McClements: Love could save us from overdose crisis
Jordan McClements is an overdose crisis writer who is attending Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism this fall for his master’s degree in social justice and solutions journalism. The Dover resident survived an overdose but lost a cousin to one.
Maybe we’re looking at our overdose crisis wrong, Delaware.
Delaware is in an overdose crisis because we don’t look at how and why we hurt ourselves, and each other. We’re scared to help drug users because we don’t know what to do. We’re so afraid of drug use that our fear paralyzes our actions in helping each other. The problem is that the voting majority in Delaware has this mentality. It’s understandable; our entire state is scared in our overdose crisis.
Many of you view harm reduction as promoting drug use. But harm reduction is reduction of harm. Would you rather your loved one use a safer supply and use drugs in an overdose prevention center, and be alive? Or would you rather your loved one overdose and die?
All the political rhetoric in our state on the overdose crisis avoids these questions because, like you, Delaware doesn’t want to be held accountable for overdoses. But we’re all accountable for overdoses in our state. Our politicians are scared. Look at our politicians’ lack of action and recycling of expired ideas. Politicians, we need you to be leaders. Leaders don’t borrow plans from other states and give millions to nonprofits that are recycling expired ideas.
We must be accountable, Delaware. Our people need us. People are overdosing because of xylazine; let’s save lives from xylazine.
Delaware, you’re embarrassed and don’t want to fully accept your overdose crisis. If you fully accepted your overdose crisis, you wouldn’t let the fear of making a mistake produce the crisis, like we always have.
Drug use is a symptom of a greater problem in Delaware. The problem in Delaware is the hole in our hearts and the pride that covers the hole in our hearts.
Delaware has a higher overdose mortality rate because of its pride. Delaware is embarrassed of its overdose crisis.
Delaware’s pride is why we don’t offer radical solutions to saving people from overdosing. Delaware would rather let people continue to overdose than prevent overdoses because Delaware won’t implement overdose prevention centers. Delaware is misinformed on a safer supply, to the point that Delaware continues to think treatment is the answer to a poisoned drug supply.
If Delaware continues its misinformed pride, we will continue to watch people overdose and die. Why? Delaware will continue to reject ideas that acknowledge that the state has a drug problem. Delaware doesn’t want to face the issue of overdoses because it holds our state accountable for people we like to pass by and forget. We believe we are superior to drug users. If we didn’t, we’d ask drug users how we can help them.
Instead, we rely on experts and politicians who have never used drugs to tell us what to think about the overdose crisis and those living on the front lines. We don’t have enough empathy to help drug users. Yet, there’s someone in our life who uses drugs.
For those of us who have lost someone to drug use, why are we against radical solutions to save lives? Our pride won’t bring our loved ones back.
Why are we concerned with the image of how we will look if our new solutions save lives? If you haven’t lost someone to drug use, why can’t you put yourself in the position of saving lives at any cost?
The overdose problem won’t go away until we choose to admit we don’t have all the answers. We need to risk spending money and changing laws to save lives. You want to change the overdose crisis? Or is drug use a sport with consequences you think won’t affect your life?
Put yourself in the shoes of a drug user. How would your life change? If you can’t imagine being a drug user, ask yourself: Why? The further we have empathy for ourselves, the more empathy we have for each other. We must save ourselves, so we can save others.
- Ask yourself how life would change if you were a drug user.
- Do you think politicians and their experts respect drug users enough to listen to what drug users need?
- Our laws and attitudes in Delaware cause overdose.
- Why can’t we admit that saving human life is more important than viewing drug use as a moral choice and drug users as moral or immoral?
- We don’t have empathy for ourselves, so we don’t have empathy for drug users.
If Delaware had empathy and not pride, individuals would try anything, at any cost, to save human lives. People would rather read this article than save a drug user’s life. We all want to save human lives. Why can’t we admit that this issue is beyond all our understanding? We must step up and let our love conquer our fear, Delaware.
Delaware, I know you’re afraid and don’t want to make the wrong decisions. But this fear we all have is what maintains our overdose crisis. Our fear is so much greater than our love that we don’t know how to show our love. We don’t know how to love each other. Our fear is our overdose crisis. Our love is what will save us. Choose love, Delaware.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
