SiG has a post (RTWT) wherein the CATO Institute has noticed that opioid abuse isn't Rx meds, but rather exclusively street ODs on heroin and fentanyl (CATO is still rather clueless, it's not fentanyl, it's carfentanil that's responsible, the home-cooked-only synthetic version with toxicity on a par with nerve gas).
We told you this here long since. (So did SiG, BTW.)
And told you.
And told you.
I don't know everything, but what I do know is generally correct to about 9 decimal places.
The solution is simple, and two-fold:
Ban Narcan for 5 years.
Build. The. Wall.
Bonus: it requires neither doubling down, nor outright surrendering in the
Libertarian drug-lovers, rejoice.
Within a year, you'll be able to count opiate OD deaths on your thumbs in most states, annually. Because after addicts die the first time, recidivism drops off precipitously!
Mirabile dictu!
They'll be a brief spike in indigent funeral costs with no Narcan, but that will be more than offset in savings from lack of welfare and disability payments to junkies, and reduction in needle exchange and urban needle discard clean-up efforts. Due to Darwinian selection weeding them out in wholesale batches again.
And under The Enemy gets A Vote:
When the cartels decide that to preserve market share, they have to get kids hooked early, (which they'll do in a heartbeat, just like ever) can we finally, FFS, agree to execute street-level dealer m*****f*****s for their first offense, same day as sentencing, from here on out?
That's all I ask.
I'll even donate one day a month at the state prison to put in IVs for lethal injections if necessary, to help this along.
More forward-thinking states can just switch back to hanging, gassing, shooting, and electrocution, as previously practiced. Guillotine would even be acceptable.
LA and FL trying to televise them being fed alive to gators and hogs, while hilarious and a madly profitable endeavor, will probably not survive the obligatory court challenge, but the cable revenues would probably subsidize all prison costs for the first year.
Is feeding them alive to gators and hogs unusual?
ReplyDeleteFucking cruel to the hogs
DeleteI bet if you offer them the chance to earn life in prison instead of the needle if they can pass through a (long) gauntlet of Gators and hogs it might pass the court challenge. Just set it up so that it is not possible to pass the gauntlet. Either way, it will be entertaining. And the hog gauntlet could double as source for prison bacon...
ReplyDeleteThe big question is what are we going to do when they never ban narcan and never build the wall.
ReplyDeleteConcur with both... Enough is enough. Penalizing honest people who NEED the pain meds is beyond the pale...
ReplyDeleteNarcan should be reserved for those emergency personnel responding to the despondent wastes of life that we call addicts.
ReplyDeleteThat alone would have a yuge impact.
Building the wall is happening, but slowly. Too slowly. An armed response at the border is needed.
No need to debate execution methods, just shoot them up with all of the fentanyl or heroin that they are selling. Saves on both lethal drug and fentanyl disposal costs.
ReplyDelete@Gray Man,
ReplyDeleteWe'll continue to deal with the much slower turnover of such wastrels, and pay a far higher collateral price for it.
"I'll even donate one day a month at the state prison to put in IVs for lethal injections if necessary, to help this along."
ReplyDeleteMay I join in as well? I propose to do something similar to what they did in Feudal Japan, which was to test newly made Katana on condemned criminals, in an attempt to cut one (or more) in half with a single stroke. I would offer a similar service, though focused more upon European mediaeval arms, primarily swords but also poll axes, war hammers, maces, and so forth. The goals of which would be to (1) provide exercise for me (2) improve my general handling and specifically cutting techniques with these arms and (3) advance forensic science via examination and recording of the injuries to enhance understanding of the effectiveness of such weapons and aid in research of human remains going back millennia to identify distinctive cutting marks, etc. left on preserved skeletons.
Druggies are rapidly switching from pills in my area. It's heroin and carfentanil or whatever mystery powder being produced in China and transported via Mexico. Mexico pretty much owns the main pipeline drug trade around here. Back in the day we were one of the nation's top methamphetamine manufacturing centers but when the cartels came in became unprofitable and not worth the risks. The Mexicans produced it far cheaper than you could even in a well run clandestine lab. Those higher end chemists moved on to club and designer drugs, some to synthetic cannabinoids during the K2/Spice heydays but that also became unprofitable. People don't even bother growing their own pot. It's bought cheaply from the cartels or it gets imported from Colorado etc.
ReplyDeleteBlack gangs are handling quite a bit of the street distribution when there isn't a Hispanic presence but I'm betting that they'll get cut out as soon as the cartels get their own street level distribution set up. They've been setting up the local money laundering infrastructure for a decade or more so I think it's a matter of time before they cut the blacks out of the business entirely.
The AAAS has a press release up from Iowa State on a new article from a journal called Rural Sociology. Who knew?
ReplyDeleteDespite being USDA funded, the article is behind a paywall, but here's the link to the journal at the Wiley journal site and here's from the press release:
"The study describes three different opioid epidemics in the United States, as well as a syndemic, or a single population experiencing more than one epidemic:
"-- A prescription drug epidemic persists in rural southern states where access to opioids centers on local pharmacies. Overdose deaths linked to pharmaceuticals peaked nationwide in 2013 and have fallen in the years since. However, some rural counties continue to struggle with prescription drugs, according to the study.
"-- A heroin epidemic has taken root in states out west and in the Midwest, especially in urban areas near major interstates that experience heavy drug trafficking. The study found overdose deaths related to heroin clustered along two major corridors, one linking El Paso to Denver and another linking Texas and Chicago. Peters said those findings correspond with known routes used by cartels smuggling heroin into the United States from Mexico.
"-- An epidemic of synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, has grown as a major concern in urban centers in the northeastern United States. Often these synthetic drugs are mixed with heroin or cocaine and made to resemble prescription medications. These counterfeit street mixes are highly potent and deadly.
"-- A syndemic involving multiple simultaneous opioid epidemics exists in counties where the opioid crisis first erupted, particularly in mid-size cities in Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia that have experienced steep job losses in manufacturing and mining.
"[Lead author David] Peters said roughly a quarter of all counties in the United States fall into one of the epidemic categories noted in the study."
So in summation, there is a yuuuge opioid epidemic in the highly-populated regions of both coasts, and the biggest cities in the country, which is exactly the heroin and carfentanil previously noted here; but in a couple of sparsely populated rural regions, there's a small sample of Rx opioid abuse. Which is the one everyone still wants to pretend is the problem.
ReplyDeleteGot it.
Thanks for proving my case, yet again.
The salient point isn't that there are no Rx opioid abusers anywhere, it's that most of the problem is illicit drugs, doing what they've always done.
This is not Grandpa and Granny getting high on their RX back medicine, it's much younger losers getting high and dying because they can.
And people with stock in Narcan (including the Clinton Family Crime Syndicate™) trying to capitalize on it.
Like. We. Said.
Have you tried to buy sudafed or Claritin D lately? It's way easier just to buy meth (cheaper too).
ReplyDeleteCheaper and/or easier, perhaps; but they're hardly interchangeable items.
ReplyDelete"Have you tried to buy sudafed or Claritin D lately? It's way easier just to buy meth (cheaper too)."
ReplyDeleteI refuse to buy either, because I refuse to put my name on a list showing that I purchased it. I use the other stuff which, while it doesn't work as well, doesn't put me at risk for having my door busted in as a potential meth lab.
Actually, I don't know what the rules are here in PA, but in NJ they did everything but peer up your ass to make sure your hair was parted straight before they'd sell you Sudafed. Maybe next Spring I can get some REAL allergy relief.....
Mark D
Sigh, just looked, they have electronic monitoring to buy Sudafed and you're blocked if you try to buy more than an approved amount, although the pharmacy apparently isn't required to report you, they just refuse the sale.
ReplyDeleteMark D
Re: Sudafed
ReplyDeleteThere's a joke paper out there:
A Simple and Convenient Synthesis of Pseudoephedrine From N-Methylamphetamine by O. Hai and I. B. Hakkenshit
"Pseudoephedrine, active ingredient of Sudafed®, has long been the most popular nasal decongestant in the United States due to its effectiveness and relatively mild side effects [1]. In recent years it has become increasingly difficult to obtain psuedoephedine [sic] in many states because of its use as a precursor for the illegal drug N-methylamphetamine (also known under various names including crystal meth, meth, ice, etc.)[1,2]. While in the past many stores were able to sell pseudoephedrine, new laws in the United States have restricted sales to pharmacies, with the medicine kept behind the counter. The pharmacies require signatures and examination of government issued ID in order to purchase pseudoephedrine. Because the hours of availability of such pharmacies are often limited, it would be of great interest to have a simple synthesis of pseudoephedrine from reagents which can be more readily procured.
"A quick search of several neighborhoods of the United States revealed that while pseudoephedrine is difficult to obtain, N-methylamphetamine can be procured at almost any time on short notice and in quantities sufficient for synthesis of useful amounts of the desired material. Moreover, according to government maintained statistics, N-methylmphetamine is becoming an increasingly attractive starting material for pseudoephedrine, as the availability of N-methylmphetamine has remained high while prices have dropped and purity has increased [2]. We present here a convenient series of transformations using reagents which can be found in most well stocked organic chemistry laboratories to produce psuedoephedrine [sic] from N-methylamphetamine."