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What is most troubling is the biases on display with the Altoona Mirror editorial on April 18 ("Overdoses at prison troubling.")
It reinforces common but erroneous beliefs about substance abuse. It lays the burden of this terrible occurrence at the feet of those who suffered because of it.
I understand general consternation about hospital waits, but it was directed at the sufferers (worded as the irresponsible paying their debt to society).
The consternation was about being inconvenienced by the priority given to the potentially life threatening situation of those overdosing.
No one would complain about a suicide attempt being given priority over a less life-threatening emergency because their mental anguish resulted in the taking of steps to harm themselves.
Clinical depression is a disease. So is substance abuse.
It is well understood that the parts of the brain that control judgment, control, reward and reward memory are affected. Imagine for a moment, you are in a caged environment, isolated from anyone who cares about you, suffering from unending cravings as strong as the hunger of one who is starving.
Because of the rewiring that occurs, sometimes because of one use, one mistake, your brain thinks that survival equals that drug.
Add to that the decision-making section of the brain is turned off by a neurobiological process that you no longer have control over.
The visual cue of seeing the drug is enough to ignite the brain chemistry in a way that makes the impulse to use extraordinarily difficult to overcome.
It is assumed that our legislature, through stricter laws, can somehow stop the incidence with stronger penalties.
Have you not heard the war on drugs has been an abysmal failure? Steeper penalties have not stemmed the tidal wave of drug sales and use. It has exploded in prevalence instead.
Maybe it is a better approach to ask how the drugs got into the prison. It has not been determined if it is an employee, or an inmate.
If an inmate, why was it not intercepted? Blair County prison is an embarrassment to the county. Conditions are poor, security and safety have been demonstrated to be lacking.
Maybe we are asking the wrong questions. I have three:
1. Why are we not able to keep our inmates safe?
2. Why are the mentally ill, those afflicted by addiction, the majority of the individuals in jail?
3. If imprisonment does not eliminate disease, isn't what we are doing punishing someone for having a disease?
Troubling questions indeed.
(Carol Evon Taylor resides in Altoona.)