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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 6, 2015)
OPINION 4A Founded in 1873 STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager CARL EARL, Systems Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager Killing ourselves Treat heroin as a public health crisis A n allegation last week that an inmate smuggled about a third of an ounce of heroin into Clatsop County Jail is the latest disturbing indication the deadly narcotic is thor- oughly entrenched in coastal society. Worse was news in August about a woman and her unborn baby dying of a heroin over- dose in Astoria, a tragedy also involving methamphetamine. Week after week, month af- ter a month, court cases and news stories testify to the extent heroin has become a destruc- tive factor in our midst. Some — like a 24-year-old from Seaside convicted in June of raping and forcefully injecting heroin into teenage girls — are the very de¿ nition of ³low-life scum.” Heroin, however, is an infamously equal-opportunity drug, sucking in people of ev- ery strata, many of them seek- ing alternatives to replace legal opioids initially prescribed for legitimate pain problems. This isn’t a problem con- ¿ ned to the 3aci¿ c 1orthwest. It is a nationwide scourge — even an international one, as Afghan heroin À oods much of the world in the wake of ill-considered relaxation of 8.S. drug-traf¿ cking pol- icies there. In the Western U.S., most heroin comes from Mexico, while much of it east of the Mississippi comes from Col ombia, according to a White House background report. (www.tinyurl.com/ WhiteHouseHeroin) ³Two out of every , Americans were addicted to heroin in 2, according to the Centers for Disease Control and 3revention, double the rate in 22,” the Washington Post re- ported in August, as the Obama administration announced a new initiative to try shifting from punishment to treatment. ³There were ,2 heroin-re- lated overdose deaths in 2 the number of such deaths per , people nearly quadru- pled between 22 and 2.” According to the Post’s sum- mary, the one-year, $2.5 million plan for the 1ortheast U.S. will ³analy]e trends in the overdose data and devise strategies for combating spikes in drug use. ... In addition, the initiative will train ¿ rst responders on when and how to deploy med- ication that can reverse opioid overdoses.” The president proposes an additional $ million for next ¿ scal year to take the next steps toward intervening in over pre- scription of opioid painkillers. Maybe this will begin narrow- ing the gateway for later prob- lems with heroin — though there will be a ¿ ne line to walk between reining-in overuse of painkillers and increasing the burdens on pain-sufferers, who already jump through regulato- ry hoops to obtain medication. American drug policies are in need of a far more thorough re-examination than will be af- forded by $2.5 million — or even $ million, in the un- likely event the *O3-controlled Congress agrees to this plan. The ongoing bankruptcy of federal leadership demands that states, and even local gov- ernments, begin developing better ideas. It is time to begin treating heroin as what it is — a nationwide epidemic that re- quires aggressive public-health solutions. Be careful what you wish for W All cities and towns have a carrying capacity hen the Hood to Coast manager said the August run might seek an alternative destination to replace Seaside, we stiÀ ed the urge to say ³Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” But Mike Morgan saves us from such an impolitic state- ment. The former mayor of Cannon Beach, in a letter pub- lished last Friday, states the problem precisely. In the let- ter (³Move Hood to Coast”) Morgan writes ³Why the Chamber of Commerce wants to turn Seaside into a parking lot in late August de¿ es under- standing.” Being the ¿ nish line of the Hood to Coast means one thing above all — traf¿ c con- gestion that easily strangles the town. Morgan suggests moving the Hood to Coast to late September. For the host town, that makes sense. His suggestion to move Cannon Beach’s Sandcastle Contest to May or early June is similarly wise. All cities and towns have a carrying capacity — the number of vehicles and persons it can accommodate. The two events that Morgan addresses stretch the carrying capacity of Seaside and Cannon Beach to the break- ing point. There is some pro¿ t in those events, although some Seaside merchants would dis- pute that. But for a number of full-time residents, there is little fun in being a prisoner in your home on a weekend when one is a fool to hit the highway. There is wisdom in making one’s town attractive to full- time residents. If you do that, travelers will ¿ nd you. Seaside and Cannon Beach did very well for decades without the bene¿ t of mega-events. THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2015 A no-name house in a quaint village I MPRESSIONS S omehow, we must accom- modate our visitors without destroying the very thing that attracts them here. My beach house doesn’t have a name. B Y Unlike some homes in Cannon N ANCY Beach, Seaside, Gearhart and oth- M C C ARTHY er parts of the 1orth Coast, it isn’t known as ³White Sands,” or ³Ocean 9ista” or even ³3uf¿ ns 3erch.” And, unlike those houses, which are all listed with either Airbnb or VRBO (Vacation Rentals By Own- borhood three blocks from Haystack er), my house isn’t for rent, either. Rock in the quaint village of Cannon 1ot by the night, the week nor the Beach. month. There are a lot of people on the When I spent ¿ ve weeks this 1orth Coast who have given plen- summer in John Day, my friend, ty of thought to the idea of renting Deborah, from Bremerton, Wash., out their houses to perfect (and, as stayed at my house. She invited her it turns out, not so perfect) strangers own friends to visit. They had a great for hundreds of dollars a night and time. thousands of dollars a month. She would send emails describing According its website, VRBO has their adventures. A couple of times at least ,5 vacation rentals on the they drove to a marina 1orth Coast from 1e- south of Wheeler where skowin to Astoria. Of Pretty they bought freshly those, Cannon Beach caught and cooked crab has 4 Seaside, 2 soon and enjoyed a picnic Gearhart, 2 and Asto- lunch in the sun. Some- . the very ria, The times — before the lo- practice of cal ¿ re ban went into thing that renting out a house in effect — they built a a small town like Can- attracts bon¿ re on the beach. non Beach or Gearhart They visited Cannon has proven so popular visitors Beach’s farmers mar- that permanent resi- ket. They shopped in dents who live next to may Man]anita and traveled these houses are start- to Astoria. disappear ing to complain. In one email, Deb- In Gearhart, where forever. orah, who apparently the City Council has was getting tired of lo- spent nearly two years cal streets clogged with summer’s developing an ordinance to regulate usual array of cars and visitors, vacation rentals, the problem has wrote to me, ³1ow I know why you pretty much gotten out of control, enjoy the quiet months.” according to residents who must At the end of her visit, she sent listen to the loud parties, watch the me another email, thanking me for untended garbage À y out of the cans letting her stay in Cannon Beach for and maneuver around the numerous a month. Her friends enjoyed their parked cars overÀ owing the streets. stay, too, and several wanted to re- Cannon Beach has strict ordi- turn. nances regarding rentals, but with so ³If you ever wanted to, I know many visitors in town and so many you could rent your house out,” Deb- local homes being advertised on orah added. the websites, it’s questionable as to It was something I had never whether the ordinances — especially thought about, and, frankly, never the one restricting rentals to one res- want to do. I suppose I could name ervation every 4 days on homes that my house a ³Forest Fantasy” and aren’t in the city’s rental ³lottery” — market it as being in a quiet neigh- are being enforced. With the popularity of vacation rentals — some allow as many as people per house — come the visitors. Of course, that means op- portunities for local businesses, and that’s good for shops that have strug- gled during the slow winter months. But, sometimes, there’s too much of a good thing. One Cannon Beach business owner, who has run a popular oper- ation for at least a decade, told me they had to cut back this summer. It wasn’t because of a lack of demand it was because they couldn’t ¿ nd enough employees. It’s a story I’ve heard many times up and down the 1orth Coast. Find- ing enough staff to work the hours it takes to serve the number of cus- tomers coming into a restaurant, a store or any other establishment in this area is a challenge for most any business owner. Why aren’t there enough people to be hired? Because, in a vacation wonderland, where (VRBO) rent- als average $2 a night in Cannon Beach, $2 in Seaside and $25 in Gearhart, there is little housing left that people who earn an average hourly wage, or even slightly higher, can afford. Homeowners who rent out their houses as vacation rentals say they can’t afford to keep their properties without the ability to offer them up to visitors. The incentive of earning money from a house also requires owners or rental managers to main- tain the house, and this reduces the number of neglected properties in a community. But the problems are occurring far more often with the increasing number of vacation rental homes on the market. I don’t know what the solution is I only know there needs to be some way to balance the need for visitors with the needs of the permanent residents, em- ployees and businesses in our com- munities. Without that balance, pretty soon the very thing that attracts those visi- tors — our ³quaint villages” with the quiet beaches cited so often on these vacation rental sites — may disap- pear forever. Nancy McCarthy is the retired editor of the Seaside Signal and Cannon Beach Gazette. Obama’s humiliating Syria debacle powerlessness — and the provocation — and a di- secretary of defense de- rect challenge to what’s plores what? Russia’s lack left of the U.S. policy of of professional etiquette. supporting a moderate op- ³Russia hits Assad’s foes, anger- position. Makes you want to ing U.S.” weep. The whole point of — Headline, Wall Street Journal, Russian intervention is to Consider When Obama became president, Oct. 1 maintain Assad in power. the surge in Iraq had suc- 3utin has no interest in ceeded and the U.S. had ASHI1GTO1 — If it ¿ ghting the Islamic State. emerged as the dominant Indeed, the second round Charles had the wit, the Obama of Russian air attacks regional actor, able to administration would be not was on rival insurgents Krauthammer project power throughout angered, but appropriately hu- opposed to the Islamic State. The the region. Last Sunday, Iraq an- Islamic State is nothing but a pre- nounced the establishment of a joint miliated. tense for Russian intervention. And intelligence-gathering center with 3resident Obama has, once again, Obama fell for it. Iran, Syria and Russia, symboli]- been totally outmaneuvered by Just three weeks ago, Obama ing the new ³Shiite-crescent” alli- Vladimir 3utin. chided Russia for its military build- ance stretching from Iran across the Two days earlier at the United up, wagging his ¿ nger that it was northern Middle East to the Mediter- 1ations, Obama had welcomed the ³doomed to failure.” <et by Monday ranean, under the umbrella of Rus- return, in force, of the Russian mil- he was publicly welcoming Russia sia, the rising regional hegemon. itary to the Middle East — for the to join the ¿ ght against the Islamic Russian planes roam free over ¿ rst time in decades — in order to State. He not only acquiesced to the Syria attacking Assad’s opposition help ¿ ght the Islamic State. Russian buildup, he held an osten- as we stand by helpless. Meanwhile, The ruse was transparent from tatious meeting with 3utin on the the U.S. secretary of state beseeches the beginning. Russia is not in Syr- subject, thereby marking the igno- the Russians to negotiate ³de-con- ia to ¿ ght the Islamic minious collapse of À ict” arrangements — so that we and State. The Kremlin Obama’s vaunted they can each bomb our own targets The was sending ¿ ght- campaign to isolate safely. It has come to this. Why is 3utin moving so quickly er planes, air-to-air 3utin diplomatically ruse was and so bra]enly? Because he’s got missiles and SA-22 over Crimea. anti-aircraft batteries. transparent 3utin then showed only more months to push on the Against an Islamic his utter contempt for open door that is Obama. He knows from the State that has no air Obama by launch- he’ll never again see an American force, no planes, no his air campaign president such as this — one who beginning. ing helicopters? against our erstwhile once told the General Assembly that Russia then sent anti-Assad allies ³no one nation can or should try to reconnaissance drones over Western not 4 hours after meeting Obama. dominate another nation” and told it Idlib and Hama, where there are no Which the U.S. found out about again last Monday of ³believing in Islamic State ¿ ghters. Followed by when a Russian general knocked my core that we, the nations of the bombing attacks on Homs and oth- on the door of the U.S. Embassy in world, cannot return to the old ways er opposition strongholds that had Baghdad and delivered a brusque of conÀ ict and coercion.” They cannot? Has he looked at nothing to do with the Islamic State. demarche announcing that the at- Indeed, some of these bombed tack would begin within an hour and the world around him — from Homs ¿ ghters were U.S. trained and warning the U.S. to get out of the to Kundu], from Sanaa to Donetsk — abla]e with conÀ ict and coercion? equipped. Asked if we didn’t have way. Wouldn’t you take advantage an obligation to support our own In his subsequent news confer- allies on the ground, Defense Sec- ence, Secretary Carter averred that of these last months if you were retary Ashton Carter bumbled that he found such Russian behavior ³un- 3utin, facing a man living in a facul- ty-lounge fantasy world? Where was Russia’s actions exposed its policy professional.” as self-contradictory. Good grief. Russia, with its inferior Obama when 3utin began bombing Carter made it sound as if the military and hemorrhaging economy, Syria? Leading a U.1. meeting on Russian offense was to have perpe- had just eaten Carter’s lunch, sei]ing countering violent extremism. Seminar to follow. trated an oxymoron, rather than a the initiative and exposing American By CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER Washington Post Writers Group W Where to write • U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D) 2 Rayburn HOB, Washing- ton, D.C., 255. 3hone 22- 225- 55. Fax 22-225-4. District of¿ ce 225 SW Millikan Way, Suite 22, Beaverton, OR 5. 3hone 5-4-. Fax 5-2- 5. Web bonamici.house. gov/ • U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D) Hart Senate Of¿ ce Building, Washington, D.C. 25. 3hone 22-224-5. Web www.merkley. senate.gov • U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D): 22 Dirksen Senate Of¿ ce Building, Washington, D.C., 25. 3hone 22-224-5244. Web www.wyden. senate.gov • State Rep. Brad Witt (D) State Capitol, Court Street 1.E., H-, Salem, OR . 3hone 5--4. Web www.leg.state. or.us/witt/ Email rep.bradwitt# state.or.us
