The Senate held a hearing last week on the addiction and overdose crisis caused by heroin, illicit trafficking of the extremely potent drug fentanyl, and prescription opiate diversion and misuse. The crisis was responsible for 29,467 American deaths in 2014 alone, and many more in 2015 for which there is no final, official total yet.

Obama administration drug czar, Michael Botticelli, repeated what he clearly thought was an unchallengeable refrain that “you can’t arrest your way out of the overdose problem.” Manchester, New Hampshire’s, police chief, Nick Willard, meanwhile, speaking from the grim frontlines of the problem, made a persuasive case for doing just that.