When you stand back from all the SHOUTING… you basically have three groups in the war on drugs… those who need controlled meds for necessary medical condition, those who have a mental health medical condition (Addictive personality) that are attempting to self-medicate the demons in their head and/or monkeys on their back and the DEAth.
Here is a recent article about a area with a population of 200,000 had http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/the-heroin-epidemics-toll-one-county-70-minutes-eight-overdoses/2015/08/23/f616215e-48bc-11e5-846d-02792f854297_story.html EIGHT OVERDOSES in 70 MINUTES and 25 over TWO DAYS.
The reason behinds these peoples’ deaths is not just their abuse of Heroin alone, but because they were buying – off the street – Heroin that had been “boosted” with a form of fentanyl. That they were probably not expecting and didn’t compensate on how much of this cocktail that they “shot up”.
This type of unanticipated deaths often galvanize the relatives/loved ones to organize around and aligning with the DEA in fighting the black market that Congress created in 1914 and the subsequent “war on drugs” that Congress declared in 1970.
At the same time we have untold millions of chronic pain pts and others with subjective diseases that are being forced to be house, chair or bed confined because of lack of being able to find a prescriber that will adequately prescribe the necessary medication for fear of the DEAth. Many are also suffering from other health issues that are predominately caused by their untreated subjective disease. Untold number are dying from these co-morbidity issues and/or end up committing suicide because they can no longer deal with their diseases’ manifestations. Perhaps, many are driven to buying drugs off the street in attempting to deal with their medical issues, and may end up dying because of them getting their hands on more opiates than they had intended.
We have always had some portion (1%-2%) of the population that is/has abused some substance .. other than alcohol and tobacco . The war on drugs after 45 years has not changed/stopped that portion of the population from abusing some substances.
Other countries have decriminalized/legalized the use of many/most/all drugs with a responding reduction in over dosed deaths.
Should those groups, who have lost loved ones to abusing opiates/substances, and have aligned themselves with the DEAth’s war on drugs. Should they rather be allies of those fighting for proper treatment of their subjective diseases rather than adversaries. Because the same subjective diseases is what caused their loved ones’ to lose/take their life.. and the DEAth is the primary agency behind all that denial of care for those with subjective diseases. IMO.. those two groups have more in common than they have differences …
Filed under: General Problems
Yup
The grieving parents are advocating for addiction treatment. Here in New Mexico, one grieving mother even opened up an addiction clinic. They don’t see the DEA as being against the treatment of addiction, and more than anything else, they blame the drugs. Just like the DEA. I suppose it’s easier to blame drugs than parents and the DEA taking responsibility for their own involvement in the tragedies.
Key legal point here, Steve: Because it’s illegal to use heroin, it’s no more and no less a violation of statute, to mix poison into heroin and sell the mixture.
If one tried the same trick with, say, bottled water, one would get prosecuted and sued. It’s legal to buy water.
The “drug-related violence” that people fear, exists entirely for one reason: There are no law courts in which disputes about drug quality, purity, or price, may be heard, if the drugs are illegal drugs already.