Posted on Fri. Mar. 14, 2014 - 12:01 am EDT
Apparently neither Attorney General Eric Holder nor his boss, President Obama, are familiar with the concept of sending mixed messages.
This week, Holder termed heroin use “an urgent and growing public health crisis.” He is right about that.
Between 2007 and 2012, heroin use in the United States increased 79 percent, Holder noted. Heroin-related deaths have skyrocketed in some places.
Holder told reporters the Justice Department “is committed” to finding better ways to treat heroin addicts – and to enforcing federal laws against possessing and selling the drug.
He added similar emphasis will be placed on battling abuse of prescription drugs containing opioids.
All that sounds very good. It may even send a message to those tempted to use heroin, that the government is determined to enforce laws against illegal drugs.
Except that it is not.
Both Holder and Obama are on record telling the public there really isn’t much wrong with using marijuana – also illegal under federal law.
Holder has even made it clear federal agencies will not enforce the law in Colorado and Washington, states where recreational use of marijuana has been legalized.
That kind of on-again, off-again attitude toward illegal drugs sends the wrong message.
We must take action to find, treat other Adam Lanzas
How did Adam Lanza go from being “just a normal little weird kid,” in his father’s words, to someone who “couldn’t get any more evil”?
Peter Lanza made the comments in a magazine story about his son, who slaughtered 20 children and six adults in a 2012 rampage at a Connecticut school. The elder Lanza had been estranged from his wife and had not seen his son for two years before the shooting.
After the massacre, investigators found many people knew Adam Lanza was deeply disturbed. But, like his father and the mother he also murdered, no one seemed to make the link between Adam Lanza’s mental illness and a propensity for violence – though there were signals of it.
Since the horror in Newtown, Conn., much has been said and written about gun control. Comparatively little attention has been paid to advancing our understanding of mental illness – and finding ways to stop the Adam Lanzas of the world before they kill.
Clearly, more needs to be done to diagnose and treat – or lock up – people like Adam Lanza. We know that. So why are we as a society not tackling the problem?
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