Jail isn't the answer - help is

A new jail to house addicts will surely make those Heathens turn clean! No. Stop with the ignorant way of thinking. If you believe that putting addicts in jail will suddenly make them non-addicts, then you must also believe that unicorns are real.

Addiction is a plague that infects communities; it’s a cancer running through the bodies of those it affects. How many smokers have thought, “Man, if I could just put this cigarette down and never light another one,” only to strike up the next one a short time later?

Or how about the alcoholic sitting at the bar thinking, “I’ll only have this last drink and then I’m done?” Better yet, have you tried cutting out caffeine, or sugar? It’s not easy. How about we lock you in a cell, take away everything that you do on a daily basis — and tell you, “Now don’t you go doing that stuff the second we let you out!” I mean, smokers go into the hospital for pneumonia and the second they get released they light up, so there’s that. Call addiction what you will - but I’ll continue to remind everyone of the effects it creates not only for the addicted person, but those who love and support them.

Jail isn’t the answer for clean addicts — help is. Understanding addiction is the first obstacle. No one likes the fact that meth and heroin use has overrun our small community — but on a larger scale, our problem is just similar to all other areas. We just happen to see it more. Yet, no one is willing to help the addict.

You condemn the family who begs for food stamps, saying they’re lazy and worthless. Yet when the family claws and scratches their way out of public assistance, you praise them. You berate and belittle the addict for being a burden on society — yet when the addict claws and scratches their way into recovery, you still condemn them. No addict will ever be anything more than a burden in your community and on society? Really?

Because I know several in our small community who have turned their lives around and have become contributing members to our community and society. Your neighbor, your friend, the person standing in line in front of you at the grocery store. Everyone has a past, and maybe we should start punishing everyone for the things they did, not what they do.

Next - Start at home! You want to do something about the drug problem in our community? Start punishing the landlords who are offering cheap housing to them. The landlords who know exactly what is going on in their rentals, yet turn a blind eye in order to collect that rent. 

Tom Jones no more has the answer to combating a drug problem than I have the answers to world peace. Building a new jail doesn’t solve a dang thing. Building rehab facilities, strengthening mental health facilities, opening your mind — those are helpful. I’ll gladly vote No on any initiative that punishes the condemned.

To the addicts in this community: I see you! I know you need help, and I know that there are days when all hope is lost for you. I’m not the only member of our community who sees you — we are not blinded by our ignorance.

Jamie Holeman

Grand Coulee