While We're All Freaking Out About North Korea, Trump Also Shit All Over Opioid Addicts

[kpete]

While We're All Freaking Out About North Korea, Trump Also Shit All Over Opioid Addicts
by The Rude Pundit

.............

Christie's commission's interim report to Trump very specifically and, let's be fair here, strongly talked about the extent of the problem and recommended forceful action: "The first and most urgent recommendation of this Commission is direct and completely within your control. Declare a national emergency under either the Public Health Service Act or the Stafford Act. With approximately 142 Americans dying every day, America is enduring a death toll equal to September 11th every three weeks."

Then the report states quite clearly the effect of such an action: "Your declaration would empower your cabinet to take bold steps and would force Congress to focus on funding and empowering the Executive Branch even further to deal with this loss of life. It would also awaken every American to this simple fact: if this scourge has not found you or your family yet, without bold action by everyone, it soon will."

And it puts this squarely on Trump's shoulders, even appealing to his fragile ego: "You, Mr. President, are the only person who can bring this type of intensity to the emergency and we believe you have the will to do so and to do so immediately." Christie was confident that Trump would accept the recommendations of the commission because.....

How did Trump respond? Did he rise to the moment and declare a national health emergency, allowing addicts to get treatment more easily under Medicaid? Did he declare he would no longer pursue cuts in funding for addiction treatment? Of course, he didn't. As usual, he did the most dickish thing he could. He blamed the addicts: "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. If they do start, it's awfully tough to get off. So we can keep them from going on, and maybe by talking to youth and telling them, 'No good; really bad for you' in every way. But if they don’t start, it will never be a problem."

You got that? Just say, "No," kids. If you get fentanyl to help with your pain from surgery to fix a work-related injury, you need to tell yourself, "No good; really bad for you" as if you didn't know that in the first fucking place. And notice that Trump didn't say a fucking thing about the addicts themselves. Oh, he talked about increasing sentences for drug offenders and once again about his goddamn border enforcement. But he didn't say, and Price later confirmed, that he would declare an emergency. Because health emergencies aren't sexy and don't get good ratings.

By the way, the commission's report didn't mention the border wall at all. So apparently, the members didn't see that as a solution to the problem.

Meanwhile, abuse and deaths are affecting every corner of the country. A record number of overdoses are occurring, with rising numbers nearly everywhere, from Virginia to Oregon. In Indiana, schools have started carrying anti-overdose drugs. And New Hampshire, which Trump called a "drug-infested den," is joining a lawsuit with other states and localities against the maker of OxyContin. The Trump administration has, more or less, punted the whole problem to the states and is pretending that it's doing something when, really, it's failing on this as it's failed on so many other things.


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http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2017/08/while-were-all-freaking-out-about-north.html

[OnDoutside]

1. States Rights, so Republican.

[Solly Mack]

2. Trump's Mr. Mackey approach to addiction.

[CousinIT]

3. RudePundit links can never be tweeted.

Twitter claims anything from that site is automated. Twitter thinks rudepundit is a bot.

[blueinredohio]

4. The opioid crisis is all we hear from Portman here in Ohio

Trump won't help him but he will still be kissing Trumps ads. Like when he didn't know if he would vote for the health care bill the Senate tried to pass. What do you know, he voted for it.

[lostnfound]

5. If they would ban kickbacks to doctors for prescribing addictive opioids, that would help

Incentivizing doctors for prescribing fentanyl is counterproductive and unhealthy.

http://www.nj.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2017/06/doctors_raked_in_cash_to_push_powerful_fentanyl_as_nj_death_rate_soared.html

Doctors in New Jersey got $1.67 M in kickbacks for prescribing fentanyl in a 3 year period.

[dalton99a]

6. Kick.

[appleannie1943]

7. He never told his kids "NO" so he has no clue that does not always work. If it were that

easy, there would be no problem. Every parent I know has preached to their kids about drugs. And it is not just kids that are dying. It is adults as well. They check into hospitals all the time screaming about being in pain. Once they get their fix, they are out the door.

[bora13]

8. it's the high

but sometimes people actually are living better
after surgery or other limited cases with a strong opiate due to severe pain.

but alas, it is the high that makes people seek out time and time again.

[mrmpa]

10. I live better after being on.....

2 vicodin a day for near 8 years. Have tried using only tramadol & it doesn't work. Have never asked my
doctor for more vicodin, have never "lost" a prescription. I'm the good patient who will end up paying for this.

With all the deaths happening, I don't see it as an opioid crisis, the problem is with the fentanyl, that's what's killing everybody.

[mgardener]

9. Trump does not care about ANYBODY but himself

If all those Republicans who voted for Trump thought he cared about them or their families, here is the clearest example of his distain.
This is one thing even Democrats would support.

Message to Republicans. Donald Trump does not care about you, your family, your state or this country.
Unless he gets something out of it.
And we all know what he thinks about the accommodations that come with the job!

[jovibennett]

11. I heard on MSNBC this afternoon that

a person can buy Fentanyl from China- 1 kilo for $10,000- street value is about $150,000. China guarantees that if it is picked up by authorities in the US before you receive it they will ship another kilo to you for free. China has a way of getting it in here without it being detected in shipping. So there is one place we can start.

[forgotmylogin]

12. Just as an aside...

I seriously doubt under any legit medical circumstances that Fentanyl would be prescribed or administered to a person who hasn't taken painkillers before. Its use is more for people who have hit the limit of opioid painkillers. My mom has acute spinal stenosis and wears a 72-hour fentanyl patch because they couldn't give her any more oxycodone without keeping her asleep most of the day. There are huge warnings included in the box that it is extremely dangerous and can cause coma or death in a person not well-tolerant to high doses of opioids and there's lots of handling instructions to dispose of the used patches which can still severely affect pets or children.

Most of the time, the first thing they give you is Vicodin (I got it when I had a tooth extracted) or possibly low-dose oxycodone in extreme cases because they can keep increasing the dose until pain subsides. There is no "diminishing returns" plateau with opioids, which is why they are so dangerously addictive.