Desperately sad. But to a Brit, looking across the Atlantic, to an America that used to so inspire us, I'm left wondering how the Republican Party can be so disorganised that they can't push the evil, China-backed Democrats into the sea, once and for all. The Dems should have been wiped out after one or two years max.
Because all the Republicans are a part of this attack against their own countrymen. ALL bought and paid for. I don’t trust ONE. I feel the same way about doctors and nurses.
I watched the Tucker Carlson/Russell Brand interview: it seems many countries including Britain, the USA, in fact, most western countries have the same problem: UniParty.
Mrs. Bucket, I do believe that the UK and USA are both infected by our own respective Uni-parties. Here in the USA there are many Democrats and Republicans in our Federal system that are very much alike, and vote in lock step. In your land, the Labour Party and Conservative Party are the two primary factions, and my read from outside looking in as they are much like our D's and R's here.
Correct Matt, the UK 'Conservative' party is very much like the high spending, pro-mass immigration Marxist/Left Labour Party. There's a 3rd party that masquerades as 'centrist', the Liberal Democrats but they are a melon party, green on the outside but RED on the inside.
Hyacinth, those you refer to as Dems are not Democrats, they're Jacobins and their goal is to fundamentally change america. As to the republicans they are split a New World Order faction and a Populist faction.
If Leftists hide in other parties then those parties have to be wiped out. People need to know what the Democrats really are. We have the same with Leftists hiding in the 'Conservative' party in Britain. They're so embedded the only solution is to wipe out the party and that will happen later this year. Snag is, the far left Labour party will win, we'll have to suffer their evil and stupidity for a few years as the Right sorts itself out.
Spot On! Globalists! History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster.
The United States of America in 2024 resembles China during the Qing Dynasty in many ways (rapid social implosion, mass proliferation of drugs, etc.) The entire social edifice is Buckling completely: Fentanyl & Related Substances (if history is a guide) will keep Mass proliferating & more social angst, gang warfare, etc. will result... ultimately making the Continental USA completely indefensible.
No Empire lasts forever, & it appears that the USA is fast reaching the point of No Return.
History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster.
I know too much about this topic, sadly. Between my two sons, they know of over 20 friends from school days that have died from overdoses or suicide. When I started InsideOUT Writers, teaching creative writing in Los Angeles juvenile halls to High Risk Offenders, those facing life sentences for seriousness crimes, I learned more than anyone would ever want to know. But it's important that parents face the truth of the demons waiting for their children once they open the door and walk out into the streets--and now even more insidious, what tempts them in secret, in their bedrooms on the internet. I've written a lot about it but this is one mother's story and the underbelly of the San Fernando Valley, a model for every American neighborhood. THE DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND. https://open.substack.com/pub/khmezek/p/the-devils-playground
It's heartbreaking. My youngest son's best friend died of a fentanyl overdose, alone in Chicago. As a teenager, he'd called me his mom. I took so many kids into my home. The artistic ones that didn't fit into the system. Many of them are doing amazing now, thank God. They made it through.
There are no easy answers to the societal, legal, and geopolitical hurdles that John encountered.
☝🏻
Oh "yes" there is Jordan, it only takes a President of the United States to have the balls to say no more !
China and the Cartels can be brought to heel it just takes a focused, hard nosed leader.
My older brother is a victim of drugs and rotting away in a wheel chair. I have zero interest in do gooder bull shit, it has to change no matter what it takes.
Your ANGER is justified. As long as there's a market and a profit to be made someone will supply the product. History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster.
Douglas MacArthur Some call it bootlegging. Some call it racketeering. I call it a business.
I am screaming from the roof tops that adhd meds are the gateway drug and set our young males up for this crisis. It’s all by design! I know so many nice families who give their kids Adhd meds so they can advance in school. Just so they can go from B or C studies to A students but at what cost. The doctors should be ashamed of themselves and parents listen to the docs say it’s fine.
Yeah--well, Ritalin is also the last drug of choice for severe chronic fatigue stemming from a range of illnesses. So you're framing of this drug means that people like me are seeing a week-long wait between every refill--and spending $1,000 a year that I don't have--to be overregulated for something, that I learned through trial and error for a congenital progressive condition that isn't my fault, that actually works and helps me be functional, participate in a family gathering, and get to a drs appointment.
Prohibition 2.0 is a mistake. Obsessing over how other people use drugs is a pathology in and of itself. Alcohol is far more dangerous than Ritalin and yet is legal on every street corner.
Well said! The bureaucrats approach makes life very difficult for the legitimate patient and their physician. HANG IN THERE! And yeah, I know it's frustrating and hard.
These fentanyl drugs are designed to kill. People don’t overdose, they’re poisoned. It’s murder in the first degree. Poisoning & killing our youth is another method to weaken & bring down western civilization. Along with the illegal migration overtaking western countries & devouring resources. China & Russia benefit from our weakness & are definitely involved, but the traitorous politicians allowing the fentanyl poisoning & human trafficking to continue unimpeded need to go.
Yet the SOB-in-chief had San Fran prettied up for his dear friend xi's visit. Quick sentencing and execution is the way to handle most things. It would be a deterrent, unlike how things are now where they spend 20 years or so on death row.
Don't know if deterrence works, but that's not the point either. Some crimes, execution is the only solution.
And prison is some $450 - $700 per night, depending on state and security-elvel (from memory, looked it uo last year to compare with Sweden). Anyone arguing that bastard A who tried to smuggle Fentanyl or heroin, or is a pedophile or some such - evidence being sure and certain, well they have to argue why that person is worth that much, compared to say ivalid veterans, women (or men) on the run from domestic abusers, families of working poor not able to provide medicines for kids with diseases that precludes them from insurance, and so on.
Why, I always ask those people, why is Criminal A worth so much more to you?
They never want to debate it for real, and they never want to give a straight answer, and I suspect it is because they have never really thought their own position through; it's just the "attidue and opinion de jure" to feel sorry for rapists, child molesters, drug smugglers and so on. It's not their fault. It's their upbringing. They are poor. They were abused themselves.
It makes me sick with anger.
Most people who grow up poor do not become career-criminals, not even in poor nations. Often in the West, indigenous seniors are the poorest group, also the least criminal.
Yet (here) they insist convicts should have free dental, free internet, free phones, free meals, and may not be put to work unless they feel like it. Also, conjugal visits. And time off on their sentence. And parole. And get to keep their citizenship if they're migrants.
No, I say. Murder, rape, smuggle stuff like heroin, or simply commit crime after crime after crime - mandatory execution, in public. Doesn't have to make it grisly and garish. Doesn't have to be the town square - an isolated courtyard you must purposefully seek out to see anything will do fine.
To paraphrase a (here) famous criminologist: "Ca 5% of the criminals commit 90% of the violent crimes, so if you get rid of those, police and prisons have resources to spare to handle the rest"
That statement of his, said at a lecture at a university 20 years ago, did not go down well with the paraiste oppressors called the chattering class.
I believe that the criminologist is correct. It's like Rudy Giuliani's broken window policing. Get them for the little stuff and they won't do the big stuff.
Quick trial, quicker execution if air-tight proof. Srsly. Not a court date years in the future like many of the invaders are getting. 3-4 weeks maximum for trial + execution. The real sickos won't be so interested in shooting up schools if it doesn't make them famous.
The senile usurperm in the WH is a beneficiary of Chinese bribes. Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, Dianne Feinstein, Swalwell, and a great many others are closely linked with the CCP, as is the leadership of Canada. A great many of those making decisions in our nation. Trump was throttling back on Chinese predation and he got a bioweapon release from Wuhan in conjunction with many here in the US. They stole the election and killed many Americans with their poison treatment. Our military is a hollowed shell of vax injured and demoralized persons ruled over by sexual deviants. Our reputation on the world stage is ignominious and we betray our allies as in Afghanistan. Now do you see the connections? China, that hellscape of human hatred, rules the world and has no more rivals.
End the war on drugs. Make drugs available to adults via legal channels, where users know what they are getting. This will make the drugs safer.
For minors, that is a harder problem to solve, when parents agree to hook their kids on drugs from a young age. Our medical system needs to treat ADHD more holistically, starting with diet and lifestyle analysis, but that is something that it refuses to do.
The irony in this announcement release today in Oregon is so rich.
Oregon, 1st in nation to decriminalize hard drugs. Today, Governor here calls for 90 day state of fentanyl emergency for our largest city. So predictable to anyone w/ 1/2 a brain cell:
These local authorities have no measurement for what is defined as ‘success’ of the large sums of $$ they will now spend on this 3-month ‘emergency’
In fact, in Oregon it’s against the law to drink alcohol in public. But you know what is not against the law here? Smoking meth or fentanyl in public. I’m not kidding:
Adults can get (currently illicit) drugs at the pharmacies in Portland??? That's news to me. You will have to send me a link to confirm your assertion.
Of course I read the piece. That's why I included my second comment about the problem with minors getting prescribed drugs similar to the illicit ones.
Dave, I live in the greater PDX area. What BF is referring to is the complete decriminalization of illicit drugs in the State of Oregon, called Measure 110:
If caught w/ heroin for example, you get a fine, but that fine is waived if you call a self help addiction phone number. Problem is nobody called, nobody paid fine and a shit-ton of people who want to do hard drugs have come to Portland. There is demand and so readily available supply, but yes it’s from the streets. There is an effort to reverse this legislative insanity, we’ll see. In meantime folks are voting with their feet, if they can afford to. My sense is if/when interest rates relax, there is going to be a lot of people fleeing metro areas.
Farther north, in British Columbia, there are actual docs/pharmacies dispensing fentanyl. It’s very controversial now that Canada govt there allowed that ‘safe prescription’ to minors, without parent notification:
I know what BF was referring to and I realize that decriminalization has been a disaster in Portland. However, I was recommending legalization, which is a different animal, and thus his dismissive response was really a straw man, by conflating two very different approaches.
With full legality, you have the quality control that you can never have under prohibition. You also can hold drug makers liable if their products do not contain what is on the label. And you also have informed consent. People are informed about the risks and benefits of their drug. All of these aspects will mitigate harm caused. Not that this is the complete solution, but it is certainly a step in the right direction.
I am totally opposed to minors having sanctioned access to fentanyl or any other potentially dangerous drug or procedure without parental approval, much less without parental notification.
It's unfortunate that so many have a knee-jerk reaction to the idea of ending drug prohibition and do not take the time to think things through. Think of the huge numbers of people thrown in a cage for selling or smoking pot, not too long ago.
It's ironic, since practically everyone realizes that alcohol prohibition was a disaster, but so many seem to think that drug prohibition is somehow an entirely different matter. Yes, alcohol is deadly for those who abuse it and yes, prohibition only compounded the problem greatly.
I'm generally approving of legalizing Schedule 1 drugs with the exception of heroin. But I don't support full legalization of Schedule 2 drugs, because many of them are highly addictive such as cocaine, morphin, vicodin, oxycodone, demerol, fetanyl, methadone, meth, adderall & ritalin.
I'd argue there are differences between alcohol and Schedule 2 drugs, in impact to user and those around the user.
The oxy epidemic that started in mid-1990's (promoted by Purdue Pharma and approved by FDA) led many suburbanite Americans to treat ailments with these powerful painkillers, that in past had been treated with less-addictive substances (like percocet & vicodin). Purdue Pharma (and part-owner Dr. Richard Sackler) in particular presented fraudulent description of oxy, as less addictive than other opiates, made a lot of $$ and destroyed a lot of lives in the process:
From oxy, users went to heroin (which has been around of course a long time!), then heroin to our present-day fentanyl. The FDA went along with the oxy thing and that is very bad, IMO. Fentanyl deaths started to rise in 2014 and have climbed precipitously ever since:
I'm sorry about your friend, but the DEA's war on legal pain medication in the US is literally killing people--not like the faux genocide of autogyenphiliac men and melodramatic teens, but literally killing chronic pain patients. We now have acute hospital discharges--after c-sections, broken bones, and even amputatinos--without a prescription for opioids. Just meditate! Chronically ill patients well managed on a regimen of opioids as well as all of the other techniques that anyone w/ a long-term disability or illness also uses have been abruptly cut off. Every other day on Twitter we see these people say good-bye. We now have Stage 4 cancer patients ON HOSPICE having their palliative meds reduced because of fear of "addiction."
I remember my late grandfather in the late 1970s dying in agony until my Mom got on the phone and got the doctor to well-medicate him--the reason for undertreatment was "fear of addiction." I thought we were passed those shameful days.
There is NO EVIDENCE that legal prescriptions were the source of the "opioid crisis." The CDC has even acknowledged this. There might have been some "pill mills" but they were by far a small minority and in fact many legit patients saw them to finally get relief.
Why is it that on every city street an adult can purchase enough alcohol in 20 minutes to kill themselves and every other family member--and can go home and off themselves in another hour. Alcohol kills hundreds of thousands annually. But this isn't regulated at all except to let us know how strong it is or to keep it from 20 year olds and younger.
And pot, which is far more dangerous in some respects, is not legalized and offered in un-labeled gummy candies in several states in the US.
Has everyone forgotten the lessons of Prohibition 1.0? Do you know how many pain pts who are dying from illegally getting street drugs (or their family members getting them if they have unmanaged bone cancer) just because they've now been cut off by the DEA?
Do you know that thousands of pain patients are being pushed to take Suboxone, which is making LOTS of money right now, and yet is far more addictive than opioids and has worse side effects (like rotting jaw bones)?
Please see Pain News Network, Doctor Patient Forum, and look up Harvard and palliative care undertreatment. Naturally, their research is underscoring what we already know--that women, and Black women most of all, have a history of having their symptoms attributed to mental problems (8 more times than men, according to a 2022 study), and Black patients are the ones most undertreated in Hospice wards now.
I know you mean well, but I encourage you to check out some 12 step literature and groups. Interestingly, the 12 step model evolved AFTER Prohibition ended--and they were explicit that they weren't interested in controlling other people's use of alcohol. Even more importantly--and the origin of Al-Anon--they saw fixating on controlling others' use of drugs, beyond ensuring proper parenting or that they weren't about to kill someone, as a pathology unto itself.
Here we are, 100 years later, with a cultural fixation on Prohibition--leading to a profound pain undertreatment crisis. Until it happens to you, it's easy to judge others--but you wait until you've got a screaming burning pinched nerve and med staff keep shaking their heads at you, asking you about your history of stress and possible trauma, and suggesting you "relax" and do CBT when you're ready to jump off a bridge? This has happened to friends of mine.
As a chronic pain person for over 30 years I agree totally. (I've posted on the Pain News Network before and send email through them advocating for reasonable FDA rules regarding opiates).
I've been fortunate in that the doctor that prescribes my pain meds has been able to continue doing so without much trouble, although there have been times when he's let me know the FDA is watching him closely regarding his overall prescription writing for all his patients. The stupid thing is that when treating people with serious medical issues that involve chronic pain a doctor is obviously going to be writing more pain med Rx than one who is a GP or Dermatologist. Yet the FDA compares all doctors and the number of scripts they write.
I've been concerned that because of the "war on drugs" I wouldn't be able to get the pain meds I need to function. One issue I've had recently is that I don't take pain meds on a daily basis, so Medicare won't allow me to have them on an "as need basis", so instead of insurance paying for 90 pills (a typical three month supply if I was taking them daily and would cost me $14) they wanted to give me either 7 pills for $25 or 90 for over $100. But if I used a drug discount card I'd get 90 pills for $25. It was irritating. And all because I didn't take the medication daily.
I come from a family of addictive people. Cousins, an uncle, have died from drug and alcohol abuse. My dad, grandparents, were/are alcoholics. There's also addiction to food. I've avoided the use of alcohol and illegal drugs my entire life. It irritates me that the medications I need to function some days are being withheld while there's a push to legalize illegal substances that I've resisted socially since I was a teenager. Granted it helped me become a mature and independent person, but it also isolated me from people because I didn't join in the party.
I believe Medicare/Medicaid wants to make the use of prescription opiates illegal to limit what it costs them in drug payments, and legalize the use of medical pot so people buy it instead with their own money. That would shift the burden of cost for several treatments including depression, glaucoma, pain, dementia, anxiety, along with pain.
I think pain/addiction rehab clinics need to have longer and more intensive programs because addiction is a constant lifelong craving that never leaves your mind. The mental focus it takes to not partake is incredible and involves so many parts from family to friends, work, social situations, and the neighborhood, mental and physical situations, financial stressors, mood, personal stress, emotional stability, situational circumstances. It's complicated. These same things affect the intensity of pain I feel daily. I do know that I fight to not take pain meds in order to hide myself from what is hurting me mentally or physically, to the point that both my husband and doctor fuss at me. But I'd rather have that than be addicted. There's a fine line between taking pain meds in order to control pain in order to function, and being addicted and I do have times when I think, "I'd really like a cold beer or glass of wine or pills to zonk me out so I don't hurt inside and out and could just sleep through this." But I know that would lead to too many days doing that.
I believe not being addicted is partly making a decision daily, and it's not easy when you want to be free of pain. You have to decide to go on despite the pain and understand that pain is your normal, and that you can function to some extent with it.
Watch the series “Painkiller” on Netflix. The story of how the evil Sackler family addicted thousands with their drug OxyContin via their marketing. And, oh yeah, the corrupt FDA. Currently none are in prison but have agreed to a fine. This was a big reason for crackdown on prescribing opioids to the detriment of people who really needed them.
I agree with you, Lowen. The war on drugs should be declared as over. Drugs won. Now, what should be done to mitigate the harm of readily available potentially dangerous drugs? I'd like to see more emphasis on drug abuse education in schools. For an hour a week, at least, tell those kids what's going on and what to look out for. Get their attention: name the people who have died that week and show them the pictures the police have of the victims lying in their vomit and shit. If they were intoxicated and died in a car wreck have the wrecked vehicle hauled to the school they attended and set it down next to the flagpole. Put placards on the walls next to the sports trophy cases memorializing former and current pupils who've succumbed to the drug siren. Recruit former drug abusers and parents of dead victims to speak with the kids and tell them what it was like.
Another thing--an Amber Alert type of notification that will pop up on cell phones in the local area whenever someone dies of an overdose, describing what drug residue was found, wrappers, or whatever would help folks to know what did it. It could be an opt in or out thing. Forget any concern about privacy for the victims. Dead people have no right to privacy.
The first tragedy was society and parents trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. One of the reasons for drug abuse that is not discussed but is at the core of the problem is authorities, including parents, who feel kids need pharma products because they are different. Society demands conformity to a set of unwritten rules to create an adult who will submit to the demands of a corporatized nation. This process begins the journey down the road of substances to cope with the pressures at home, school, and life.
"society and parents trying to fit a square peg into a round hole." Yes to that. Also drugging the boys to act more like girls in the classroom rather than incorporating the needs of boy physicality in the schools. Oh I forgot boys and girls are the same - it's all a societal construct. <gag>
can U imagine if instead of China funding this massacre, it was Russia instead? how the press would be howling against Putin to stop this catastrophe? but no, they roll out the red carpet for the CCP.
Russia = Enemy, China = Enemy, Iran = Enemy, North Korea = Enemy, ISIS / Syria = Enemy, Saddam / Iraq = Enemy, Guyana, Venezuela, Noriega / Iran-Contra, Cuba, North Viet Nam, Cambodia, Laos. I’m probably missing a dozen or more.
It’s almost like we’re manufacturing enemies to create a demand for weapons and a far flung network of military outposts with which to bully nations through threats or actual force. But that sounds like something a despicably evil cuntry would do. A cuntry like that would pose a real a present danger to the world.
Desperately sad. But to a Brit, looking across the Atlantic, to an America that used to so inspire us, I'm left wondering how the Republican Party can be so disorganised that they can't push the evil, China-backed Democrats into the sea, once and for all. The Dems should have been wiped out after one or two years max.
Because all the Republicans are a part of this attack against their own countrymen. ALL bought and paid for. I don’t trust ONE. I feel the same way about doctors and nurses.
I watched the Tucker Carlson/Russell Brand interview: it seems many countries including Britain, the USA, in fact, most western countries have the same problem: UniParty.
I'm starting to see that.
ACTIONS speak louder than words! Don’t piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining! 🤬
Mrs. Bucket, I do believe that the UK and USA are both infected by our own respective Uni-parties. Here in the USA there are many Democrats and Republicans in our Federal system that are very much alike, and vote in lock step. In your land, the Labour Party and Conservative Party are the two primary factions, and my read from outside looking in as they are much like our D's and R's here.
Correct Matt, the UK 'Conservative' party is very much like the high spending, pro-mass immigration Marxist/Left Labour Party. There's a 3rd party that masquerades as 'centrist', the Liberal Democrats but they are a melon party, green on the outside but RED on the inside.
We try...we keep trying. The RINOs and courts block us.
Hyacinth, those you refer to as Dems are not Democrats, they're Jacobins and their goal is to fundamentally change america. As to the republicans they are split a New World Order faction and a Populist faction.
If Leftists hide in other parties then those parties have to be wiped out. People need to know what the Democrats really are. We have the same with Leftists hiding in the 'Conservative' party in Britain. They're so embedded the only solution is to wipe out the party and that will happen later this year. Snag is, the far left Labour party will win, we'll have to suffer their evil and stupidity for a few years as the Right sorts itself out.
Why? I think the failure to fear God has led us to the RINO’s and compromised uniparty .
Spot On! Globalists! History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster.
Douglas MacArthur
The United States of America in 2024 resembles China during the Qing Dynasty in many ways (rapid social implosion, mass proliferation of drugs, etc.) The entire social edifice is Buckling completely: Fentanyl & Related Substances (if history is a guide) will keep Mass proliferating & more social angst, gang warfare, etc. will result... ultimately making the Continental USA completely indefensible.
No Empire lasts forever, & it appears that the USA is fast reaching the point of No Return.
(For those interested)
If you wish to read (& listen!) to more of My commentary, here is my Main Stack:
https://thefallofthewest.substack.com
Thank You Kindly to everyone!
Both Nations got "set-up" to fail ? With the same formula ?
History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster.
Douglas MacArthur
I know too much about this topic, sadly. Between my two sons, they know of over 20 friends from school days that have died from overdoses or suicide. When I started InsideOUT Writers, teaching creative writing in Los Angeles juvenile halls to High Risk Offenders, those facing life sentences for seriousness crimes, I learned more than anyone would ever want to know. But it's important that parents face the truth of the demons waiting for their children once they open the door and walk out into the streets--and now even more insidious, what tempts them in secret, in their bedrooms on the internet. I've written a lot about it but this is one mother's story and the underbelly of the San Fernando Valley, a model for every American neighborhood. THE DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND. https://open.substack.com/pub/khmezek/p/the-devils-playground
Thanks for sharing this. Very important message.
It's heartbreaking. My youngest son's best friend died of a fentanyl overdose, alone in Chicago. As a teenager, he'd called me his mom. I took so many kids into my home. The artistic ones that didn't fit into the system. Many of them are doing amazing now, thank God. They made it through.
There are no easy answers to the societal, legal, and geopolitical hurdles that John encountered.
☝🏻
Oh "yes" there is Jordan, it only takes a President of the United States to have the balls to say no more !
China and the Cartels can be brought to heel it just takes a focused, hard nosed leader.
My older brother is a victim of drugs and rotting away in a wheel chair. I have zero interest in do gooder bull shit, it has to change no matter what it takes.
Sad to hear about your friend.
Your ANGER is justified. As long as there's a market and a profit to be made someone will supply the product. History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster.
Douglas MacArthur Some call it bootlegging. Some call it racketeering. I call it a business.
Al Capone
I am screaming from the roof tops that adhd meds are the gateway drug and set our young males up for this crisis. It’s all by design! I know so many nice families who give their kids Adhd meds so they can advance in school. Just so they can go from B or C studies to A students but at what cost. The doctors should be ashamed of themselves and parents listen to the docs say it’s fine.
Yeah--well, Ritalin is also the last drug of choice for severe chronic fatigue stemming from a range of illnesses. So you're framing of this drug means that people like me are seeing a week-long wait between every refill--and spending $1,000 a year that I don't have--to be overregulated for something, that I learned through trial and error for a congenital progressive condition that isn't my fault, that actually works and helps me be functional, participate in a family gathering, and get to a drs appointment.
Prohibition 2.0 is a mistake. Obsessing over how other people use drugs is a pathology in and of itself. Alcohol is far more dangerous than Ritalin and yet is legal on every street corner.
Well said! The bureaucrats approach makes life very difficult for the legitimate patient and their physician. HANG IN THERE! And yeah, I know it's frustrating and hard.
But some kids end up self-medicating as adults with street drugs when they aren't given prescription meds.
This is the takeaway
This so hard.
This is why smuggling such substances across borders should carry the punishment of mandatory execution.
Then and there, at the border crossing.
These fentanyl drugs are designed to kill. People don’t overdose, they’re poisoned. It’s murder in the first degree. Poisoning & killing our youth is another method to weaken & bring down western civilization. Along with the illegal migration overtaking western countries & devouring resources. China & Russia benefit from our weakness & are definitely involved, but the traitorous politicians allowing the fentanyl poisoning & human trafficking to continue unimpeded need to go.
Yet the SOB-in-chief had San Fran prettied up for his dear friend xi's visit. Quick sentencing and execution is the way to handle most things. It would be a deterrent, unlike how things are now where they spend 20 years or so on death row.
Don't know if deterrence works, but that's not the point either. Some crimes, execution is the only solution.
And prison is some $450 - $700 per night, depending on state and security-elvel (from memory, looked it uo last year to compare with Sweden). Anyone arguing that bastard A who tried to smuggle Fentanyl or heroin, or is a pedophile or some such - evidence being sure and certain, well they have to argue why that person is worth that much, compared to say ivalid veterans, women (or men) on the run from domestic abusers, families of working poor not able to provide medicines for kids with diseases that precludes them from insurance, and so on.
Why, I always ask those people, why is Criminal A worth so much more to you?
They never want to debate it for real, and they never want to give a straight answer, and I suspect it is because they have never really thought their own position through; it's just the "attidue and opinion de jure" to feel sorry for rapists, child molesters, drug smugglers and so on. It's not their fault. It's their upbringing. They are poor. They were abused themselves.
It makes me sick with anger.
Most people who grow up poor do not become career-criminals, not even in poor nations. Often in the West, indigenous seniors are the poorest group, also the least criminal.
Yet (here) they insist convicts should have free dental, free internet, free phones, free meals, and may not be put to work unless they feel like it. Also, conjugal visits. And time off on their sentence. And parole. And get to keep their citizenship if they're migrants.
No, I say. Murder, rape, smuggle stuff like heroin, or simply commit crime after crime after crime - mandatory execution, in public. Doesn't have to make it grisly and garish. Doesn't have to be the town square - an isolated courtyard you must purposefully seek out to see anything will do fine.
To paraphrase a (here) famous criminologist: "Ca 5% of the criminals commit 90% of the violent crimes, so if you get rid of those, police and prisons have resources to spare to handle the rest"
That statement of his, said at a lecture at a university 20 years ago, did not go down well with the paraiste oppressors called the chattering class.
I believe that the criminologist is correct. It's like Rudy Giuliani's broken window policing. Get them for the little stuff and they won't do the big stuff.
Quick trial, quicker execution if air-tight proof. Srsly. Not a court date years in the future like many of the invaders are getting. 3-4 weeks maximum for trial + execution. The real sickos won't be so interested in shooting up schools if it doesn't make them famous.
You do realize the greatest supplier of drugs in this country is the CIA?
The senile usurperm in the WH is a beneficiary of Chinese bribes. Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, Dianne Feinstein, Swalwell, and a great many others are closely linked with the CCP, as is the leadership of Canada. A great many of those making decisions in our nation. Trump was throttling back on Chinese predation and he got a bioweapon release from Wuhan in conjunction with many here in the US. They stole the election and killed many Americans with their poison treatment. Our military is a hollowed shell of vax injured and demoralized persons ruled over by sexual deviants. Our reputation on the world stage is ignominious and we betray our allies as in Afghanistan. Now do you see the connections? China, that hellscape of human hatred, rules the world and has no more rivals.
End the war on drugs. Make drugs available to adults via legal channels, where users know what they are getting. This will make the drugs safer.
For minors, that is a harder problem to solve, when parents agree to hook their kids on drugs from a young age. Our medical system needs to treat ADHD more holistically, starting with diet and lifestyle analysis, but that is something that it refuses to do.
The irony in this announcement release today in Oregon is so rich.
Oregon, 1st in nation to decriminalize hard drugs. Today, Governor here calls for 90 day state of fentanyl emergency for our largest city. So predictable to anyone w/ 1/2 a brain cell:
https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2024/01/gov-tina-kotek-local-leaders-declare-90-day-fentanyl-emergency-for-downtown-portland.html
These local authorities have no measurement for what is defined as ‘success’ of the large sums of $$ they will now spend on this 3-month ‘emergency’
In fact, in Oregon it’s against the law to drink alcohol in public. But you know what is not against the law here? Smoking meth or fentanyl in public. I’m not kidding:
https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2023/08/portland-can-ban-drinking-in-public-but-not-smoking-meth-or-fentanyl-oregon-law-is-to-blame.html
Adults can get (currently illicit) drugs at the pharmacies in Portland??? That's news to me. You will have to send me a link to confirm your assertion.
Of course I read the piece. That's why I included my second comment about the problem with minors getting prescribed drugs similar to the illicit ones.
Dave, I live in the greater PDX area. What BF is referring to is the complete decriminalization of illicit drugs in the State of Oregon, called Measure 110:
https://apnews.com/article/oregon-drugs-decriminalization-pushback-bb209e6ba9835c69f95b093c8ee00279
If caught w/ heroin for example, you get a fine, but that fine is waived if you call a self help addiction phone number. Problem is nobody called, nobody paid fine and a shit-ton of people who want to do hard drugs have come to Portland. There is demand and so readily available supply, but yes it’s from the streets. There is an effort to reverse this legislative insanity, we’ll see. In meantime folks are voting with their feet, if they can afford to. My sense is if/when interest rates relax, there is going to be a lot of people fleeing metro areas.
Farther north, in British Columbia, there are actual docs/pharmacies dispensing fentanyl. It’s very controversial now that Canada govt there allowed that ‘safe prescription’ to minors, without parent notification:
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/b-c-plans-to-give-safer-supply-fentanyl-to-minors-and-parents-wont-have-a-say
I appreciate your informative response.
I know what BF was referring to and I realize that decriminalization has been a disaster in Portland. However, I was recommending legalization, which is a different animal, and thus his dismissive response was really a straw man, by conflating two very different approaches.
With full legality, you have the quality control that you can never have under prohibition. You also can hold drug makers liable if their products do not contain what is on the label. And you also have informed consent. People are informed about the risks and benefits of their drug. All of these aspects will mitigate harm caused. Not that this is the complete solution, but it is certainly a step in the right direction.
I am totally opposed to minors having sanctioned access to fentanyl or any other potentially dangerous drug or procedure without parental approval, much less without parental notification.
It's unfortunate that so many have a knee-jerk reaction to the idea of ending drug prohibition and do not take the time to think things through. Think of the huge numbers of people thrown in a cage for selling or smoking pot, not too long ago.
It's ironic, since practically everyone realizes that alcohol prohibition was a disaster, but so many seem to think that drug prohibition is somehow an entirely different matter. Yes, alcohol is deadly for those who abuse it and yes, prohibition only compounded the problem greatly.
I'm generally approving of legalizing Schedule 1 drugs with the exception of heroin. But I don't support full legalization of Schedule 2 drugs, because many of them are highly addictive such as cocaine, morphin, vicodin, oxycodone, demerol, fetanyl, methadone, meth, adderall & ritalin.
I'd argue there are differences between alcohol and Schedule 2 drugs, in impact to user and those around the user.
The oxy epidemic that started in mid-1990's (promoted by Purdue Pharma and approved by FDA) led many suburbanite Americans to treat ailments with these powerful painkillers, that in past had been treated with less-addictive substances (like percocet & vicodin). Purdue Pharma (and part-owner Dr. Richard Sackler) in particular presented fraudulent description of oxy, as less addictive than other opiates, made a lot of $$ and destroyed a lot of lives in the process:
https://www.statnews.com/2019/12/03/oxycontin-history-told-through-purdue-pharma-documents/
From oxy, users went to heroin (which has been around of course a long time!), then heroin to our present-day fentanyl. The FDA went along with the oxy thing and that is very bad, IMO. Fentanyl deaths started to rise in 2014 and have climbed precipitously ever since:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/895945/fentanyl-overdose-deaths-us/
The Chinese are paying the white man back for hooking them on Opium in the early 1800's. The Chinese do not forget.
The JEWISH Sassoon family did that, not white (Europeans) people.
That is exactly what I was thinking !!
Same problem in Canada. American and Canadian officials have a lot to explain and account for.
I'm sorry about your friend, but the DEA's war on legal pain medication in the US is literally killing people--not like the faux genocide of autogyenphiliac men and melodramatic teens, but literally killing chronic pain patients. We now have acute hospital discharges--after c-sections, broken bones, and even amputatinos--without a prescription for opioids. Just meditate! Chronically ill patients well managed on a regimen of opioids as well as all of the other techniques that anyone w/ a long-term disability or illness also uses have been abruptly cut off. Every other day on Twitter we see these people say good-bye. We now have Stage 4 cancer patients ON HOSPICE having their palliative meds reduced because of fear of "addiction."
I remember my late grandfather in the late 1970s dying in agony until my Mom got on the phone and got the doctor to well-medicate him--the reason for undertreatment was "fear of addiction." I thought we were passed those shameful days.
There is NO EVIDENCE that legal prescriptions were the source of the "opioid crisis." The CDC has even acknowledged this. There might have been some "pill mills" but they were by far a small minority and in fact many legit patients saw them to finally get relief.
Why is it that on every city street an adult can purchase enough alcohol in 20 minutes to kill themselves and every other family member--and can go home and off themselves in another hour. Alcohol kills hundreds of thousands annually. But this isn't regulated at all except to let us know how strong it is or to keep it from 20 year olds and younger.
And pot, which is far more dangerous in some respects, is not legalized and offered in un-labeled gummy candies in several states in the US.
Has everyone forgotten the lessons of Prohibition 1.0? Do you know how many pain pts who are dying from illegally getting street drugs (or their family members getting them if they have unmanaged bone cancer) just because they've now been cut off by the DEA?
Do you know that thousands of pain patients are being pushed to take Suboxone, which is making LOTS of money right now, and yet is far more addictive than opioids and has worse side effects (like rotting jaw bones)?
Please see Pain News Network, Doctor Patient Forum, and look up Harvard and palliative care undertreatment. Naturally, their research is underscoring what we already know--that women, and Black women most of all, have a history of having their symptoms attributed to mental problems (8 more times than men, according to a 2022 study), and Black patients are the ones most undertreated in Hospice wards now.
I know you mean well, but I encourage you to check out some 12 step literature and groups. Interestingly, the 12 step model evolved AFTER Prohibition ended--and they were explicit that they weren't interested in controlling other people's use of alcohol. Even more importantly--and the origin of Al-Anon--they saw fixating on controlling others' use of drugs, beyond ensuring proper parenting or that they weren't about to kill someone, as a pathology unto itself.
Here we are, 100 years later, with a cultural fixation on Prohibition--leading to a profound pain undertreatment crisis. Until it happens to you, it's easy to judge others--but you wait until you've got a screaming burning pinched nerve and med staff keep shaking their heads at you, asking you about your history of stress and possible trauma, and suggesting you "relax" and do CBT when you're ready to jump off a bridge? This has happened to friends of mine.
This insanity has to stop.
As a chronic pain person for over 30 years I agree totally. (I've posted on the Pain News Network before and send email through them advocating for reasonable FDA rules regarding opiates).
I've been fortunate in that the doctor that prescribes my pain meds has been able to continue doing so without much trouble, although there have been times when he's let me know the FDA is watching him closely regarding his overall prescription writing for all his patients. The stupid thing is that when treating people with serious medical issues that involve chronic pain a doctor is obviously going to be writing more pain med Rx than one who is a GP or Dermatologist. Yet the FDA compares all doctors and the number of scripts they write.
I've been concerned that because of the "war on drugs" I wouldn't be able to get the pain meds I need to function. One issue I've had recently is that I don't take pain meds on a daily basis, so Medicare won't allow me to have them on an "as need basis", so instead of insurance paying for 90 pills (a typical three month supply if I was taking them daily and would cost me $14) they wanted to give me either 7 pills for $25 or 90 for over $100. But if I used a drug discount card I'd get 90 pills for $25. It was irritating. And all because I didn't take the medication daily.
I come from a family of addictive people. Cousins, an uncle, have died from drug and alcohol abuse. My dad, grandparents, were/are alcoholics. There's also addiction to food. I've avoided the use of alcohol and illegal drugs my entire life. It irritates me that the medications I need to function some days are being withheld while there's a push to legalize illegal substances that I've resisted socially since I was a teenager. Granted it helped me become a mature and independent person, but it also isolated me from people because I didn't join in the party.
I believe Medicare/Medicaid wants to make the use of prescription opiates illegal to limit what it costs them in drug payments, and legalize the use of medical pot so people buy it instead with their own money. That would shift the burden of cost for several treatments including depression, glaucoma, pain, dementia, anxiety, along with pain.
I think pain/addiction rehab clinics need to have longer and more intensive programs because addiction is a constant lifelong craving that never leaves your mind. The mental focus it takes to not partake is incredible and involves so many parts from family to friends, work, social situations, and the neighborhood, mental and physical situations, financial stressors, mood, personal stress, emotional stability, situational circumstances. It's complicated. These same things affect the intensity of pain I feel daily. I do know that I fight to not take pain meds in order to hide myself from what is hurting me mentally or physically, to the point that both my husband and doctor fuss at me. But I'd rather have that than be addicted. There's a fine line between taking pain meds in order to control pain in order to function, and being addicted and I do have times when I think, "I'd really like a cold beer or glass of wine or pills to zonk me out so I don't hurt inside and out and could just sleep through this." But I know that would lead to too many days doing that.
I believe not being addicted is partly making a decision daily, and it's not easy when you want to be free of pain. You have to decide to go on despite the pain and understand that pain is your normal, and that you can function to some extent with it.
Watch the series “Painkiller” on Netflix. The story of how the evil Sackler family addicted thousands with their drug OxyContin via their marketing. And, oh yeah, the corrupt FDA. Currently none are in prison but have agreed to a fine. This was a big reason for crackdown on prescribing opioids to the detriment of people who really needed them.
I agree with you, Lowen. The war on drugs should be declared as over. Drugs won. Now, what should be done to mitigate the harm of readily available potentially dangerous drugs? I'd like to see more emphasis on drug abuse education in schools. For an hour a week, at least, tell those kids what's going on and what to look out for. Get their attention: name the people who have died that week and show them the pictures the police have of the victims lying in their vomit and shit. If they were intoxicated and died in a car wreck have the wrecked vehicle hauled to the school they attended and set it down next to the flagpole. Put placards on the walls next to the sports trophy cases memorializing former and current pupils who've succumbed to the drug siren. Recruit former drug abusers and parents of dead victims to speak with the kids and tell them what it was like.
Another thing--an Amber Alert type of notification that will pop up on cell phones in the local area whenever someone dies of an overdose, describing what drug residue was found, wrappers, or whatever would help folks to know what did it. It could be an opt in or out thing. Forget any concern about privacy for the victims. Dead people have no right to privacy.
The first tragedy was society and parents trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. One of the reasons for drug abuse that is not discussed but is at the core of the problem is authorities, including parents, who feel kids need pharma products because they are different. Society demands conformity to a set of unwritten rules to create an adult who will submit to the demands of a corporatized nation. This process begins the journey down the road of substances to cope with the pressures at home, school, and life.
"society and parents trying to fit a square peg into a round hole." Yes to that. Also drugging the boys to act more like girls in the classroom rather than incorporating the needs of boy physicality in the schools. Oh I forgot boys and girls are the same - it's all a societal construct. <gag>
can U imagine if instead of China funding this massacre, it was Russia instead? how the press would be howling against Putin to stop this catastrophe? but no, they roll out the red carpet for the CCP.
One of Biden family and DNC cabal many crimes.
Russia = Enemy, China = Enemy, Iran = Enemy, North Korea = Enemy, ISIS / Syria = Enemy, Saddam / Iraq = Enemy, Guyana, Venezuela, Noriega / Iran-Contra, Cuba, North Viet Nam, Cambodia, Laos. I’m probably missing a dozen or more.
It’s almost like we’re manufacturing enemies to create a demand for weapons and a far flung network of military outposts with which to bully nations through threats or actual force. But that sounds like something a despicably evil cuntry would do. A cuntry like that would pose a real a present danger to the world.
So very sad.