> You can stop a junkie from shooting up by imprisoning them, or better yet, putting them through drug rehab.

Those responses have been tried for many years, with very poor results. Also, it's not clear that there is anything criminal about the vice of drugs, and thus taking away their freedom would be highly unjust. We take away people's freedom for bad behavior or because other people are uncomfortable.

Based on the little I know, what does help people is giving them access to social services. I think several American cities are pioneering bringing the services to the person - when authorities are called, they don't send police or only police, but people who can connect the person to various agencies.

Apparently this approach results in a much higher rate of service use (which makes sense commercially - if someone had to wait in long lines and fill out dozens of forms, and then face long delays for service, you wouldn't have many customers. If someone showed up, when need the service, and offered it on the spot, you'd sell a few more). And those people gain more stable lives and are able to better care for themselves.

We can see plenty of wealthy professionals turn to damaging behavior under great stress. Imagine how they would do if added to that stress is having no roof or reliable food, the loss of safety, the loss of any credibility - even enough to get basic jobs, the harassment, etc. But then them: 'We'll take care of the shelter, food, etc., and here are classes to help cope with your other problems without using drugs', and I can imagine they would have a much better chance.

There are drugs available in jails and prisons. Incarceration does not solve addiction and worse it groups troubled people together.

Putting a junkie in prison will indeed stop them, for the time they are in jail. But once they get out, they will return to the life they know. And then you're back with the original problem, but you've now also spent a ton of money to imprison them.

Obviously there's nothing safe about being addicted to drugs. But there are certainly methods of drug use which have wildly varied risk levels. Same for other things - drinking alcohol, eating unhealthy foods, etc.

Portugal is the best example of how to tackle the drug problem. There are many articles, but here's one: https://transformdrugs.org/blog/drug-decriminalisation-in-po...

>> Putting a junkie in prison will indeed stop them, for the time they are in jail

Sadly, no. The junkies I knew, back when I knew junkies, were terrified of rehab, not of prison.

One of them told me, to justify behavior that was mystifying to me, "I can still use in prison".

portugal does arrest drug users, and drug dealers. the users get treatment and the dealers get punished, neither of which SF deigns to do.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1451913061380476932.html

Wait until you find out about drug abuse in prisons.