Does Portland Oregon, New York City, and San Francisco, have drug problems?

[Anonymous]

What can be done about this problem? Lives being lost in parts of Portland, New York, and The Bay, everyday.

[TheRealPepperPotts]

Every major city in the US has drug problems. Pick any major interstate corridor. Trafficking goes hand in glove with it, too.

The real question is, what is going on to drive so many people to drugs? Why are people a) needing to escape reality and/or b) finding it necessary to become a criminal in order to make money? And why are local, state and federal governments "uninterested" in getting a cut of the drug money (i. e. taxes)?

Shoving all the people we don't want to see into managed camps so that we don't have to look at them is actually a very disturbing idea, if you think about it. It's slapping a bandage on an arterial wound, for one thing. And in general, when societies start doing that, millions of people start dying...

As for what can be done, we have to start local as individuals. Find a local charity that deals with these people and learn on the front lines. When dealing with people on drugs, you cannot take their failures personally or let your feelings dictate how to respond. These are desperately hurting people who have given up and just want to feel happy and in control again. And they are governed by fear. It's a long process to helping them feel safe again, with a lot of painful backtracking and detours.

Drugs are not fundamentally a logical or practical problem. It's an emotional and social one. Drugs are a metric of pain in a culture.

[Agape93]

Of course. So does west Virginia, Missouri, Mississippi, Florida etc

[strateguy632]

Yes awful problems.

Force homeless into camps out of city with mandatory drug test n job clean highway and supervision.

[RowdyYates]

Good idea.

[Dargil]

Every Democrat city has drug problems. Many Republican cities too.

[RowdyYates]

Yes, and it’s disgusting.