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?
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, 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”
No , but I understand invading Mexico is on tap
20b is less than 3 days of military spending. thats how important this is to us.
3 days.
you want to solve this, decriminalize the national healthcare crisis that is drug use. put an actual percentage of the ‘defense’ budget against it. stop pretending like throwing a one time pittance at a shitty program is going to solve it.
We did that in Oregon, ballot measure 110, and it’s been a disaster. Crime is up. Overdoses are up. You know what’s not up? People seeking treatment.
Here’s how it works… You get busted with drugs, it’s a $100 fine. The fine is waived if you seek treatment. 16,000 people got ticketed. Less than 150 sought treatment. :(
Because treatment is technically voluntary, people won’t do it.
Meanwhile, Honduran gangs are setting up open air drug markets 3 blocks from police HQ.
It’s unfortunate that Oregon didn’t setup the necessary infrastructure and processes that are used by countries who have successfully decriminalized drugs. Cops often walk by people doing hard drugs on the street rather than doing their jobs. There isn’t anyone forcing addicts into treatment if there’s continued recidivism, and perhaps most importantly - the biggest factors driving people on the streets to use drugs (no money, no stable housing, no mental health counseling, etc.) are not being addressed.
Many people would rather see measure 110 fail so they can go back to prohibition (which obviously doesn’t work). Decriminalization and legalization are cheaper and more humane, but progress requires multiple parts of the government to actively help people.
Yup. Everyone talks about wanting to follow “The Portugal model”, but failed to recognize:
a) Portugal still has punishments for non-compliance.
b) Portugal has universal health care.
Decriminalizing drugs without those two key things isn’t going to work.
https://www.opb.org/article/2023/09/18/oregon-measure-110-portugal/
"In Portugal, drug users must appear before a commission that determines whether the person needs treatment or should pay a civil penalty.
“They don’t just assume that everybody will pop into treatment on their own,” Humphreys said.
And the system includes other measures that don’t exist in Oregon. For example, the commission could suspend the driver’s license of a cab driver until after treatment, he said, giving state officials leverage over users.
In Oregon, police officers write $100 citations that are not criminal penalties. Drug users are supposed to pay the fine or call a hotline to be assessed for treatment. But addicts often ignore the citation and don’t follow up with treatment, according to news reports."
Did Oregon do anything to address why so many people want to use fentanyl? You can fix people with drug abuse treatment when the drug abuse is a symptom of a larger problem—like homelessness—that’s going untreated.
Unfortunately, no, and like I say, overdoses are through the roof and it’s not just the homeless. People thinking they’re getting one drug, getting fentanyl instead. Kids getting it accidentally. Teenagers being stupid.
Yeah, but if the military cuts back any further, they may have to delay the building of the 79th aircraft carrier!
Before the Isreal Hamas flare up I saw reports saying the US was mulling the idea of ground presence in Haiti. The military looks more apt to try and find problems to insert themselves rather than not spend taxpayer money. God forbid they let their budget go down.
Surely the military budget isn’t 2.4 trillion dollars? Or am I misunderstanding?
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
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.
If it doesn’t affect rich people, then congress won’t care.
Just let doctors prescribe painkillers fucking christ. Kicking legit patients off meds drives this entire issue.
It has gotten unbelievable in the last 10 years, even if you’ve just had major surgery, they’ll send you home and tell you to take Tylenol.
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.
Prohibition was 100 years ago and we still haven’t learned that it doesn’t work
Well, it made for some great movies.
The only way to stop this is for the government to start selling clean and affordable heroin.
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?
Congress’ what now?
“efforts”
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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.
