America’s Surgeon General finally recognizes that alcohol and prescribed opioids are part of the drug problem – hallelujah! Twenty one million Americans, one in seven of the population, has a serious drug problem, more than suffer from cancer. This revelation dwarfs the illegal drugs problem that has cost society hundreds of billions in enforcement and incarceration expenses over the years, not to mention confiscated properties, ruined lives and a stimulus to organized crime. Even the recent surge in illegal heroin addiction was stimulated by the huge growth in addiction created by over prescription of potent opium style pain killers.
Out of 50,000 fatal overdoses in 2014, 30k were from opioids and 20k from alcohol, cocaine and other prescription drugs. They don’t mention ecstasy, marijuana, lsd, ayahuasca or other banned “dangerous” drugs, where they would be hard pressed to get double figures. Will they put 2 and 2 together on this?
Read the full story here Nearly 21 Million in US Have Substance Use Disorder: Surgeon General’s Report
I wrote about this situation nearly twenty years ago in my book Uncommon Sense, recently upgraded, republished and retitled The State Is Out Of Date – We Can Do It Better.
Here’s a little extract from The Drugs Problem chapter :
“Society does have a problem with drug use. It is a serious problem that is getting worse. For some reason, though, the perception of this problem is focused entirely on the very small range of drugs that are being used illegally. We cannot ignore the very real problems faced by those who are using drugs prescribed by doctors. Their lives can be damaged and sometimes destroyed as a result of diagnostic error, their own abuse of the prescribed stocks (few recreational drug users have a month’s supply in a bottle), or just years of being dependent on pharmaceuticals with known side effects. These legal drugs must be obtained through controlled channels, but these channels translate into a multi-billion dollar industry throughout the world—the real drugs trade. While we condemn it when drug barons bribe and seduce judges, police, and politicians, we think nothing of the lobbyists employed by the pharmaceutical industry in Washington DC, who number more than three for every single Congressman or Senator. To rephrase that, there are 535 elected representatives shaping law and regulation in the capital of the United States, attended to by 1,724 paid persuaders from the pharmaceutical drug barons alone (as well as some 9,750 lobbyists from other interest groups in 2011).
…These drug dealers’ lobbyists openly encourage the state to pass laws controlling and restricting the alternative healing industry and the sale of herbal and other natural and unpatented medicinal remedies. Their expert lobbyists put convincing arguments to politicians that herbal medicines are unsafe and endanger the user’s life, over a nice cardiac-endangering lunch at a top restaurant. 8iui l0 77 Even the deadly killers alcohol and tobacco are usually left out of the picture when the vast majority talk about “the drug problem.””
The wheel needs a new hub, not just another revolution
Gregory Sams 