Ann, you are such a kind and thoughtful soul. You are right...addiction brings so much pain all the way around.
I guess having been addicted it strikes such a nerve with me and brings such mixed feelings. When people said I was a piece of sh*t mother, unfortunately they were not entirely wrong. I was. I was not a good person overall. Would I have become a good mother is someone had allowed me to safely continue abusing drugs and alcohol? I don't know.
Safe injection sites will definitely reduce the infections and crime associated with IV drug use. Unfortunately, that's a small percentage of drug users. There is and will continue to be crimes and health problems associated with addiction, no matter how drugs are ingested...smoked, snorted, popped, drank. I would wager that almost every crime...theft, prostitution, child neglect, domestic violence...involves substance addiction in some form or another.
I was running 7 miles the other day and I came across a woman my age stumbling in the bushes, coming out of where she likely lives (if you can call it living) She had a backpack, was smoking a cigarette, and stumbled in circles for quite some time. I looked down at my strong legs that I built up to carry me miles and miles, felt my strong lungs, my strong heart, thought about the home I would go to after my run and my children I would hug. I had this weird mix of sadness and guilt...because really she could be me, and I her.
If I truly thought that putting my arms around her would have made her better, I would have laid in the bushes with her until she could be well.
What makes the difference between her and I? That is the million dollar question.