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Dear Editor,
Thank you so much for your interest in, and article about our planned trek across the US! (May 20, 2023) And, as much as it might seem like splitting hairs, we would like to make a very important distinction.
In your piece you write, “…Jess and Julie will spend six months walking across America, dedicating their journey to the war on drugs.” Actually the very opposite is true.
We know that despite the on-going “War on Drugs,” which is a Nixon era initiative that has cost the US billions of dollars, countless lives, and unnecessary imprisonment, this is a “war” that can’t be won—at least in the way Nixon and others envisioned it happening.
Criminalizing and stigmatizing people who use drugs is counterproductive to their recovery. We all know (and probably love) someone who is suffering from addiction.
What we hope to do is stop people dying. Every person who is saved from overdose is a person who might someday recover from addiction. Widespread availability of Narcan saves lives. And that’s our aim.
Again, thanks for sharing our story. See you down the road!
Jess and Julie Koski,
Grand Portage
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