Blaming addicts for Burlington’s problems misses the point

This commentary is by Hannah Riley Fernandez, the director of programming at the Center for Just Journalism. A recent feature in the Atlantic argues that treating addiction as a health crisis instead of a crime has turned cities like Seattle and Burlington into wreckage, and that the fix is more policing and forced treatment. It’s a well-written story. It’s also completely wrong, and the timing is bad: Burlington’s city council is debating a resolution on downtown public