War deaths or drug deaths?

Larry Gude

Strung Out
Does this surprise you; more American's have died from drug over doses, including prescription drugs, in the last 15 years than ALL of America's wars exclusive of the Civil War. 600,000 American's died in the Civil war, something near 600,000 have died in all the other wars, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, etc, in TOTAL.

In the last 15 years, some 600,000 American's, including 52,000 in 2015 alone, have died from drug overdoses. 2/3's of that is pharmaceutical heroin and street heroin. Street heroin is the smaller part of that.

http://www.realclearhealth.com/arti...ting_a_problem_to_solve_a_problem_110477.html

and

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6450a3.htm


More dead American's, mostly from pharmaceuticals, in the last 15 years than ALL our wars in the last 150 combined.


War on drugs or war on ourselves? No monuments. No memorials. No holidays or parades for remembrance. Just our dead. More than the number who died for our 'freedoms'.
 

Wishbone

New Member
Not that I'm a fan of the wasted effort of jailing junkies, but what is your point?

Do you think a cessation of all drug interdiction will stop them from wasting themselves?
 

Larry Gude

Strung Out
Not that I'm a fan of the wasted effort of jailing junkies, but what is your point?

Do you think a cessation of all drug interdiction will stop them from wasting themselves?

I was afraid this was going to happen. To repeat; MOST of the opioid deaths are from PRESCRIPTION drugs. Did you miss Chris Christies gut wrenching story? We're not talking lazy hippies gone too far. We're talking about a self inflicted problem that is exacerbated by the wasted efforts of the drug 'war'. I am happy we agree there. Actually, not wasted. That implies it just doesn't work. It has made the problems worse.
 

Wishbone

New Member
I was afraid this was going to happen. To repeat; MOST of the opioid deaths are from PRESCRIPTION drugs. Did you miss Chris Christies gut wrenching story? We're not talking lazy hippies gone too far. We're talking about a self inflicted problem that is exacerbated by the wasted efforts of the drug 'war'. I am happy we agree there. Actually, not wasted. That implies it just doesn't work. It has made the problems worse.

Hear this all the time, "Maryland Opioid Epidemic" article just recently...

So what are you suggesting? Stop issuing Rx's... prescribe only Tylenol or Bayer for everything from headache to severed limb?
 

Larry Gude

Strung Out
Hear this all the time, "Maryland Opioid Epidemic" article just recently...

So what are you suggesting? Stop issuing Rx's... prescribe only Tylenol or Bayer for everything from headache to severed limb?

Stop treating drugs as a criminal issue and start treating them as a health issue. We tried prohibition. We know it makes matter worse, far worse. We un-learned that lesson. We can re-learn it.
 

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
I was afraid this was going to happen. To repeat; MOST of the opioid deaths are from PRESCRIPTION drugs. Did you miss Chris Christies gut wrenching story? We're not talking lazy hippies gone too far. We're talking about a self inflicted problem that is exacerbated by the wasted efforts of the drug 'war'. I am happy we agree there. Actually, not wasted. That implies it just doesn't work. It has made the problems worse.

To recap:

Legal drugs are the biggest killers, therefore we should legalize all drugs?

How does that make sense to you?
 

Larry Gude

Strung Out
To recap:

Legal drugs are the biggest killers, therefore we should legalize all drugs?

How does that make sense to you?


To re-cap;
Stop treating drugs as a criminal issue and start treating them as a health issue. We tried prohibition. We know it makes matter worse, far worse. We un-learned that lesson. We can re-learn it.

How does that NOT make sense to you?
 

Wishbone

New Member
So... Create a larger, more lucrative medical industry....

.. By getting people hooked and then treating them for it?
 

black dog

Free America
To re-cap;

How does that NOT make sense to you?

The world has always had drug addicts, even more so in the US. We had huge amounts of addicts before any of the food and drugs acts and plenty after many more drug acts were brought into law.
Americans like opiates, it makes no difference if you buy them on the street or you over prescribe yourself with a prescription from the pain management clinic.
Oh and you don't croak from following the recommended dose.
 

Hijinx

Well-Known Member
The way to stop people from overdosing is to make drugs legal.


Now that might make sense to some people ,but it sure sounds crazy to me.
 

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
How does that NOT make sense to you?

Because drug use absolutely promotes crime. If the druggie in question would sit home and get high and not bother anyone else, nobody would give a damn. But they don't. Many of them have no source of income, so they rob and steal for their fix. Those things are crimes. In their altered state, many times they become violent and kill or injure other people. Those things, too, are crimes. The dealers picking each other off is the least of our layman worries regarding drug addiction. Legalizing drugs isn't going to make them free, and addicts will still have to find a way to pay for their fix. Legalizing drugs also isn't going to eliminate the psychological alteration, and addicts will still become irrational and violent.

You have this image of the happy hippie sitting around getting baked with his buddies, eating snack chips and pondering the mysteries of life, and that is not the reality of drug abuse and addiction.

Go down to Columbia Heights or Anacostia and tell those addicts that they have a "health problem". Try and get them into a treatment program. Then come back and report your findings. It seems you're only going to believe it if you personally see it, so go see it.
 

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
The way to stop people from overdosing is to make drugs legal.


Now that might make sense to some people ,but it sure sounds crazy to me.

That's because it is crazy. The quickest way to kill an addict? Give them unlimited access to their drug of choice.
 

Hijinx

Well-Known Member
Because drug use absolutely promotes crime. If the druggie in question would sit home and get high and not bother anyone else, nobody would give a damn. But they don't. Many of them have no source of income, so they rob and steal for their fix. Those things are crimes. In their altered state, many times they become violent and kill or injure other people. Those things, too, are crimes. The dealers picking each other off is the least of our layman worries regarding drug addiction. Legalizing drugs isn't going to make them free, and addicts will still have to find a way to pay for their fix. Legalizing drugs also isn't going to eliminate the psychological alteration, and addicts will still become irrational and violent.

You have this image of the happy hippie sitting around getting baked with his buddies, eating snack chips and pondering the mysteries of life, and that is not the reality of drug abuse and addiction.

Go down to Columbia Heights or Anacostia and tell those addicts that they have a "health problem". Try and get them into a treatment program. Then come back and report your findings. It seems you're only going to believe it if you personally see it, so go see it.

You don't have to go there. Doctors have gotten hooked. As doctors they know they have a problem.
But once hooked the health problem is not a priority,
Getting the next hit is.
 

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
You don't have to go there. Doctors have gotten hooked. As doctors they know they have a problem.
But once hooked the health problem is not a priority,
Getting the next hit is.

Doctors aren't out busting up old ladies to steal their money and valuables to pawn for drugs. Larry specifically wonders why drug addiction is treated as a criminal offense, and my response is that nobody would care about the drugs if it weren't for the things addicts do to procure them.

If drugs were legal, addicts would still commit crimes either while under the influence of drugs or in order to get money for drugs. OD deaths are a separate topic, and legalization won't put a dent in those, either.
 

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
UBI will fix this ... pay them a few bucks, or give them a free clinic to pick up their weapon of choice

Go ahead and give addicts free drugs and see what happens. Or is that the idea, to let them kill themselves and that solves the problem of crime?
 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
Go ahead and give addicts free drugs and see what happens. Or is that the idea, to let them kill themselves and that solves the problem of crime?



hey let darwin sort it out .... I guess I needed a sarcasm tag on the last post
 
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