Dr. Andrew Kolodny:
Yes, it's not an either/or.
And I think conservatives, if they take a close look at the harm reduction interventions that are being put forward, like making naloxone more available to prevent an overdose or making clean syringes available to prevent injection-related infectious diseases, I think most conservatives will agree these are important interventions.
We should, though, also be thinking about trying to keep fentanyl from coming into the country. Interdiction efforts do make sense. There is a role for law enforcement. But the law enforcement efforts only really work if you're also making treatment much easier for people to get.
What you need to do is everything we can so that heroin and fentanyl is made more expensive on the black market, harder to obtain, and treatment is essentially free and easy to get. And if you can do that, if you can make it harder for people to keep using and easier for people to access effective treatment, more people will seek treatment.
I think there are many who are under the impression that heroin users are choosing an alternative lifestyle or maybe they're enjoying their drug use. They're not. Their quality of life is very poor. These are individuals who are suffering and generally want treatment. It's just that the treatment has been too difficult to access.
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