I believe addiction is the biggest problem in our area and our approach to it needs to change. Much of the homelessness we are seeing in our community is downstream of drug addiction. We must change course on how we are approaching our drug crisis (which fentanyl has turned into an overdose crisis) or things will continue to get worse. We will never make progress on homelessness without first making significant progress in dealing with drug addiction. Public drug use needs to be re-criminalized. Dealers need to receive harsh sentences, especially as they are profiting off substances directly resulting in overdose deaths. Incentives matter and at the moment, we've removed positive incentives for drug addicts at the worst possible time as the potency of new meth and fentanyl have exploded. Law enforcement, jail and prison are all tools we need to start using again, but they should not be the only tools we use. We need to invest much more in recovery and treatment if we are going to give these people a chance at life. If we don't change our approach, most addicts will continue to use drugs until they overdose. And I don't use the term addicts callously. Each one is someone's son, daughter, brother, sister or friend. It's time to change our approach. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/06/harm-reduction-decriminalization-fentanyl-meth/674214/