As a nation every dollar that we spend we are borrowing $0.40. Lets look at the DEA… started in the late 60’s as the BNDD ( Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs)… does anyone believe that the DEA has made any progress in this war.. which actually started with the Harrison Narcotic Act 1914 – the same year that World War One started !
According the L.E.A.P. (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) the per-cent of our population that abuses some substance.. other than alcohol and tobacco … has remained rather constant. Just watch this 13 minute video from LEAP … to see how former law enforcement now feels about this war.
There are basically four types that will take/abuse controlled substances:
- Patient with legit medical needs
- Patients who are given token doses of opiates and/or under treated by a single prescriber and end up seeing more than one prescriber to get enough opiates to regain as much quality of life they can.. and relief from their pain and or anxiety. Getting “high” is not of interest to them.. they just want to be “normal”.. a normal person, a normal employee, a normal spouse, and a normal parent.
- The ADDICT… these people typically have a underlying mental health issues.. either undiagnosed or under/untreated. There are some 30-50 million people that are uninsured/under insured.. they can’t afford to have a doctor and it is ILLEGAL for a doctor to help maintain a addict. They will find something to abuse… until recently who of us had heard of “bath salts”?… Who knew that Nitrous Oxide was the propellant in Redi-Whip? The war on drugs is going after these people with mental health issues and throwing them into the justice system.
- The DIVERTER… these people are in the “drug business” for the money… street value of Oxycodone is $1/mg.. Opana is reportedly going for $60/tablet on the street
What is better to have a maintained addict on the street and/or help these people with their mental health issues with appropriate treatment… or.. a desperate addict loose on the street… doing whatever they have/need to get their next treatment… Right now… we throw them in jail.. and then we get them some therapy… guess what??? the cost of “three hots and a cot” and mental health therapy is a hell of lot more than just providing therapy… that doesn’t take into account all the property damage and sometimes people getting killed by these -at times – very desperate people.
Has anyone seen the media interview the families/relatives of those Pharmacists, pharmacy employee and pharmacy customers that were killed has year by people seeking drugs… Does anyone think that these families would prefer that we spend more money on the war on drugs..provide treatment to these people.. so that they may not have to kill innocent people to get to the drugs?
After 50 years of fighting this war… can anyone demonstrate any measurable progress?
If we can’t demonstrate any progress in 50+ yrs… why are we continuing to fund this “go no where war”?
It took this country 12-14 years to figure out that outlawing alcohol was not going to work.. and today it kills 140K per year… add 440K of people dying of tobacco use… but the media is tripping all over itself to tell us that 35K are dying of substance abuse… Hell 16K people die from bleed outs from using NSAID’s… and up to 49K die annually from the flu… Should we have a “war on the flu” .. it kills more people than drug abuse?
Filed under: General dumb-ass problems
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