Scott County's HIV crisis "may reveal a terrifying future for public health in America."

Earlier today:

"State Representative Ed Clere will be a featured guest speaker at the Southern Indiana PRIDE Launch Event next Thursday October 11th, 2018."

Last year:

Mike Pence minced in The New Yorker: "(Ed) Clere remains bitter about Pence."

And a year before that:

Prayer, needles and Pence. Radical Christian extremists, be gone.

I've said it before and will say it again: As a lifelong Hoosier, I'm compelled to warn those of you currently existing on an steady diet of "Impeach Trump" that waiting in the wings is someone far worse, primarily because Mike Pence actually believes the religious mumbo-jumbo to which The Donald pays only bored lip service.

Mike Pence Is Still to Blame for an HIV Outbreak in Indiana—but for New Reasons, by Steven W. Thrasher (The Nation)

The avoidable Scott County epidemic may reveal a terrifying future for public health in America.

 ... The disaster in Scott County was not just a failure of clean needles or even just Indiana’s long-time “abstinence stressed” sexual education. It was a disaster born of a total abdication of Indiana’s public-health responsibility—and it’s the kind of health disaster we could see nationally. Pence is now vice president in an administration that is gutting HIV/AIDS resources and further criminalizing drug use—two paths that will increase HIV prevalence across the country. Meanwhile, the twin crises of deindustrialization and rising opioid usage mean that the conditions for localized HIV epidemics are not unique to Scott County. Indeed, Gonsalves and Crawford write that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believes there are “220 counties across the USA at risk of outbreaks of HIV” and hepatitis C ...

... Gonsalves and Crawford’s study of Scott County shows that preventable epidemics can happen anywhere where austerity is combined with theocratic, anti-science policies. As public-health approaches are abandoned throughout the United States, that applies to increasingly large swaths of the country.

A reminder: "How to Discard Syringes and Other Sharps," because the opioid crisis is real, whether local "leaders" grasp it or not.

Whatever one's personal stance on the opioid crisis, it is a fact that needles will be left behind, and there are steps to take to dispose of them safely.

The city of Louisville has produced the information reprinted above. The city of New Albany seems to feel (a) there is no problem, or (b) if there is a problem, it's someone else's responsibility.

We don't know which, primarily because City Hall stays mum and shirks the topic.

Sound familiar?

Why opioid deaths are this generation’s Aids crisis, by Mary O'Hara (The Guardian)

 ... This crisis isn’t confined to the US. Canada is in the midst of its own opioid crisis. However, coinciding with last month’s Harm Reduction International conference in Montreal, the Canadian government took what was seen as a world-leading step to confront the problem. It passed legislation making it easier to open supervised injection sites so that users can inject safely and, should an overdose occur, trained medical professionals are on site to provide life-saving help such as administering anti-overdose medication. It’s the epitome of a sensible harm reduction approach that aims to reduce or eliminate harm rather than, as is often the case, punish or stigmatise users ...

 ... Drug users have long been one of the most demonised and marginalised groups in society – and a low priority for policymakers. This simply can’t continue. A public health crisis and loss of life on the scale currently being witnessed warrants an immediate, and unapologetically progressive response.

Editor Duncan pithily calls out New Albany in the newspaper's "Crossroads of Crisis" series finale.

NA Confidential persists in reprinting these instructions for the safe disposal of syringes and sharps, as found on the city of Louisville's web site. In New Albany, Team Gahan has chosen to mimic Ronald Reagan's response to the AIDS crisis by saying nothing at all. More about that in a moment, but first, the final round of newspaper opioid epidemic coverage ...

• CROSSROADS OF CRISIS: Anti-drug initiatives loosening heroin's stronghold
• Our Place sees success in drug prevention programs
• Stories of success: Recovering addicts reveal how they survived drug abuse

 ... and a series summary by the editor, who against all odds manages to make a devastating observation about the very city her newspaper so often neglects.

DUNCAN: Epidemic a crisis of the conscience, by Susan Duncan (Make Clark County Great Again)

 ... We hope you found something of merit in our special report “Crossroads of Crisis: Heroin Epidemic Demands Solutions,” which wraps up today. We did.

Addicts. Experts. Survivors. We learned from them all as we dug a shovel into Southern Indiana to help uproot the hold the opioid epidemic has on our communities.

It is, you know, an epidemic. If we were honest with ourselves, it would be listed among the most deadly. Naloxone, the anti-overdose drug, continues — daily — to bring users back to life. It’s the main reason the high numbers of opioid deaths aren’t even more outrageous.

People are dying, though, including young people whose lives held such promise.

Yes, Duncan locates the center of the target when it comes to "leadership" in New Albany, and since NAC has been making this point for weeks ...

Bob Caesar's intrinsically sad battle against drug addiction treatment clinics -- and this supposed Democrat's heroic ongoing advocacy of the beautiful people.

Council wrap: Then Bob Caesar said, "Can't we just load the opioid addicts on the cattle cars along with public housing residents?"

Does New Albany's ruling caste grasp that the opioid epidemic doesn't stop at the Clark County line?

Opiate addiction treatment clinic can duly kicked.

... we applaud her.

... we need a medically supervised place for people to detox. It’s better than a trash-filled alley or the cold concrete of a jail cell. It’s more humane. It offers better outcomes. We talk about it, but that’s about it.

Our passivity is palpable.

For instance, the next-best way, besides a needle exchange, to get spent, dirty needles off our streets is to place needle drop boxes in easily accessible spots in our communities.

Too many places, including New Albany, have rejected that idea, mostly for reasons rooted in fear and lack of knowledge.

Yep -- and the main offenders, marooned like clams at the crossroads of denial, are purported Democrats (Gahan, Caesar, Phipps).

At least they have an excuse. They've been too busy dismantling public housing to notice the opioid epidemic.

Maybe the newspaper can take note of this, too, now that the series is finished?

Opioid crisis denier Jeff Gahan won't be reading, but the newspaper's "Crossroads of Crisis" series continues.

Opioid crisis denier Bob Caesar won't be reading, but the newspaper's "Crossroads of Crisis" series continues.

The newspaper's opioid crisis series continues.

Opioid epidemic comes front and center in the Clark County newspaper.

Opioid crisis denier Jeff Gahan won't be reading, but the newspaper's "Crossroads of Crisis" series continues.

Photo taken in New Albany, Bob.

For at least the third time, we're passing along valuable information about how to discard syringes and other sharps (courtesy of the city of Louisville).

Meanwhile, the newspaper somehow found the time between embarrassing bouts of chain envy (Poopeye's, Gloria Jean) ...

 ... to continue its otherwise useful series on the opioid crisis, which Team Gahan denies exists, which is why we're the ones telling you how to safely dispose of syringes, and not them.

Wouldn't want to shatter the Disney facade, would we?

CROSSROADS OF CRISIS: Businesses have costly incentive to address drug abuse

Holding onto hope: One mother's struggle to cope with her children's addictions

Local Dairy Queen owner giving second chances

Opioid crisis denier Bob Caesar won't be reading, but the newspaper's "Crossroads of Crisis" series continues.

These links are from Weekend Three of the News and Tribune's ongoing series. I'll call out the chain newspaper when it errs, but also praise it for efforts like this. At times, they're one and the same.

The Crossroads series is needed, and it serves another purpose, as a valuable counterweight to Bob Caesar's career in persistent civic incomprehension.

CROSSROADS OF CRISIS: Southern Indiana courts, jails forced to respond to opioid epidemic

Local police aim to rid streets of opioids

Mother recalls the daughter heroin took away

In #OurNa, ignorance is official policy, so here's how to safely get rid of syringes and other sharps.

Discarded needles have been seen in several downtown New Albany locations. I'm told that the response from city officials when informed of this has been one of confusion; our NA's current drug addiction epidemic doesn't fit comfortably with Jeff Gahan's carefully polished image of perfection, and it makes the suburbanites squirm, and so we must turn to the city of Louisville for practical advice on how to dispose of syringes and other sharps.

Sounds like a DNA project, doesn't it?

Opioid epidemic comes front and center in the Clark County newspaper.

No, that's not it, either.

If we can ignore the Jeffersonville newspaper's characteristically tacky self-promotion -- intrusive auto-play video, boilerplate "Crossroads of Crisis" as interchangeable with numerous other potential story lines -- this series has the potential to be genuinely useful, if for no other reason than shining a light on local politicians with their heads buried in the sand.

After all, this is a 1,500-word piece, staggering in length for a newspaper that insists 250 words are plenty for a letter writer to make his or her point. Bill and Susan are gunning for one of those CNHI in-house "see, we won again" awards, but if it gets this issue out in the open, then it's worth it.

And, if it's worth getting this issue out in the open, just imagine what the newspaper might be able to do if the same level of scrutiny was directed toward other hidden realities -- like the ongoing Chronicles of New Gahanian Corruption.

But wait.

The entire article takes place in Clark County, doesn't it? Apparently Southern Indiana has a new working synonym. Can't the dynamic duo make it official, and stop pretending that this newspaper covers New Albany and Floyd County?

The mayor will be pointing to this and saying, "See? Even the newspaper itself says the problem's in Clark County only."

CROSSROADS OF CRISIS: Heroin overdoses on the rise in Southern Indiana, by Elizabeth DePompei (All Clark, All of the Time Tome)

County health officer says epidemic is getting worse

SOUTHERN INDIANA — Soon after a needle exchange opened in Jeffersonville in late January, Clark County Health Officer Dr. Kevin Burke was reminded of why he declared an epidemic in the first place.

One of the first people to start receiving services from the exchange overdosed and died. The drug of choice, heroin, is the same drug Burke suspects is responsible for a spike in HIV and Hepatitis C cases.

It’s why he’s spent nearly two years tracking the drug and its consequences, and warning the public about the scourge that’s changing his community.

Burke has plenty of numbers, but he said there isn’t a reliable way to estimate just how many Clark County residents use heroin intravenously or otherwise. What he is more certain of is that the highly addictive opioid crosses all demographics.

“We used to think of opioid abusers as sort of inner-city Skid Row, destitute, down and out sort of individuals,” he said. “We were finding all socio-economic classes, all religions, all races, all ages, so it was a problem that sort of became part of the whole community rather than just a subset.”

Also in the newspaper:

Prescription opioids a leading pathway to heroin

Far from a 'good time': Evan Blesset working to help others avoid mistakes he made

Does New Albany's ruling caste grasp that the opioid epidemic doesn't stop at the Clark County line?

Wednesday was Health and Human Services Day for the 2017 Discover class of Leadership Southern Indiana, of which I'm a part.

Specifically, our experience centered on "The Epidemic Impact." It's an understatement of epic dimension to refer to the impact as sobering.

Near the conclusion of the session, one of my classmates answered the question of "what can we do to help" with this observation (paraphrased):

Figure out a way to convince New Albany's city council that the city has an opioid addiction problem, because right about now, it doesn't.

I'm glad this was said, although it isn't the whole council, just some of the prouder out-of-touch old white guys who think they know everything and never tire of flaunting their ignorance.

Just this past Monday night ...

New Albany City Council responds to white supremacy fliers, by Elizabeth Beilman (Hanson SoIn Business Source)

... The council also approved on a preliminary vote the addition of zoning requirements for addiction treatment facilities.

Currently, the city's zoning ordinance is silent on such businesses.

"This is basically about trying to get a handle on facilities that do opioid treatment," (Greg) Phipps said.

The updates entail two new categories for addiction-related businesses — opioid treatment facilities and addiction treatment clinics. The former would administer opioid addiction medication, such as suboxone, while the latter would not.

All new opioid treatment facilities would be required to locate at least 500 feet from homes. Addiction treatment clinics must be 300 feet from homes.

Both are allowed in just two zoning districts — general commercial and light industrial.

Before new facilities open, they must receive a special exception from the New Albany Board of Zoning Appeals.

When the standard of 300/500 feet of clearance was said aloud, Bob Caesar (who else?) flippantly replied by snarling that if it were up to him, the standard would be a mile.

Here's an idea, Bob.

Go to your storage unit and have a yard sale with the many Bicentennial coffee table books, golf clubs, art prints, commemorative coins and cook books stacked to the rafters there, and donate the proceeds to some of the agencies who are down in the trenches batting an epidemic that your stunted suburban sensibility seeks to keep out of sight.

It's real, CeeSaw -- and you're an embarrassment.

Coincidentally, The Economist tweeted this on Wednesday.

America’s opioid epidemic is worsening


States are losing the battle against deadly drugs like heroin and fentanyl

... The opioid epidemic has its roots in the explosive growth of prescription painkillers. Between 1991 and 2011, the number of opioid prescriptions (selling under brand names like Vicodin, Oxycontin, and Percocet) supplied by American retail pharmacies increased from 76m to 219m. As the number of pain pills being doled out by doctors increased, so did their potency. In 2002 one in six users took a pill more powerful than morphine. By 2012 it was one in three.

States have since cracked down on prescription opioid abuse, creating drug-monitoring programmes and arresting unscrupulous doctors. Pharmaceutical companies have reformulated their drugs to make them less prone to abuse. Unfortunately, as the supply of painkillers has dropped, many addicts have turned instead to heroin (see chart), which is cheap and plentiful. In 2014 more Americans sought treatment for heroin than for any other drug. In 2015, as total opioid deaths grew by 15%, heroin deaths increased by 23%.