Opioid Crisis (Penn: university, live, oil)

[1ondoner]

Addiction is not something you can control with your will. Like choosing not to attend an Eagles game. Drugs control people, not the other way around.

Originally Posted by Redddog

They love the fentanyl. Even though they know it kills you, they seek that stuff out.

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by 1ondoner

Addiction is not something you can control with your will. Like choosing not to attend an Eagles game. Drugs control people, not the other way around.

Correct. Drug addicts and alcoholics develop altered brain physiology from use. Addiction is a physical dependency.

Staying clean and healthy means they must stay sober. You can not use or drink again. My best friend is a recovering alcoholic. She hasn't touched alcohol in over decade. If she starts drinking again she will probably die because she won't be able to stop.

The late actor, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, didn't touch heroin for 20 years. He unfortunately started using again. It didn't take long for it start controlling him. He died.

[thedirtypirate]

The Governor announced a state emergency today for the epidemic.

https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news...468629233.html

The emergency disaster declaration waives a state requirement that a doctor must have a face-to-face interaction with a person before admitting them into a treatment program. Hospitals won't be required to get a separate license to offer treatment, either.
Jennifer Smith, secretary of the state Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, said she'll be able to quickly say yes to removing requirements set on the state's 800 treatment providers.
"The declaration enables us to waive requirements on a broad basis without the need for those providers to submit specific requests to us," she said. New laws cannot be created under the emergency.


Fees to have a duplicate birth certificate produced will be waived. The certificates are often required as proof of residency for insurance and treatment programs and can be a surprising barrier to getting into treatment.
"Hopefully with this emergency declaration, we’re able to smooth things out so we can get people into treatment when they’re ready, which is the important thing," said Dr. Brian Work, an internist at Penn Medicine who volunteers at the addiction clinic Prevention Point Philadelphia.


Medics responding to overdose calls will be able to leave behind additional doses of naloxone, so drug users can prevent death if another overdose happens in the future.


Pharmacists will be asked to provide the overdose reversal drug widely, likely for free or at a reduced price. Currently, anyone can purchase naloxone at a Pennsylvania pharmacy.


The Pennsylvania physician general will reclassify fentanyl and similar drugs as Schedule 1 narcotics to limit access and open drug dealers to steep criminal penalities.

These look to be some common sense things and hopefully can save some people who OD.

[metalmancpa]

Well if your leaders follow in the footsteps of Jeff Sessions, they'll just attack marijuana instead.

[1ondoner]

On Monday I will take some time off to volunteer in North Philly in observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service.

It will take more than the gubment to tackle this terrible epidemic.

http://mlkdayofservice.org

Originally Posted by thedirtypirate

The Governor announced a state emergency today for the epidemic.

https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news...468629233.html

These look to be some common sense things and hopefully can save some people who OD.

[Gerania]

Originally Posted by StayingAfterSunday

So true. The real scourge nowadays is fentanyl, either by itself, mixed with heroin, or sold as heroin but, in fact, containing only fentanyl. The fentanyl apparently comes not from American pharmaceutical giants but from clandestine "underground" labs located in China and Mexico. The fentanyl making its way to Philadelphia comes primarily from China and is sold over the Dark Web. The China-sourced fentanyl supposedly is superior to fentanyl made in Mexican labs.

The ConcordMonitor.com reports that in 2016 West Virginia still had the highest overdose deaths of any state, with Ohio and New Hampshire registering the second and third highest numbers of overdose deaths, respectively. Nationally, opiates were involved in two thirds of drug deaths in 2016.

West Virginia doesn't surprise me, but New Hampshire does. I guess I don't know enough about it.

[Pilot1]

Originally Posted by kyb01

Tell that to our US Attorney General. It sounds like he wants to re-criminalize weed everywhere. So do not expect him to do anything sensible about the problem.

The job of the DOJ is to enforce the law. Do you want government, no matter they party, to be able to selectively enforce the laws they happen to like? The Fed drug laws need to be changed to decriminalize all drugs, including MJ, but until that happens law enforcement will be held accountable to ENFORCE THE LAW.

[1ondoner]

C'mon, Sessions is a big proponent of State rights, but only if it involves healthcare, LGBT and abortion.

BTW, legalization of marijuana is a very different issue to the opioid crisis. I'm not a proponent of recreational drugs and I have NEVER taken any drugs, but I can bet you the marijuana issue will go the way of same sex marriages,. More states are legalizing marijuana.

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2...social-change/

Originally Posted by Pilot1

The job of the DOJ is to enforce the law. Do you want government, no matter they party, to be able to selectively enforce the laws they happen to like? The Fed drug laws need to be changed to decriminalize all drugs, including MJ, but until that happens law enforcement will be held accountable to ENFORCE THE LAW.

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by Pilot1

The job of the DOJ is to enforce the law. Do you want government, no matter they party, to be able to selectively enforce the laws they happen to like? The Fed drug laws need to be changed to decriminalize all drugs, including MJ, but until that happens law enforcement will be held accountable to ENFORCE THE LAW.

The laws need to be changed for those states that want them changed. But it seems like he wants to interfere in states that have changed them and apply Fed jurisdiction over them. And, yes, I agree with you: Fed drug laws need to be changed.

[Pilot1]

Originally Posted by kyb01

The laws need to be changed for those states that want them changed. But it seems like he wants to interfere in states that have changed them and apply Fed jurisdiction over them. And, yes, I agree with you: Fed drug laws need to be changed.

Fed law supersedes state law. That is the way our system works. The states that have legalized marijuana are still subject to Federal Law. Unless the Federal law is changed to legalize marijuana, it is still ILLEGAL even in the states that allow it. In general both parties love drug laws as it enables huge bureaucracies to be created, and that's what politicians are all about. Growing government.