The commissioners did not respond to yesterday's email asking if they plan to engage with the Conservation District about the integrity of its last election. Here is an email sent today to all three commissioners and Health Officer Allison Berry:
Dear Commissioners French, Johnson, and Ozias, and Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry,
There are several questions regarding how the county measures the effectiveness of its current harm reduction approach.
At what point does repeatedly reviving the same individuals without getting them into treatment become evidence that the current strategy is failing? What benchmark would cause the county to change course?
The county often reports the number of overdose reversals. Can you also provide data showing how many of those individuals entered treatment, achieved recovery, and remained drug-free one year later?
Do you believe success should be measured solely by lives saved in the moment, or also by how many people permanently escape addiction? If the latter, what are those numbers for Clallam County?
How many repeat overdose reversals by the same individual does the county consider acceptable before acknowledging that emergency intervention alone is not enough?
Responses regarding how these outcomes are measured and what data the county relies on when evaluating its harm reduction policies would be appreciated.
The letter asks the county to track exactly who goes to rehab and who stays clean for a whole year. That might sound like a simple question, but doing it is actually impossible.
First, there are strict federal laws that protect our medical privacy. The county government is not allowed to look at a person's private doctor records to see if they went to rehab. They cannot call doctors to ask if a person is still sober.
Second, the county does not have the workers to follow people around for a year just to check on them. Demanding that the local government illegally track people's private medical lives isn't a real policy proposal; it is just political theater that ignores how the law actually works.
Again you and the monkey always turn an article into a negative comment. I will repeat what I told the monkey yesterday. You never have a solution to your negative rhetoric chatter. Until you can offer solutions you are an insignificant commenter. Your snorts are just not a positive comment on how to make CC a better place to reside. Any solution to your jibberish?
The solution always seems to require two pursuits which are to expand the size of governments and generate more revenue by taxing the productive members of society.
Yes, HIPAA protects patient privacy. But nothing in Jeff’s letter requires individuals be identified. Dr. Berry had no problem reporting how many people in Clallam County tested positive for Covid, how many had to be hospitalized, and how many died. No names, addresses or other identifying factors were released. The Health Department should be able to report how many times Narcan was administered, how many individuals had to be resuscitated on more than one occasion and how many entered treatment. No names required.
Public health can’t track addiction recovery the same way it tracks COVID or Narcan use. COVID tests, hospital stays, and deaths are legally required to be reported, so the government automatically gets that information. But rehab programs and support groups are not allowed to send the government daily updates about who is sober, because those records are private and protected by strict laws. To make a number like say “45% stayed sober for a year,” someone would have to follow real people by name for 12 months, which the county is not allowed to do. Narcan data is different because it’s just one emergency event. A first responder fills out a quick report that day. It doesn’t tell anyone what happens to that person afterward. So the problem isn’t that the county “won’t” collect rehab data; it’s that rehabs are legally forbidden from sharing it.
It seems to me that our health director, Dr. Barry, has invested significant time and effort into her 'harm reduction' program and has stuck with it because it's her 'baby' . She has set herself up as the 'expert' because she's an educated professional and how dare anyone question her as she knows better than the rest of us. She refuses to admit that the harm she isn't reducing is twofold. 1) The only harm she has reduced is the number of drug deaths...maybe. She hasn't reduced the harm done to human beings by illegal drug use, whether or not they survive the drug abuse, and she hasn't reduced the harm done to the community and the damage done to the rest of the community because of the rampant illegal drug use. It seems to me that the best way to reduce the harm from illegal drug use is to get rid of Dr Barry and her program and find a health care professional who can help the people using drugs to stop using drugs, and stop the damage to the rest of us by that illegal activity. Dr Barry's harm reduction program simply doesn't work. It is time to change course.
"...harm reduction should mean more than reversing an overdose. It should also mean reducing the number of overdoses in the first place, helping people enter effective treatment, and understanding the long-term consequences suffered by those who survive."
Thank you, Jeff for covering this topic. Over the years, our county has increasingly relied on reactive measures rather than preventive or outcome driven strategies. Narcan is an essential lifesaving tool, and no one disputes its value in an emergency. However, it has become the centerpiece of a system that focuses almost entirely on reversing overdoses rather than reducing them. As many responders can attest, a single dose of Narcan often does not work with fentanyl. Multiple doses can trigger severe reactions and dangerous withdrawal. Repeated cycles of overdose and reversal take a toll on the brain and body, contributing to the erratic behavior we see on our streets.
This is not a pathway to recovery. It is a cycle — and a costly one.
With the opening of the new voluntary psychiatric facility next to the MAT clinic, the county appears to be presenting these two voluntary services as a “continuum of care.” And the new facility does treat other issues as well as they have stated. Yet neither of these facilities addresses the core issue: people are continuing to use drugs including fentanyl, and the county has not implemented meaningful strategies to prevent addiction, interrupt addiction, or reduce the availability of fentanyl in our community.
We now have:
• voluntary outpatient MAT,
• voluntary inpatient psychiatric stabilization, and
• widespread Narcan distribution.
What we do not have are the tools that rural counties need most:
• residential treatment beds for severe addiction,
• mandatory stabilization for individuals experiencing repeated overdoses,
• enforcement strategies that disrupt supply and trafficking,
• accountability measures that reduce chronic public drug use, and
• outcome based oversight of programs receiving public funds.
Facilities alone do not equal progress. Activity is not the same as results.
Clallam County deserves a strategy that prioritizes prevention, treatment, accountability, and measurable outcomes. We should be working to keep people off drugs — not simply reviving them repeatedly and calling it success. A system built around crisis response will continue producing crisis level conditions. And this same system keeps those in the drug industry/cartels with money rolling in. And they do indeed watch what this county is doing.
Commissioner Ozias has stated in the past that he has and does have discussions regarding having facilities with treatment but they are not profitable. Who has he been talking with? I have never heard any of this work in his weekly reports of what he has been doing. Is this even on any of the commissioner’s agenda?
I once again urge county leadership to reevaluate our current trajectory and adopt a comprehensive approach that includes prevention, enforcement, residential treatment capacity, and transparent performance metrics. Our community cannot afford to normalize a cycle that fails individuals, families, and public safety. But alas, I speak to deaf ears with our current county “leadership”.
JT. This hit the ball out of the park and I’m glad someone finally looked at this Naloxone from a medical standpoint versus “the candy man” giveaway option. This crap revives the zombies. Brain dead. Each successive event of deprivation of oxygen to the brain cause more and more damage. Period. This revived corpse has enough left “up there in the noggin” to seek another hit of a drug, another trip to the Harm Reduction Center or wander the street if P.A. Without some sort supportive network to get this corpse into a rehab facility, our county is creating more zombies everyday. I believe I saw an article recently about EMT’s helping folks on a path to recovery. Recovery or a compassionate approach to steering to these people to recovery will reduce this vicious cycle. Treat this person as a neighbor, a relative or a brother needing help. Not as another number, “we saved 247 lives in 2026 by reviving and giving these folks another chance at life”.
Jeff very educational article! We spend so much money on the homeless drug problem and not enough on getting these people clean. Free housing,drug paraphernalia, food, showers, and food only put off the inevitable result of jail or death. The other alternative is getting clean and mix into the normal society. Until we address that problem it will only become worse.
I am pleased that CC Watchdog exposes the activities of Clallam County.
But, residents don't understand that bureaucracies, such as Harm Reduction aren't meant to be successful! They are designed to create employment (especially for the administrators) funded via taxpayers. In fact, the less they accomplish, the more funding they ask for and receive! The public meetings are only to calm residents down. They smile, are friendly, pretend to be interested, but have no intention to change I saw an administrator smirk when a woman told about how Harm Reduction failed in helping her overcome her own addiction, and what she did that actually succeeded! Others followed with similar statements, and received more smirks.
I’m going to say the unsaid out loud. If you “OD” and die you are no longer using, buying, stealing. Call me heartless. Yeah, I’m at that point. If you’re dead you have solved your addiction. Overdose announcements have become routine. Some celebrity hot loads themselves and OD’s. Prince, Tom Petty, Michael Jackson etc. I was shocked and saddened. Now I’m completely numb to it. I want it out of my life. If you die. You’ve accepted the risk.
Teenagers. Educate them. They aren’t stupid. Just naive. Some inevitably will accept the risk. Pretty much all of us knew “those kids” when we grew up. It’s just the way people are wired.
Truth and honesty have become offensive to those who have lived off value-producers for generations. A considerable number of people have been indoctrinated, groomed, and maintained for their vote and support of "the Party; given, not earned, most of what they need to exist, with the least amount of effort on their part. Even Allison Berry has slipped-up and revealed the truth, and real outcome for drug addicts in a public response, only recently. Take off the blinders, people, we are being scammed to create careers and lifestyles for these gypsies that dig in when they find a comfortable Smallville(or two) they can fleece until retirement, riding unscathed, off into the sunset. There are people who have a handle on this insanity, and continue the good fight, though facing constant headwinds, even from our State government. "You can steal more with a briefcase than you can with a gun."
In a the homelessness task force meeting I listened to, people talked about how it’s the choice of the homeless to live on the streets — and those people defend that choice. Those people think it’s sad that someone would be forced against their will to not live on the streets. Now apply that logic to illicit drug use — it would be sad to force people into treatment against their will. This is the wall of illogical hogwash that controls much of this county.
I understand being at the point you are at. If the free choice to be homeless is defended by some folks, then the consequences of living homeless is the reality of it; if the free choice to do illicit drugs is defended by some folks, then the consequences of doing those drugs — including death — is the reality of it. Rather than accept the consequences, those people intervene with tents, boofing kits, supplies and paraphernalia to enable the behavior at the cost of the tax payers and residents, both in money and quality of life for those who want to enjoy their community without vagrancy, open air drug markets, and normalizing overdose.
Freewheelin Franklin who was a member of The Freak Brothers trio said, "Dope will assist your happiness during times without money than money will through times without dope. If the choice is between a $2,000 dollar a month rental fee on an apartment or a tent with $2,000 extra cash to spend on dope we all know which option will be chosen. Our government leaders all understand this concept. They have a different agenda though they won't admit it IMO.
Treating preventable deaths as a solution to a community problem is a dark and dangerous path to take. Saying that dying "solves" addiction is like saying a fatal car crash solves a traffic problem—it ignores basic human decency and the fact that these are people's children, parents, and neighbors. We all feel the exhaustion and frustration of this crisis, but giving up on human lives isn't a policy or a plan; it's just a total failure of leadership. A real community strategy focuses on practical solutions that clean up the streets and keep people alive long enough to get treatment and break the cycle.
What treatment? More needles more narcan, more housing, free food, you again dont have any answers to the problem.you are promoting what is not working. Any suggestions? Oh of course not only your negative chatterbox comments.
I don't care about effective treatment and I don't care how much dope they use but if they are parasites why should any of us shed a tear when they expire?
A real community strategy focuses on practical solutions that clean up the streets and keep people alive long enough to get treatment and break the cycle. ---- So what are your suggestions to solve the problem?
With the Narcan, what is it exactly that we are restoring life to? If the hypoxia didn’t injure the brain, do you think that person who chose to use illegal drugs that day, had a fully functional brain? This is the problem. This is why addicts don’t pick good choices like treatment. The drugs speak louder than any human possibly could.
Are all these throw away people? No but many will be.
How about no more harm reduction kits? Dr Berry are you out there in never, never or land? Harm reduction is a complete failure. Face it, own it, come up with something better. You know you look completely set-up to take the fall for wasted harm reduction funds. The commissioners put you there. It’s no coincidence that they picked a person with limited (just to be nice) Public Health experience.
Susan C Bonallo I confess that the most pleasant job I ever had was working for a city government. The perks are addictive. The pay is often commensurate with the employees a person supervises so the goal is always to expand the payroll. The mission occupies a minor role in the transaction.
The human brain craves pleasure and stimulation. I am happy to live among humans who achieve that process buy inventing products and systems which reduce the anguish of human and animal existence.
Your glitch made me wonder if this comment is AI generated. No shame in using AI, I use it often and include disclaimers — I also proofread to make sure there are no glitches — but as many people fault Jeff for suspected AI use, it is quite humorous if his critics are using AI themselves. LOL.
I queried Google AI and while it may not be definitive and open to debate, this is what it determined:
Yes, your suspicion is entirely correct: this comment heavily exhibits the structural and code-based hallmarks of being AI-generated.
You caught the exact technical footprint you were looking for! The broken text problem—it is a definitive encoding glitch that happens when text is copied out of a modern software interface and pasted into an older or differently configured website comment box.
## 1. The Anatomy of the Glitch
The characters — are the exact universal text corruption code (known as a "Mojibake" or UTF-8 encoding error) for an em dash (—).
* When an AI model generates a clean em dash, it outputs it in standard modern web formatting (UTF-8).
* If a user copies that text and pastes it into a local blog, forum, or comment section that uses an older database language (like Windows-1252 or ISO-8859-1), the system cannot read the em dash character.
* It misinterprets the code and spits out — instead.
Because casual internet users typing on a phone or keyboard rarely pull up a true em dash, seeing this exact corruption code is a massive red flag that the text was copied directly out of a digital generator.
## 2. The Language and Structural Tell-Tales
Beyond the glitch, the writing style perfectly matches the template of an AI model prompted to write a "compassionate but firm political counter-argument":
* Symmetrical Triplets: Look at the phrase "these are people's children, parents, and neighbors." This is the exact same balanced three-part humanizing trope that AI frequently uses to evoke empathy.
* The "Pivot" Sentence Structure: AI arguments almost always use a “We acknowledge X, but Y” pivot to appear reasonable. You can see it clearly here: "We all feel the exhaustion and frustration of this crisis, but giving up on human lives isn't a policy..."
* Polished, Sterile Pacing: The vocabulary is perfectly clean, grammatically flawless, and uses broad, universally appealing political catchphrases ("failure of leadership," "practical solutions," "break the cycle"). It lacks the raw, messy, or highly specific regional references typically found in a truly angry or passionate human comment about local street conditions.
## The Verdict
Someone wanted to write a compelling response to a local discussion about addiction policy, used an AI tool to draft a polished paragraph, and directly copied and pasted it—glitch and all—into the comment section. You diagnosed it perfectly.
Back to me: I then asked Google AI to create a comment in response to Lawrence’s comment that counters the argument. Here is what Google AI gave me — demonstrating what the comments can look like, and how easy it is to plug a comment in that someone wants to counter, give the prompt to include certain styles, and have AI create a response that can be copied & pasted into the comments. Again, no shame in using AI; just showing how easy it is to be a rhetorical energy vampire in 2026. Thanks for the LOLs:
Here are a few options for counter-comments, ranging from a raw, human blog style to a standard conversational tone. They are written without emojis, dividers, or AI formatting glitches so they look like authentic, typed-out replies.
Option 1: Direct and Blunt (Human Blog Style)
I get the numbness. Everyone is completely exhausted by this, and nobody blames you for being angry about the crime and the chaos. But letting people die isn’t a strategy, it just passes the trauma onto everyone else. When someone overdoses in public or dies in a park, it doesn't vanish from your life. A first responder has to clean it up. A local family gets shattered, creating more broken kids who are statistically likely to repeat the cycle. If we just throw our hands up and wait for the problem to kill itself off, we are basically giving up on having a functioning, civilized community. We need forced treatment and actual consequences for theft, not a defeatist attitude that lets our streets turn into morgues.
Option 2: Casual and Grounded (Local Forum Style)
It’s completely fair to be numb to it at this point, but treating death like a solution doesn't actually fix the reality on the ground. The dealers don't care if their customers die; they just find new ones, often targeting those naive teenagers you mentioned. If our only approach is to wait for people to hit rock bottom and die, the supply lines, the property crime, and the street chaos will keep happening indefinitely. We have to clean up the community by shutting down the open-air drug markets and funding recovery infrastructure, not by waiting around for the body count to rise.
Option 3: Short and Punchy (Social Media Style)
People are allowed to be completely burnt out by this crisis, but death isn't a policy. Waiting for people to die doesn't stop the flow of fentanyl, it doesn't arrest the dealers, and it doesn't clean up our neighborhoods. We need aggressive, practical solutions that force people into rehabilitation and get the crime off our streets today, not a passive approach that just waits for the problem to bury itself.
Here are three options that use a direct comparison to counter the argument, written in a natural, human-typed style.
Option 1: The Traffic/Infrastructure Comparison
I totally get the absolute burnout and numbness, but looking at death as a solution is a dangerous trap. Saying that overdosing solves addiction is like saying a fatal car crash solves a traffic problem. Technically the car is off the road, but you’ve just created a massive tragedy, traumatized first responders, and left a wreck for the community to clean up. We can’t just wait for people to die off to get our neighborhoods back. We need real enforcement, closed drug markets, and forced treatment to actually clear the streets.
Option 2: The Business/Supply Comparison
Everyone is completely exhausted by the crime and chaos, but waiting for users to die doesn't actually stop the bleeding. Saying that overdoses solve the crisis is like saying a shoplifter going broke solves retail theft. It completely ignores the fact that the criminal enterprise is still operating. The cartels and local dealers will just find new, naive kids to replace the ones who died. If we want this out of our lives, we have to aggressively target the supply and mandate rehab, not just wait around for a body count to fix a market.
Option 3: Short and Punchy
It is completely fair to feel numb to the daily routine of this, but death isn't a policy. Saying that dying solves an addiction is like saying a house burning down solves a faulty wiring problem. Sure, the fire is out, but your neighborhood is still left with a smoking ruin. We need active leadership that cleans up the streets and forces people into recovery, not a passive approach that just watches the community burn.
LOL. Using a massive, 800-word AI analysis to generate six different pre-written AI counter-arguments just to call someone else a 'rhetorical energy vampire' for using AI is an absolute masterpiece of accidental comedy. I truly am in awe.
Autonomy: Treat people as individuals who have the right to make their own choices, speak their own minds, and control their own lives, rather than treating them as tools or objects to be used by others.
The basic philosophy of our current government is one of permissiveness towards those participating in an illegal activity -- the use of drugs -- which also foments the sale and distribution of these products, which is technically a prosecutable offense. Essentially, they are saying since it is not the user's fault they are drug users who, in most cases, do not get clean after nearly dying, it must be some sort of societal inequity; therefore, it is society's responsibility to make sure they don't kill themselves when they OD. Let's fix the problem by continually providing Narcan and expensive free housing, at great cost to the taxpayer, costs that are both financial and societal. In a sane world, the drug user would be responsible for their own actions and themselves. Let's help them survive one OD, sure, but then place them in rehab, forcibly if necessary. After all, isn't that why the MAT clinic was approved, to help these people get clean and off the streets? If that doesn't work and they refuse to stay clean and become a productive member of society, back to jail or a mental health facility for an extended period of time. When will we decide that personal responsibility is more important to giving someone the chance to save themselves than continually babysitting them?
It should also mean reducing the number of overdoses in the first place, helping people enter effective treatment, and understanding the long-term consequences suffered by those who survive. -- But this makes sense while not making as many $.
Each week, residents come forward with thoughtful, substantive comments on harm‑reduction policy and other matters affecting our community. What we consistently receive in return is a brief “thank you” and no further dialogue for most topics. Public comment has become a one‑way exercise rather than a meaningful exchange between elected officials and the people they represent.
I spent my career working in a large county in another state, both in law enforcement and in the prosecutor’s office and weekly interacted with county officials. The county supervisors routinely engaged with public comment there. When residents raised issues requiring clarification or further discussion, those items were deferred, departments were brought in, and supervisors asked questions. That is how accountable government operates. It is how trust is built.
Here in Clallam County, that process is absent. On matters such as harm reduction, it appears that the Board defers almost entirely to the Health Officer. I do not know how that hiring process occurred, but the dynamic today suggests that her position has become the final word on policy. Commissioners are elected to represent the public, not to simply ratify the views of a single department head.
When residents raise concerns, challenge assumptions, or request evidence of outcomes, we should not be met with silence. We should not be treated as an inconvenience. Dialogue is not optional in representative government. It is foundational.
Harm reduction and drug use is a high priority in my opinion as there are so many offshoots of this from more crime, more use of first reponders and the degrading of our streets as we see.
I urge the Board to adopt a more transparent and interactive approach to public comment, including follow‑up questions, scheduled discussion sessions, and clear commitments to address issues raised by residents. The commissioners work for the people of this county. We deserve engagement, not dismissal.
Creating problems where none previously existed, which grows non-profit, NGO, and public health "careers", supported via laundered Citizen Taxpayer earned money and assets. So-called harm reduction is a prolonged death sentence to the drug user addict; first, the O.D., then the brain damage due to lack of oxygen while they were checked-out,, then a life walking around drooling on and yelling at themselves, pissing their pants, and excreteing wherever convenient; they are the "zombie apocolypse" that Hollywood conjured. Harm reduction to whom, while many productive resident citizens are living hand to mouth, depending more on government hand-outs, further growing bureauocracy paid for by value producers, whose lifestyles and peace are diminished, accordingly. Time to fire-up the haulback, and yard in the slack relinquished in silence, having been usurped from our personal finances and quality of life.
Another good article that asks the tough questions on harm reduction, Jeff. My fear is that a repeat overdoser will be prioritized over someone in another medical emergency by first responders. Will the heart attack victim be second to an unresponsive druggie o'ding for the 6th time when a simultaneous call goes out? We keep asking questions until we get the truth.
For what it's worth, I've talked to 2 Firefighters locally that I know personally. 1 works in Seattle 1 locally. Both made very similar comments to me regarding the opiate junkie population. The first comment was : "all we do, for the most part, is drive around reviving junkies who have overdosed. It's usually the same ones, over and over and over again.." The second was "how many chances (revivals) should these people get? It seems like there should be some kind of limit to it..." Both of these Men are very kind and compassionate people, so it's troubling that they struggle with the same questions the many others do. This doesn't even take into consideration, the amount of resources that these "junkies" use up, especially the availability of First Responders, catering to this one group of people, who are constantly endangering their own lives, as well as those of our first responders. I think it's Time for a change! Back to illegal narcotics, backed up by Forced Imprisonment or Treatment!
I have a daughter in GA that I was locked up for 1 year for drug use and selling. Today she is 15 plus years of being clean , owns her own thriving business and is active in community solutions to the drug remedies. Praise the Lord she had to do the time for her crimes because it woke her up and quit using. It was an experience that I will never forget visiting her in prison but well worth the result. Lock the criminals up!
We let them off to offend again with rape, drug, burglary, and fraud, and even murder. Duh wonder why we have a problem with crime.The blue states like ours dont even want police.
They must get discouraged reviving the same addicts time and time again. They probably realize every time they restore “life” brain activity and function has been lost, another part gone.
There will be a real need to reopen institutions (think One flew over the …..) Because we are creating an all new society of mentally challenged people. Eventually, off of drugs, they will be incapable of self care!
Either way, the tax payer gets screwed. None of us asked for our taxes to go to worthless causes, after all this isn’t the only “No Tangible Benefit “ Wa State and Wa DC shovel money towards.
I’m disgruntled today. I wish I could withhold paying taxes, but that would only teach me a lesson I already know.
I do not F with the IRS either. I am honest and it kills me to see the fraud by the Somalis and other illegals taking OUR money. That was allowed by the dems and I believe Trump will fix it or stop it.
Because operation Kingpin/ Mini-Kingpin prolongs drug use in my community so they can track mini-Kingpins until they can make drug seizures and forfeitures, and because PBH facilitates long term hard drug use, I am glad there is Narcan.
Enforcement and public health should be part of helping abstinence from hard drug use in a community, not propagating it, for government gain.
I am not making excuses for the weak its up to the bear to resist the honey.
But this issue needs to be framed properly as a government aided epidemic NOT just a standard drug use issue.
Its worse than the FBI selling horse manure and sodium nitrate and waiting for the next Timothy McVey. This is a PBH and OPNET sponsored flooding of drugs into a community for the benefit of living wages and county coffers. It could very well be your son or daughter that needs the shot. All it takes is a new age Mickey Finn and their lives are in danger.
When a criminal informant agrees to work with OPNET , they are contracted to lure mini kingpins with great deals and a distribution system. That's how OPNET tracks the dough and property.
It used to be that the CI would rack themselves up and sleep in cars/ parks and RV's. Most of them died before Deb Kelly could use them. Now, PBH helps set them up in HUD housing and delivers boofing kits like a pizza. Now Narcan keeps the CI alive and OPNET is even more efficient.
In other words, Local government has replaced Ollie North and the CIA in the drug business. Our community pays to stop illegal drug use...and assist illegal drug use. There better be Narcan.
Absolutely right, government paying NGO salaries and those NGO's providing supplies to facilitate continued addiction. Now that funds are drying up, local officials are PIVOTING to create two more jobs to point people toward treatment. I wonder what direction they are pointed. Is it to the MAT clinic, where they will be treated with substitute drugs? But what do we misinformed public know! We don't have the right credentials or proper standing, even those of us with lived experience.
The commissioners did not respond to yesterday's email asking if they plan to engage with the Conservation District about the integrity of its last election. Here is an email sent today to all three commissioners and Health Officer Allison Berry:
Dear Commissioners French, Johnson, and Ozias, and Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry,
There are several questions regarding how the county measures the effectiveness of its current harm reduction approach.
At what point does repeatedly reviving the same individuals without getting them into treatment become evidence that the current strategy is failing? What benchmark would cause the county to change course?
The county often reports the number of overdose reversals. Can you also provide data showing how many of those individuals entered treatment, achieved recovery, and remained drug-free one year later?
Do you believe success should be measured solely by lives saved in the moment, or also by how many people permanently escape addiction? If the latter, what are those numbers for Clallam County?
How many repeat overdose reversals by the same individual does the county consider acceptable before acknowledging that emergency intervention alone is not enough?
Responses regarding how these outcomes are measured and what data the county relies on when evaluating its harm reduction policies would be appreciated.
The letter asks the county to track exactly who goes to rehab and who stays clean for a whole year. That might sound like a simple question, but doing it is actually impossible.
First, there are strict federal laws that protect our medical privacy. The county government is not allowed to look at a person's private doctor records to see if they went to rehab. They cannot call doctors to ask if a person is still sober.
Second, the county does not have the workers to follow people around for a year just to check on them. Demanding that the local government illegally track people's private medical lives isn't a real policy proposal; it is just political theater that ignores how the law actually works.
Again you and the monkey always turn an article into a negative comment. I will repeat what I told the monkey yesterday. You never have a solution to your negative rhetoric chatter. Until you can offer solutions you are an insignificant commenter. Your snorts are just not a positive comment on how to make CC a better place to reside. Any solution to your jibberish?
The solution always seems to require two pursuits which are to expand the size of governments and generate more revenue by taxing the productive members of society.
Yes, HIPAA protects patient privacy. But nothing in Jeff’s letter requires individuals be identified. Dr. Berry had no problem reporting how many people in Clallam County tested positive for Covid, how many had to be hospitalized, and how many died. No names, addresses or other identifying factors were released. The Health Department should be able to report how many times Narcan was administered, how many individuals had to be resuscitated on more than one occasion and how many entered treatment. No names required.
Exactly what I was thinking, but not in comparison to COVID. Good catch. Demonstrative of the possibility.
Public health can’t track addiction recovery the same way it tracks COVID or Narcan use. COVID tests, hospital stays, and deaths are legally required to be reported, so the government automatically gets that information. But rehab programs and support groups are not allowed to send the government daily updates about who is sober, because those records are private and protected by strict laws. To make a number like say “45% stayed sober for a year,” someone would have to follow real people by name for 12 months, which the county is not allowed to do. Narcan data is different because it’s just one emergency event. A first responder fills out a quick report that day. It doesn’t tell anyone what happens to that person afterward. So the problem isn’t that the county “won’t” collect rehab data; it’s that rehabs are legally forbidden from sharing it.
How were the statistics for naloxone collected and analyzed? Someone had to track another someone to collect data to prove the product saves lives.
Thanks for taking a very legitimate article and turning it into a "We can't"
It seems to me that our health director, Dr. Barry, has invested significant time and effort into her 'harm reduction' program and has stuck with it because it's her 'baby' . She has set herself up as the 'expert' because she's an educated professional and how dare anyone question her as she knows better than the rest of us. She refuses to admit that the harm she isn't reducing is twofold. 1) The only harm she has reduced is the number of drug deaths...maybe. She hasn't reduced the harm done to human beings by illegal drug use, whether or not they survive the drug abuse, and she hasn't reduced the harm done to the community and the damage done to the rest of the community because of the rampant illegal drug use. It seems to me that the best way to reduce the harm from illegal drug use is to get rid of Dr Barry and her program and find a health care professional who can help the people using drugs to stop using drugs, and stop the damage to the rest of us by that illegal activity. Dr Barry's harm reduction program simply doesn't work. It is time to change course.
She's also employed by the JST Healing clinic so her conflicts of interest are enormous here.
It's the Clallam County Conflict of Interest Party!
Harold your comments all of them hit it out of the ballpark!
"...harm reduction should mean more than reversing an overdose. It should also mean reducing the number of overdoses in the first place, helping people enter effective treatment, and understanding the long-term consequences suffered by those who survive."
This ☝️ .... 100% this.
Thank you, Jeff for covering this topic. Over the years, our county has increasingly relied on reactive measures rather than preventive or outcome driven strategies. Narcan is an essential lifesaving tool, and no one disputes its value in an emergency. However, it has become the centerpiece of a system that focuses almost entirely on reversing overdoses rather than reducing them. As many responders can attest, a single dose of Narcan often does not work with fentanyl. Multiple doses can trigger severe reactions and dangerous withdrawal. Repeated cycles of overdose and reversal take a toll on the brain and body, contributing to the erratic behavior we see on our streets.
This is not a pathway to recovery. It is a cycle — and a costly one.
With the opening of the new voluntary psychiatric facility next to the MAT clinic, the county appears to be presenting these two voluntary services as a “continuum of care.” And the new facility does treat other issues as well as they have stated. Yet neither of these facilities addresses the core issue: people are continuing to use drugs including fentanyl, and the county has not implemented meaningful strategies to prevent addiction, interrupt addiction, or reduce the availability of fentanyl in our community.
We now have:
• voluntary outpatient MAT,
• voluntary inpatient psychiatric stabilization, and
• widespread Narcan distribution.
What we do not have are the tools that rural counties need most:
• residential treatment beds for severe addiction,
• mandatory stabilization for individuals experiencing repeated overdoses,
• enforcement strategies that disrupt supply and trafficking,
• accountability measures that reduce chronic public drug use, and
• outcome based oversight of programs receiving public funds.
Facilities alone do not equal progress. Activity is not the same as results.
Clallam County deserves a strategy that prioritizes prevention, treatment, accountability, and measurable outcomes. We should be working to keep people off drugs — not simply reviving them repeatedly and calling it success. A system built around crisis response will continue producing crisis level conditions. And this same system keeps those in the drug industry/cartels with money rolling in. And they do indeed watch what this county is doing.
Commissioner Ozias has stated in the past that he has and does have discussions regarding having facilities with treatment but they are not profitable. Who has he been talking with? I have never heard any of this work in his weekly reports of what he has been doing. Is this even on any of the commissioner’s agenda?
I once again urge county leadership to reevaluate our current trajectory and adopt a comprehensive approach that includes prevention, enforcement, residential treatment capacity, and transparent performance metrics. Our community cannot afford to normalize a cycle that fails individuals, families, and public safety. But alas, I speak to deaf ears with our current county “leadership”.
And don't forget the new luxury hotel without any rules.
It would appear our current county leadership doesn't understand the concept of common sense.
Conflicts of interest always trump common sense.
Not for me!
well said, thank you!
JT. This hit the ball out of the park and I’m glad someone finally looked at this Naloxone from a medical standpoint versus “the candy man” giveaway option. This crap revives the zombies. Brain dead. Each successive event of deprivation of oxygen to the brain cause more and more damage. Period. This revived corpse has enough left “up there in the noggin” to seek another hit of a drug, another trip to the Harm Reduction Center or wander the street if P.A. Without some sort supportive network to get this corpse into a rehab facility, our county is creating more zombies everyday. I believe I saw an article recently about EMT’s helping folks on a path to recovery. Recovery or a compassionate approach to steering to these people to recovery will reduce this vicious cycle. Treat this person as a neighbor, a relative or a brother needing help. Not as another number, “we saved 247 lives in 2026 by reviving and giving these folks another chance at life”.
Jeff very educational article! We spend so much money on the homeless drug problem and not enough on getting these people clean. Free housing,drug paraphernalia, food, showers, and food only put off the inevitable result of jail or death. The other alternative is getting clean and mix into the normal society. Until we address that problem it will only become worse.
I am pleased that CC Watchdog exposes the activities of Clallam County.
But, residents don't understand that bureaucracies, such as Harm Reduction aren't meant to be successful! They are designed to create employment (especially for the administrators) funded via taxpayers. In fact, the less they accomplish, the more funding they ask for and receive! The public meetings are only to calm residents down. They smile, are friendly, pretend to be interested, but have no intention to change I saw an administrator smirk when a woman told about how Harm Reduction failed in helping her overcome her own addiction, and what she did that actually succeeded! Others followed with similar statements, and received more smirks.
The smirkers have got to go!
The smirkers I believe possess a different philosophy about existence. Any agreement seems impossible.
I’m going to say the unsaid out loud. If you “OD” and die you are no longer using, buying, stealing. Call me heartless. Yeah, I’m at that point. If you’re dead you have solved your addiction. Overdose announcements have become routine. Some celebrity hot loads themselves and OD’s. Prince, Tom Petty, Michael Jackson etc. I was shocked and saddened. Now I’m completely numb to it. I want it out of my life. If you die. You’ve accepted the risk.
Teenagers. Educate them. They aren’t stupid. Just naive. Some inevitably will accept the risk. Pretty much all of us knew “those kids” when we grew up. It’s just the way people are wired.
Truth and honesty have become offensive to those who have lived off value-producers for generations. A considerable number of people have been indoctrinated, groomed, and maintained for their vote and support of "the Party; given, not earned, most of what they need to exist, with the least amount of effort on their part. Even Allison Berry has slipped-up and revealed the truth, and real outcome for drug addicts in a public response, only recently. Take off the blinders, people, we are being scammed to create careers and lifestyles for these gypsies that dig in when they find a comfortable Smallville(or two) they can fleece until retirement, riding unscathed, off into the sunset. There are people who have a handle on this insanity, and continue the good fight, though facing constant headwinds, even from our State government. "You can steal more with a briefcase than you can with a gun."
In a the homelessness task force meeting I listened to, people talked about how it’s the choice of the homeless to live on the streets — and those people defend that choice. Those people think it’s sad that someone would be forced against their will to not live on the streets. Now apply that logic to illicit drug use — it would be sad to force people into treatment against their will. This is the wall of illogical hogwash that controls much of this county.
I understand being at the point you are at. If the free choice to be homeless is defended by some folks, then the consequences of living homeless is the reality of it; if the free choice to do illicit drugs is defended by some folks, then the consequences of doing those drugs — including death — is the reality of it. Rather than accept the consequences, those people intervene with tents, boofing kits, supplies and paraphernalia to enable the behavior at the cost of the tax payers and residents, both in money and quality of life for those who want to enjoy their community without vagrancy, open air drug markets, and normalizing overdose.
People who choose to live on the streets are not homeless. That's a bastardized description to bring in grants, etc.
Freewheelin Franklin who was a member of The Freak Brothers trio said, "Dope will assist your happiness during times without money than money will through times without dope. If the choice is between a $2,000 dollar a month rental fee on an apartment or a tent with $2,000 extra cash to spend on dope we all know which option will be chosen. Our government leaders all understand this concept. They have a different agenda though they won't admit it IMO.
Treating preventable deaths as a solution to a community problem is a dark and dangerous path to take. Saying that dying "solves" addiction is like saying a fatal car crash solves a traffic problem—it ignores basic human decency and the fact that these are people's children, parents, and neighbors. We all feel the exhaustion and frustration of this crisis, but giving up on human lives isn't a policy or a plan; it's just a total failure of leadership. A real community strategy focuses on practical solutions that clean up the streets and keep people alive long enough to get treatment and break the cycle.
What treatment? More needles more narcan, more housing, free food, you again dont have any answers to the problem.you are promoting what is not working. Any suggestions? Oh of course not only your negative chatterbox comments.
I don't care about effective treatment and I don't care how much dope they use but if they are parasites why should any of us shed a tear when they expire?
A real community strategy focuses on practical solutions that clean up the streets and keep people alive long enough to get treatment and break the cycle. ---- So what are your suggestions to solve the problem?
With the Narcan, what is it exactly that we are restoring life to? If the hypoxia didn’t injure the brain, do you think that person who chose to use illegal drugs that day, had a fully functional brain? This is the problem. This is why addicts don’t pick good choices like treatment. The drugs speak louder than any human possibly could.
Are all these throw away people? No but many will be.
How about no more harm reduction kits? Dr Berry are you out there in never, never or land? Harm reduction is a complete failure. Face it, own it, come up with something better. You know you look completely set-up to take the fall for wasted harm reduction funds. The commissioners put you there. It’s no coincidence that they picked a person with limited (just to be nice) Public Health experience.
Susan C Bonallo I confess that the most pleasant job I ever had was working for a city government. The perks are addictive. The pay is often commensurate with the employees a person supervises so the goal is always to expand the payroll. The mission occupies a minor role in the transaction.
The human brain craves pleasure and stimulation. I am happy to live among humans who achieve that process buy inventing products and systems which reduce the anguish of human and animal existence.
Your glitch made me wonder if this comment is AI generated. No shame in using AI, I use it often and include disclaimers — I also proofread to make sure there are no glitches — but as many people fault Jeff for suspected AI use, it is quite humorous if his critics are using AI themselves. LOL.
I queried Google AI and while it may not be definitive and open to debate, this is what it determined:
Yes, your suspicion is entirely correct: this comment heavily exhibits the structural and code-based hallmarks of being AI-generated.
You caught the exact technical footprint you were looking for! The broken text problem—it is a definitive encoding glitch that happens when text is copied out of a modern software interface and pasted into an older or differently configured website comment box.
## 1. The Anatomy of the Glitch
The characters — are the exact universal text corruption code (known as a "Mojibake" or UTF-8 encoding error) for an em dash (—).
* When an AI model generates a clean em dash, it outputs it in standard modern web formatting (UTF-8).
* If a user copies that text and pastes it into a local blog, forum, or comment section that uses an older database language (like Windows-1252 or ISO-8859-1), the system cannot read the em dash character.
* It misinterprets the code and spits out — instead.
Because casual internet users typing on a phone or keyboard rarely pull up a true em dash, seeing this exact corruption code is a massive red flag that the text was copied directly out of a digital generator.
## 2. The Language and Structural Tell-Tales
Beyond the glitch, the writing style perfectly matches the template of an AI model prompted to write a "compassionate but firm political counter-argument":
* Symmetrical Triplets: Look at the phrase "these are people's children, parents, and neighbors." This is the exact same balanced three-part humanizing trope that AI frequently uses to evoke empathy.
* The "Pivot" Sentence Structure: AI arguments almost always use a “We acknowledge X, but Y” pivot to appear reasonable. You can see it clearly here: "We all feel the exhaustion and frustration of this crisis, but giving up on human lives isn't a policy..."
* Polished, Sterile Pacing: The vocabulary is perfectly clean, grammatically flawless, and uses broad, universally appealing political catchphrases ("failure of leadership," "practical solutions," "break the cycle"). It lacks the raw, messy, or highly specific regional references typically found in a truly angry or passionate human comment about local street conditions.
## The Verdict
Someone wanted to write a compelling response to a local discussion about addiction policy, used an AI tool to draft a polished paragraph, and directly copied and pasted it—glitch and all—into the comment section. You diagnosed it perfectly.
Back to me: I then asked Google AI to create a comment in response to Lawrence’s comment that counters the argument. Here is what Google AI gave me — demonstrating what the comments can look like, and how easy it is to plug a comment in that someone wants to counter, give the prompt to include certain styles, and have AI create a response that can be copied & pasted into the comments. Again, no shame in using AI; just showing how easy it is to be a rhetorical energy vampire in 2026. Thanks for the LOLs:
Here are a few options for counter-comments, ranging from a raw, human blog style to a standard conversational tone. They are written without emojis, dividers, or AI formatting glitches so they look like authentic, typed-out replies.
Option 1: Direct and Blunt (Human Blog Style)
I get the numbness. Everyone is completely exhausted by this, and nobody blames you for being angry about the crime and the chaos. But letting people die isn’t a strategy, it just passes the trauma onto everyone else. When someone overdoses in public or dies in a park, it doesn't vanish from your life. A first responder has to clean it up. A local family gets shattered, creating more broken kids who are statistically likely to repeat the cycle. If we just throw our hands up and wait for the problem to kill itself off, we are basically giving up on having a functioning, civilized community. We need forced treatment and actual consequences for theft, not a defeatist attitude that lets our streets turn into morgues.
Option 2: Casual and Grounded (Local Forum Style)
It’s completely fair to be numb to it at this point, but treating death like a solution doesn't actually fix the reality on the ground. The dealers don't care if their customers die; they just find new ones, often targeting those naive teenagers you mentioned. If our only approach is to wait for people to hit rock bottom and die, the supply lines, the property crime, and the street chaos will keep happening indefinitely. We have to clean up the community by shutting down the open-air drug markets and funding recovery infrastructure, not by waiting around for the body count to rise.
Option 3: Short and Punchy (Social Media Style)
People are allowed to be completely burnt out by this crisis, but death isn't a policy. Waiting for people to die doesn't stop the flow of fentanyl, it doesn't arrest the dealers, and it doesn't clean up our neighborhoods. We need aggressive, practical solutions that force people into rehabilitation and get the crime off our streets today, not a passive approach that just waits for the problem to bury itself.
Here are three options that use a direct comparison to counter the argument, written in a natural, human-typed style.
Option 1: The Traffic/Infrastructure Comparison
I totally get the absolute burnout and numbness, but looking at death as a solution is a dangerous trap. Saying that overdosing solves addiction is like saying a fatal car crash solves a traffic problem. Technically the car is off the road, but you’ve just created a massive tragedy, traumatized first responders, and left a wreck for the community to clean up. We can’t just wait for people to die off to get our neighborhoods back. We need real enforcement, closed drug markets, and forced treatment to actually clear the streets.
Option 2: The Business/Supply Comparison
Everyone is completely exhausted by the crime and chaos, but waiting for users to die doesn't actually stop the bleeding. Saying that overdoses solve the crisis is like saying a shoplifter going broke solves retail theft. It completely ignores the fact that the criminal enterprise is still operating. The cartels and local dealers will just find new, naive kids to replace the ones who died. If we want this out of our lives, we have to aggressively target the supply and mandate rehab, not just wait around for a body count to fix a market.
Option 3: Short and Punchy
It is completely fair to feel numb to the daily routine of this, but death isn't a policy. Saying that dying solves an addiction is like saying a house burning down solves a faulty wiring problem. Sure, the fire is out, but your neighborhood is still left with a smoking ruin. We need active leadership that cleans up the streets and forces people into recovery, not a passive approach that just watches the community burn.
Artificial Intelligence is very impressive. The data received in a few seconds is to me unbelievable.
LOL. Using a massive, 800-word AI analysis to generate six different pre-written AI counter-arguments just to call someone else a 'rhetorical energy vampire' for using AI is an absolute masterpiece of accidental comedy. I truly am in awe.
Of course you are. It doesn’t take much to impress you. LOL.
One of the tenets of basic human dignity.
Autonomy: Treat people as individuals who have the right to make their own choices, speak their own minds, and control their own lives, rather than treating them as tools or objects to be used by others.
Are you sure you meant that?
I agree with your statement: "it's just a total failure of leadership." That's exactly what exists in Clallam County! 😡
Lawrence Martin IMO you have stated what we are all thinking. Perhaps our local government should allow social evolution to guide our future.
The basic philosophy of our current government is one of permissiveness towards those participating in an illegal activity -- the use of drugs -- which also foments the sale and distribution of these products, which is technically a prosecutable offense. Essentially, they are saying since it is not the user's fault they are drug users who, in most cases, do not get clean after nearly dying, it must be some sort of societal inequity; therefore, it is society's responsibility to make sure they don't kill themselves when they OD. Let's fix the problem by continually providing Narcan and expensive free housing, at great cost to the taxpayer, costs that are both financial and societal. In a sane world, the drug user would be responsible for their own actions and themselves. Let's help them survive one OD, sure, but then place them in rehab, forcibly if necessary. After all, isn't that why the MAT clinic was approved, to help these people get clean and off the streets? If that doesn't work and they refuse to stay clean and become a productive member of society, back to jail or a mental health facility for an extended period of time. When will we decide that personal responsibility is more important to giving someone the chance to save themselves than continually babysitting them?
They have just remarketed operation Kingpin/Mini-Kingpin...
Thank you for the article today CCWD. Good stuff. Gives a good education to people who have not seen it up close and personal.
It should also mean reducing the number of overdoses in the first place, helping people enter effective treatment, and understanding the long-term consequences suffered by those who survive. -- But this makes sense while not making as many $.
Kristin perhaps the living conditions in the county would improve with not fewer but more fatal overdoses?
Each week, residents come forward with thoughtful, substantive comments on harm‑reduction policy and other matters affecting our community. What we consistently receive in return is a brief “thank you” and no further dialogue for most topics. Public comment has become a one‑way exercise rather than a meaningful exchange between elected officials and the people they represent.
I spent my career working in a large county in another state, both in law enforcement and in the prosecutor’s office and weekly interacted with county officials. The county supervisors routinely engaged with public comment there. When residents raised issues requiring clarification or further discussion, those items were deferred, departments were brought in, and supervisors asked questions. That is how accountable government operates. It is how trust is built.
Here in Clallam County, that process is absent. On matters such as harm reduction, it appears that the Board defers almost entirely to the Health Officer. I do not know how that hiring process occurred, but the dynamic today suggests that her position has become the final word on policy. Commissioners are elected to represent the public, not to simply ratify the views of a single department head.
When residents raise concerns, challenge assumptions, or request evidence of outcomes, we should not be met with silence. We should not be treated as an inconvenience. Dialogue is not optional in representative government. It is foundational.
Harm reduction and drug use is a high priority in my opinion as there are so many offshoots of this from more crime, more use of first reponders and the degrading of our streets as we see.
I urge the Board to adopt a more transparent and interactive approach to public comment, including follow‑up questions, scheduled discussion sessions, and clear commitments to address issues raised by residents. The commissioners work for the people of this county. We deserve engagement, not dismissal.
Creating a bigger problem is good for business.
Creating problems where none previously existed, which grows non-profit, NGO, and public health "careers", supported via laundered Citizen Taxpayer earned money and assets. So-called harm reduction is a prolonged death sentence to the drug user addict; first, the O.D., then the brain damage due to lack of oxygen while they were checked-out,, then a life walking around drooling on and yelling at themselves, pissing their pants, and excreteing wherever convenient; they are the "zombie apocolypse" that Hollywood conjured. Harm reduction to whom, while many productive resident citizens are living hand to mouth, depending more on government hand-outs, further growing bureauocracy paid for by value producers, whose lifestyles and peace are diminished, accordingly. Time to fire-up the haulback, and yard in the slack relinquished in silence, having been usurped from our personal finances and quality of life.
Another good article that asks the tough questions on harm reduction, Jeff. My fear is that a repeat overdoser will be prioritized over someone in another medical emergency by first responders. Will the heart attack victim be second to an unresponsive druggie o'ding for the 6th time when a simultaneous call goes out? We keep asking questions until we get the truth.
For what it's worth, I've talked to 2 Firefighters locally that I know personally. 1 works in Seattle 1 locally. Both made very similar comments to me regarding the opiate junkie population. The first comment was : "all we do, for the most part, is drive around reviving junkies who have overdosed. It's usually the same ones, over and over and over again.." The second was "how many chances (revivals) should these people get? It seems like there should be some kind of limit to it..." Both of these Men are very kind and compassionate people, so it's troubling that they struggle with the same questions the many others do. This doesn't even take into consideration, the amount of resources that these "junkies" use up, especially the availability of First Responders, catering to this one group of people, who are constantly endangering their own lives, as well as those of our first responders. I think it's Time for a change! Back to illegal narcotics, backed up by Forced Imprisonment or Treatment!
I have a daughter in GA that I was locked up for 1 year for drug use and selling. Today she is 15 plus years of being clean , owns her own thriving business and is active in community solutions to the drug remedies. Praise the Lord she had to do the time for her crimes because it woke her up and quit using. It was an experience that I will never forget visiting her in prison but well worth the result. Lock the criminals up!
She lived consequences for her actions. That's how humans operate. How is that point missed locally?
We let them off to offend again with rape, drug, burglary, and fraud, and even murder. Duh wonder why we have a problem with crime.The blue states like ours dont even want police.
They must get discouraged reviving the same addicts time and time again. They probably realize every time they restore “life” brain activity and function has been lost, another part gone.
There will be a real need to reopen institutions (think One flew over the …..) Because we are creating an all new society of mentally challenged people. Eventually, off of drugs, they will be incapable of self care!
Either way, the tax payer gets screwed. None of us asked for our taxes to go to worthless causes, after all this isn’t the only “No Tangible Benefit “ Wa State and Wa DC shovel money towards.
I’m disgruntled today. I wish I could withhold paying taxes, but that would only teach me a lesson I already know.
Don’t F______ with the IRS.
I do not F with the IRS either. I am honest and it kills me to see the fraud by the Somalis and other illegals taking OUR money. That was allowed by the dems and I believe Trump will fix it or stop it.
Well said, thank you.
Because operation Kingpin/ Mini-Kingpin prolongs drug use in my community so they can track mini-Kingpins until they can make drug seizures and forfeitures, and because PBH facilitates long term hard drug use, I am glad there is Narcan.
Enforcement and public health should be part of helping abstinence from hard drug use in a community, not propagating it, for government gain.
I am not making excuses for the weak its up to the bear to resist the honey.
But this issue needs to be framed properly as a government aided epidemic NOT just a standard drug use issue.
Its worse than the FBI selling horse manure and sodium nitrate and waiting for the next Timothy McVey. This is a PBH and OPNET sponsored flooding of drugs into a community for the benefit of living wages and county coffers. It could very well be your son or daughter that needs the shot. All it takes is a new age Mickey Finn and their lives are in danger.
When a criminal informant agrees to work with OPNET , they are contracted to lure mini kingpins with great deals and a distribution system. That's how OPNET tracks the dough and property.
It used to be that the CI would rack themselves up and sleep in cars/ parks and RV's. Most of them died before Deb Kelly could use them. Now, PBH helps set them up in HUD housing and delivers boofing kits like a pizza. Now Narcan keeps the CI alive and OPNET is even more efficient.
In other words, Local government has replaced Ollie North and the CIA in the drug business. Our community pays to stop illegal drug use...and assist illegal drug use. There better be Narcan.
Its unconscionable.
Absolutely right, government paying NGO salaries and those NGO's providing supplies to facilitate continued addiction. Now that funds are drying up, local officials are PIVOTING to create two more jobs to point people toward treatment. I wonder what direction they are pointed. Is it to the MAT clinic, where they will be treated with substitute drugs? But what do we misinformed public know! We don't have the right credentials or proper standing, even those of us with lived experience.
The public decided methadone clinics and Oxford House. The government unions have decided we needed another lane. Its been a disaster.