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The opioid epidemic tightens its grip on America
New York Post ^ | March 20,2017 | Salena Zito

Posted on 05/22/2017 8:10:51 AM PDT by Hojczyk

“We feel it necessary to show the other side of this horrible drug,” East Liverpool police officials wrote in a caption on the photo. “We feel we need to be a voice for the children caught up in this horrible mess.”

The photo caused the country to shudder.

And, then, the country forgot.

Politicians forgot, too, said Lane. “Governor John Kasich said he was going to come to town and get to the bottom of this. He never did.”

Meanwhile, the problems in East Liverpool are deepening.

People are dying, yes, “but the broader dangers are ignored,” Lane said. “Think of the potency of the fentanyl that almost killed my officer. What if a kid had hugged him in the grocery store? Or an elderly person? They’d all be dead.”

And what if someone with larger, more devious plans in mind used such a toxic substance in an act of terrorism, he wonders. “Imagine if someone put that in the water system. Or tossed it on a crowd. Now think about that, the dangers are unlimited.”

And these deadly drugs? Well, they are pretty easy to get, Lane explains. “Just go on the Internet and order them from China. They deliver them to your door.”

Lane is dissatisfied with Kasich, who has cut funding and hurt the chief’s ability to go after dealers and track down the sources.

He’s hopeful that President Trump will make good on his promises to solve the epidemic.

Opiate abuse kills 91 people a day in the US, according to the CDC, and much of the problem is concentrated in Rust Belt counties where Trump won

Many voters in these states switched their support from Barack Obama and the Democrats to Trump, hoping to shock the political class into noticing the problems in their communities.

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: addiction; darwinawards; drugs; karma; naturallaw; opioids; victimlesscrime; wod
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To: dfwgator
...and no gum chewing!


21 posted on 05/22/2017 8:45:52 AM PDT by TADSLOS (Reset Underway!)
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To: Hojczyk

We have a lot of problems in this country to be sure, but this particular problem is one of the biggest ones out there that is not talked about enough. As you notice, Salena writes from Pittsburgh. Southwest PA has so many overdoses now, everyone knows someone or is linked somehow to someone od’ing.

In part, I blame doctors. As a kid growing up, if you broke your arm, etc... you got motrin, not anymore. We are over prescribing now and people need to reject getting these heavy drugs. At some point, you may have to live with some pain, that’s far more preferable than getting addicted to opiods. Drugs like Oxy and Hyrdo were originally created to treat cancer patients at the end of their life to give them a little pain relief. The key is, they were dying so getting addicted was the least of their worries. Now, it’s prescribed for so much more.


22 posted on 05/22/2017 8:47:52 AM PDT by Old Teufel Hunden
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To: Hojczyk

Good graphics.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/01/07/us/drug-overdose-deaths-in-the-us.html


23 posted on 05/22/2017 8:50:06 AM PDT by Original Lurker
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To: Hojczyk

Not in Maine, not since Governor LePage made it legal for any citizen of Maine to hunt down and kill drug dealers.

You can tell, by what the left has to say, that a prime source of political funding for the left, drug dealers, is drying up.


24 posted on 05/22/2017 8:51:26 AM PDT by Bob Celeste
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To: wbill
"Each was an epidemic, destined to destroy all of society. And yet, here we still are."

Couple of points, the first is all of the ones you mentioned were usually a choice. A lot of the opiod abuse starts off by getting addicted to legal prescription drugs. This is what happened to Rush Limbaugh.

Second, I don't remember all of the overdoses and deaths. Back then, they didn't have all emergency workers with narcan in their vehicles to prevent it. I think it's worse now.
25 posted on 05/22/2017 8:52:31 AM PDT by Old Teufel Hunden
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To: Old Teufel Hunden

That isn’t it.

It’s the 24 hour news cycle that has turned this world on its head.

I’ve been given many of those drugs and some actually healed my condition. I take nothing today but the government has no right to say I cannot have it when I am in pain.

I have a half-million bucks on my head, would they rather I cash out?

(Some of you FReepers need not answer that last one)


26 posted on 05/22/2017 8:54:20 AM PDT by eyedigress ((Old storm chaser from the west))
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To: TADSLOS

“Boy is he strict.”


27 posted on 05/22/2017 8:55:39 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: wbill

—ditto—heard it for sixty years-—


28 posted on 05/22/2017 8:58:08 AM PDT by rellimpank (--don't believe anything the media or government says about firearms or explosives--)
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To: dfwgator

Racist bitch!


29 posted on 05/22/2017 8:59:56 AM PDT by eyedigress ((Old storm chaser from the west))
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To: Hojczyk
A lot of drug money flows into politics. It has been that way since Prohibition. Obama freed many drug dealers (http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/12/19/obama-pardons-78-commutes-sentences-of-another-153-criminals-many-drug-traffickers/)
Drug money and cheap labor are the two driving forces that oppose the border wall.
30 posted on 05/22/2017 9:01:15 AM PDT by MCF (If my home can't be my Castle, then it will be my Alamo.)
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To: wbill

In terms of political and moral principles, it’s very hard to generate a lot of public interest in addressing an “epidemic” that is largely based in self-destructive behavior.


31 posted on 05/22/2017 9:03:55 AM PDT by Alberta's Child
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To: Old Teufel Hunden
At some point, you may have to live with some pain, that’s far more preferable than getting addicted to opiods.

Balderdash. That's a decision entirely between a doctor and his patient, and one that the government has NO business interfering with. There are obviously trade-offs involved.

People who are on pain management aren't the ones OD'ing, in general. OD's occur to extremely irresponsible abuse by people in the black market.

I personally know of several OD deaths here in South Florida, and they have ALL been due to street drugs like heroin laced with fentanyl, etc.

Very rarely do people "accidentally" overdose on pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceuticals are known quantities, and it takes effort to overdose on such drugs.

Even in the world of opioids and pain management, the vast majority of patients are responsible. One reason the numbers seem higher is probably because they are seriously underestimating how many people are using the stuff.

But in any event, the government shouldn't be involved in anybody's health care. That is a sacrosanct relationship between doctor and patient.

People who overdose either are either uninformed about the medicine they're taking, or they're OD'ing on street drugs, or they're doing it on purpose.

32 posted on 05/22/2017 9:04:02 AM PDT by sargon ("If we were in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, the Left would protest for zombies' rights.")
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To: Hojczyk

I’m sick of this crap

It’s just sensationalism and hysteria promoted by scolds

We have a seriously aging population with maladies and it hurts

Invariably this will deprive in time those who need pain relief like myself at almost 60

Righteous do gooders

The pharmacopeia in my youth was exponentially greater for abuse than today yet we had little of this hysteria

1974

Quaaludes
Placidyls
Nembutal
Seconal
Amytal
Tuinal
Soper
Parest
Bimethedrine
Black molly
Dexedrine
Benzedrine
Benzodiazepine family
Dexamyl
Paregoric
talwin
Preludin
Many more varieties of opiates than now
And that’s just off the top of my head

Today it’s just s few pain killers and Valium and xanax and klonopin and soma muscle relaxers

That is about it today maybe a half dozen drugs to get high legally

The nanny state won’t stop till there’s none

Same mindset a 19 year old Afghan vet can’t come home and buy a drink legally

It’s bullshit


33 posted on 05/22/2017 9:05:48 AM PDT by wardaddy (Multiculturalism: Everyone wants to inhabit the world of white men with no white men in it)
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To: fwdude

Absolutely. This victimless crime takes up way too many resources.


34 posted on 05/22/2017 9:07:05 AM PDT by MrEdd (MrEdd)
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To: Gay State Conservative; North Coast Conservative

How many dealers, I wonder are themselves addicted?

I think ultimately we have to hold the users responsible.


35 posted on 05/22/2017 9:10:00 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: Old Teufel Hunden

I just drove by the Hartford County MD Sheriff office where they post an overdose count. YTD overdoses 179, fatalities 37. Last years total was 59. Yea, it’s a problem


36 posted on 05/22/2017 9:17:51 AM PDT by cyclotic
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To: Gay State Conservative

Totally agree. If you’re going to work in that line of business, you shouldn’t expect to live very long doing it. The justice system has our own kind of needles for dealers. They can spare themselves the death penalty by giving up their suppliers.


37 posted on 05/22/2017 9:23:02 AM PDT by MountainWalker
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To: Dana1960; Hojczyk
Anecdotal observations- My 88 yr old MIL has severe rheumatoid arthritis and bone/joint deterioration along with Parkinson's Disease. One of her hips is essentially gone. Her doctor has her prescribed with the Fentanyl (synthetic opiate) patch, at max strength (100). She also has other narcotic pain medication in pill form at her disposal as needed that she takes orally. She can no longer walk and requires constant care 24/7. We just recently moved her from a wound care/rehab nursing care center to a nearby assisted living facility. Both locations are (under) staffed with low paying nurse assistants and LPNs, plus the usual meal and janitorial staff. She has no way to secure her meds and I have to wonder how much of that walks out the door to either feed an addiction or to be sold on the street. The local hospital there has street people passing freely through it. On any given day, you can walk through a ward and grab hypodermics off the med carts in the hallways.

This is in Lawton, OK. Middle America Fly Over country. It's a military town (Ft Sill), so it has always had a reputation as being a bit seedy, but only in areas just outside the main gate. The landscape has changed there dramatically over the past decade. Lots of homeless street people, drug addicts and increased property crimes now. Her home used to be in one of the more affluent, well kept neighborhoods. Not anymore. I have witnessed lots of homeless wandering through her neighborhood, found drug paraphernalia laying on the playground at the nearby elementary school. I have witnessed several drug deals going down in the parking lots of local businesses on the town's major thoroughfares in recent months- in broad daylight.

38 posted on 05/22/2017 9:23:44 AM PDT by TADSLOS (Reset Underway!)
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To: Hojczyk

It is pathetic that so many of our citizens have to drug themselves to get through the day. I guess they don’t have much in the way of grit. Perhaps they should be allowed to drug themselves until the eventual overdose, leaving left the mentally fit and strong to populate the country. It may sound very harsh, but I, as everyone else has, have faced some very terrible life situations and you betcha I didn’t need to assume a chemical fetal position with drugs. Those problems would simply wait out the chemical escape and be there when you came down. I think having to drug oneself to get through the day is along the same line as “safe spaces” and all that drivel. It certainly degenerates a society.


39 posted on 05/22/2017 9:25:17 AM PDT by EinNYC
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To: sargon

“Very rarely do people “accidentally” overdose on pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceuticals are known quantities, and it takes effort to overdose on such drugs.”

Worth repeating.

Heroin deaths are an unintended consequence of making the much safer prescription opioids harder to get.

Before I started my medical training in 1972 I worked at a rural ER as an orderly in the suburbs of Deetroit. There was a heroin “epidemic” then too. I saw lots of dead junkies with the spike still in their arm. Nothing new is ever really new.


40 posted on 05/22/2017 9:26:17 AM PDT by 43north (Inside every leftist is a totalitarian fascist thug waiting to get out.)
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