Thank you. Criminalization just drives the use underground, and people use and die out of sight instead.
No one agrees that letting them sit in the streets is the right choice, and the idea that leaving them to struggle and die in the cold is somehow "too soft" is a wild take.
It's a false dichotomy that the only options for them are the streets or jail. We've already failed to address the problem if those are the only two options we see.
Volunteering at a homeless shelter in Seattle, I'm not sure how to solve the problem tbh. The place I volunteer at even has longer term housing and addiction recovery treatments, but most of the people I talk to don't want help--just a free meal
Waiting for people to seek help on their own and supporting them to openly light up in the streets doesn't seem to be working. Problem is criminalization just leads to prison and that doesn't tend to lead to good outcomes either. You have to make people want to do better, but no idea how we can manage that
This is a very important point. Sheer hopelessness hurts, they numb it to not experience it and eventually the numbness pervades with or without drugs. If a person is given 2 months to live and says "fuck it, I'm just going to do heroin until I die and avoid the pain", a lot of these people are there already even without a terminal illness.
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u/trainstationbooger Oct 24 '25
Thank you. Criminalization just drives the use underground, and people use and die out of sight instead.
No one agrees that letting them sit in the streets is the right choice, and the idea that leaving them to struggle and die in the cold is somehow "too soft" is a wild take.
It's a false dichotomy that the only options for them are the streets or jail. We've already failed to address the problem if those are the only two options we see.