LETTER: Wisconsin needs alternative to failed war on opioid addiction

To Ozaukee Press:

As Wisconsin citizens and students, we have been able to witness firsthand the pain and suffering that the opioid epidemic has brought to our state and its residents. At a rate almost double that of firearm related homicides, the people of Wisconsin are losing their lives to the misuse of controlled substances.

In Wisconsin and America as a whole, a so-called war on drugs has been and is being waged, filling prisons and ruining lives but doing little to actually solve the problem. To any sane person, this would be an indication of the necessity to rethink the plan of attack on the opioid epidemic.

Even though this problem has no clear cut solution, there are tried and true methods put to use in other nations that have effectively cut down the rate of opioid related deaths. However controversial
they may be, supervised injection sites have been found to be a cheap and effective method of containing and treating the opioid epidemic.

 In British Columbia, such sites treated over 6,000 overdoses without losing
a single patient. In over 120 supervised injection sites across the world, not a single person has died, and the spread of bloodborne pathogens such as hepatitis and HIV have been reduced. A decrease in street crime, litter and automotive break-ins has also been observed in these very same areas.

It is time that the state of Wisconsin looks for innovative solutions that will actually effect change and focus on saving and rehabilitating lives, rather than damaging them further. Policies that are tough on drugs, after all, haven’t caused a decrease in the opioid epidemic; they are simply tough on addicts, the people who need help.

Mitchell Teunissen, Evan Kloss,
Tristan Sohr and Sydney Tonn
Grafton