Well ok Mr Yang.
I mean, he's actually pushing a candidacy of ideas.
From his recent email:
Both Iowa and New Hampshire, along with nearly the entire country, are struggling with opiates. A student asked me this question in Marshalltown, Iowa: “I have friends walking around my high school with fentanyl patches on their arms who are already addicted to opiates. A lot of them would never tell anyone they have a problem because they think they’d go to jail. Would you consider decriminalizing opiates? I think more people would be able to get help.”
I answered: “I’m on board with decriminalizing marijuana use—in part because it’s a safer way to manage pain for many people—but I have to look into what decriminalizing opiates would mean for Americans. I’d be open to it if it seemed like it would help us get people healthier faster.”
I’ve been looking into it. A couple other countries have taken this step and it has improved public health. Portugaldecriminalized these drugs in 2001; if caught with a small amount of opiates, you have the drugs taken away and are referred to treatment and counseling. This had dramatic positive effects—today, the drug-related death rate in Portugal is five times lower than the E.U. average and one-fiftieth (2%) of the US. Portugal is not the US. But its example may be helpful.
We have an addiction crisis on our hands. More than 11 million Americans are addicted to opiates right now. 8 Americans are dying of drug overdoses every hour.
For many Americans, the progression goes from Oxycontin to heroin to fentanyl, progressively cheaper ways to get similar effects. This opiate crisis began when Purdue Pharma flooded the market with enough Oxycontin for hundreds of thousands of Americans under the pretense that it was a non-addictive painkiller. They were fined $635 million by the government for fraudulent marketing. But they made $30 billion. That means they paid a 2% fine for unleashing a plague that is killing tens of thousands of Americans each year. That's more Americans than died in the Vietnam War.
To me, the Federal Government screwed up by turning a blind eye when Purdue Pharma was initiating this plague. We should do everything in our power to give more Americans a fighting chance to free themselves from addiction and get well. It is destroying families and communities before our eyes.
It is possible that criminalizing opiates decreases access and use. But for a public health crisis of this magnitude, the criminal justice system seems to be a terrible first resort. It pushes a lot of the activity underground and makes addicts more likely to hide their addiction. Addiction is a disease—you shouldn't criminalize people that you are trying to help. Especially when it may be partially your fault that they got addicted in the first place.
I am increasingly open to the idea that we should explore decriminalizing opiates to some extent in order to more effectively address the public health crisis. We have to face facts. Millions of Americans are using these drugs right now. The priority should be doing all we can to help, not punishing people and pushing the behavior into the dark. Portugal may have gotten it right.