Louisville's War On Drugs: A Day Late And A Dollar Short

By now, everyone in Louisville is aware of the drug overdose “epidemic” here in River City. Variously described as a “plague,” a “scourge,” and a “crisis,” this current spate of criminal misbehavior has, at last, drawn the attention of the leftist do-gooders down at City Hall.

Like most liberals, Mayor Greg Fischer prefers to refer to this crime wave as a “social disease” (see, West Side Story, 1961), and seeks to expand the number of social workers rather than fill the jail with miscreants. Our president , meanwhile, suggests that we start sending more drug dealers to the electric chair. A markedly different approach, to be sure.

Last Friday, Mayor Fischer joined Public Health Director and Chief Health Strategist Dr. Sarah Moyer, community members and officials from agencies and organizations across the city to release Coming Together for Hope, Healing and Recovery, a report and two-year action plan to address substance use and misuse in Louisville. The report also takes swipes at the menaces of tobacco and alcohol, but for some reason overlooks the perils of Radon gas lurking in Louisville's basements.

The report, 78 pages of colorful charts and kumbaya flummery (we read the report, so you don't have to), cites out of date data, and overlooks the fact that drug overdose deaths and 911 calls have dramatically declined over the past year in Louisville. Rather than offering any meaningful solutions to out city's drug problem, such as hiring more police or expanding custodial drug treatment facilities, the report suggests the usual panoply of failed leftist nostrums.

Some of the bizarre ideas for solving Louisville's illegal drug problem include:

• “Making felony expungement more affordable, as many whose addiction led to incarceration have trouble finding stable housing and employment.”

• Using taxpayer funds to establish “three mobile syringe exchange sites by next summer.”

• “Expanding access to naloxone for workers in libraries, TARC buses, government buildings and businesses in high-risk areas.”

• “Developing a public health social media campaign to reduce stigma around substance abuse.”

• Setting up “safe/supervised injection sites.”

• Decriminalizing “the possession and use of illicit drugs.”

So it boils down to this. Legalize deadly drugs, reduce the stigma druggies face, give them free needles and a place to shoot up, and erase their felony records, so future employers will have no way of knowing they are hiring drug addicts. Sounds like a plan.

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Readers with patience and fortitude, as well as fans of socialist gobbledygook, can read Mayor Fischer's report for themselves, at https://louisvilleky.gov/sites/default/files/health_and_wellness/oppe_-_datareports/2018_sud_plan.pdf