Last
month, the Denver City Council approved to open a safe injection site,
where drug users could come and use illegal drugs in a safe and legally
protected environment. The council members view this as a way to save
people from overdose deaths. Councilman Albus Brooks stated, “Choosing not to save the lives of our neighbors is an injustice that threatens to destabilize the very foundation of our society.” I
don’t claim to have the answers to fix the drug crisis in cities, but
this I do know the foundation of our society is built on the
strengthening of families and the foundation of our society is being
eroded as the family weakens and societies disregard for families
increases.
Heroin
and other drugs have been known to destroy families. Providing users
with a safe place to use drugs doesn’t help their families who are
suffering. “The utilization of evidence-based family approaches has
demonstrated superiority over individual or group-based treatments.
Treating the individual without family involvement may limit the
effectiveness of treatment for two main reasons: it ignores the
devastating impact of SUDs [Substance Use Disorders] on
the family system leaving family members untreated, and it does not
recognize the family as a potential system of support for change.”
If
we truly want to create policies to help individuals who are suffering,
then we need to find a way that looks beyond the individual and focuses
on the family. The more we can create healthy, functioning families,
then the better and stronger our society will be.
