ZANE MILLER

We cannot punish our way out of the opioid epidemic. Punishing addiction is simply not a solution.

All the arrests, fines, jail time, separation of families, childhood trauma too often results in the continued cycle of addiction. Rinse and repeat, that part of addiction can simply go round and round with no betterment to individuals or our community.

We can pour as much money as we’d like into punishing people who continue to suffer from addiction; and substances will burn up that money, returning us right back to where we started.

Instead, we should better fund treatment and prevention structures for those who struggle with substance abuse in order to attempt to break their cycle of addiction. These treatment structures take time, effort, and most of all patience, to give people a chance and provide individuals a needed community of support.

Paired with our emergency response and justice systems, the results can be life changing. Our best chance lies in lifting up our community as a whole, but it starts with helping those in need before we put them in handcuffs.

Right now, the city of Wheeling is deciding what to do with opioid settlement funds — and city leaders are choosing not to fund treatment and prevention first. They are fast tracking two-thirds of our available settlement funding to the law enforcement and fire departments. The “Roadmap for Opioid Settlement Funds” compiled by more than 133 national addiction experts and organizations specifically recommends against this.

But Wheeling is committing money before they even release a procedure for how they will award funds.

This is unacceptable.

For families in Wheeling who have hung on for so long, this $750,000 in opioid settlement money is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity intended for our betterment. Or, and especially, for the lives that this opportunity has already missed, we owe it to them to not miss this chance to treat and prevent addiction; we owe it to them to help others try.

At the very least the city should postpone awarding two-thirds of the opioid settlement money until City Manager Robert Herron releases guidelines for how to apply for funds.

Wait for all our worthy organizations who work in substance abuse, treatment, reentry, and prevention to submit proposals, so that we can review them all, and then choose the most impactful ones.

Zane Miller is a community advocate from Wheeling.