Why is The Opioid Crisis Now a National Emergency?

The new stuff is fake, somewhat legal and much more addictive and lethal. Heroin/opium were benign by comparison.

[link to www.esquire.com]

(less 50%)

You’re aware America is under siege, fighting an opioid crisis that has exploded into a public-health emergency. You’ve heard of OxyContin, the pain medication to which countless patients have become addicted. But do you know that the company that makes Oxy and reaps the billions of dollars in profits it generates is owned by one family?

The descendants of Mortimer and Raymond Sackler, a pair of psychiatrist brothers from Brooklyn, are members of a billionaire clan with homes scattered across Connecticut, London, Utah, Gstaad, the Hamptons, and, especially, New York City. It was not until 2015 that they were noticed by Forbes, which added them to the list of America’s richest families. The magazine pegged their wealth, shared among twenty heirs, at a conservative $14 billion. (Descendants of Arthur Sackler, Mortimer and Raymond’s older brother, split off decades ago and are mere multi-millionaires.) To a remarkable degree, those who share in the billions appear to have abided by an oath of omertà: Never comment publicly on the source of the family’s wealth.

That may be because the greatest part of that $14 billion fortune tallied by Forbes came from OxyContin, the narcotic painkiller regarded by many public-health experts as among the most dangerous products ever sold on a mass scale.

Every American president since FDR has declared a NATIONAL EMERGENCY using one excuse or another at six month intervals since March 1933.

Google it.

Any yokel can cook up meth.

Opiods are pushed by the government.

Only difference, as I see it, is that the medicine men/women in the doctor's offices are the ones providing the Narcs to the unsuspecting, wide eyes patients when they come in for a little pain.

Employers are complaining they can't hire

Because so many they drug check come up positive

It's a slave labor crises

It means people get paid lots of money to do nothing.

^^^THIS^^^
There are some 30 million serious chronic pain sufferers in the U.S. who have limited ability to fight for themselves. The president needs to hear from the other side on this; he does not distinguish between medication dependence and addiction, and seems unaware of the fact that the most effective opioid alternatives are being targeted for banning. Someone needs to ask and answer the question, "Who wants tens of millions of Americans in debilitating pain?".

Because we're going to be hitting 60k dead this year from opiate overdoses.

Every other social pathology is trending downward--murder, auto accidents, gun deaths-- but opiate overdoses continue to trend up.

Google opiate deaths and Ohio and read some of the stories. It's a nationwide situation.

And I think he declared it a national health emergency, not a national emergency.

Because dear leader needs a distraction from Russiagate and the upcoming indictments.

Last Edited by Gimme Some Truth on 10/26/2017 09:12 PM

It's been an emergency for a long time. It's just getting recognized for what it is.

Heroin is taking over and it needs to be stopped.
Legalize all of the other non addictive drugs.

Also, with the narcan/naxolone they can now stop od’s.
Sometimes addicts require multiple shots to revive them.
Some have been saved multiple times.

It’s super expensive. Cities are having trouble affording the expense of medics (not to mention how it keeps them busy and away from other calls like heart attacks and car accidents).

America is weaker with all the junkies. They weaken society.

They weaken health care. They weaken welfare. They are a

drain upon the fabric of America. Sad but true.

My cop buddy said there were a couple people that he personally saved several times with narcan and then later found dead because finally nobody was around to dial 911.

Americans are shitty at partying

Clean that mouth Auspy get back to verk

You're 100% correct. As one who has worked in the substance abuse field for close to 30 years, I've never seen it this bad. It's a rare week when I don't read at least one obituary of a middle-class, white, twenty-something in my area (small town USA, not the ghetto). If we had 500 beds rather than the almost 200 we do have, we could fill them all. it's very, very bad.

They can stop most of the opioid problem by investigating the real problem and that is the prescribing physicians. When the authorities decide to get serious they will look at pain clinics, free standing doc in a boxes, hospital emergency rooms, certain MD’s , PA’s, NP’s, DO’s and DPM’s. Every state has a data bank that records each prescriber, who and what medication. They can figure out which prescriber’s are overwriting and which patient’s are receiving what pain medication. They can make arrests and pull licenses if they would like to, but they don’t speak about this problem very much at all probably because more than a few prescriber’s would be facing jail time.
This angle of investigation would be a step in the right direction.

You guys know that regular poppies are used for heroin don't you? It's not some exotic species or poppy.

Just cut the bulb and harvest the sap.

Because someone ODs on this stuff every 19 minutes in America. I need to find those maps of USA they showed on 60 Minutes last week! It was shocking. Difference from 1999 compared to 2015. I'll do a search.

Last Edited by Guess Who2 on 10/26/2017 10:13 PM

It's too late for that. It may have helped ten years ago, but now there are a lot of people STARTING opioid use with heroin.

When I was in high school in the late 90's, nobody I know would have even thought about touching heroin... even the kids who were into drugs. It wasn't even something you could get your hands on in suburbia.

A dude showed up at a party one time and tried to get one of our female friends to snort heroin with him, we beat the fuck out of him and threw him into the street after flushing all his shit down the toilet.

But when oxys came out, you started seeing people who popped one every once and a while at a party. Still not popular, but it didn't make you an outcast like heroin use did.

Those people ended up getting hooked, who ended up getting some of their friends hooked, then they cracked down on the pills and they got expensive, then the heroin made a comeback because it was cheap(er), then those who moved to heroin started getting their friends on heroin right off the rip.

A lot of girls get into it from their boyfriends. A dude hooks up with a chick who feels bad for him and thinks they can "fix him". He bleeds her dry then she ends up using. He dumps her after she's robbed her entire friend and family network for dope, and hooks a new victim.

Because Pain Pills are effecting middle class white America.

And opiate addiction is usually a life time addiction.

In Florida it is insane. My county has highest per capita deaths... And just plain a higher number than Miami Dade and we're just a little Tampa Suburb!

They call it OPIOID CRISIS because they can't say PILL EPIDEMIC

It's no longer heroin causing all the Rehab admits and ODs... it's pharmaceuticals.

"Opioid Crisis" is fancy word for "pain pill problem"

Sad, really. Methadone clinic went from 400 people to 800 in last two years.

To take your mind off the clintons dumb f

Found it. Go to 4:31 and see how bad ODs have gotten.

[link to www.cbsnews.com (secure)]

let these druggy fucks die i dont get why the fucking revive them god thats dumb

I know 4 who died from fentanyl OD. Yes they were struggling with the habit for a very long time. Off and on. My one Friend was off for 8 months and had a relapse and fentanyl did him in. He was a hard working man who had his demons. The demons won that day. Sad day for many.

And how many fat fucks are dying from McDonalds?

This time it’s killing white folks. That’s why.

This. Do we want every American city to
be like Baltimore? A junkie doesn't care
about the social fabric of a community and
for that reason need to be separated from
those who do care. Enough. It isn't just
about the druggie's feelings.

I think you nailed it with the bolded words. I work in an inner city level 1 trauma center and can tell you we have plenty of drug seekers, but our docs do not give out pills like candy. In fact, when the same people come in we give them an 800mg of ibuprofen and a script for 10 of them and send them on their way. We have some POS patients come in and ask who the doctor is so he/she can decide whether to check-in and try to talk someone into pills.

I've also become numb to the "I'm allergic to Toradol (non-narcotic pain releiver), Morphine (doesn't give the same high), and Benadryl (we started giving this with Morphine to help with the "allergy") and ibuprofen." We also have people come in and ask for "that pain medicine that starts with a D is the only one that works for me" They are referring to Dilauded since we stopped giving Demerol years ago due to the toxic byproducts it is metabolized in to.

I am sorry for all of you who have lost someone to this bullshit. I don't understand addiction. I did recreational drugs in my youth and NEVER felt like I had to have them. I was able to stop cold turkey with no effects while some of my friends continued on. Some have died and some are still junkies. I understand I'm the lucky one. I got that, but putting that first pill in your mouth is a choice. Continuing to do pills when you know you are starting to have a problem is a choice. I know from experience and when I started liking something too much, I stopped doing it....by choice.