Hochul’s drug task force continues the ineffective trend
Staten Island District Attorney Michael McMahon confronted Gov. Kathy Hochul about fentanyl last week, and he’s absolutely right: She’s once again trying to dodge the toughest issues.
In the local part of the national crisis, New Yorkers die by the hundreds from drug abuse; Shameless addicts plague the streets.
Yet New York’s so-called pundits, including public health officials, continue to insist on nothing more than “harm reduction” strategies, which to them are beyond useless encourage Seeks.
So, of course, Hochul set up an OD Prevention Task Force consisting entirely of 17 “experts” from different state agencies.
It’s a task farce.
As such, McMahon last week criticized the government for not directly involving officials and family members who have been personally affected by the crisis. Not even a law enforcement representative.
Her farce comes a year after she vetoed a bill creating a state task force to combat fentanyl, prompting her to promise to create one of her own.
“After months of lip service, the governor has taken the revolutionary step of directing her own staff to simply do their job: discuss the problem among themselves and review their own performance in dealing with the overdose crisis before making recommendations,” says McMahon.
“They will only meet a few times, but conveniently still separated and distant from the pain and suffering of Staten Islanders, with the exception of one ‘public listening session,’ which will be treated as nothing more than checking a box.”
We are not sure any Setting up the task force would be great progress, but it is guaranteed to fail. It’s missing someone who has felt the devastating effects of substance abuse: mothers, brothers and frontline professionals who have been impacted by the scourge of opioid abuse and have experienced firsthand what not work.
All this while the public health bureaucracy, even in the face of reassurance, is still aiming for the same.
Again, the progressive “harm reduction” approach focuses on “how to use drugs safely” while the only focus with hope of effect is “not touching drugs that ruin your life even if they don’t kill you” ( together with the interruption of supply).
In fact, progressive logic leads to legalization by “solving” the problem by pretending it is none other than the need for more “support” for addicts.
No: A few carrots might help, but you can’t get any further without a lot of whip.
New York and the nation must do it battle Fentanyl (and Tranq), don’t give up and “learn to live with it”.
