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 thought too, El Chapo, the Sinaloa Cartel are big into exporting heroin into the US, I think he said that in the recent interview with Sean Penn.
I mean hard-working natural conservatives only looking for a better life.
if you love your kids and it wont hurt them you don’t speak critically of your ex spouse. best to be silent about the reasons for your divorce. If your kids ever ask about it don’t dodge the question but bad mouthing an ex is just bad. I think Trump has shown a lot of class in the handling of issues with his spouses. I also think how his older four kids show he is a moral good person. I have yet to hear scandal in there life and I no the media would have broad cast it four months ago if there were.
I knew that, and good for Trump to learn that lesson so well.
One thing I didn’t know was that Cruz had a half sister who died of drugs.
What a terrible waste all around.
There isn’t a candidate on the stage or a family in the US that hasn’t had to deal with the problem of addiction
Amen
When you dig deeper, you find “heroin” is a catch all term for opiods in general. The foundation of the problem is pharmaceutical painkillers, but its not polite to point that out.
Leni
“Trump fails to resurrect grieving father’s son.”
That’s sick, inappropriate and not funny.
“the first thing we should have done was burn the poppy fields.”
Bingo, and Bush 43 wouldn’t do it. Claimed it would have put too many Afghans out of a livelihood. Of course their livelihood was dispensing a death sentence and addiction around the world, in particular in Bush’s own country.
Gallows humor *bump*, repetition is not our friend.
The medical community needs to find a happy medium and we to focus on alternatives that do not start off with the most powerful opiates like oxycontin. I can’t begin to tell you how much tragedy I have seen in two decades of law enforcement that started with over-prescribing pain meds. I have interviewed an honor student who got hooked on oxy for a back injury in college who started robbing drug stores - never had been arrested before this. Same kind of story with a mother of 3 kids who was injured in car accident. All of them will tell you they wish they had never taken the prescribed meds because it ruined their life.
Oxycontin has done far more damage than good and nobody will ever convince me differently. The only thing after oxy is heroin and for many oxy seems just as addictive. In my younger days they started you off on the lowest tier narcotic and worked up from there if you really needed it - now they hand out the most powerful stuff like candy.
A Trump presidency threatens ALL of the cartels....from Mexico to DC.
That wasn’t funny. People have no sense.
I look at Jeb bush and look at his brother then the history of the family and I think they are as corrupt as the Clintons just not as braisen about it. I wonder if some how they make money off the drug war.
I have long been a believer in the least effective dose. If I can handle something with aspirin, the scrip goes untouched. If It gets too bad, I’ll take the meds—once. Dentist prescribed hydrocodone after oral surgery. I did take one of those. After that, it just wasn’t so bad I needed anything. So I saved the ones left over for a couple of years in case I ended up in real pain, then threw them down the toilet.
Yes it surely does..
You are right that a lot of our heroin problem starts with prescribed opiates.
I do not think opiates ought to be less prescribed, instead doctors need to focus on HOW the opiates are used. After surgeries or other extreme pain situations, people should be allowed to get complete relief for their agonies. I had brain surgery 15 months ago and I was on morphine, then sent home with oxycodone. I never took very many of them and was done taking them by the 5th day or so.
First, patients should be talked to about how easy it would be to get addicted. They should take the least amount of pills they can a day to stop strong pain. They should only take pain meds to improve a level 5 or more pain during the first half of the day. If they’ve dealt with a 5 all day, have them take more in the evening or night, to approach complete relief.
Limit the number of pills given after surgery etc, and allow for quick refills if pain is severe still after 2-3 days.
Always push patients to try some time off the meds after 3 days. Have them try to see if they can get used to the pain (often in recovery pain naturally goes down by itself as they heal). Always stress that we want the patient to have pain relief but not to end up a junkie.
Remind the patient always that “really liking” the drug is a DANGER SIGN. Wanting to take “just one more tonight” without severe pain, wanting to take one “in case” pain arrives, are all signs of the start of getting hooked.
While I know we have an issue with opiate addiction, we shouldn’t deny the relief from pain that opiates give. We should never punish the innocent.
I am not against using them in cases where they are clearly warranted and I think your suggestions make perfect sense. Unfortunately, it is much faster for most doctors to simply write the script and send the patient out to play Russian roulette.
You clearly understand the wise way to use narcotics and the dangers involved. I am not generally a conspiracy theory kind of guy, but the lobbying power of the pharmaceutical industry on medical professionals is undeniably a big part of the problem. First do no harm.
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