Public shaming of drug addicts - Do you think its a deterant to drug use?

[Angel4Truth]

Officials: Overdose Response Team Is Huntington's Next Step

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) — Huntington is considering creating a quick-response team to reach out to those who have overdosed.

The Herald-Dispatch reports (http://bit.ly/2m9ZC5l) it comes as officials in Colerain, Ohio visited Huntington on Monday to talk about their own program.

There, a team consisting of a police officer, a paramedic and a counselor visit a person's home after an overdose. They provide information and maintain that relationship until the person gets into a treatment program.

Since starting in July 2015, the team has done nearly 250 follow-up investigations and almost 80 percent of people have entered some form of treatment.

Officials say it's Huntington's next step. Interim Fire Chief Jan Rader says a similar program would benefit Huntington first responders.

Colerain Township, located outside of Cincinnati, is Ohio's 14th largest community with 60,000 residents.

 

[Angel4Truth]

County on alert as 9 die over weekend in suspected ODs

Nine people died over the weekend of suspected overdoses, ending a month that tallied 258 overdose visits to emergency rooms in hospitals throughout Hamilton County. Health and public safety officials aren't sure why the numbers are rising.

The Hamilton County Heroin Coalition on Monday held a news conference and put out an alert to the public, police, emergency medical services, hospital emergency workers and treatment centers about the surge in both overdose deaths and overdose rescues in February.

Newtown Police Chief Tom Synan, director of the coalition's Law Enforcement Task Force cautioned that the rise in overdoses was not an "emergency," but that the coalition was determined to make people aware of the spike in cases. "We don't want to cause a panic," he said. "If information can save a life, then we're putting it out there."

Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco, the Hamilton County coroner, said that among the family survivors of two of the overdose deaths were three children, who are now orphans. "The opiate crisis is leaving children as the unheard victims," she said.

Hamilton County Health Commissioner Tim Ingram urged drug users and their families to get naloxone, the life-saving antidote to heroin and opioid overdose. He noted it is available at area pharmacies. "We don't want our folks who have the disease of addiction to end up in Dr. Sammarco's morgue," he said. "We are saving thousands of lives, giving people a second, third and fourth chance at life, and that's so important. We want them to get treatment."

Ingram also cautioned intravenous drug users not to share their syringes and other equipment, because hepatitis C, a blood-borne disease that can be contracted through such equipment, is the No. 1 communicable disease in the county. The virus attacks the liver and can cause cancer and other maladies, and it can end in death if the person who has it does not get proper treatment.

Addiction Services Council Development Director Kevin Richardson said the council, which provides direction to treatment as well as triage work, is overwhelmed with people seeking help.

"This is, indeed, a tragic situation," Richardson said. "The good news is, these people are seeking help. We need the continued resources ... to get that done."

Hamilton County Commissioner Denise Driehaus, chair of the coalition, said she will be at the Ohio Legislature in mid-March to demand money for Hamilton County.

"We have programs that are working right now," Driehaus said. "We just need to expand them." Among the county's programs are "quick-response" teams. Within days of someone overdosing, a team of professionals goes to the person's home and provides support and direction to addiction treatment.

It was not clear as of Monday what specific drugs were killing people from Friday through Sunday, or what was causing the general increase in overdoses for the month. Sammarco said her staff has identified numerous mixes of drugs, some of which are the highly potent fentanyl and its analogs, ketamine, heroin and "a lot of cocaine." She called the cocaine uptick "huge."

"We've seen a gamut of mixtures," she said. It is not safe to take any drug purchased on the streets, the officials said. "Ever play Russian roulette?" Sammarco asked.

The county's overdose deaths in 2016 tallied at least 388, with 25 coroner cases still pending, said Sammarco. That compared to an overdose death toll of 414 in 2015. But Sammarco also noted that the period from Jan. 15, 2016 to Feb. 26, 2016, yielded 49 such deaths, which compares to 94 for the same period this year.

The bulk of the overdoses during February occurred on the west side, specifically Delhi Township and the three Price Hill neighborhoods.

Mercy Health hospitals in the region, which took the brunt of a barrage of overdoses from August through October, again saw a spike in emergency department overdose cases from Friday through Sunday, said Nanette Bentley, spokeswoman for the hospital system. From Friday through Sunday, emergency staff treated 16 overdose cases in Anderson, Fairfield, Mount Orab and West hospitals and Queen City Medical Center. In addition, West Hospital treated a drug-related overdose case within its intensive care unit.

"It's a lot," Bentley said.

And at least in Cincinnati, February has also marked the most-transported overdose cases to hospitals for overdose in a year. CincyInsights, a public data portal that tracks the city's fire and ambulance runs for possible heroin overdoses, shows that 63 percent of the runs ended up with hospitalizations, while 37 percent did not. The percentage of hospitalization was the highest in the last 13 months. The data, however, only goes up to Feb. 22, before the most recent spike in deaths occurred.

"I'm frustrated that we are up here again" talking to reporters about overdoses, Synan said.

"This is not a political issue. This is a matter of life and death. It needs to stop being a criminal issue. What we are doing is not working."

It needs God in it to work.

 

[musterion]

I dont agree its all a to do list. The second list is a "help" list as i see nowhere it says those things precede salvation or must happen or salvation never happened.

I think it smart to attend a good church and read the bible everyday and pray everyday. In fact at the end, it says "help to grow as a christian" not you must do this to be saved.

Anyway back to the thread.

Meant the part on the left. Anyway...

 

[Angel4Truth]

Maryland scrambling to deal with surging rate of heroin overdose deaths

Looking back, Taylor Sprague's family realizes there were clues she used heroin. She often nodded off, her skin broke out and she lost pride in her appearance. She even wrote a pair of public posts on Twitter about it.

"Will someone tell me when I became an addict I seem to have missed that part of my life??" Sprague tweeted in December 2014. "I guess I was just too ... high, right?"

But her family didn't realize she was an addict until New Year's Eve morning 2015, when a police officer arrived at their Eldersburg home. The officer said Sprague, the 21-year-old student at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County who had interned at the Library of Congress and served as a page in the General Assembly, had died of an overdose.

"She doesn't have a heroin problem," Kerri Sprague, Taylor's mother, recalled thinking. "How could this happen?"

Taylor Sprague was among the last of 1,089 people in Maryland to die from an opiate overdose in 2015, and as the new year rolled around, the epidemic's death toll continued to mount. Final state data for 2016 is expected to show that some 2,000 people died after overdosing on heroin or other opiates.

Opioid overdoses now rank with cancer, strokes and heart attacks among the top killers in Maryland. State health officials say their goal for the next two years is to slow the rate at which the problem is worsening. Despite facing a $544 million state budget shortfall, Gov. Larry Hogan is expected to announce funding Wednesday to fight the heroin epidemic. The General Assembly launched a work group Monday to study 25 bills that would address opioid and substance abuse.

Unfortunately, the resources aren't there," said Kerri Sprague, echoing a conclusion reached by many officials and medical professionals. "The people outside of these families don't like that resources would go to that — they think, 'Why would we put money towards junkies?'"

There is little consensus on how to use the state's limited resources as officials scramble for fresh ideas.

"We know what people need. Money is going to keep us from being able provide everything that people need," said Del. Eric Bromwell, a Baltimore County Democrat who has put together a package of legislation to address the epidemic.

Doctors and advocates for addicts say the most pressing need is boosting the number of people able to get into treatment. Baltimore Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen called the overdose death figures "horrific" and said they won't come down until more people are helped.

"We know that treatment works, that recovering is possible," she said. "We desperately need funding for treatment."

There's a yawning gap to fill. A study conducted for the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene late last year found Maryland can provide methadone or buprenorphine — drugs widely considered critical to treating heroin addiction — to 30,000 patients. That's half of what is needed, the study concluded.

The department said the number of people receiving buprenorphine has grown significantly in recent years and that steps are being taken to increase the availability of treatment. A new federal rule is expected to allow nurses and physician assistants to prescribe buprenorphine, a measure the department endorses, and the state recently obtained federal permission to use Medicaid to pay for more inpatient treatment for addicts.

The federal government also is expected to provide the state $10 million for drug treatment under a law passed last year.

But the potential repeal of the Affordable Care Act and the resulting possible loss of funding to expand Medicaid looms over the issue. That money — a projected $215 million for the coming year — accounts for three-quarters of federal contributions to Medicaid for substance abuse treatment, according to state budget analysts.

"Some of the changes that they're suggesting would definitely decimate the good work that's being done," said Del. Kathleen Dumais, a Montgomery County Democrat who is vice chair of House Judiciary Committee.

Effects of fentanyl

The overdose problem, meanwhile, continues to worsen. Officials blame fentanyl, a powerful opioid being mixed with heroin. Health authorities in Maryland began warning in 2014 that the drug was causing a spike in overdose deaths.

Officials say fentanyl is almost irresistible to heroin distributors and dealers. They estimate that a kilogram of Mexican heroin costs $64,000, and acquiring it means dealing with dangerous drug cartels. Fentanyl, which is 50 to 100 times stronger than heroin, can be bought for as little as $2,000 a kilogram and shipped through the mail from China.

At the urging of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, China has moved to crack down on suppliers of the drug, but the makers have tweaked their chemical formulas to evade the rules.

Van Mitchell, the former state health secretary, said fentanyl caught everyone by surprise. The drug's sheer potency challenges the usual ideas about how to battle overdoses.

"You can have all the treatment you want, but if they're taking fentanyl ... they're not going to be in treatment," said Mitchell, who stepped down as health secretary in December. "They're going to be dead."

The night Taylor Sprague died, her boyfriend bought a bag of fentanyl-laced heroin in Baltimore. He overdosed on his first hit.

Sprague then called paramedics, who administered the life-saving drug naloxone, which reversed the effects of overdose. As her boyfriend was transported to the hospital, she was left alone in the middle of the night with the rest of the deadly batch of heroin.

When her boyfriend was released from the hospital the next morning and returned to the lot where they had parked, he found Sprague dead.

Treatment alternatives

Without significant sources of new money to boost treatment efforts, Hogan and Democrats in the General Assembly have crafted legislation to address the problem in other ways.

While their ideas are not incompatible, there is a difference in emphasis, said Bromwell, who is vice chairman of the House of Delagates Health and Government Operations committee.

"I think we're more focused on prevention of people becoming addicts, not necessarily what to do with drug dealers," Bromwell said.

The Democrats' most sweeping proposal would create 24/7 crisis centers across the state, publicize a hotline number for people seeking help with addiction and mandate payment rates for treatment to keep pace with inflation — a step advocates say is vital if treatment providers are to retain qualified staff.

Several other bills also have been introduced in Annapolis, proposing everything from rewriting rules for recovery homes to creating centers where addicts could safely use illegal drugs.

Hogan signed an executive order this year creating a command center designed to better organize the state's response; he also proposed bills that would limit how many pain pills doctors can prescribe to new patients and mandate stiff prison terms for people who sell drugs that lead to a fatal overdose.

Republicans and Democrats agree something must be done.

"We have to be all in," said Del. Nic Kipke, the House Republican leader. "We have to put our politics aside and do everything possible to, one, step up our law enforcement and, two, break down the barriers to effective treatments."

Kerri Sprague said she still has so many questions about what happened to her daughter. The one person who might have known the story was her boyfriend, but Sprague said she put off asking him.

Then last summer, during a trip to Montana, he overdosed and died.

"There's a ton I don't know," Sprague said. "Maybe I'm not supposed to know."

 

[CabinetMaker]

Jesus did not get rid of the Law, which is what you're saying He did. The Law still exists, and condemns those under it.

God said do not murder, do not steal, do not commit adultery, do not perjure. For the most part, we've legalized each of these, or at the very least we don't enforce the laws against them.

murder: abortion
steal: socialist programs
adultery/sexual immorality: homosexuality
perjury: When's the last time you heard of a someone being punished for this?

You should read through Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

And the four Gospels.

Which part of the Bible did Jesus quote from?
Did Jesus repeal any laws? If so, which ones? Which ones did Jesus NOT repeal, if any?

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I don't agree. Jesus completed the law of the Old Covenant and we are no longer judged under that law. We are washed clean by Christ's sacrifice for us. If you know Jesus as your savior then you don't murder or steal or lie or cheat. If you do any of these things, do you really know Jesus as your Lord and Savior? If you don't, then you will not inherit God's kingdom.

Remember what Paul said: “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. (1 Corinthians 6:12) I have the right to do anything. Scary thought.

 

[JudgeRightly]

I don't agree. Jesus completed the law of the Old Covenant and we are no longer judged under that law. We are washed clean by Christ's sacrifice for us. If you know Jesus as your savior then you don't murder or steal or lie or cheat. If you do any of these things, do you really know Jesus as your Lord and Savior? If you don't, then you will not inherit God's kingdom.

Remember what Paul said: “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. (1 Corinthians 6:12) I have the right to do anything. Scary thought.

You're right. But that doesn't go against what I said. What about those who are not saved, who are not washed clean by the blood of Christ? They are the ones still under the Law. They are the ones who are "condemned already." If someone is not saved, not a Christian, they are under the Law, and unless they repent before they die of their sins, they will not enter into heaven.

The only people who are not under the Law are Christians, the ones saved by Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. The post you quoted in your response was not talking about them. It's talking about those who are not saved.

If you would, please respond to the post you quoted and keep what I said in this post in mind while doing so.

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[CabinetMaker]

You're right. But that doesn't go against what I said. What about those who are not saved, who are not washed clean by the blood of Christ? They are the ones still under the Law. They are the ones who are "condemned already." If someone is not saved, not a Christian, they are under the Law, and unless they repent before they die of their sins, they will not enter into heaven.

The only people who are not under the Law are Christians, the ones saved by Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. The post you quoted in your response was not talking about them. It's talking about those who are not saved.

If you would, please respond to the post you quoted and keep what I said in this post in mind while doing so.

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Even those who do not know Jesus are not under the law. The Old Covenant law was completed by Christ for all men. They are judged based on whether they accepted Christ or not. If not, they have rejected God and God will honor that and not force them to be with Him.

 

[Crucible]

Jesus completed the law of the Old Covenant

You all don't know what that means- as is evidenced by using the word 'complete' over 'fulfilled'.

 

[JudgeRightly]

All crime is sin, but not all sin is crime. Keep that in mind.

Even those who do not know Jesus are not under the law.

So then what is sin? Is it only rejecting God?

Is not murder, adultery, theft, etc., sin? What condemns a criminal if there is no law? Are there no more criminals since Jesus? No, of course not.

In the same way, what condemns a sinner to be punished if the Law was done away with? If there is no Law, sinners CANNOT be condemned.

The Old Covenant law was completed by Christ for all men. They are judged based on whether they accepted Christ or not.

Those who reject God will spend eternity apart from God. But they also have to punished for their sin. Again, if there is no Law, then sin cannot be defined.

Take for example, the story of Cain. He slew his brother, Abel, and then when God confronted Him about it, and sentenced him to walk the earth as a nomad, Cain grew frightened, because he knew that anyone who came upon him would kill him, because it would be just to do so. So God prohibited the death penalty. And look what happened, a few hundred years later, mankind was so wicked that God decided to wipe them out with the Flood, and within a few verses after Noah and his family disembarked from the Ark, God instituted the death penalty, a law, for capital crimes.

Even in the Garden of Eden, the Law existed. The Law was do not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. What is the Knowledge of Good and Evil? It's the Law. So basically the only law in the Garden was "do not partake of the Law."

You see, the Law is "the way out". It's the door to a place without God. God is not sick, He's not a sadist. He knows that for us to love Him, we must also have the opportunity to reject Him, to hate Him. For without that ability, we cannot love. It's impossible.

The Law is the way out of fellowship with God. It was placed in the center of the Garden so that it was an easy decision to find.

For those who partake of the Law, they are condemned by the Law. But if they turn from their sin (which is assigned to them by the Law), and turn to God, then they are no longer under the Law, but under grace.

----

Do all people who know Jesus go to Heaven?

If so, then why will God say "Depart from me, I never knew you" to those who claimed to know him, but were not true believers? They didn't reject God, so then why will people go to hell who claimed to know God?

If not, they have rejected God and God will honor that and not force them to be with Him.

On this we agree.

You all don't know what that means- as is evidenced by using the word 'complete' over 'fulfilled'.

Indeed. Fulfill =/= complete.

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[CabinetMaker]

You all don't know what that means- as is evidenced by using the word 'complete' over 'fulfilled'.

Wow. Symantec based platitudes. Always a highly ineffective response.

 

[CabinetMaker]

All crime is sin, but not all sin is crime. Keep that in mind.



So then what is sin? Is it only rejecting God?

Is not murder, adultery, theft, etc., sin? What condemns a criminal if there is no law? Are there no more criminals since Jesus? No, of course not.

In the same way, what condemns a sinner to be punished if the Law was done away with? If there is no Law, sinners CANNOT be condemned.

You seem to have forgotten that sin and crime are not the same thing. A sin is something done against God. A crime is something we commit against each other, at least that is the way I think of them. The only sin that remains under the New Covenant is rejecting Christ. Nothing else matters if don't know Jesus.

Those who reject God will spend eternity apart from God. But they also have to punished for their sin. Again, if there is no Law, then sin cannot be defined.

You should spend more time studying Galatians.

Take for example, the story of Cain. He slew his brother, Abel, and then when God confronted Him about it, and sentenced him to walk the earth as a nomad, Cain grew frightened, because he knew that anyone who came upon him would kill him, because it would be just to do so. So God prohibited the death penalty. And look what happened, a few hundred years later, mankind was so wicked that God decided to wipe them out with the Flood, and within a few verses after Noah and his family disembarked from the Ark, God instituted the death penalty, a law, for capital crimes.

Even in the Garden of Eden, the Law existed. The Law was do not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. What is the Knowledge of Good and Evil? It's the Law. So basically the only law in the Garden was "do not partake of the Law."

You see, the Law is "the way out". It's the door to a place without God. God is not sick, He's not a sadist. He knows that for us to love Him, we must also have the opportunity to reject Him, to hate Him. For without that ability, we cannot love. It's impossible.

The Law is the way out of fellowship with God. It was placed in the center of the Garden so that it was an easy decision to find.

For those who partake of the Law, they are condemned by the Law. But if they turn from their sin (which is assigned to them by the Law), and turn to God, then they are no longer under the Law, but under grace.

----

There are different laws for different times. Different covenant. We live under the New, not the old.

Do all people who know Jesus go to Heaven?

Yes. {Hint: this answer is very misleading if you do not understand what knowing Christ really means.}

If so, then why will God say "Depart from me, I never knew you" to those who claimed to know him, but were not true believers? They didn't reject God, so then why will people go to hell who claimed to know God?

God said this because there are people, despite all their claims otherwise, do not know God. Do you really know God if you spend time drunk? Murdering? Being sexually immoral?

 

[Crucible]

Wow. Symantec based platitudes. Always a highly ineffective response.

Jesus 'fulfilled'- as in, he did as the law and prophets foretold.

I don't know where you all get this 'complete' from- how do you 'complete' something by 'nullifying' it? Jesus did not do away with the law and he comes right out and says it right to your face lain:

 

[CabinetMaker]

Jesus 'fulfilled'- as in, he did as the law and prophets foretold.

I don't know where you all get this 'complete' from- how do you 'complete' something by 'nullifying' it? Jesus did not do away with the law and he comes right out and says it right to your face lain:

So I suppose you can point us to the verse where He says that.

 

[JudgeRightly]

So I suppose you can point us to the verse where He says that.

"I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it." Or something along those lines...

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[Crucible]

Matthew 5:17-18
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished."

 

[CabinetMaker]

"I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it." Or something along those lines...

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Matthew 5:17-18
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished."

Fulfillment State, process, or act by which a situation comes to a complete end, whether ultimately good or bad. While fulfillment may be extended over an indefinite period of time, there are several occasions in Scripture in which a specific situation is being described, such as gestation and birth ( Gen 25:25 ; Job 39:1-2 ; Luke 1:57 ; 2:6 ), or the forty-day period of time announced by Jonah for the destruction of Nineveh (3:3), which was averted when the Ninevites repented.
The Old Testament. The concept of fulfillment is expressed chiefly by the Hebrew words mala [ael'm], "fulfill, accomplish, terminate, " and kala [a'l'K], "be finished, completed." The word qum [Wq], which has a wide range of meanings, also carries the sense of accomplishment in the causative form, "made to stand." The first of these terms is often used of God bringing to fruition something that he has promised, and is thus important in the context of prophetic utterances. Predictions of this kind could be fulfilled within a short period of time, as occurred when a godly man prophesied the end of the house of Eli the priest ( 1 Sam 2:27-36 ). This dire prediction was fulfilled when Solomon removed Abiathar from the high priesthood ( 1 Kings 2:27 ), a circumstance that did not escape the notice of the author of Kings.
By contrast, a longer interval of time elapsed between Jeremiah's prophecy that Judah would be enslaved by Babylon for seventy years ( 25:11 ) and the accomplishing of that act ( 52:12-15 ). Again, the fulfillment of the process was duly recorded, this time by the Chronicler ( 2 Chron 36:21 ). The prayer of Daniel for the restoration of the devastated Jerusalem temple was answered by the startling revelation of seventy weeks that would involve the Messiah ( 9:1-27 ).
The New Testament. The Greek vocabulary for fulfillment consists of the terms pleroo [plhrovw], "to fill, " which reflects the sense of the Hebrew mala [ael'm], and teleo [televw], "to complete, bring to an end, " along with their cognate forms. Because of the development of a messianic expectation over the centuries, the Jews of Jesus Christ's day were filled with the thought that the Messiah might appear at any moment to overthrow the oppressive Rome and lead the Jews to supremacy in the world. Peter, for example, espoused initially the belief that the Messiah was to be a national leader, bringing victory in battle for his enslaved people ( Mark 8:32-33 ). Only after the resurrection did Peter gain lasting insight into the true character of Christ's messiahship.


From here.

 

[Crucible]

Fulfillment

He fulfilled the prophecies and the promise of the law.

You seem to think it has something to do with revoking them, even though he flat out tells you he has not.

It becomes more and more apparent that Christianity, for many, is simply the practice of making God sufficient to man rather than man sufficient to God.

 

[CabinetMaker]

He fulfilled the prophecies and the promise of the law.

You seem to think it has something to do with revoking them, even though he flat out tells you he has not.

It becomes more and more apparent that Christianity, for many, is simply the practice of making God sufficient to man rather than man sufficient to God.

You still haven't shown us where He flat out tells us He has not.

 

[JudgeRightly]

You still haven't shown us where He flat out tells us He has not.

You're either blind or stupid or a troll.

Matthew 5:17-18
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished."

Was Jesus lying? Or could you, CabinetMaker, be wrong about the world not being under the law? Which is more plausible.

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[Crucible]

You still haven't shown us where He flat out tells us He has not.

:doh: