Our beautiful state was decimated by the Opioid Epidemic. We all know someone, or are someone, who is either actively addicted or has died from opioid overdoses. I’ve lost many friends that I grew up with. 

Our Attorney General at the time let the Sackler family off with a slap on the wrist and settled for far less money than what our state deserved. This money isn’t being spent wisely either. We need to focus on harm reduction, and removing barriers to getting clean. The main barriers I’ve been told by addicts are the lack of affordable inpatient rehab. There’s also the lack of affordable halfway houses that give them more time to recover. 

The benefits to this are threefold:  1. We can turn former addict into productive members of society. The economic benefits far outweigh the cost. 2. You won’t have to worry about your packages being stolen from your porch. 3. We save countless lives. There are so many children being raised by their grandparents because their parents overdosed. When you break an addict free from addiction, they can become part of their family again and be directly involved in raising their children.