Tired of paying for overdoses
The cure for drug overdoses is to hire more police officers? More people to carry Narcan? Really?
First, I am sick and tired of hearing that drug addiction is a disease. It is not a disease. It is a sin and a willful action taken by people who know that it is addicting and that it is wrong. They made the choice and they need to be held responsible for that choice.
Secondly, I work and pay taxes. Now you want to raise my taxes? My little “slice of heaven” in Charleroi is going downhill so fast that it is hard to believe. A lot of my neighbors do not work. They are on welfare. They live in public housing. They use drugs. They don’t care about their property because it doesn’t belong to them. Yards go uncut for weeks at a time, garbage piles up because no one is willing to carry it to the curb. I watch rats running around quite often.
Unfortunately, welfare doesn’t give them enough money to buy food and drugs at the same time. So, when the money runs out, they resort to robbery to get their fix. Who do they rob? Working people. Why? Because working people are not at home to stop them from breaking in. And because nonworking people, for the most part, don’t have anything worth stealing because it has already been sold to buy drugs.
So, while I am at work and my home is being robbed, you want me to pay more in taxes so that Narcan is more readily available to revive these people? And you want to raise my taxes even more so that the responders can have breathing apparatuses to protect themselves?
How about this option: let’s make an announcement that on a certain date, Narcan will no longer be available from first responders. You overdose, you are on your own. And let’s get people on welfare to take periodic drug tests. If they fail, they should no longer receive welfare. Even better, if you receive Narcan before the announced deadline, you lose welfare immediately.
Not on welfare? Good for you if you overdose. You will get a large fine to help defray the cost of the breathing apparatuses the responders need to protect themselves.
I am tired of paying for other’s irresponsibilty. Let them pay for it themselves.
David Schriber
North Charleroi