OPINION
(Editor's Note: The following opinion column does not represent an endorsement for any political party or candidate on the part of Newsmax.)
As the old adage goes, give someone enough rope, and they might just hang themselves.
Or, if it’s soft on crime Oregon we’re talking about, give them a taste of the lawlessness they crave, and they might soon radically alter their cravings.
And that’s just what happened as Oregon has flipped the script on its signature policy of decriminalization of hard drugs, marking a return to a bit of reality, and the recriminalization of certain conduct surrounding heroin, meth, and fentanyl.
Stuff that just a few years ago was declared a health crisis and no longer a criminal matter.
The Beaver State, along with other progressive states and metropolitan areas, argued that their approach to drug abuse and overdose deaths was enlightened and more compassionate than our belief that interdiction and law enforcement should remain a primary piece of the battle plan.
The problem with Oregon’s decriminalization strategy is quite clear
It simply didn’t work.
Drug abusers are dropping like flies.
Addiction has blown up.
Overdose deaths have skyrocketed to the degree that Oregon officials can no longer ignore the truth.
In short, they screwed up big time!
Our nation is facing a crisis that few in government even understand.
Exacerbated by a wide-open southern border, dangerous fentanyl and opioids are flooding our streets and wreaking havoc in our communities.
Many states, like Oregon, have experimented with the legalization of hard drugs and are failing.
Other states continue to fold to the pressure to encourage drug use as a way of promoting treatment.
However, the risk of facilitating drug use is that the user might overdose in the process.
States like Indiana have implemented harm reduction strategies such as needle exchange programs masquerading as an anti-drug program but really do not actually impact illicit drug use.
Needle exchanges simply enable drug users by giving them the necessary paraphernalia and permission to carry out their addictive behaviors.
In 2017, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb’s administration centered their entire opioid strategy around statewide implementation of needle exchanges, contributing to the growth in opioid injections and discarded needles.
As Indiana’s attorney general, I stood up to Governor Holcomb, the General Assembly, and members of my own party who favored these dangerous drug policies.
The mantra was, "The addict is going to shoot up anyway, so let’s make sure they have clean needles."
In theory, the program would require one clean needle in exchange for one dirty needle.
However, it was not unusual for the addict to get 30 clean needles for one dirty needle, or in some cases, no requirement to turn in a dirty needle at all.
One county prosecutor brought me a packet obtained through their county health department, which contained two syringes, a tie-off band, an implement for heating the drug, a lighter, and two condoms.
While the needle exchange allowed the Holcomb administration and the general assembly to claim they had done "something" about opioid deaths, the reality is that the exchange did nothing to prevent the volume of overdose deaths that were occurring.
The reality is that a clean needle will kill you just as quickly as a dirty needle and that enabling addicts through access and use of drugs does users far more harm than good.
Indiana is not alone.
States across the country have tried to implement strategies like needle exchange programs or injection sites where addicts can "safely" shoot up free of harassment from law enforcement.
Communities thinking this type of permissive use, like Asheville, North Carolina, have streets lined with syringes near neighborhood schools.
If crazy left Oregon is backtracking even a little bit on decriminalization, that's a really big admission that they screwed up.
States that have gone down that path or are flirting with similar strategies should rethink the direction.
Instead of creating policies that enable addictive behavior, lawmakers must take a proactive approach and address this problem at its core.
The failed experiments from the radical left have shown us that weak policies on immigration, violent crime, and drug abuse do nothing but put our communities at greater risk.
Let's secure our southern border and give law enforcement agencies appropriate resources and direction.
In that way, we can begin to effectively reign in the growing drug crisis that's doing nothing less than strangling our nation.
Curtis Hill was the 43rd attorney general of Indiana (2017-2021). He is is now a Republican Candidate for governor.
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