The
following is adapted from a letter that I recently wrote to a judge on behalf
of a person who is currently trapped in the legal system due to their Substance Use Disorder which is an officially recognized condition by the medical community... Please also read the footnotes...
Many
thousands of people are dealing with Substance Use Disorder, an officially
recognized condition as described in the DSM-5. Virtually every illegal act that lands them
in the court system has its roots in this disorder. Most want to stop using and move on to their new life
goals.
If
given the slightest opportunity to do so, a person's Substance Use Disorder
will win the battle in demanding that they continue to "take her medicine." To whatever extent the court can serve as a de
facto physician in
bringing about healing, I urgently and humbly ask that when the time is right, any person within the court's jurisdiction would be transferred directly to an
appropriate care facility that will serve them in a way that is best for them and
will truly help them achieve their goals for a new and productive life.
This situation
applies to men and women.
Women in this
situation are forced to carry an extra dose of potential harm…
Between
her moment of release from RCF and retrieving her personal belongings, upon her
return to the familiarity of the streets of Kensington, with hunger setting in
and the call of her Substance Use Disorder screaming for attention, she will
have little choice but to succumb to her nightmare of humiliating herself by
'dating'
so as to earn a few dollars for food and heroin.
In
the absence of the relative safety of community found within Emerald City,
her chance of finding any place to lay her head will be next to nil. She will have little choice but to find someone's
residential step or piece of sidewalk upon which to lay and consume her first
doses of heroin for this round of homelessness.
During her incarceration, her body has 'reset itself' to its tolerance
of how much heroin she can safely
handle. A 'normal' dose for her prior to
incarceration could easily end her life on this night and bring one more set of
loved ones together for a funeral that could have been prevented. If she has found an abandoned house to rest
in and inject her heroin, it may be days or weeks before anyone finds her decaying body.
She
may pass out due to her body having 'reset itself' and not being used to this
amount of heroin. In the absence of communities such as Emerald
City, she runs the risk of being attacked while lying unconscious in an area
less secure than a 'tent community.'
Do you see my point?
Let
us please work together to establish new ways of transitioning our sons and daughters
from incarceration to actual health care and to protect them from the symptomatic
behaviors of their officially medically recognized Substance Use Disorder.
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