Prompted by individual thoughts, small groups, and an entire class discussion, a very problematic world opened our eyes. When differentiating between federal, state, and local problems, we all realized that many of these problems are closely connected. Federal level categorized problems were what stood out the most to me; in particularly the opioid crisis. The opioid crisis personally is categorized as a federal issue, yet directly effect state and local municipalities. Since the opioid crisis is so widespread and vastly growing, attention is brought to a nation level. Victims of the opioid crisis mainly stem from normal lives, obtaining opioids as a form of legitimate pain management for medical reasons. Upon prolonged use of these opioids …show more content…
One major solution to this problem is simply the accountability that the offenders are held to. These addicts are too often just sentenced to be incarcerated for years on end, or to drug programs with no real sense of urgency. Drug addicts do not belong in prison, that sentence only leads to further problems such as prison overcrowding or prison violence as a whole. Drug addicts do need to be held accountable though, with the sentence to a mandatory drug treatment facility. Too many times drug offenders are looked at with leniency on behalf of the judge and are sentenced to a termed probation as well as to completion of a drug program. These drug programs are court mandated, yet are not state regulated. These addicts view them as option when their craving kick back in and they are having an off day, and they leave. They view the risk of being incarcerated with greater reward rather than being in a drug program, so they never finish them. If these programs were ran by the state (and not an outside company), mandated that the addicts do not leave until a certain point of ability, and actually implemented, I feel that the opioid crisis will have hit a dent in