The heroin epidemic’s toll: One county, 70 minutes, eight overdoses

[hunter]

4. Sadly a manufactured epidemic. Make the pills harder to get and people turn to the streets.

Anyone with an opiate or amphetamine addiction ought to have a safe local place they can turn to for help, including prescribed opiates and amphetamines and housing, non-coercive and supportive, so they might put their lives back together again.

I know a few 'seventies ex-heroin addicts. They survived because they crashed and burned in safe places, and rose again, sometimes more than once.

Every addict deserves that opportunity, and even if they can't leave the drugs behind them, addiction is no reason to punish anyone. It's a public health problem. If we can't cure it then we must do our best to minimize the damage done.

RIP Pinto, I will continue to ferociously support needle-exchange and other similar programs.

It's personal.