Thread by @ShellenbergerMD

Drug deaths skyrocketed to 93,000 deaths in 2020

Increased from 72,000 deaths in 2019

Drug abuse is the biggest problem in America

We need to wake up to the crisis and take strong action

cnn.com/2021/07/14/hea…

In the late 1990s I advocated for drug decriminalization, harm reduction, and liberalized drug laws

I thought it would result in people getting the help they needed — treatment rather than prison

I was wrong. The policies had some benefits but also contributed to rising deaths

Over the last several years I have tried to understand what we got wrong and how to make it right

I have recently published a series of articles on the topic, and in October, HarperCollins will publish a book by me on the topic

michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/why-drug-abu…

We don’t have to choose between mass death and mass incarceration, but liberalization alone clearly doesn’t work.

We need to break up the open drug scenes, centralize addiction services, and restore consequences for criminal behavior

michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/why-californ…

I have been proud to help parents of children who have died from fentanyl, and are addicted to it, to demand action. They are heroes, and will succeed

michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/why-californ…

Many progressives believe that Portugal and Netherlands reduced drug deaths by simply decriminalizing drugs, which is wrong

The Portuguese coerce addicts to quit, and don't allow public drug use, as the architect of the Portuguese approach explained to me:

And not all the people who died last year were addicts or even users. Some were kids poisoned by fentanyl while experimenting.

One might condemn experimentation, use, and addiction and still think they shouldn’t be punishable by death

michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/why-drug-abu…

You can watch a longer 12-minute video interview with Dr. Goulão here:

This is the best paper on how European nations dealt with addiction

bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.11…

You can watch my interview with the author of the paper, Dr. Helge Waal, a leading Norwegian drug treatment expert

In it he confirms everything he said in the paper, but may be of interest to people who prefer watching or listening to videos