Finding solutions to a region's heroin epidemic.

At last week's League of Women Voters debate, incumbent at-large council representative Shirley Baird made an earnest effort to address Southern Indiana's drug problem, but I'm not sure her reference came out as intended. She framed it as a law enforcement issue, and of course that's true, but as most of us realize, it's far more than that.

As this community action plan from Ohio illustrates ...

The Heroin and Opioid Epidemic -- Our Community’s Action Plan

Summary

On Nov. 21, 2013, many of Northern Ohio’s leading institutions gathered for a daylong summit in an effort to find solutions to the region’s heroin epidemic. A Community Action Plan was formulated over the course of several planning meetings and finalized during the summit. The purpose of this document is to serve as a guiding master plan as we move forward as a community. The Action Plan is divided into four specific areas: Prevention and Education, Healthcare Policy, Law Enforcement and Treatment. Inevitably, there is some overlap among each of these areas.

A few disclaimers: this document is a working draft and not written in stone. Some of these items are immediately actionable while others will take more time, research and effort. Some of these items have unanimous support among the planners, others do not. Although certain action items cannot be implemented without new legislation, some of the partnering agencies are forbidden from taking a position on pending or potential legislation. The hope is that this Action Plan will serve as a road map and tie together our various efforts toward the same goals – preventing people from using heroin, helping treat those who have become addicted, choking off both the supply of and demand for heroin in Northern Ohio, and working collaboratively to make our region healthier, safer and stronger ...

The needle and the damage done.

Even if you haven't read Life, you've no doubt heard that in his autobiography, Keith Richards makes no absolutely no apologies for his drug use. Moreover, he goes into great detail to explain the theory and practice of proper drug use.

When I was doing drugs, it would be the finest stuff you can get. If I was doing opium, it would be good Thai opium. When I did smack, it would be pure, pure heroin — no street shit.

Of course, there always are exceptions.

I wasn't undiscerning, except when I got desperate.

I can't find the exact quote, but at one juncture in his book, Keef observes that heroin users often overdose immediately after rehab, when they forget they cannot begin anew using the strength of their last dosages. Rather, one must dial back to beginners' amounts, and build tolerance slowly.

The Rolling Stone guitarist lives to tell the tale; meanwhile, Philip Seymour Hoffman is dead.

Me? I really like beer. A lot. It can be ingested without needles, and it tastes good. The rest is an unfortunate mystery to me.

Recovery Is in the Eye of the Beholder – The Keith Richards Story; Keith Richards' life is the history of drug use in our time, by Stanton Peele (Addiction in Society)

Man, what a long, hard trip it's been. Let's identify the five main periods of Keith's drugs use.