American Thinker:
In Commonwealth v. Eldred (Comm. v. Eldred), an underreported July 16 case with nationwide implications, where addiction was an underlying issue in a criminal case, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that it is not cruel and unusual punishment to put a person who is on probation in jail after one positive test for drugs.
Less than two weeks after a court ordered Julie Eldred to not use drugs while on probation, she tested positive for the opioid fentanyl. Consequently, Ms. Eldred, a chronic substance-abuser, spent about ten days in jail until an inpatient treatment bed was available.
In the subsequent appeal, Lisa Newman-Polk, Ms. Eldred’s attorney, argued that incarceration was unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment because Ms. Eldred’s substance abuse disorder made her incapable of remaining drug-free.
Newman-Polk, a certified social worker with clinical experience treating addiction, called the decision a “massive blow” that would place the court “on the wrong side of history.”
The court did not agree. Nor do I. To the contrary, adoption of Miss Eldred’s disease theory would dangerously undermine America’s efforts to combat its metastasizing opioid epidemic and almost certainly lead to increased drug-related deaths, increased risks to public safety, increased recidivism, longer prison sentences for addicts without the possibility of probation or parole, fewer options like drug courts to incentivize recovery, and millions of new dollars invested in unproven community drug treatment programs.
Most important, it would remove an addict’s personal responsibility in the recovery process, the sine qua non of successful recovery. read more
Wow! A better, signaling all the ways peasants are inferior. Someone should find xim a position with The Party. So xe could be a professional bett… Xe’s what? Oh. Never mind.
If she can’t control herself the prison is where she needs to be councilor.
But I’ll play. The judge should send the junkie home to live with her lawyer. After a week to lawyer would withdraw her motion.
I keep hearing that we have an opioid epidemic. But we aren’t treating it like one unless it’s just an excuse to grow government for a problem they created.
Separately, there are not enough rehab beds or suboxone doctors to treat the people that are out there. Speaking from personal experience on that one. Had a family member who blew their life savings on pills over the course of two years and asked me for help.
I called and called and called every place with 300 miles and it was months long wait for beds. Months long waits to find a doctor to get the suboxone equivalent to ween them off oxyconton, percocet, loritab or whatever was available.
It was a tough road but they made it limited trips back to a doctor because I gave a shit. Alone, they would have died.
But the government’s response of treating doctors like pushers and putting all sorts of restrictions on prescriptions is what has directly led to a deadly black market flooded with chicom fentanyl.
If they aren’t killing, robbing or raping, is jail the response to this?
The more the govt tries to limit access to rx pain medicines, the more money they make for drug dealers in the black market, and the more that tens of millions of pain patients suffer. The field of pain management is being destroyed bc big govt is equating legal pain meds, with heroin and chinese fentanyl that they are not stopping any time soon.
Addicts and users are going to get their stuff either way.
We have forgotten all the lessons from prohibition.
I like to be awake and doing things
so I stick to RedBull.
“Opioid epidemic” my ass.
Moreshit and Bullshit is (are?) more like it.
Between 1918 and 1919 “In the U.S., about 28% of the population became infected, and 500,000 to 675,000 died.” of the Spanish flu. THAT’s an epidemic! We had roughly 43,000 “opioid” ODs in 2015 – less than 10% of the Spanish flu numbers, with a significantly larger population (100 million v 300 million).
This is another ginned-up “crisis” that transfers power from “We, the People” to “They, the Bureaucrats.”
izlamo delenda est …
How much sense does it make to wage war on american doctors while allowing tons of drugs to pour across the boarder daily?
Certified social worker, does that mean her attorney Lisa Newman-Polk is certifiably insane? It’s no wonder that I never became a social worker because I prefer to deal in sanity and the rule of law and believe in God and not make believe made up law that bends to the every whim and folly of political correctness and multiculturalism etc.
@Buck Turgidson September 8, 2018 at 6:32 am
> We have forgotten all the lessons from prohibition.
The peasants never learn. So the rulers never stop.
Although, sometimes, the workers can be taught new words. To sing to the same tune. Filling the same baskets. While working the same field. For delivery to the same masters.
Make it easy on the taxpayer. Jail all these felons in one open area. Twice a day, toss in a package containing drugs. Let the felons have control of their destiny. . .
I would say that perhaps her level of addiction makes her incapable of remaining substance-free… But that means compulsory confinement for her own, and other’s safety is a must.
Personal responsibility after a supervised detox?
ckc, tramadol didn’t do shit for me. aspirin works better.
this fing state is going to the dogs. i feel eventually i will have to leave it.
This fictional opioid ‘crisis’ is similar to the climate change ‘crisis.’ Government and the media wildly overexaggerate a non-existent threat, make up and inflate fake numbers, go into full-on media hysterical chicken little blitz to terrify the sheeple. The solution is always bigger government and higher taxes so they can save the people from themselves.
@organgrinder September 8, 2018 at 8:03 am
> How much sense does it make to wage war on american doctors
People who volunteered to sign up for a “list”? Because they were “promised” the “opportunity” for potential cash & prizes. Seems like people who put a gun to their own heads, and say “One more step, and the prinxess gets it!”, are paying for the “opportunity” of “cuts” in the “shower” shed line. Even if they’re not cutting me in on the doorxen’s “consideration”, I’ve got no problem with waiting, a little longer.
If its an epidemic then treat it!
Make a deal with new Med Students, forgive a portion of their debt to work in all the new rehab centers that the Government should build.
Treat the sick. Or shut up.
All jail does is warehouse addicts who can’t wait to score the instant they get out.
That said, she violated the conditions of her release. I bet the judge told her to stay clean or go back in the slammer. She, not society put herself back in jail.
This Fentanyl that’s coming from China is bad news. If a few pounds can kill millions, look for some asswipe to dump a barrel in the California Aqueduct sometime soon