Why is the BOS not trying to tackle the problem of addiction?
At first I was perplexed by the headline in the Thursday Aug 24 edition of the Record Bee: “BOS tackles needle exchange.”
Then the analogy became clear to me. Any Positive Change (APC), a harm reduction program, was like the wide receiver carrying the ball, trying to find daylight, making their way down to the goal line. The Board of Supervisors (BOS), on the other hand, was the defensive end who was indeed pursuing them with the intent to tackle and thwart any forward progress.
So my question is … why is the BOS trying to tackle the program instead of trying to tackle the problem of addiction itself?
It has been shown time and again by science and research that abstinence and incarceration will not solve our drug addiction problem. Programs like APC, which offer much more than needle exchange, are shown to reduce the need for hospitalizations for hepatitis C and infections. The community benefits from programs like APC. It is not clear to me what issues the BOS has with APC.
APC has never received any funding from any city in Lake County or from Lake County itself. It has been entirely grant funded from the get go.
I would hope that city and county government officials could rise above any petty considerations of permits, MOUs, and other “busy-work, paper-work” operations and focus on the real issues here: we have a huge problem with drug use and abuse. We all need to work together to find solutions and not be engaging in sandbox disputes over territory. APC is not the enemy here. The scourge of addiction is.
—Carolynn Jarrett, Clearlake
Union opposes supermarket merger
The United Food and Commercial Workers call on state and federal governments to reject the proposed merger between Albertsons, owner of Safeway, Vons and Pavilions, and Kroger, owner of Ralphs, Foods Co and Food 4 Less.
This deal would make the combined entity the dominant food retailer in the United States with nearly 5,000 stores, 700,000 employees and 4,000 pharmacies.
While Kroger and Albertsons, already the two largest supermarket conglomerates, insist grocery prices would go down due to efficiencies of scale, the opposite result is more likely. Reduced competition means higher prices.
We remember what happened when Albertsons acquired Safeway in 2014. To appease regulators, the merged company sold 146 stores to a Northwestern chain called Haggen. Haggen’s expansion failed and it was forced to declare bankruptcy within a year, causing thousands to lose their jobs.
We can’t in good conscience support this merger unless we have ironclad guarantees that middle-class jobs will not be jeopardized. Without such guarantees, this deal could cost American workers more than $300 million annually.
—Jacques Loveall is president of UFCW 8-Golden State, representing workers in supermarkets, drug stores, processing plants, wineries, cannabis shops, medical offices across most of California.
