The government of Norway has announced that it will start
handing out free heroine to those of its citizens most severely addicted to the
powerful and life-threatening drug. The trial program is set to begin in 2020.
Participants will be provided with diamorphine, an injectable form of heroine,
and will be required to adhere to a monitoring schedule. The Scandinavian
nation has one of the highest levels of drug overdose rates in Europe, and
already has government-monitored safe rooms where users can inject their own
drugs.
Norway’s
Health Minister, Bente Hoie, took to Facebook to explain: “We hope that this
will provide a solution that will give…a better quality of life to some addicts
who are today out of our reach and whom current programs do not help enough.”
Methadone
has been the most commonly used “medication” prescribed to heroin addicts, with
the goal of weaning users off of the “street drug,” but diamorphine is,
apparently, a viable alternative, at a cost of roughly $22,000 per year for
each user.
Is
dispensing free drugs to hard-core addicts really good public policy? Is it
something the government should be directing……at taxpayer expense? Why is it
that progressive types seem to be heartily in favor of these policies for
heroine addicts, cocaine aficionados and those who marinate every cell of their
bodies in the mind-altering substance tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) by
smoking/inhaling/ingesting marijuana-infused products, while often denigrating
and dismissing those who have a similar affinity for alcohol? Where are the
government programs to deliver free Boone’s Farm wine or Old Milwaukee beer to
those in need? It wouldn’t even cost the government $22,000 a year to provide
most alcoholics with the “medicine” they need.
Hell, in my case, $2,200 a year would suffice. Where’s the
equality, where’s the inclusiveness, where’s the diversity?
Where’s the logic?
Where’s my beer?
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