Yesterday the New York Times release the following article titled:

Bleak New Estimates in Drug Epidemic: A Record 72,000 Overdose Deaths in 2017

This reflects a 10 percent rise over 2016. In 2015, there were 52,404 drug overdose deaths and in 2016, over 64,000, showing a steady increase.

Reasons given for the increase are that more Americans are using opioids, and drugs are becoming more deadly. But when people read that statement, they think that the increase is in prescription opioid use, and that is wrong. Statistics show that opioid prescribing is at a 5 year low.

Illegal opioid use is up, however, for 2 reasons:

1. There is approximately a 1/2 percent increase of addiction today, stemming from increased toxicity in our bodies, from our food, stress, and lifestyle.
2. Legitimate pain patients are being forced to self-medicate with illegal street drugs because of the government propaganda against prescription drugs in order to attack physicians for money.

The biggest reason for the increase in overdoses is what is being sold on the street. What is up is the presence of illegal fentanyl analogues mixed into street drugs or sold as fake prescription meds. Fentanyl is also penetrating the usual heroin markets, which increases the risk for users because the unexpected combinations of drugs can’t be predicted, and the user overdoses accidentally. According to the CDC estimates, overdose deaths involving these synthetic opioids rose sharply, while deaths from heroin, prescription opioid pills and methadone fell.

Overdose deaths have been less in western states. There, heroin is sold in a form called black tar that is difficult to mix with synthetic drugs. The heroin sold in the east is a more processed white powder that is more easily combined with fentanyl. Mid-Atlantic and Midwestern states have the highest increase in deaths. In Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia, deaths have increased by 17 percent. In New Jersey, they rose 27 percent. There is some evidence that drug distributors are finding ways to mix fentanyl with black tar heroin, which could increase death rates in the West. If that becomes more widespread, the overdose rates in the West could explode as they have in parts of the East.

The government is hopeful that this increase in overdose deaths will not continue, believing attacking more physicians for treating pain and throwing money into addiction treatment is the answer. On October 26, 2017, President Trump declared the opioid crisis a national public health emergency, and began throwing more money at it.

President Trump, as most Americans, is oblivious to the cause of addiction. He said:

“The best way to prevent drug addiction and overdose is to prevent people from abusing drugs in the first place. If they don’t start, they won’t have a problem.”

But not knowing the cause of addiction, attacking physicians for doing their job, treating pain patients worse than animals, and throwing money at conventional revolving-door rehab centers is all the government has on their plan of attack. Even though the President recognizes the fact that the rise in overdose deaths is largely due to the proliferation of illicitly made fentanyl, calling the situation a “national public health emergency allows the flow of money to:

1. Expand access to telemedicine services for substance abuse or mental health treatment.
2. Overcome bureaucratic delays in hiring, by allowing DHHS to make temporary appointments of specialists.
3. Allows the Department of Labor to issue dislocated worker grants to help workers who have been displaced from the workforce because of the opioid crisis, subject to available funding.
4. Allows for shifting of resources within HIV/AIDS programs to help people eligible for those programs receive substance abuse treatment.

In March 2017, President Trump established the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis, with the following stated mission: “to study the scope and effectiveness of the Federal response to drug addiction and the opioid crisis and to make recommendations to the President for improving that response.”

More Money down the rabbit hole

Since President Trump took office:

1. More than $1 billion allocated or spent addressing the drug addiction and opioid crisis.
2. $800 million spent for prevention, treatment, first responders, prescription drug monitoring programs, recovery and other care in communities, inpatient settings, and correctional systems.
3. $254 million in funding for high-risk communities, law enforcement, and first responder coordination.
4. The CDC has launched the Prescription Awareness Campaign, featuring real-life stories of people who have lost loved ones to prescription opioid overdose
5. The FDA is imposing new requirements on the manufacturers of prescription opioids to help reverse what the government calls, overprescribing that has fueled the crisis.
6. The Department of Justice’s Opioid Fraud and Abuse Detection Unit is targeting individuals that are contributing to the prescription opioid epidemic
7. The State Department has secured a binding UN agreement making it harder for criminals to access fentanyl precursors ANPP and NPP.
8. The NIH is investigating non-addictive pain relievers and new addiction and overdose treatments, as well as a potential vaccine for addiction.
9. The DOD, VA, NIH, and DHHS are collaborating on a six-year, $81 million joint research partnership focusing on nondrug approaches to managing pain to address the needs of service members and veterans.

And yet the only thing that will decrease the number of addicts in the country is the fact that they are being killed by contaminated drugs. Is that really the best way this country of intelligent human beings can come up with to deal with the problem of addiction?  I have the answer, as discussed in The REAL Cause of Drug Abuse. People just need to watch it and learn from it.