Monday, November 25, 2013

What part of stupid doesn't apply?

Today's Northwest Herald reports the death of a 19-year-old woman in Johnsburg and the arrest of a 17-year-old man (boy?) from Round Lake Beach.

The 17-year-old allegedly gave the 19-year-old heroin in Antioch.

What is it going to take to knock some sense into kids' heads that heroin is dangerous?

Where are the McHenry County and Lake County Drug Task Forces? Were these kids known to them?

The Task Forces should be all over their friends, and they should squeeze information about the supplier(s) out of the 17-year-old.

The dead woman is Stephanie Habhab.
The alleged dealer is Justin Hurt.

Everyone who knows them and knows anything about their drug use or activity should contact the Johnsburg P.D. and probably should also contact the McHenry County Drug Task Force and the Lake County Drug Task Force. Provide information about purchases, sales, dealers, suppliers, locations.

One of your friends might be next.
One of your relatives might be next.
You might be next.

Get smart. If you are using and think you can't stop, think again. Get help. Stay alive.

It's too late to help Habhab.
Hurt, if convicted, faces many years in prison.

2 comments:

Joseph Monack said...

So I just want to throw something out here that's kind of controversial, but I think people should research it. It's an idea called harm reduction and you do it by treating addiction as a disease and not a criminal behavior (in fact part of harm reduction is the liberalization of drug laws). By having drugs be legal and by creating a NON black market for it you reduce harm. Harm reduction takes money and power out of the hands of gangbanging drug dealers and into a regulated business. It's been done in Portugal, maybe some other places too. Pharmacological violence went down, overdoses went down, and even overall use went down believe it or not. They had access to clean drugs but they are also monitored more closely and there are more options for their treatment as opposed to just going to jail which doesn't really help the user. Harm reduction is the idea behind needle exchange programs (so every junky doesn't get HIV or Hep C). It's the idea behind methodone and oxycotton treatment for heroin too. Heroin is an EXREMELY dirty drug and most people don't know what it's been cut with when they buy it. I knew a guy a few years younger than me who ODd from heroin plus my uncle. Obviously, if you gave someone a batch and killed them you should still be held accountable, so I'm not saying the guy is innocent. I'm saying with a harm reduction policy you'd have less dirty drugs through the black market and situations like this would be avoided. Face it. The war on drugs isn't going to get won. Why not mitigate the damage that drugs cause instead of exacerbating it? Why not try harm reduction?

Gus said...

Joseph, thanks for your comment. I had just read in The Denver Post about that City's struggle as it awaits the January 1st legalization of recreational marijuana use.