Letter to the Editor: Harm reduction effort is best way to reduce drug overdoses

Our state is about to re-create its own war on drugs.

I know what I’m talking about; I overdosed on heroin in 2017 and lived. My cousin overdosed on heroin in 2019 and died.

We have to look at what politicians are serving instead of making any real attempt to address, acknowledge and try anything to save our community. The efforts in the last three years by the state of Delaware thus far have produced a 19% increase in the number of accidental overdoses.

We all need to declare the overdose crisis as a national emergency and treat it through harm reduction.

I believe the state is not interested in decriminalizing drugs or getting a safe supply to users, even though — we all know — the supply will always be cut with more dangerous substances. Whether the supply is coming from within or outside the United States, Delaware is an epicenter of the overdose crisis.

Our state government needs to show where its politics lie: Are we here to serve Delaware or are we here for pageantry? Why don’t we stop the politics that have cost people’s lives?

Let’s stop the problem at its base: If people are overdosing because heroin, meth and cocaine are cut with fentanyl and xylazine, then decriminalize, legalize and regulate illicit drugs. Put out free needles and put the new fentanyl-xylazine testing strips in every public place. Increase coverage and access to methadone and buprenorphine. Cut the red tape holding up overdose prevention centers.

We know that the supply currently kills. We can’t wipe our hands of the stigma of drug use, the problem we created.

The overdose crisis is a national issue, and we are treating it as a state and bipartisan issue, wasting time and watching our friends, family, neighbors, community, region and America die.

Even though we’re fifth in overdose mortality rates in the U.S., Delaware just started a harm reduction group.  I consider it a red herring for Delaware’s Reagan-era practices of trying to arrest the overdose crisis to its end. But that is what causes overdoses in the first place: our war on drug users.

I’m not looking for an endless supply of drugs or to tell people what to do. I’m asking you to give them, and all of us, a chance at the American dream through easily preventing overdoses with a clean, regulated supply.

We don’t take care of our neighbors, and drugs aren’t going to go away, so why don’t we take out the lethality?

Jordan McClements

Felton