Posted on 01/16/2016 3:24:12 PM PST by BlackFemaleArmyColonel
Donald Trump got personal on Friday in answering a father's question about stopping the rampant heroin epidemic.
"I lost my son two years ago to a heroin overdose," a man told Trump at a rally in Urbandale, Iowa, his first event after Thursday night's debate.
Trump asked whether the man was from Iowa; he responded that he was from Owego, New York, an upstate town in the center of the state that has been no stranger to the influx of heroin in recent years.
"Well, you know they have a tremendous problem in New Hampshire with the heroin. Unbelievable. It's always the first question I get, and they have a problem all over. And it comes through the border," the GOP presidential candidate said. He then repeated his most famous pledge: "We're going to build a wall, number one, we're going to build a wall, and it's going to be a real wall."
Heroin is "pouring across," Trump continued, vowing to "stop that drug traffic because heroin is really tough."
"Because they say once you get hooked, it's really tough. In all fairness to your son, it's a tough thing. Some very, very strong people have not been able to get off it," he riffed. "So we have to work with people to get off it, and the biggest thing we can do in honor of your son, actually, and the people that did have problems, big problems, we have to be able to stop it."
Trump then paused to comfort the man.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
I was on prescription opiates for nine years and I did become physically dependent. There’s no way to avoid it. I hit that wall where they weren’t working anymore and I had two choices. Go up again in dosage or see what would happen if I stopped. I managed to get myself off of them on my own.
It was one of the most drawn-out, painful experiences of my life. Right up there with unmedicated post-op pain. It was terrifying to face that and to trust that I’d survive it and it took a long time for me to work up the courage to do it.
I was on opiates for legitimate pain, but my brain reacted as any human brain will after years on opiates. I have all of the sympathy in the world for drug addicts. One you’re hooked, you’re trapped.
And where can they go?
The few *humane* drug treatment programs cost an arm and a leg. The free stuff is horrible (and difficult to get into). Insurance doesn’t always pay for it. (The other issue that I encountered was that they don’t exactly differentiate between the pain patient and the hooker who’s been shooting up for years. We’re all equal garbage and it’s all an ‘excuse’.)
Trump is right. This is going to take a two-pronged approach. Cut off the supply AND help the addicts.
At the same time, we’ve got to help the pain patients. Their suffering matters, too.
(And no. I’m *not* all right now.)
Let me explain it for you. Taliban burned poppy fields. US invades and allows poppy fields. CIA wants poppy fields, because it funds black ops. Make sense now?
I feel you and I admire you for your courage.
The Government tightened up controls on prescription opiates, so heroin from down south fills the vacuum.
The heroin in the U.S. is coming from the Golden Triangle in Mexico. From El Chapo, Sean Penn’s hero. Much easier than bringing it from around the world.
I have no doubt the CIA is in some funny stuff but that heroin ends up in the Middle East or Europe.
Trump fails to resurrect grieving father’s son.
Follow the money. All aspects, supply, interdiction, law enforcement, and incarceration. It is a HUGE government "industry," and the individual players are making money on both the illegal and enforcement sides. No drugs, no business.
I blame the parents and community who do not support young people. They have no God, no community spirit, no school spirit. They are taught from birth that their great country is a sewer of oppression and hatred. If I had grown up with that, I would have taken to the bottle, pronto! Children must have interests and culture. They must believe their country is fine and that they have a future.
Even smaller towns are hit by this. One in ND had 9 ODs on the stuff, 1 fatal, in one weekend.
The dealers don't care--for them it's all about the money--and the wreckage extends far beyond the individual addicted.
I like the Singapore solution, myself.
Cruz said he’d try but first he would need at least $500
A bunker buster at rush hour could cure those.
I’m old enough to have seen this mess develop first hand.
It started with a lawyer winning a big settlement over a person inadequately treated for pain. It really was a big mess and a doc dropped the ball.
That being said, the fix was worse than the problem. Suddenly pain was the fifth vital sign and every chart has that pain scale the doc has to address with the knowledge that a lawyer may be asking why you didn’t address it.
This led to over prescription and abuse. The medical community is aware there is a problem and it needs to be adressed, they have been trying to change the medical culture for about a decade but we have a whole generation of docs trained not to release a patient until that fifth vital sign is addressed.
Yes it was.
I have three sons, and am fortunate enough that none have been involved with drugs.
I can only imagine the heartbreak of that father.
While I agree doctors have contributed greatly to the pain management problem, and know there are people who live every day in some serious pain, I think people have an unrealistic expectation of living completely pain-free, too.
More SE Asia redux? (Remember who effed that up, too).
Trumps older brother died of alcoholism He is the reason DT doesn’t drink. He knows the pain and frustration of the disease. Tabloids have the reason for his divorce of ivana being tied to her “social drinking”. He never mentions it but now speaks highly of.the job they did raising their children not to drink or use drugs
The handwringing bedwetters would never stand for the draconian policies necessary to reduce drugs to a minor problem. This would be execution of dealers, distributors and importers without exceptions.
the first thing we should have done was burn the poppy fields.
Sounds like another jihadi plot, no it’s a government plot kill the person and the will of young people and you kill a generation
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