Zoe Williams: The Right Way to Treat Opioid Addiction

Snohomish County has decided to treat their opioid addiction problem as a natural disaster.  They recently had to deal with an avalanche, which killed 43 people, and with that experience in my mind, they felt their addiction levels would be best decreased by treating it as such a life-threatening disaster.  Instead of arresting homeless addicts they are going to their known communities and encampments and offering them rides to treatment centers.  Directors from all parts of the county meet and discuss their list of over 100 goals such as educating teachers to recognize the signs of possible abuse.  They know it will take time but they hope they're on the right track towards improving an epidemic.

When people say "think outside of the box," this is what they're talking about.  If this rural county was able to step outside of their predisposed beliefs and prejudices enough to work towards a real solution why can't the rest of the nation?  I understand that they are smaller and therefore have fewer people to manage but with more brains and possibly more educationally advanced populations bigger urban cities should be able to solve these kinds of problems just as easy, if not easier.  The writer seemed optimistic for the county's future and was probably looking to educate the general population as well as possibly some leaders of other communities to alert them that there might be a better way of treating this situation.  The treatment of their situation can be easily connected to the landslide they faced in Oso, Washington they faced in 2014 because they are treating the two tragedies as equals.