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The Biden Administration’s Push to Normalize Drug Use Will Result in More Deaths

The Biden Administration’s Push to Normalize Drug Use Will Result in More Deaths

Meanwhile, California is poised to open up “safe injection sites” in a number of its largest cities.

We have been covering several stories related to the escalation of drug deaths across the country, namely due to fentanyl (now the leading cause of death for young Americans).

In a normal world, there would be a push to stem the recreational use of powerful narcotics. However, the Biden administration and progressives across the country are pressing to normalize drug use.

For example, we reported that Biden’s Health and Human Services department provided $30 million in funding to dole out crack pipes to drug addicts as part of its ‘Harm Reduction Plan.’ In the same piece, we noted that Biden’s Department of Justice says it might be open to allowing safe injection sites, which are places where people can shoot up heroin and other narcotics.

“Safe Injection Sites” are now being considered in several of California’s larger cities.

California moved a step closer Wednesday to creating sites where people could legally use drugs under supervision designed to save them from dying if they overdose, over the objections of opponents who said the state would be enabling dangerous and illegal activity.

The full Assembly will now consider allowing test programs in Los Angeles, Oakland and San Francisco, more than a year after the proposal narrowly passed the state Senate.

“We know that we are experiencing a crisis of overdose deaths, and these are preventable,” said Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener. “This is one way to help keep people safe and to actually help people get into treatment.”

Assembly Public Safety Committee members advanced the bill on a 5-2 vote after hearing conflicting statistics about the experiences in Canada, Europe, Australia and most recently two sites in New York City.

On the other side of the country, my colleague Mary Chastain noted that the New York City Department of Health recently ran a campaign with the message of being “empowered that you are using safely.”

Howard Husock, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, took exception to that message and asserted that such an attitude would lead to more drug overdoses. His analysis appeared in The New York Post.

Consider what’s happened in Oregon, where in 2020 voters approved a ballot measure to decriminalize hard drugs — and at the same time establish addiction treatment centers. Unconsidered was the possibility that making heroin and fentanyl legal — subject to a $100 fine that could be waived if one just calls a help hotline — might actually encourage more use.

Instead of harm reduction, OD deaths are climbing. At a hearing on the law, a state legislator from rural Eagle’s Pass reported a 700% hike in drug use and a 120% rise in overdose deaths. Oregon’s secretary of state told the hearing that “in many communities in Oregon we’ve seen the problem with drug addiction get worse.”

The harm-reduction movement needs to accept common sense: Acquiescence signals approval.

…Whether it’s the safe-injection sites in Harlem and Brooklyn or the decriminalization of cocaine and opioid possession in British Columbia (announced this week), advocates of the harm-reduction approach must be willing to accept evidence.

Accepting hard-drug use signals that public-health authorities believe they have no tools to reverse a public-health crisis, that they are giving up on thousands of citizens or embracing the misbegotten idea that one can be a productive drug addict.

I must point out that today’s drugs are much more potent than those abused in previous decades. Fentanyl is lethal at a level close to the required dose to achieve its desired effects. And there are ever-increasing reports other recreational drugs are being mixed with fentanyl to boost the effects, profit, and addictions.

Parents who have lost children to opioids are now challenging this acceptance. For example, Matt Capelouto found his 20-year-old daughter, Alexandra, in 2019. She took a pill laced with fentanyl she obtained via a deal she connected with via social media.

“She was poisoned, and nothing was going to happen to the person who did it,” he said. “I couldn’t stand for that.”

The self-described political moderate said the experience made him cynical about California’s reluctance to impose harsh sentences for drug offenses.

So Capelouto, the suburban dad who once devoted all his time to running his print shop and raising his four daughters, launched a group called Drug Induced Homicide and traveled from his home to Sacramento in April to lobby for legislation known as “Alexandra’s Law.” The bill would have made it easier for California prosecutors to convict the sellers of lethal drugs on homicide charges.

Capelouto’s organization is part of a nationwide movement of parents-turned-activists fighting the increasingly deadly drug crisis — and they are challenging California’s doctrine that drugs should be treated as a health problem rather than prosecuted by the criminal justice system. Modeled after Mothers Against Drunk Driving, which sparked a movement in the 1980s, organizations such as Victims of Illicit Drugs and the Alexander Neville Foundation seek to raise public awareness and influence drug policy.

We have a lot of work ahead of us if we are going to undo the destruction by many Biden Era policies…but especially those pertaining to drugs.

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Comments

Well, the good news is you can overdose on Fentanyl and no policeman will dare to arrest you or even come close to you.

The bad news is no golden casket.

Tune in, turn on… drop dead. The Left… the party of pleasure… sex and drugs.

Need an example? Look at Oregon right now.

SeymourButz | June 16, 2022 at 5:24 pm

Hey now! The Irish doctor told me fentanyl was good for you!

goddessoftheclassroom | June 16, 2022 at 5:37 pm

I saw the word “fentanyl” and skipped reading everything in order to comment.

My 27-year-old son died as a result of heroin laced with fentanyl in September 2019. He made many stupid and poor choices in his life, but he did not choose to die.

Fentanyl is simply poison. If a person was suffering from a terminal disease and fentanyl was the only drug to ease his or her pain, I’d support the prescription.

    Goddess, our 37 year old son died from a fentanyl overdose on April 3rd of this year. I’m with you.

    You have our sincerest condolences we understand the pain.

    The problem with fentanyl is that the overdose amount is INCREDIBLY small. With other illicit drugs it takes a pretty good amount to actually overdose.

    For Fentanyl you overdose on only a few MILLIGRAMS.

      That cuts shipping costs for China.

      drednicolson in reply to Olinser. | June 16, 2022 at 9:19 pm

      Because it’s not a “recreational” drug by any measure. One of its common legitimate uses is for animal tranquilizer. It’s just too potent for average human body weight, hence the very narrow overdose threshold.

        docduracoat in reply to drednicolson. | June 20, 2022 at 10:23 am

        To Dred Nicole son,
        I have no idea about animal use of fentanyl.
        I am a board certified anesthesiologist with 30 years experience.
        I give 25 microgram doses of fentanyl to our cataract patients every 10 minutes during surgery as an awake sedative.
        We have switched to fentanyl from our previous sedative, versed, as we had problems with the patient falling asleep and waking up startled during the surgery.
        I can assure you that fentanyl is an essential medicine in modern human
        anesthesia

    I’m very sorry for your loss

    healthguyfsu in reply to goddessoftheclassroom. | June 16, 2022 at 10:33 pm

    99% of all things classified as drugs (legal or illegal) are poisons in unchecked, large dosages.

    Fentanyl is used safely on a daily basis in this country as a medical analgesic. It actually has fewer side effects in acute doses than many of the other opiods. The problem is chronic use, particularly in cases of drug abuse. It is often co-administered with anesthesia to block the immense pain following many surgical procedures. However, where caution should be exercised is in a outpatient prescription.

      mbecker908 in reply to healthguyfsu. | June 17, 2022 at 4:11 pm

      The problem with fentanyl is that a “large dose” is actually a very tiny dose which makes overdosing very easy. Especially when it is mixed in with other drugs and the quality control procedures are non-existent.

The George Floyd health care plan is an ethical choice under the Pro-Choice religion.

Hmm. Does tax payers footing the bill to cull out the shallow end of the gene pool, and how that grieves me more than drug overdoses themselves make me jerk?

One. I favor safe injection sites.
Two. I know Progressive Dems will totally make things worse and contribute to them failing.
Three. Here is an article about such sites in Switzerland. Which have much success in reducing both the harm caused by drugs and the public nuisance of users shooting up in the streets.

https://www.northcarolinahealthnews.org/2019/01/21/switzerland-couldnt-stop-drug-users-so-it-started-supporting-them/

Mind you I get that fentanyl is a major game changer. Open borders are not just about illegal aliens. It is about how lax enforcement empowers the cartels and their drug trafficking.

    CommoChief in reply to JRaeL. | June 16, 2022 at 8:12 pm

    The Swiss model seems like it is enabling and reinforcing poor choices. I don’t think we would support the same program if it was alcoholic drinks instead of drugs. Offer alcoholics(and all members of the public) a non judgemental place to go receive and consume free, no questions asked liquor? Plus to go bottles?

    That said prohibition is stupid. Allow adults to make their own choices regarding alcohol and any drug they want but hold them accountable for their choices and the poor outcomes.

      JRaeL in reply to CommoChief. | June 18, 2022 at 10:13 pm

      I am not sure this info was in the linked article but it can be found elsewhere. The people who use the injection sites must show they truly are addicted and not looking to start experimenting. They mus also prove they are residence of where the site is located. Which is why such sites will likely fail in the U.S. . Not letting just anyone use the site???!!!! Demanding proof of residency!!?!?! The Progressives would be hissy fitting to the moon and back.

      The emphasis in these sites is saving lives and encouraging and providing treatment. Which is perhaps more readily available than in the U.S.

      It would be great if the sites reduced public nuisance of public drug use but since laws and ordinances regarding loitering and vagrancy are usually challenged by the ACLU I don’t think that likely though there are mixed results in foreign sites. Remember too their residency requirements.

      The U.S.? The sites would most likely become overwhelmed because of the lack of any restrictions and simply become a large indoor clean needle and injection site .

    henrybowman in reply to JRaeL. | June 16, 2022 at 9:35 pm

    I still really don’t understand why drug cartels would jump onto the fentanyl bandwagon. I should think they would avoid it the same way viruses “evolve” not to kill their hosts, because it doesn’t promote their own survival.

      JRaeL in reply to henrybowman. | June 18, 2022 at 10:15 pm

      The cartels know there will never be a lack of buyers. Also the profit to be made even if the customer base is piled up like cord wood is too attractive to the cartels.

Yet, try to get a script for tramadol for chronic joint pain secondary to chemo and post cancer medication

Those Drs are terrified of losing their license

Unbelievable

Usual dose of grant is 50 mg

Stupid autocorrect usual dose of tramadol a s 50 mg tablets.
For a 200 pound dog 3x50mg

You wouldn’t need to give 15 pills?

Are you sure about that 10 mg dose

    CommoChief in reply to gonzotx. | June 16, 2022 at 10:32 pm

    You are correct. 50 mg but 90 pills in ’22 no worries. I take the same dosage of Tramadol myself. The really funny part is he is epileptic so he has a valium RX as well; same thing no questions on amounts. 90 day supply.

    His meds? No problem. My meds? Nope 30 day supply. But Mr Pharmacist you just gave me 90 tramadol of the same strength dose for my dog. Tough, that’s his RX, you only get 30 days on yours.

      The Gentle Grizzly in reply to CommoChief. | June 17, 2022 at 7:14 am

      But, but…! The War on Drugs has been such a roaring success, Commo!

      No-knock raids at the wrong addresses, cops pocketing your cash because the amount you had was deemed “too much” so much be from “ill-gotten gains”.

      Same with the car they just confiscated, it was “too nice” for your apparent income level.

      Let’s not leave out your having your meds limited. Let’s not leave out my having to MAKE AN APPOINTMENT AND GO TO THE DOCTOR’S OFFICE to renew a scrip for something the blue-noses in Washington deem a class of med “too dangerous” for a phone renewal.

      Yet, the cartels continue, street drugs are more available and cheaper than ever.

      In short: laws are to inconvenience those who behave in the first place.

nordic_prince | June 17, 2022 at 5:55 am

The Biden Administration’s Push to Normalize Drug Use Will Result in More Deaths

Have you ever considered that perhaps that’s the objective of the Biden administration?

Seriously – damn near Every. One. of his policies and actions has death and destruction as its result.

Too many to be mere “coincidence.”

texansamurai | June 17, 2022 at 1:37 pm

with fentanyl in the mix “safe injection sites” looks a lot like government-approved euthanasia–how insane is that?–on the other hand, the ODs will no longer be a burden to the “system” and perhaps, as another here alluded to, that has been the plan all along

trying to predict what will happen here based on experiences in comparatively tiny countries is foolish–this is a big country with an addict population that could easily exceed the entire population of the study countries

condolences to those who have lost loved ones–have had a couple of close calls within the family but no deaths–cannot imagine a loss that profound and senseless

If the government were not involved, would the drug problem be worse?

Not likely. Government screws up everything. Everything.

Where does the fed get the authority to regulate/police drugs? We needed a constitutional amendment for prohibition…