: Read the full editorial from the Sandusky Register at bit.ly/29I2eyz

NEED NEW WEAPONS IN THIS DRUG WAR

It's not your grandfather's war on drugs. It can't be.

Over the years, we've watched police officers and agencies fight the 
good fight. Get the bad guys off the streets.

We've also watched as the fight changed and law enforcement leaders, 
who see the casualties from the front line in the drug war, became 
advocates for recovery.

They still have to do their jobs: enforce the state's drug laws.

But police agencies are now out front in a different way.

They save lives by administering Narcan - an antidote to death - to 
addicts suffering from critical overdoses.

They've become the ad hoc detox centers at their jails, where addicts 
who are incarcerated suffer "dope sickness," as their systems begin 
recovering through a very painful withdrawal process.

Some inmates come through the jailhouse detox with hope, but jailers 
see them back again and again, suffering through the same cycles of 
returning again and again and going through detox without ever 
reaching any sort of sustained recovery.

Law enforcement leaders have become some of the fiercest advocates of recovery.

Read the full editorial from the Sandusky Register at bit.ly/29I2eyz
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom