Thread: America’s Addiction to Opioids: Heroin and Prescription Drug Abuse

Originally Posted by MW

Progressives Should Just Say No to Legalizing Drugs

There's a good reason drugs are illegal: They're dangerous.

[COLOR=#999999 !important]By Carrie Wofford, Contributor | Feb. 21, 2014, at 3:30 p.m.


Why would we wish drug's destructive effects on more Americans?
(PABLO PORCIUNCULA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
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Legalizing drugs has long been a rallying cry on the left, and not without good reason. Progressives remain deeply concerned about the large numbers of low-income males – especially African-American males – who lose their prime years to prison for what seems like the harmless crime of possessing drugs. Legalizing drugs, therefore, seems a sensible way to decriminalize the activities of low-income young African-American men who might feel that the drug economy is the only economy available. Proponents also argue that legalizing drugs would reduce drug-related violence and protect drug users from tainted drugs (on the assumption that the government would sell cleaner, purer drugs).

With Colorado and Washington state leading the momentum toward legalizing marijuana (including news this week of Colorado’s expected large influx of business tax dollars from marijuana sellers), and given the growing number of municipalities embracing medical marijuana (surely, a humane response to chemotherapy patients and others in tremendous pain) the movement to legalize drugs for recreational use is gaining significant steam. In recent days, we’ve even seen calls for legalization from former Rep. Barney Frank and the pages of the Washington Post.

Nevertheless, legalizing drugs is not the answer – even for the left. Here’s why: Drugs kill. They turn talented, intelligent people into impulsive animals. They destroy marriages. They deprive children of emotionally healthy parents. There’s a good reason drugs are illegal: They’re dangerous. Products that kill do not belong on drugstore shelves.

Does the name Lenny Bias ring a bell? Boston sports fans will never forget his name. Professional basketball’s number two draft pick in 1986, and the star son of the Maryland Terrapins, Bias was quickly scooped up by the Boston Celtics, bringing hope and excitement to Celtics fans. Bias was thrilled. So thrilled he celebrated that very night by trying cocaine for the first time ever. And that cocaine killed him.

More recently, America suffered the loss of a tremendously gifted actor, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who died of a heroin overdose. Heroin kills. It’s as simple as that. Medical experts say that heroin changes the brain’s chemistry, making addicts out of people who were curious to try it one time.

Why would we wish addiction, misery and death on more Americans by making it legal and easier to access? Moreover, why would we eliminate the deterrent effect that criminality now imposes on the general public? If drugs were as legal as alcohol, a lot more people would try them. Do we really want to see legions of Americans die because they’re curious to try a new high?

Progressives should oppose drug legalization because the people most likely to be killed, the families most likely to be torn apart, the futures most likely to be destroyed are the very people progressives work hardest to help – the downtrodden, with lower incomes (who, according to government data, are significantly more likely to use drugs). Progressives believe the American dream should be available to everyone, regardless of skin color or nationality. We believe opportunity should not be curtailed because a child has the bad luck to be born on the wrong side of the tracks. But addiction can rob a struggling family of its shot at the American dream faster than a sudden-onset recession; the death and destruction that drugs bring can destroy a kid's future more powerfully than the lack of strong schools.


Even the least damaging drugs – like marijuana – still kill brain cells and even shrink parts of the brain with prolonged use. Proponents argue that marijuana is no worse than tobacco, which is available on drugstore shelves (although no longer on the shelves at CVS, thanks to CVS’ bold decision to put public health above profit and to focus more seriously on its health care delivery). While tobacco is addictive and causes many health problems (draining public health resources), cigarettes don’t shrink parts of the brain. Why would we want a generation of teenagers to have smaller brains with fewer brain cells from smoking marijuana?


America’s next generation must be smarter than ever to compete in the global economy against the kids from Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo, who consistently outscore Americans on international academic tests. How do we expect American kids born in poor neighborhoods to compete on the global stage if they’re stoned?

Certainly, drugs can destroy families of any wealth level, and addiction does not discriminate, but the people most vulnerable to drugs’ power tend to be those who are the most hopeless, and hopelessness comes in large doses in lower-income communities. While depression can hit any income level, there are a lot more reasons to be depressed if you live in bleak poverty.

Admittedly, opposing legalization will not solve the problem of huge numbers of African-American men who lose their adulthood to prison for drug possession. But legalization isn’t the most direct answer for that problem anyway. Prison terms and mandatory minimums can be addressed by statutory changes. (For example, the 2010 Fair Sentencing Act ended the racially unfair sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine.) Without losing the deterrent effect of criminality, there’s no reason laws could not require more drug treatment and assistance rebuilding lives and less traditional jail time for illegal drug use. What progressives should focus on is improving the opportunities of Americans born into the bleakest neighborhoods – not advocating for legalization of drugs, which are a guaranteed opportunity-killer.

https://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs...galizing-drugs

Another example of our Period of Ironies and Opposites.

The author of your article:

Carrie Wofford Contributor

Carrie Wofford is a Democratic strategist who served as a senior counsel in the Senate and a policy aide in the Clinton White House and in the Labor Department under Robert Reich. A veteran of many presidential and Senate campaigns, she also worked as a lawyer at WilmerHale and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.

https://www.usnews.com/topics/author/carrie_wofford

The article sounds like this writer cares about people, cares about your brain cells, cares about addicts, cares about families, right? You'd almost think this article was written by a "conservative" get in your life and business type person all for your own good of course, right? HA! No, obviously that isn't true. She's a DEMOCRAT PARTY STRATEGIST writing this article to prohibit legalization to sustain open borders, to perpetuate illegal immigration to support the foreign drug cartels lining everyone's pockets.

Yes, it looks like most everything else has been legalized - if not in fact, in practice. Actually, they have legalized drugs - they just pretend so the prices can be kept up, DEA can have a huge
budge.

Nothing will be done because people in high places, people with clout want them illegal because they are profiting from them.


I think people need to be made responsible for their own lives - period.

Truly, there needs to be some education, but I don't know that I believe many people get into this and don't know the effects.

Oh the young people have no idea at all. They listen to the drug pushers and the friends already on the stuff and join up to be "cool". Education is very important, but it has to be truthful, it has to be honest, it can't be exaggerated like the ads on television, it has to be the "real risks and consequences" of using drugs or they won't believe it and will pay no attention due to lost credibility. It's like when people try to force the belief that marijuana is so dangerous, when it really isn't, they don't believe you when you tell them meth, heroin, speed and crack are dangerous. You lie to young people, they'll never trust you again. So whatever education is done must be honest and down to earth.

Something has to be done to end the War on Drugs. It's proven itself to be complicit and an aider and abetter of the very problems it was funded to solve. Just another tragic example of our:

Period of Ironies and Opposites.

Truly, I don't know any young people who do drugs - or I don't know if they do.

BUT - the young people I talk with are very aware of the dangers. They are young and feel invincible and think it won't happen to them. That's part of being young.

Of course, a lot of supposedly mature people feel the same way.

As for abuse - I think any use of a drug other than for medicinal purposes, and the appropriate drug, and only in the amount needed, is abuse.

As more Americans fail drug tests, employers turn to refugees

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

As more Americans fail drug tests, employers turn to refugees

I put that story right up there with the other garbage they have been feeding the American people over the years.

Things like 'we need the illegals, they add to the economy'.

They are just doing the work no one else will do.

There are 11 million illegals in this country.

Our veggies will rot in the fields without illegals.

Irag has weapons of mass destruction, and we can't wait for the mushroom shaped cloud.

Eggs and butter are bad for you.

Don't drink raw milk.

I mean I could fill this entire sight with the ridiculous 'truths' the media has put out there - all designed to brainwash the people.

Bravo!! Love your post, nntrixie. And I think you're exactly right.

Originally Posted by Judy

Another example of our Period of Ironies and Opposites.

The author of your article:


https://www.usnews.com/topics/author/carrie_wofford

The article sounds like this writer cares about people, cares about your brain cells, cares about addicts, cares about families, right? You'd almost think this article was written by a "conservative" get in your life and business type person all for your own good of course, right? HA! No, obviously that isn't true. She's a DEMOCRAT PARTY STRATEGIST writing this article to prohibit legalization to sustain open borders, to perpetuate illegal immigration to support the foreign drug cartels lining everyone's pockets.

Being a democrat party strategist or democrat doesn't mean you can't care about the ill effects of schedule 1 drugs on people. Your argument, without evidence, is really disingenuous. As hard as this may be for you to believe, there are liberals that oppose the legalization of drugs simply because they care about its harmful effects on their fellow man and our children. Democrats are fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, ect., etc., too.

The last poll I remember seeing showed over 30% of Democrats were opposed to the legalization of marijuana. While I grant you that is a minority, it still doesn't mean the Democrat that wrote this story wasn't one of them.

As history proves, the majority isn't always right.

Let me clarify so you're not confused by yourself, I believe most people who support the War on Drugs, and there are exceptions, care very little about their fellow man or woman. For the most part, the political support for the War on Drugs is about more fake crimes to lock up people to increase the law business, the prison business, the law enforcement business, keep the borders open and the illegal drug trade and illegal immigration thriving in the United States. I don't believe most give a hoot about the suffering of a Heroin or Meth addict. I believe they actually despise these people for some reason.

In 1913 when the first federal regulation of such drugs started, the addiction rate of the US population was 2%. Over 100 years later after millions and millions of arrests, incarcerations, felony records, ruined lives, broken families and hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars spent on the process, the addiction rate of the US population is still 2%.

These are personal issues the government can not solve. What the government can do is regulate it, educate about it, tax it and use some of the revenue to provide rehabilitation, although rehab only works in a small percentage of addiction cases and usually takes many attempts over many years. Government can regulate the quantity and quality to make the drugs as safe as possible with lots of warning labels, side effect information, and emergency numbers on the packages. Government can license sellers and make sure they honest, decent, responsible people.

Whether hard drugs are ever legalized I don't know. I think it is the best. I agree with LEAP on this, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, but pot should definitely be legalized in the meantime. For Democrats, without the illegal drug trade shut down by a legalized trade in the United States, there is no traffic across the borders, there are no illegal aliens, there is no payola for political protection, promotion, etc., blah, blah, blah of "immigrant communities". That's why Democrats support the War on Drugs.

You don't see or admit the connection. It's okay, lots of people don't see it yet, but more and more are seeing it every day, in fact, I think a majority now sees the connection along with the failed futility of the War on Drugs which has not saved a soul or spared even one life in the United States, it's done the complete opposite and killed thousands and thousands of Americans and ruined the lives of millions and millions over the years. A travesty with a big BLUE bow on it.

I'm a mother to a 30 year old son who became addicted to oxy by his doctor.
My son was dx with crohns disease at 14 .
at 20 he was no longer on our insurance and one of the docs I took him to happened to be across the street from where he moved to .
He went to him because he was in pain n wanted prednisone to help the flare up..his disease was bad..At 14 he was taking 26 pills a day...
so he thought I'll go to him since he went to him before, well he gave him oxy that's where our nightmare began.
his dreams were gone his life has never been the same, he was athletic n took care of himself until he walked into his office...I knew something was not right with him n he came clean to us but it was to late...couldn't get him into rehab it was a 6 months wait oh but he could do detox but he went right back to it....well 3 months later the doc lost his license to prescribe meds and all the while the law was watching him, and watching these kids go in n out of his office..He would get them hooked then have them sell it...well I'm sure you know what came next, yep heroine. Doc got away with it my son n us are still in the nightmare.
So my son got busted doing heroine n off to prison for two years...came out did great n got in car wreck n got pain pills n it triggered his brain n Back on heroine...got him in rehab n it was a joke it really was...I want my son back but I don't see that happening unless they do rehab in different way,,,like when he left prison they should put them in a intense drug program for a 6 months to a year then throw them back behind bars for 3 months while the brain is clear ,then have out patient treatments...I have tried to get help for him but really there isn't any.

when they did the war on drugs back in the day they rounded up all of our druggies n dealers n meth cookers n the cartel took over..they have made it so addicting n also strong enough to kill as soon as it hits the vein....our town is full of these addicts n the doctor n the frigging law allowed it to happen..My son will never be free from this
no matter what we do or what we say it's there ...they take theses kids and scare them that they will be in prison for ten years if they don't snitch....my son didn't that's why he served more time..but the ones who do are in jail then out in two months...we have become Mexico here n the cops are to scared to go after the top guy....iI just want something to help these druggies that are not inner city kids or adults because here if you're white you don't get help because you're from small town America.

i have a lot to say but I'm gonna end it here with ...I'd rather my kid smoke pot than drink n drinking does lead to doing thing you would never do sober or smoking pot....I'm from the 70s era ..so yes been there done that but we knew never ever touch heroine....But the cartel came in gunning with both barrels n brought down our kids..

also my my son had never been in trouble before but he went to med security prison with gang members n killers n the child molester were protected but to throw someone into a mix like that is wrong...he was a druggie he was not violent . He once had dreams.