Four years ago when I was first elected to the city council, I requested that substance abuse be included in the city council’s priorities. Two years later, as the substance abuse crisis in New Hampshire and Concord continued to worsen, it was added as a priority. Since then I have become aware of a number of strategies that appear to be able to reduce costs associated with substance abuse, both for the community and the user.

It is unrealistic to believe we can eradicate all drug use. Think how well that worked during Prohibition. There is a percentage of the population that will become involved with drugs and develop significant problems from using them, no matter the severity of the punishment.

Enforcement of drug laws and prosecutions, treatment and education are all important, but that will not get us to zero users, no matter how much money we spend. No war on drugs can be won. If you look at all the money and resources that have been spent and are being spent to eradicate illegal drug use from our society, it is clear it is not working. Not only isn’t it working, it is getting worse.

So what should we do? We should look at models and strategies that have had successes in dealing with substance abuse. We should realistically look at what success looks like. I don’t have all the answers or even most of them, but unless we are willing to change the conversation we are not going to change the outcome.

I hope we can start a more expansive conversation regarding how we design policies that focus on this issue.

The city council recently received a report from our police and fire chiefs on drug overdoses and other statistics. The numbers show that the substance abuse crisis is not abating. While there was one less death in Concord due to opioid overdoses, that in all likelihood was because of the availability of Narcan, a drug that reverses the effects of an overdose.

While overdose deaths are down in Manchester and Nashua, use was up there also.

We continue to spend more money on this crisis, but we are not significantly changing our approach. While it may not be popular and it can appear counterintuitive, there are strategies used in other countries that have reduced costs.

Is this something that makes sense for us. That is open for discussion. But what we are doing now doesn’t appear to be working. This is a problem that has been going on for a very long time. It is worth taking a look at programs that have reduced costs and harm, whether these strategies are from other countries or our county jails.

It doesn’t matter what you think about those using the drugs, it is the outcome that should concern you. If both the community and those who are addicted can benefit, then perhaps it is worth a discussion.

Two views in particular are worth a look: one is a Cato Institute report titled “10 years of drug decriminalization in Portugal” that was recently quoted in a New York Times column by Nicholas Kristof, and the other is a book by Johan Hari titled Chasing the Scream. While there are sections of the book that I do not agree with (and you may not either), it provides an overview of what doesn’t work and what holds potential for reducing this crisis.

I should offer full disclosure here as the author does not have a pristine history.

Even with these concerns, I believe it is worth reading.

This is an issue that affects everyone in our city. Let’s work to find strategies that reduce the harm from this epidemic, for everyone in our community.

(Allan Herschlag represents Ward 2 on the Concord City Council.)