If it works, it works
Thursday, 13 Mar 2025
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To qualify for the program, individuals must be at least 35 years old, a regular user for at least five years and have a record of repeatedly unsuccessful treatment efforts, which includes methadone-maintenance therapy, meaning the program offered in the Netherlands is a last resort.
Harm reduction policies saves the day again
I wish this was more common in the US, but so many people think that drug addicts should just get clean cold turkey or just drop dead. :/ This? Would be considered “welfare” and “handouts” and I fucking hate it.
People don’t want solutions, people want to be mad and see heads rolling.
I’d like the link to that article linked in the OOP.
I live in the Netherlands and know some former heroin addicts and I wonder how closely that article reflects their experiences.
i misread that i thought it said Neanderthals
Is it adopted instead or in tandem with Methadone therapy? Because that basically solved the problem in Italy. In the 80’s it was a plague and in the course of the 90’s it was basically solved with the methadone.
Way better and more effective than the “war on drugs” that just goes “kill all the addicts”.
Damn, who would’ve thought that helping people helps people and punishing them makes them worse.
There’s a puritanical culture in the US where you can’t get the easy way out of (what they perceive as) a character flaw or vice. It’s important for them that you suffer for it. If there were a magic pill that got rid of addiction without the suffering, they would oppose it’s use even if that position is obviously incredibly inhumane. And so they often oppose harm reduction strategies like this. We want to feel morally superior to them and see them suffer for their moral failings.
Alright, but how effective is this really? And how widespread is the program in the first place? Because usually when I see stuff like this online, it’s something like one city did, and it wasn’t necessarily effective. Just wondering.
Edit: I love how people are under the assumption that I despise these programs and want to get rid of them when all I did was ask if they even work in the first place lol
I have been saying this for YEARS. It’s so hard to explain to others just how much of an impact good solid government funded health care is. Especially for drug addictions.
Context: I live in the U.S.
Prohibition is the cause of the drug addiction epidemic.
My city did this too, I don’t think they provided actual drugs but did everything else listed. They were called “Safe Injection Sites”
I think most of them are gone now, because everywhere within a 3 block radius turned into a dangerous hellscape with used needles all over the place. Break ins, etc.
I supported them at the beginning but after seeing the harm they cause to not just the locals but the addicts trying to get help, I just don’t think they’re a good idea. We need something better.
If this program in the Netherlands is working, fine. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Dutch can do it better than Canadians.
Imagine ‘breaking bad’ being set in the Netherlands.
The seriers would be over after e1
People confuse drug addicts and drug dealers.
I live in the NL but come from New England in the US.
I also worked in mental health in the US. Saw a lot of addicts and often dangerous behaviors/personalities from drugs.
First day visiting the NL somone tweaking sat next to us on the bench and quietly and subtly just was on drugs.
Didn’t ask for anything. Wasn’t screaming or scaring anyone.
It was wild. I can count on my hand how many current hard drug users I have seen on the streets here.
I feel like programs like these, along with strict enforcement on dealers, is what we need in many US cities. From what I understand, most homeless shelters won’t let you in unless you’re clean, which just compounds the problem.
Physical dependence is real, but the hardest part is the ritual, the pressure from your environment, and breaking the habit. If you can pull the addict out of the vicious cycle, the physical dependence is the easiest part to overcome. Especially if they’re treated like a human being and not like garbage
Very refreshing post to see after that one from the other day about prohibition where the comments were flooded with people defending the US’s alcohol prohibition
One of the largest lobbying organizations against decriminalizing drugs is law enforcement. They use asset forfeiture to fund their departments in lavish ways and would lose a significant source of revenue if the laws change. The Surgeon General has advocated for decriminalization for over 50 years but they don’t have the political clout of all the cops in the US. One of them, Dr. Jocelyn Elders, was fired by Bill Clinton for simply making the suggestion it be discussed.
Just the disincentive of criminals using the drug trade as a viable business model probably does a ton of social good
Mexico had this in the 40’s for a short time, then the US complained, and it stopped.
Yeah safe injection sites have known to work for a long time but people still get so upset when you try to institute them. And then they block or refund the programs so they are less effective and claim they were right all along when they fail.
This is exactly the sort of program DOGE would cancel and tell the public they’ve saved $X millions
Additionally, the purity allows for users to stop using needles.
Less needles means less infections, less vein damage, overall better health of addicts.
Interesting.
I think there has been some similar stuff in places in Canada that hasn’t been going quite as gloriously. By that I mean terribly.
I wonder what makes Nethers so effective.
Number 5 follows the same principle as with lobbying: Disregarding third party interests get increasingly harder as they are petitioned with social interaction by a representative that is nice to you and gives you free stuff
Similar here in Switzerland. There are both heroin and methadone programs. Key is to treat drug users as sick, not as criminal.
On top of it takes away lot of the coolness of doing drugs.