Kentucky's Common Sense Shift in the War on Drugs...
Rational Nation USA Purveyor of Truth A shift in how the nation fights drug use is in order. It has been for a long time. Perhaps more states and the federal government will find their way to sensible laws like the one Kentucky recently passed into state law. WASHINGTON -- On Tuesday night, Kentucky lawmakers passed wide-ranging legislation to combat the state’s heroin epidemic. The bipartisan measure represents a significant policy shift away from more punitive measures toward a focus on treating addicts, not jailing them. The state will now allow local health departments to set up needle exchanges and increase the number of people who can carry naloxone, the drug that paramedics use to save a person suffering an opioid overdose. Addicts who survive an overdose will no longer be charged with a crime after being revived. Instead, they will be connected to treatment services and community mental health workers. At a Wednesday morning press conference before he signed the bill i...