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How Drug Warriors Helped to Fuel the Opioid Epidemic
CONOR FRIEDERSDORF
April 4 2016
Even today, many feel better about Americans taking “medical heroin” than medical marijuana.
Despite almost 50 years of the drug war—a policy that creates black markets, enriches drug cartels, and fuels killing zones in scores of cities, even as it causes the United States to cage more human beings than any other democracy in the world—it remains extremely easy for Americans to acquire the most addictive, deadly drugs.
“Overdoses from heroin, prescription drugs, and opioid painkillers have overtaken car accidents to become the leading cause of injury-related deaths in America,” The Economist reports. “In 2014, they were responsible for 28,647 deaths. Between 2001 and 2014, deaths from heroin overdoses alone increased six-fold, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. On average, 125 people a day die from drug overdoses, 78 of them from heroin or painkillers. These numbers have been compared to deaths from HIV in the late 1980s and 1990s.”
Had the War on Drugs merely failed to prevent this epidemic, even as it destabilized numerous countries and undermined domestic liberties, it would be an abject failure. But federal drug policy has actually been worse than useless in heroin’s rise.
In a saner world, American researchers and patients would’ve spent the last several decades experimenting with marijuana to maximize its potential as a pain reliever. Pot use isn’t without health consequences, but is much less harmful than many prescription drugs. Instead, drug warriors fought to stymie marijuana research, keep pot illegal, and stigmatize medical marijuana as a dangerous fraud, even as doctors prescribed more opioid painkillers—that is, medical heroin.
Many get addicted, and when the pills run out, they seek a street substitute.
“Heroin use, which used to be concentrated among low-income men in urban areas, now cuts across regions and demographic groups,” The Economist continues. “It is rampant in rural and suburban areas, like West Virginia and New Hampshire, and increasing among women and Americans in higher income brackets. Among adults aged between 18 and 25, heroin use has more than doubled in the last ten years. The problem has come increasingly into public view as police find users unconscious or dead in bathrooms, restaurants, parks, and libraries.”
The spread of medical marijuana is promising. As the Washington Post reported earlier this year:
Still, the Drug Enforcement Administration continues to oppose medical marijuana, the NFL still prefers its players to relieve their pain with prescription opioids, and the worse-than-useless War on Drugs rages on, with predictably ruinous consequences.
continued with links http://www.theatlantic.com/politics...rs-helped-to-fuel-the-heroin-epidemic/476679/
CONOR FRIEDERSDORF
April 4 2016
Even today, many feel better about Americans taking “medical heroin” than medical marijuana.
Despite almost 50 years of the drug war—a policy that creates black markets, enriches drug cartels, and fuels killing zones in scores of cities, even as it causes the United States to cage more human beings than any other democracy in the world—it remains extremely easy for Americans to acquire the most addictive, deadly drugs.
“Overdoses from heroin, prescription drugs, and opioid painkillers have overtaken car accidents to become the leading cause of injury-related deaths in America,” The Economist reports. “In 2014, they were responsible for 28,647 deaths. Between 2001 and 2014, deaths from heroin overdoses alone increased six-fold, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. On average, 125 people a day die from drug overdoses, 78 of them from heroin or painkillers. These numbers have been compared to deaths from HIV in the late 1980s and 1990s.”
Had the War on Drugs merely failed to prevent this epidemic, even as it destabilized numerous countries and undermined domestic liberties, it would be an abject failure. But federal drug policy has actually been worse than useless in heroin’s rise.
In a saner world, American researchers and patients would’ve spent the last several decades experimenting with marijuana to maximize its potential as a pain reliever. Pot use isn’t without health consequences, but is much less harmful than many prescription drugs. Instead, drug warriors fought to stymie marijuana research, keep pot illegal, and stigmatize medical marijuana as a dangerous fraud, even as doctors prescribed more opioid painkillers—that is, medical heroin.
Many get addicted, and when the pills run out, they seek a street substitute.
“Heroin use, which used to be concentrated among low-income men in urban areas, now cuts across regions and demographic groups,” The Economist continues. “It is rampant in rural and suburban areas, like West Virginia and New Hampshire, and increasing among women and Americans in higher income brackets. Among adults aged between 18 and 25, heroin use has more than doubled in the last ten years. The problem has come increasingly into public view as police find users unconscious or dead in bathrooms, restaurants, parks, and libraries.”
The spread of medical marijuana is promising. As the Washington Post reported earlier this year:
Still, the Drug Enforcement Administration continues to oppose medical marijuana, the NFL still prefers its players to relieve their pain with prescription opioids, and the worse-than-useless War on Drugs rages on, with predictably ruinous consequences.
continued with links http://www.theatlantic.com/politics...rs-helped-to-fuel-the-heroin-epidemic/476679/
