There's something on the nose about Biden doing this.
wpot posted... Yes, the easy reaction is: "OMG we're encouraging people to use drugs".
The point is:
1) We're paying a large medical for treating drug overdoses. Whether conservatives want to pretend it's not happening or not we're all paying for the treatment of these people in the hospital because they aren't turned away: the costs for those not covered by insurance are added to the costs of doing business, those are passed to insurers...and then us. Furthermore, they use up beds that could be devoted to others (particularly in a pandemic).
2) We're paying a large prison bill for locking all of these people up, feeding them, etc.
3) We're paying a large societal cost because of crime linked to drug abuse.
Etc etc.
I would hope that this is an example of engaging with the problem and trying to solve it, rather than pretending that by simply opposing it (declaring war on it) every step of the way we're going to get a good result. Declaring war on countries and occupying them is a great way to make the people there not like us and drift towards viewpoints we dislike. Declaring war on drugs is a great way to lose connections with drug users and push them into the arms of criminals who happily profit from them. Neither "war" is effective at achieving the goal we say we want to achieve: it just satisfies a simplistic "we're fighting bad guys" need that many have.
But again: is the program in the article going to do more harm than good? I don't know. I seriously doubt that those complaining have thought it through either.
Or, you know, you could try doing something productive like putting people through rehab. Just a thought there, buddy.