• ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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    8 months ago

    Florida spent $200,000 on testing and found 100 people, 2% of the total, to be using drugs. They spent more money on testing than if they’d just given welfare benefits to those 100 people.

    How do you consider that anything but a failure?

      • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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        8 months ago

        Not really when we’re just talking about food stamps. They paid $2000 for each of those benefit denials over what mostly amounted to marijuana usage. It was a net loss of $45,780 for the state.

    • evergreen@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Yeah that does sound like a failure. But also different time different place. Was there a Fentanyl epidemic of this scale 10 years ago in Florida? If the treatment options save just one person’s life, is it still a failure? Should we just say “yep nothing works, there’s no solution to daily ODs on the streets of the city.”?

      • GluWu@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        Your right, 10 years ago people weren’t using welfare money on fent, they were using medicaid money on RXs for 180 OC30s.

        The solution is to end the drug war.

        • nonailsleft@lemm.ee
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          8 months ago

          I always wonder why the disaster of massive amounts of legally available opiates is brought up as an argument to stop the restrictions on drugs altogether

          • evergreen@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Yeah, it’s like “Hey, look at the great improvement to my life since I’ve started taking 15 oxys per day! Everyone should be doing this!”

            Recreational use is one thing, but continuous, institutionally backed dependence is a whole different ballgame.

        • evergreen@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Yeah, not that that’s ideal, but at least the OCs weren’t turning them into permanently mentally and physically crippled zombies, or suddenly killing them like fent does.

          • frostysauce@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            No, the Oxy just pushed people to fent once they could no longer get or afford their fix from the pharmacy.

        • evergreen@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Because it’s a much more destructive drug, in a completely different state and city, with completely different demographics, political climate, and education level? 15 years into the future?

          • AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Oh so you think everyone in CA on benefits in on drugs or something? The base idea remains the same. Don’t hide welfare behind drug testing it isn’t worth it

            • evergreen@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              No I don’t think that and I never said that. Please don’t try and put words in my mouth.

              To be blunt, I think that the people in California, today, are much better equipped to take on this issue than the people in Florida were 15 years ago.

              • rambaroo@lemmynsfw.com
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                8 months ago

                The fact that they passed this law despite the same kind of law literally never working ever anywhere just proves how wrong you are. It’s yet another stupid easy-sounding solution that makes people feel smug but won’t work

                Californians are just as dumb as Floridians apparently. So dumb that they can’t even learn from Florida’s big dumb mistakes, and probably were never aware of them in the first place.

                • evergreen@lemmy.world
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                  8 months ago

                  Did Florida’s law provision for treatment options? If not, then maybe it really isn’t the same “stupid easy-sounding solution”. I think that if you should take some time to read the article and understand the measure that was voted on, before you call the entire population of California as dumb as that of Florida…

                  From the article:

                  Breed’s office has said the measure was intentionally designed to be flexible on the treatment component. Treatment options could range from out-patient services to a prescription for buprenorphine, a medication used to treat addiction. They noted it doesn’t include a requirement for participants to remain sober, recognizing that people often lapse in recovery and shouldn’t be kicked out of the program for a slip-up.

              • AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                All those drug addicted welfare queens in CA need to rot amirite? Since you hate welfare and the people on it.

                That’s putting words in your mouth. Keep making things up tho dude I’m sure it’ll take you far.

                • evergreen@lemmy.world
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                  8 months ago

                  Oh man he really showed me, by putting more words in my mouth… lol. I’m not going to wrestle with a pig here, Adolf! Enjoy your internet forum mud slinging battles!