Sept. 8, the Wisconsin Legislature’s Republican-controlled budget-writing committee approved the disbursement plan of $31 million dollars received earlier this month by the State. The new budget is a modified version of the initial proposal offered by the Department of Health Services.
“The legislature has insisted on having this oversight, but it’s not a good process,” Attorney General Josh Kaul said to Channel3000. “It’s slowing down resources getting to our communities, and you get legislators who really have no expertise in public health who are second guessing decisions that were made by the Department of Health Services.”
The DHS proposal focused on increased spending on community solutions to combat the opioid crisis, including funding for tribal nations to address increases in overdose-related deaths and family support centers to provide information, education and healthy coping skills for those battling addiction.
The Republican budget has taken a different approach to the crisis. Funds were removed from certain areas that the DHS had prioritized, such as capital projects, an addiction prevention curriculum to be integrated into K-12 schools and completely dropping the portion of the proposal dedicated to creating family support centers.
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The new plan instead funnels a significant portion of the budget into law enforcement. The new grant program available to state police is meant to be dedicated to substance abuse treatment for jail inmates, creating safe drug disposal and pre-trial diversion programs. This portion of the budget would also create a K-12 after school program to prevent opioid addiction, but the program would have to work with law enforcement to receive the funds.
Law enforcement has not always been the best intermediary to connect struggling addicts with substance abuse treatment programs and resources. To understand why, one must examine the history behind the nation’s drug crisis.
The opioid crisis has plagued the nation for over three decades, beginning with the increased prescriptions of opioids in the 1990s. The second wave of opioid-related overdoses started in 2010, specifically through heroin addiction. The third distinct wave hit in 2013, with the national trend shifting toward opioids such as fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. What is especially disturbing about this third wave is the fact that nearly a decade later, there has not been any plateau in opioid use or overdoses.
Opioids are not the first substances to spark a national panic. The 1970s marked the start of the infamous national War on Drugs. Although initially started by President Richard Nixon, the number of drug-related arrests skyrocketed under the Reagan Administration. President Ronald Reagan specifically escalated the police response to drug use by increasing anti-drug enforcement spending, establishing a federal drug task force and creating a national culture that vilified drugs and their users. As a result, nonviolent drug-related offenses that resulted in criminal charges rose from 50,000 to over 400,000 from 1980 to 1997.
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The War on Drugs brought law enforcement to the forefront of national addiction prevention, substance abuse treatment and illegal drug trade. The consistent prioritization of the national eradication of drug use has increased the size of the U.S. police force by 26% between 1992-2008 alone. Funding for police has also increased, raising from $131 per capita to $236 during this same time period. With increased numbers and funds, and a demonized portrayal of drug users as their main target, the implications have been profound.
There is a real danger in placing the police in charge of managing and reducing drug addiction. As law enforcement became the main strategy to decrease drug trade and addiction across the country, Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures began to crumble.
In Terry v. Ohio, the Supreme Court lowered the standard police officers must meet to engage in a suspect search. Officers must now have reasonable suspicion to search a suspect without a warrant — a significantly lower bar to meet than ‘probable cause’.
The result has been a staggering increase in search and seizures under the pretense of potential drug possession and communities of color face the brunt of it. An American Civil Liberties Union report found that Black people are 3.73 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white people.
Not only are the discriminatory trends in drug-related arrests problematic, but the entire notion of law enforcement acting as the primary care providers in matters of drug overdoses and substance abuse must be wholly reexamined.
Drug overdose prevention strategy is often sectioned into four categories: primary prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery. Primary prevention focuses on preventing drug addiction before any negative health effects take root. Harm reduction treats those already addicted to a substance in order to keep these individuals as healthy as possible while they begin the process of quitting. Treatment involves the act of quitting a drug itself. Finally, recovery establishes lifelong support systems for former drug users to encourage sustainable habits and avoid relapse.
Law enforcement is simply not structured to administer any of these prevention strategies. Funds should instead be directed to communities that are better equipped to contribute to this four-pronged approach.
Education plays a huge role in preventing drug usage, with opioid overdoses hitting the least educated populations the hardest. Increasing education levels across Wisconsin, particularly with the inclusion of required curriculums dedicated to substance abuse and prevention measures, could possibly result in the most dramatic decrease in drug addiction and overdoses.
Rural communities also struggle with higher rates of overdose deaths due to a lack of accessible healthcare within range as well as transportation barriers that can make it difficult to seek treatment in time. Making hospitals and emergency care providers who are specifically trained to handle a drug overdose available statewide is also crucial to lowering the number of deaths caused by opioids.
The threat of relapse is also very real. Establishing support centers within communities is an excellent resource for recovered addicts who need help in rebuilding their lives on a strong foundation that can withstand the urge to return to substance use.
This $31 million dollar package is a good start to fund a statewide response to the opioid crisis. Still, much more needs to be done. As the DHS highlighted in its first proposal, opioid addiction treatment must become accessible across all of Wisconsin and its diverse populations. This includes expanding care centers into rural areas, encouraging education around drug abuse and directing funds toward tribal nations that have been historically overlooked despite suffering high opioid overdose death rates. For example, in 2020, the opioid overdose death rate for American Indians was double the rate for white people in the state.
Law enforcement cannot solve this epidemic, and funding dedicated to opioid overdose prevention is needed elsewhere. If Wisconsin is going to end this crisis, it needs to push more of its resources directly into its communities.
Fiona Hatch ([email protected]) is a sophomore studying political science and international studies.
