If people are not deemed to be bad/evil/degenerates because their brain chemistry demands they seek out a certain drug, then we as a society can re-organize our efforts to helping them be safe and recover more quickly. We can provide clean needles and addiction treatments, rather than jail cells and criminal records.

> We can provide clean needles and addiction treatments

1. how do clean needles prevent overdose?

2. https://americanaddictioncenters.org/rehab-guide/state-funde...

We already have state funded addiction centers free of cost. I am not sure how well funded they are though.

Handling opiod addiction as a disease starts with decriminalizing the drug. (It should remain a controlled substance, of course).

The next step is to make appropriate doses available to addicts at a cost that eradicates the illegal trade. These doses are administered in clinics, under the supervision of pharmacists and other professionals. This enables addicts to live their lives. The doses are offered in liquid form, not tablets. When mild and pure doses are readily available, the incentive to steal fentanyl and cut it with baby formula goes away.

The next step is to encourage addicts to reduce their dosages and do other things to get their addictions under control.

Along with all this, provide strong continuing education to working medical professionals about pain medication and addiction. Make it a point of pride among them to avoid getting their patients addicted.

The present system in the US is dominated by 12-step thinking. https://www.projectknow.com/research/alcoholics-anonymous-12... While 12-step programs help a great many people, they have two problems.

1. The whole "nature of our wrongs" approach (moral failing).

2. The cold-turkey approach, which ignores the possibility of physiological help to get through physiological withdrawal, and makes relapses more likely.

Other paths to treating addiction besides 12-step-centric ones are worth trying.

Portugal is following this path with reasonable success.

In the US it's hard to make this change. More than a century of systematic demonization of addicts has made the "moral failing" approach the norm. And, successful decriminalization of opiods will throw a lot of law enforcement people out of work.

But it's still worth trying, especially considering how many other things aren't working.

It would be good to compel Purdue Labs and other opiod-peddling drug marketers to disgorge some profits to help finance experiments in this kind of thing.

The idea (I'm not particularly for or against) is that a victim of a disease can seek help & compassion; a morally bankrupt individual can find only scorn. Then it just comes down to whether you think help & compassion helps people right their ways more than admonishment & ostracism.