SentLTE-Digest Monday, August 24 2015 Volume 15 : Number 025
001 LTE: 'Hepatitis cases Exploding in U.S.'
From: John Chase <>
002 LTE: 'Lessons in fear' 23 Aug 2015
From: John Chase <>
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Subj: 001 LTE: 'Hepatitis cases Exploding in U.S.'
From: John Chase <>
Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2015 12:52:20 -0700
Sent online to the Tampa Trib
Re: "Hepatitis cases Exploding in U.S." Aug 8th
Twenty years ago that headline could have been written in Switzerland.
An AIDS epidemic was out of control. The Swiss were so desperate they
tried something radical. They allowed hard-core addicts to register
with the state to receive clean heroin. It was controversial at first,
but in 2008 the public voted to include "heroin-assisted-treatment" as a
normal part of their National Health System. They also made methadone
freely available as a pharmaceutical. The program pays for itself in
improved public health and safety. It also enables addicts to hold jobs
and pay taxes. The average age at registration as an addict is slowly
rising, indicating that kids are not becoming addicted, and the number
of addicts needing heroin has stabilized at about 1,300, in a population
about the same as Florida.
The key to success was to de-politicize the issue and involve both law
enforcement and the medical community. Even the U.N. Office of Drug
Control has backed off its criticism of the program. The Swiss are onto
something. It is a story that needs telling.
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Subj: 002 LTE: 'Lessons in fear' 23 Aug 2015
From: John Chase <>
Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2015 06:50:03 -0700
Sent online to the TampaBay Times*
*
We have come full circle to the 1968 Kerner Commission’s“[…] two
societies, one black, one white, separate and unequal." The origin of
that inequality was the Jim Crow laws of the Old South. The origin today
is the selective enforcement of anti-drug policies against Blacks, the
“New Jim Crow” of Michelle Alexander’s 2011 book of the same name. It
was President Nixon’s way to hold down people he didn’t like. It has
decimated Black communities, but most Americans stay silent rather than
risk being labeled “pro-drug”. The new jim crow starts in school, where
young Black men learn that the system is not fair. Later, if sentenced
to prison, they learn how to live outside the law. When released, they
have skills to earn money and the respect of their newly minted peers.
Their values filter down to younger, impressionable Black males, very
small in number, but enough to disrupt a class, if they deign to attend.
In the short run, of course: more funding for schools, more training for
teachers, more involvement by parents and more “walk and talk” by
police. But a long run solution requires a willingness to try something
radically different.
John G Chase
Palm Harbor
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End of SentLTE-Digest V15 #25
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