Ever notice how phrases “pop” at you in public discourse? It can be hard to tell if it’s just you, or if the phrase came into fashion recently.
In 2017 (about since President Trump was sworn in), I’ve been seeing more about human trafficking, and more about opioid epidemic. Both are horrible things. Were we collectively talking about them before? I don’t think so. Why weren’t we? Was there some sort of political-media embargo? Or did we just not want to? Were we being distracted?
Trump has been making more of a fight against human trafficking than President Obama did. Which is good. I may post on that soon. This post will be on the opioid epidemic.
In 2014, I noted how U.S. involvement in Afghanistan strangely coincided with a 30-fold increase in opium cultivation in that nation. (Also in 2009, Bruce (the GayPatriot) acknowledged it indirectly.) Afghan heroin could certainly be contributing to the U.S. opioid epidemic.
Today I want to show you this chart seen on Zero Hedge.
The U.S. has the highest rate of drug deaths in the world. 4x of Asia; 6x of the world average; 9x of Western Europe; 16x of Africa.
I’m not sure what it means. Perhaps several things.
- Does Africa not have a drug problem? (Looks that way.)
- Is the U.S. weak on drug rehabilitation? (Probably.)
- Are drugs in the U.S. a big business? (all that Afghanistan heroin comes here? plus Latin American cocaine, etc.?)
- If yes, then surely certain U.S. political-financial forces would be out to protect the U.S. drug business? Surely those forces would hide in plain sight, as respectable authorities, or politicians of the 2 major parties?
- Are we suddenly talking about the opioid epidemic in 2017 because, say, some of those forces lost some power in a recent election – making it OK to notice? Or just because the term hit a critical mass?
One thing is for sure: the “War on Drugs” of the last 3+ decades has been a miserable failure. A city council member in Ohio proposes to handle it Darwin’s way: Deny 911 assistance to repeat drug overdosers.
His reasons have to do with saving his city’s finances. But one side effect would be to have drug overdosers face an increased (that is, a natural) death rate. That’s an unusual idea.
UPDATE: Commenters are noting the role of Medicaid and Obamacare in giving people more access to prescription opioids. Also here is a chart from the CDC (via Wiki):
It looks like a trend since 2000 in deaths from all opioids (heroin, synthetic and prescribed) that has accelerated in the last 5 – 7 years. Wiki says:
Fentanyl, a newer synthetic opioid painkiller, is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine and 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin…strong enough that police and first responders helping overdose victims have themselves overdosed by simply touching or inhaling a small amount…Fentanyl has surpassed heroin as a killer in several locales.
Yikes.
One thing that must NOT be overlooked is that a good portion of those who use drugs today did not do so prior to 2008, when the economy went south.
The fact that Obama’s economic policies kept unemployment up for close to a decade (it is still much too high) cannot be dismissed as a contributing factor.
Also, important point, the chart only shows drug deaths rather than drug use.
All this shows is that a lot of Americans don’t know how to “hold their liquor” per say.
As far as Africa goes, they do not have any type of welfare system in place, drugs are shipped elsewhere because it gets a better price, so, it is likely that the drugs are simply not available.
I just can’t believe there’s been a spike in poppy product usage. It’s been “making a comeback” for decades. When I lived in Seattle in the 90s & would go out for a smoke outside my workplace’s building downtown there were always huge amounts of needles in the planters. Maybe the US is obsessed with stats on the matter. It’s been my impression that doctors are being skinflints with pain meds to the point that people are suffering needlessly. A liability issue for the doctors. We all know that Liberals are addicted to buzzwords & catchphrases. They love to focus on “epidemics”. Also, the population has increased. Are we allowing them to set the national dialogue for every little old thing?
A primary drivers of the opiate epidemic is the ease it is, up until recently, to obtain prescriptions for opiate based narcotics used to treat pain. Doctors would write scripts out for the simplest aches and pains, thereby, getting millions of people addicted to the drug. That, and ObamaCare, which allowed many millions who lacked access to healthcare and prescription medical insurance, gain access to those powerful drugs.
If something is reported more today, it doesn’t necessarily mean it is happening more than it did yesterday.
One of the facets of the ACA is increased data collection. I am always skeptical of new “epidemics” where massive government intrusion is the only solution.
Whatever the cause for opiate use, the science tells us the addiction is almost insurmountable.
When people have a drug or alcohol problem, they have to hit rock bottom before accepting treatment. Forcing them into it doesn’t work all the time because they see themselves as having no issue with it.
“Are we suddenly talking about the opioid epidemic in 2017 because, say, some of those forces lost some power in a recent election – making it OK to notice?”
Oh goodness. A 2 second date search will show you that this is utter nonsense.
Are you really such a blind partisan or do you just live in a conservative news bubble? .
[As always, mike is far behind the curve. My question was non-partisan, as shown in other bits that he chose to leave out. –ILC]
As with most massive societal problems, if you dig not too deep, you’ll find Government corruption and leftist “compassion” played a major role.
Up until the mid-1990’s, opioids were rarely prescribed precisely because of their addictive nature. But Big Pharma lobbied Congress to let them market opioids in the name of “compassion;” it was cruel and heartless to let people suffer pain when there were medications available.
Once Congress loosened the rules, Medicaid stepped in and began paying for opioid prescriptions.
With Big Pharma unleashing Pandora’s box and Big Government footing the bill, an opioid epidemic was all but inevitable.
Samuel: Actually it appears now we have the worst of both worlds. Prior to Reagan’s “Just Say No To Some Drugs”, doctors did not hesitate to prescribe adequate pain medication. Reagan made doctors afraid to do so for fear of losing their license. Since then, and based on my experiences caring for relatives, I would say doctors are now either afraid to prescribe adequate pain management, OR they pay too little attention to whether “heroic dosages” are actually required and just throw legal smack at the problem in an attempt to bury it. I had a relative almost die because their painkillers weren’t properly reviewed and they nearly went into respiratory arrest. It’s all vaguely reminiscent of “anarchotyranny”, Sam Francis’ description of the police enforcing the laws against the law-abiding but not the lawless. Which is a perfect description of the recent riots in Berkeley, and far too many other venues.
mike (#7) I haven’t done a date search, but as you note, the opioid issue has indeed been around for a while. The reporting was low key. I may have been more sensitive to the reporting because of my past (desk only) jobs. But the frequency and prominence of the reporting is new.
I think the Obama years with unemployment and people being forced out of the job market gave them more time, less reason to stay clean, and more despair.
As noted by several above, the changing theories of pain management may also be to blame for some of the problem.
I too am suspicious of what seems to be the beginnings of the next great “WAR ON”. These things never have a point at which victory may be proclaimed. At fault may be a failure to truly understand human nature.
Mike @ 7: you are in no position WHATSOEVER to lecture ANYONE about “blind partisanship.” STFU.
OK, stand back, I am about to unload.
“Libertarians” have been very wrong since forever on the freedom to be a “recreational” drug user. Anyone who knows anything about addictive behavior knows that “gateway” behaviors open the door to compulsive behavior and, usually, determined abstinence is the only way out for the addicted body. Ergo, the Alcohol Anonymous confession of “I am an alcoholic” stated by every “recovering alcoholic.”
Why are we a nation with so many addicted users? Answer: we have a huge “loser” population which prefers escape from a reality without drugs to a reality on drugs. [Old hippie bumper sticker: “Reality is for people who can’t handle drugs.”] So, the real question is what is it in our culture, zeitgeist, collective inclination that promotes the choice of the addiction option?
Historically, one society after another has collapsed because of a move toward a homogeneous egalitarian structure. This “destratification” erases “differences” which make “differences” irrelevant and therefore, the will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yield is truncated by becoming nothing.
Our welfare society underpinnings has led to “despecialization” with is another reason societies collapse. You don’t have to milk the cow, you just wait for the milk to be delivered with no strings attached.
The slackening of social rules, etiquette and regional traditions sicken the cities and people head for rural areas where the welfare goes farther and they can dedicate themselves to their addictions. [Rural areas add the advantage of fewer cops and less social order where the addicts can overwhelm the organized policing powers.]
There is always a dramatic decline in population rates. The society depends on imported, replacement labor and that imported labor redefines the existing society. In the 2nd century A.D., Rome had a population of 1.5 million. 700 years later, Rome had under 15,000 people. Rome didn’t actually collapse; it was abandoned as people hid from the responsibility of maintaining civilization.
Arnold Toynbee argued that eventually sick societies divide among those (1.) who look back and those (2.) who idealize the future and those (3.) who detach themselves from the realities of the decay. This division, said Toynbee, is the collapse of the spiritual bond of the civilization and the social order. The society which was noted for its creativity in solving problems becomes self-destructive.
So, the guy who essentially says “let them die from their addictions” is correct. Even ethically correct. The addict is committing suicide, so why intervene? There is no overwhelming, sudden “spiritual” reason to save the loser. Give him a “drug participation” trophy, it it makes you feel better about yourself.
Anyone in the rehabilitation business is quite sanguine about the chances for success. If rehabilitation were an actual door to “recovery” we would not have recidivism in our criminal system or people “falling off the wagon” or people who can’t “just say no.”
“The war on drugs” has never actually been waged. Ross Perot was asked if the government could confiscate all the guns: “Yes,” said Perot, “but it won’t be pretty.” Well, ditto the supposed “war on drugs.”
All this said, we all talk about drugs, but we never actually have had a national policy on drugs.
Big Pharma has pushed drugs. Read Freakonomics and understand how the illicit drug middlemen have made a plantation of whole areas from city ghettos to New Hampshire towns. Hollyweird has “normalized” getting high along with Colorado where Pot is Starbucks for the “lit” generation.
We are rotting at our civilizational core and we either do or do not care to face our problems.
If I were on welfare, I might just as well sell my extra food stamps to the drug dealer for my stash and drop into the soup kitchen for my munchies and then go sell “loosies” from a pack of butts I swiped from the 7-11 as I build up my coins for another buy.
We really need to have a Come to Jesus meeting on who we are, because any fool can see where we are headed.
I have plenty more to say on this, but, frankly, mostly people are into drug enabling and quite unwilling to fact the facts and do the heavy lifting.
I get it now, thanks to Heliotrope. Makes sense. Perhaps a few years of consistent leadership that promotes love of country instead of either the country being mired in a useless war in a country of ingrates or the country being stretched & pulled by a radical bent on reducing it to slush, might be a start on the road back.
Hanover, #13…good analysis
https://aeon.co/essays/why-its-high-time-that-attitudes-to-addiction-changed. Relevant reading! Don’t know if this will link or not but worth searching out.
Since rehab / recovery has come up…here is a non-12-step approach for those interested: http://www.rational.org
I’ll cut to the chase. It’s planned abstinence; the individual makes a personal, moral commitment to quitting forever. I’m not going to debate it and I’m not here to upset anybody’s program; only to point it out for those interested.
I once asked a friend in the rehab business what works. She told me that first you have to keep the body alive long enough for what is left of the mind to become determined to do what it takes to kick the habit. She also said that most addicts will feign a sincere desire to drive the devil out, but they are only concentrating on appearing to believe what they claim and no more directed to sound sincere than they are to actually do the heavy lifting.
One of the Obama scams is to fund rehab residential programs where, in fact, the drugs flow freely. You see, if you are being paid to house addicts under the guise of rehabilitation, you can make much more money running a flop house without paying attention to a mission statement. When it comes to government funding, every two-bit politician loves to brag about how money is being spent on the scourge of drugs. But they never publicize their “success” rates.
DemonizingRats only deal in misery. It their key to the future. For them, everything is always about buying Mother Teresa to do the heavy lifting. Then they come back for more because their high intentions come at an even higher price and their “investment” in utopia is not sufficient to get the results that are just around the next bend.
There really is rehabilitation for those who will take the bull by the horns. I support it and applaud it. But there is no pill available for passive rehabilitation.
I’m old enough to remember some of the “reporting” on the homeless issue during the 1980s. A lot of outright myths were created at that time (Remember the one about 250,000 homeless in Chicago alone?) in order to tar and feather Reagan and GHW Bush. It was made a major issue in their campaigns and during their administrations. There is no doubt that addiction is a serious problem in this country and has been for some time. What I question is what I perceive to be a surge in news stories about the issue.
We have a system where chronic pain management is broken. If you suffer from chronic pain you get oxycontin for a while until you can’t because a government bureaucrat determines you may become addicted. Then you have a choice, take a less effective drug, or go the illegal route. The problem then become that you can’t control the dosage or purity, because, well because it’s illegal.
Just because one is using prescription opioids with a doctor’s supervision to control pain, even if addicted, does not mean that one cannot be a functioning, productive member of society. However, if one turns to street drugs for relief and becomes addicted with the attendant consequences (including prison, razor thin differences between too little and too much, inconsistent dosing and possibly death) then one is unlikely to become a productive member of society again.
A new type of opioid is under study which is comparable to the commonly prescribed opioid fentanyl in relieving pain, but it will not cause constipation, addiction, breathing problems, heart rate increases or changes to blood oxygen levels.
The clever “discovery” is that the part of the body that is in pain becomes inflamed and body areas that are inflamed tend be more acidic as a result of the inflammation. Therefore, the new “opioid” is engineered to bind only to nerve receptors that exist in acidic environments and pass by “normal” nerve cell environments. So, targeting pain in a knee, for instance, will bypass the gastrointestinal tract, the euphoria and addiction sections of the brain, the respiratory system, etc.
Hopefully, these tests will drive pain control in the near future. It is another miracle of the beauty of how the human body is constructed.
Hanover @ #14:
I agree. It is the only hope we have short of some sort of actual rebellion.
I can not help but notice how hyperbolic the leftist have become over Trump’s tweets attacking media bias. They feel the hot breath of change and it scares the daylights out of them.
That hot breath of change is a return to accountability, honesty, responsibility and shutting down the scamming the people for a living by professional politicians and an insulated bureaucracy.
Adam Smith first wrote The Theory of Moral Sentiments and based his important The Wealth of Nations on that work. In short, Smith postulates that the character of a truly virtuous person would embody the qualities of prudence, justice, beneficence and self-command.
Sure, these are “conceptual” qualities if one is insistent on quibbling over how some may be victimized by such concepts. We have drifted aimlessly so far into the deep swamp of “inequality equals injustice” that we have all but lost rational common sense for functioning as a country.
And pain relief helps anguish, itself a pain. Self-medication and the trials of life. And suicide.
From Case & Deaton, 2017:
“Not only are educational differences in mortality among whites increasing, but from 1998 to 2015 mortality rose for those without, and fell for those with, a college degree. This is true for non-Hispanic white men and women in all five year age groups from 35-39 through 55-59. Mortality rates among blacks and Hispanics continued to fall; in 1999, the mortality rate of white non-Hispanics aged 50-54 with only a high-school degree was 30 percent lower than the mortality rate of blacks in the same age group but irrespective of education; by 2015, it was 30 percent higher. There are similar crossovers in all age groups from 25-29 to 60-64.
Mortality rates in comparable rich countries have continued their pre-millennial fall at the rates that used to characterize the US. In contrast to the US, mortality rates in Europe are falling for those with low levels of educational attainment, and have fallen further over this period than mortality rates for those with higher levels of education”
It is an interesting paper. And if you want to believe that this is the fault of liberals and their policies and that Conservative policies would be the shot–knock yourself out–but if you really believe that–good luck to you.
Oh, pah-leeeeeeze! The mortality rate of young male blacks in the hood in Chicago is not caused by being black or because “Chicago” or because “guns” or because “racism” or because “genetics” or because “quality” or because “education” or because “global warming” or because “Trump” or because “terrorism” or because “Republicans” or because “Democrats” or because, “because.”
Cas the Marxist is now Trolling in the manner of the Rusty school of non-sequiturs.
This Case and Deaton report is typical NPR causation innuendo and about as useful as flies at a picnic.
We the People have a selfish interest in disease control. If that means leper colonies, so be it. Pathologies are a touchy problem. The progressive eugenics crowd lobotomized selected people “for their own good.” Now they kill fetuses for the same reason.
When troops come home and suffer PTSD, We the People have the moral and ethical obligation to fix what We the People broke, even if the military is all volunteer. But when a volunteer in the military “requires” a sex change, We the People have zero obligation to “repair” the cause of the itch that is distracting an otherwise perfectly useful killing machine.
Cas the Marxist, like all true believers in the Utopian dream of the beneficent dictatorship sees a pathology and immediately the “victim” klaxon horn sounds and the Monty Python state “fix-it” squad arrives to put out the fire in the mind or harvest the organs or issue SNAP cards or blame the neighbors.
But, for God’s sake, don’t allow Charles Murray to speak when Algore is available.
Sorry, Cas the Marxist, your “intellectual” bimbo olympics is not as much fun as watching the time trials in a snail race.
So, Case and Deaton have found an anomaly and you run here with
Actually, you have found nothing much of substance, but you immediately feel compelled to scream that “liberals and their policies” are not the cause.
Why not take credit? You and your liberals are masters at inferring causation for every little thing that annoys your senses. Even consensus science is causation for your purposes.
The opening paragraph in my non-rebuttal is a metaphor for how We the People approach rabid animals. We know where the pathology in Chicago is and pretty much who the players are. One group of We the People says: “sucks to live there.” Another group of We the People says: “Move in, arrest them and lock them up.” The remaining group of We the People says: “They are troubled and need our life-giving services so that they can be free to discover the cure for cancer or create a great work of art like the Piss Christ.”
There is a generally good admonition: “Don’t feed the Troll.” But deconstructing Marxist driven victim agenda garbage is useful to inform those who might not see the method of capturing the thread and the discussion at play.
Cas the Marxist could be a welcome and valued commenter if she would actually posit a claim and give something other than an emotional right to claim it.