Are you ready for a positive story involving the police? Me, too…so here it is:
Meet Gloucester, Massachusetts’ Police Chief Leonard Campanello, our new hero and radical (i.e. logical) thinker in the war on drugs.
Campanello understands?that addiction is a health issue and not a criminal one, and that criminalizing addiction to some drugs and not others (tobacco, caffeine, and alcohol are all addictive substances) relates more to the stigma around certain drugs and an addict’s ability to afford effective addiction treatment. Campanello stated on Facebook that
?I’ve never arrested a tobacco addict, nor have I ever seen one turned down for help when they develop lung cancer, whether or not they have insurance. The reasons for the difference in care between a tobacco addict and an opiate addict is stigma and money. Petty reasons to lose a life.?
Alternet reports Campanello as having explained that,
?We wanted the police department to be one of the safe havens you can walk in when you’re ready, and we don’t want to waste that moment, when the addict is ready.”
Campanello traveled to Washington on Tuesday to meet with Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey to discuss a potential plan to help fund treatment initiatives in local communities in order to offer addiction treatment. But no worries, conservatives -?they won’t be using your tax dollars. Instead, Campanello has asked that money seized by the federal government in drug?forfeitures?be rerouted to local communities in order to offer addiction treatment programs.
That money will also be used to save lives. The Washington Times writes that
“The Gloucester police station is receiving help from Addison Gilbert Hospital and Lahey Health Behavioral Services. Seized drug money will also pay for addicts to receive free doses of nasal Narcan, which is used to reverse opiate overdoses, Boston.com reported.”
?The police department will pay the cost of nasal Narcan for those without insurance,? Chief Campanello wrote. ?We will pay for it with money seized from drug dealers during investigations. We will save lives with the money from the pockets of those who would take them.?
Drug dealers, on the other hand, will still be subject to arrests.
?If you’re a dealer, we have no use for you,? (Campanello) told Boston.com. ?You’re making money out of the pain of others.?
Watch the report on this:
