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That’s right, every
year we lose 50% more young Americans to opioids than we lost in the entire
Vietnam War. Opioids kill 64% more Americans per year than either car accidents
or death by guns in general.
My heart goes out to the families of the innocent victims of
the 2 mass murders that happened the weekend of August 3rd in Texas and Ohio.
The media coverage, and the politicians have offered up their usual and
customary lines about gun control, and it angers me because they see it as an
opportunity to profit politically from this tragedy.
In all of 2019 there were 227 people killed in mass shootings in the USA
– including the August, 2019 shootings. There is debate about what is
considered a “mass killing”, but for the sake of this argument, let’s accept
Wikipedia’s mass killing statistic. In 2017, 110,749 people either died of
opioid overdoses or committed suicide because of opioids. That is up from
41,364 opioid “related” deaths in 2000 according to Healy Psychiatry, a
well-known and respected psychiatric source. If you pro-rate this statistic to
make a full year the mass murder “by guns” for 2019 would be 302 gun deaths
(vs. 110,749 Opioid deaths).
Ponder that for a moment: 110,749 people died from opioids in 2007 and
302 died from gun inflicted mass murder.
We can assume that 2019 number would come in far higher than 110K deaths
because of the unlimited fentanyl that is coming through the border. There is
no grieving in the media and no righteous politicians vowing to fix the issue
of opioids.
There is no debate that when people are gunned down in a mass shooting
that they are completely innocent. Unfortunately, when it comes to Opioids, there
is plenty of debate as to whether opioid addiction is brought on by a weak
character flaw or mental illness and it profoundly offends the grieving
families and survivors of “the Opioid crisis”. No one plans to get addicted to
opioids and die. There are no “mass overdoses” to attract the news cycle either.
These young people die one at a time, alone, with no fanfare and no media
caring. All it takes is one prescription to Opioids for a painful injury to get
some people hooked. An ancillary issue with Opioid addiction is the costly peripheral
problems: Families go broke trying to treat their addict in their family. Crime
to feed the addiction, homelessness, mental illness and broken families that
come with untreated Opioid addiction.
These 110,749 opioid deaths are all innocent victims. Victims of a drug
industry that abused them for profit. Victims of a government that allowed the
drug companies to sell these drugs via salespeople who gave doctors incentives
to write more and more prescriptions. Victims of a medical profession that
refused to acknowledge their complicity and police their own members. Victims
of a media that preferred to ignore the problem rather than shine a light on
national tragedy. The media of late has put itself on a pedestal as the guiding
light of our democracy. It seems their bulb went out.
58,220 American soldiers are listed as having died in Vietnam. 130
Americans die every day from opioid overdose alone - not including
suicide. Over 70,000 young Americans
have died so far this year (as of August 5th, 2019) of Opioid
overdose. That’s right, every year we lose 50% more young Americans to opioids
than we lost in the entire Vietnam War.
The national discussion over gun control is a worthy discussion to have,
and I support limited gun control laws that are strictly enforced. But it is
important to remember that outlawing AK-15s will not stop innocent lives from
being lost. A habitual criminal with numerous gun violations procured an AK-15
on the black market perpetrated in the recent police shooting in Philadelphia.
If we are serious about saving lives, we need to prioritize our efforts -
and the opioid epidemic should be front and center. What is the remedy? Safer
pain meds that are non-addictive. Free detox and rehab centers. Strict
mandatory laws on drug dealers who peddle this poison. A change in the laws
that currently prevent an unwilling addict from being forced into rehab. Free and
readily available mental health therapy meant to keep addicts clean. This is
the long and costly solution. The alternate is the “Switzerland method”. Making
the addictive drugs readily available so that the addicts have a safe, doseable
supply. This has proven to produce a population of functioning and semi-functioning
drug addicts, without the crime and stigma of the addiction. Either way, we
need to do something because we are losing too many young people to this
horrible, man-made disease.
Written by Shep Fargotstein, Memphis, TN. - Mr. Fargotstein’s 35-year-old
son, David, committed suicide on 07/05/2017 due to Opioid addiction.
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