The Truth about the
Opioid Problem
It won’t stop.
When it comes to illegal drugs
the people who abuse them will find a way, and those who make huge profits will
supply them. The illegal drug supply is like one of those long skinny balloons.
You can squeeze it all you want, but you can’t stop it, it just pops up in
another place.
All I have to say about the supply of legal drugs is the right for
people who need them should not be impaired by the government. When someone
needs a drug or medication for medical needs, they will find a way to obtain
the medication.
What we need to ask is how many lives we want to destroy in the pursuit
of a drug free America, a totally unrealistic goal by the way.
We have spent years using education and social pressure to lower the use
of tobacco. According to the CDC cigarette smoking is still responsible for
more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States. 1300 people a day
The good news is that using education and social pressure we lowered
tobacco us from 43% of adults in 1965, to 16% in 2014. We didn’t put anyone in
prison, we didn’t destroy any families, we didn’t tear apart any homes, nor
have men in black masks break down doors leaving children with PTSD.
We did spent millions of dollars in the pursuit of the Sinaloa Cartel’s
leader El Chapo. When arrested it was a big deal,
everybody celebrated capture. We won, the Sinaloa Cartel closed its
doors and drugs stopped flowing across the border.
Right, there was and will be a bloody battle for control
of the Sinaloa Cartel. According to Guardian News there were 142
homicides in March of 2002 alone… www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/02/mexico-captures-sinaloa-cartel-leader-el-chapo
It doesn’t matter if drugs come from huge powerful pharmaceutical
companies, or huge powerful drug cartels, drugs are worth too much money, and
supply will follow demand.
We have had a knee jerk reaction to the media reports of
the Opioid Epidemic. In 2015, more than 33,000 Americans died as a result of an
opioid overdose. Remember 13,000 Americans died from tobacco each DAY. Every
2.5 days as many Americans died from tobacco as died in all of 2015 from
opioids. Why don’t we just create a prohibition on tobacco? Because prohibition
doesn’t work, that’s why.
Do your research only 10% of overdoses are from pills
alone. Most are from illegal sources or a combination of pain pills and
alcohol, or other drugs not prescribed.
Look at what the government has done, by limiting opioids
for pain patients the government has created a monster that can’t control, drug
cartels. When you prohibit something, or regulate it to the point they have
pain medications today you create a black market and loose the control.
CNN reports the Nebraska State Patrol seized nearly 120
pounds of the drug fentanyl -- enough to kill about 26 million people,
according to estimates by the US Drug Enforcement Administration. https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/25/health/nebraska-fentanyl-bust/index.html
This is the monster they create when law enforcement plays doctor. The
new laws trying to limit medical use of pain medications will cause the death
of so many more people than opioids alone would have if we just educated
patients, physicians, and people.
