America’s drug overdose crisis is out of control. Washington, despite a bipartisan desire to combat it, is finding its addiction-fighting programs are failing.
In 2018, Republicans, Democrats and then-President Donald Trump united around legislation that threw $20 billion into treatment, prevention and recovery. But five years later, the SUPPORT Act has lapsed and the number of Americans dying from overdoses has grown more than 60 percent, driven by illicit fentanyl. The battle has turned into a slog.
Even though 105,000 Americans died last year, Congress is showing little urgency about reupping the law since it expired on Sept. 30. That’s not because of partisan division, but a realization that there are no quick fixes a new law could bring to bear.
Have they considered doubling the number of prisons and providing police with tanks?
No, this is seen as a drug that white people are addicted to.
Treatment and compassion only.
(Not joking)
America’s response to the opioid epidemic is a far cry from treatment and compassion. They’re literally charging friends (addicts) of overdose victims with murder just for being associated by redefining “drug dealer” to be super broad and reclasifying ODs as poisonings.
Amazing read: He Tried to Save a Friend. They Charged Him With Murder.
Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas signed a law this month to reclassify fentanyl overdose deaths as “poisonings,” and Arkansas passed a “death by delivery” bill in April to charge some overdoses as murders in an effort to deter anyone from selling or even sharing fentanyl. Prosecutors in Alaska, California, Florida and at least a dozen other states were beginning to pursue new murder cases against any defendant who fit under the wide-ranging definition of a fentanyl dealer: a 17-year-old in Tennessee who, after graduation, shared fentanyl in the school parking lot with two of her friends, both of whom died; a husband in Indiana who bought fentanyl for his disabled wife, who overdosed while trying to numb her chronic pain from multiple sclerosis; a real estate agent in Florida who threw a party and called 911 when one of her guests overdosed; a high school senior in Missouri who gave one pill to a 16-year-old girl he met at church and warned her to “only do a quarter and then do the other quarter if you don’t feel it.”**
Yeah…as a white person from Appalachia that’s definitely not the case in large swaths of the country where the actual plan is “fuck those poor hillbillies, let em die.”
You guys aren’t “that” kind of white. I’d guess the Appalachian racism was a pivot from Irish targeted hate, and got a pass to keep going through the years bc poor and Catholic.
Correct. While technically “white” in that I am able to access the benefits of white privilege by masking my accent and dressing “fancy,” we are not the WASPs most people think of when they think “wypipo”
Don’t give them ideas. They’ll have everyone and their mothers working in a private prison factory by winter!
Everyone’s either a convict making products or a guard, it’s the perfect citizenry!
No , but I understand invading Mexico is on tap
Almost like it’s caused by broader societal issues
What if people do drugs because their actual lives are dissatisfying because literally everything they could do to enjoy themselves or socialize with others costs money at a time when inflation and poor planning has made the things they need to live more expensive and pay isn’t keeping up because of the greed of a relative minority?
Or it’s just that people like drugs idk I’m not a psychiatrist or senator.
I am guessing in some cases it is a combo of psychological trauma plus external stressors like being broke af.
But drugs also cost money
deleted by creator
Yes, but the current state of crisis unfolded because pharma corps like Purdue lied about addictiveness thanks to the consult of such upstanding groups as McKinsey, and then the printed billions in cash for almost 2 decades while the top of the funnel of opiod users exploded. The bottom of the funnel, your meth, heroin and fentanyl ODs and related crimes are the cost of that years laters as addicts inevitably spiral downward. Pharma companies took what used to be an extreme and made it mainstream by hooking everyone from high school kids, to those injured at work on their products.
deleted by creator
And poor people have themselves to blame for routinely electing officials that go against their interests.
This is not a false statement.
Just let doctors prescribe painkillers fucking christ. Kicking legit patients off meds drives this entire issue.
deleted by creator
I had minor surgery last year and the sent me home with an opiate prescription. I didn’t take it because the effects to me are worse than the pain, but they did give it to me.
This is an oversimplification.
And so is the legislative response that put us here.
Doctors prescribing painkillers is exactly how this got so bad. As someone who came of age in the mid '00s and watch this all start unfolding firsthand in many of my peers, 100% of them began their addiction using prescription painkillers like Vicodin, Percs, and Oxy. Literally all of us knew someone selling them, family members who had extra and would give them out, friends/coworkers who’d share with you, etc because they were so easy to get a (or multiple) prescriptions for and you could sell the rest.
I know personally at least half a dozen people who wound up ODing and dying. I know at least two dozen more who battled through it, did jail, did rehab, lost jobs, or became homeless. Many made it through and stopped using, but now 5, 10, or 15 years later still have the cloud hanging over them and have to actively manage the cravings.
If you’re a ‘legit patient’ and you turn to heroin just because you can’t get painkillers, you’re already addicted to opioids. That’s not driving the issue, it is the issue.
If you’re an American who isn’t part of the wealth class, not a lot of great reasons not to numb your pain if you can.
“Oh but you have so much to live for!”
Yeah, spending most of your waking hours making rich assholes richer in exchange for just enough to subsist off of to stave off death by homelessness. What great fucking lives that must be protected, amirite?
Prohibition was 100 years ago and we still haven’t learned that it doesn’t work
Well, it made for some great movies.
Doesn’t work for who?
Seems like a great way to keep poor people desperate and dependent on ridiculously expensive drugs.
Heroin isn’t a dangerous drug, just addictive. Legalisation would mean fewer deaths as quality could be regulated like other prescription drugs.
It is a public health crisis. Cops can’t fix a public health crisis. It’s not their job, they are not trained to do so. This was the heart of defund the police. Not to get rid of police but to redirect funds to agencies that are trained to fix non police problems.
I don’t see what cops have to do with this.
Why not raise taxes on the wealthy to fund social services?
The only way to stop this is for the government to start selling clean and affordable heroin.
Congress’ what now?
“efforts”
“Opposite of progress” and all that
I love that it’s the cop that looks like he’s got the opiate lean going on in this photo.
deleted by creator
Make a nationwide ban on Narcan. Wait for the problem to fix itself. Total cost $0.00.
People using the drugs isn’t really the issue that needs solving. It’s people dying and being harmed by them. Narcan is good, not bad. Make it free and easily available and save tax payer’s lives. Total cost: negative.
Yeah because everyone knows most junkies pay taxes… Narcan will never be made free, all that means is someone else, like the actual tax payers, are paying for it. The world would be a better place without Narcan.
Lol. Do you think all drug users are homeless and jobless?
If Narcan can save them they may not be homeless yet, but it will happen soon. For the sake of argument let’s say 50% are without jobs. The problem is still half way fixed, or twice as good as it is now.
Why would we assume that? Hell, about half of homeless people are still employed.
Regarless, the cost would be very low compared to all the other costs we pay for. It may even save money with fewer unpaid ER visits and things like that, totally ignoring saving taxable incomes.
I know you’re probably just some edgy teenager who things denigrating a group of people who you don’t know anything about is cool or funny, but it’s really fucked up. Have some empathy for your fellow man. We’ve all got shit going on, and it can all be improved on if we help each other.
I’m a 53 year old man and have zero empathy for anyone that allows themselves to degrade that far. I don’t care about their bullshit stories of a hurt back and started with a prescription…The fact of the matter is every idiot on the planet knows there is no good end to heroin use. I completely disagree with you. Ban Narcan, make the world a better place for the ones that are contributing and trying. Stop throwing money away on the ones that statistically will always be a burden to the rest of society. If that doesn’t make sense I’ll assume you haven’t lived long enough to have perspective on the greater good. Good luck.
