Tonight (2018-04-11) was an Opioid Epidemic Forum. Although it did feel more like a presentation, bordering on propaganda.
Before I go on, I should point out that I am of the ‘say no to drugs‘ philosophy. At times, the medical utility may temporarily outweigh the inherent drawbacks, but it’s not a case of ‘some drugs are sometimes bad, and other are sometimes good’. All drugs are always bad. Just so you know where I am coming from here.
The panel had ten speakers, plus a moderator. Also some introducing officials, as tends to happen at this sort of thing. While I didn’t take a proper head count, I would estimate somewhere in the ballpark of 175 in the audience. Overall I felt it was a decent presentation, with a decent turn out. Not amazing by either measure, but decent.
The first speaker (Dr. Michael Mendoza) painted a pretty clear picture: the sky is falling. While he claimed it was really very complicated (isn’t it always), his outline places the responsibility for this mess pretty clearly on the doctors. Also on the pharmaceutical companies, as there is always plenty of blame to go around.
To summarize: Around the same time Westley was informing us that “Life is Pain“, the medical profession decided that pain was the fifth vital sign and should be minimized. Drug producers quickly stepped in, and to finish the quote, they were “selling something”. Time passed, and people start to realize that maybe solving all life’s pains with drugs wasn’t a good idea. So doctors STOP prescribing so many drugs. Which leads to people find other ways to meet the painless life they are used to. Which puts us where we are today.
Yes, that is an oversimplification, but it matches the data provided well enough. From that background things started getting interesting.
The ‘opioid’ epidemic was redefined as an ‘overdose’ epidemic. As in, the problem isn’t that people are taking drugs. The problem is they are taking so many drugs that they overdose, and sometimes die. Which is a problem, but so is the taking of the drugs in the first place.
Addiction was defined as a disease, not a choice. Not disputing that it is bad, but the idea it’s not a choice is a dangerous philosophy. Instead of taking responsibility for your past actions, admitting you’re broken (ie human), and seeking help, the idea it’s not a choice places responsibility elsewhere. ‘It’s not my fault, I have a disease, pass the needle’.
In turn, if it’s not the ‘victims’ fault, then it must be someone else’s. Why not the source of the drugs, the drug dealers. So charge them with homicide, when their ‘customers’ died by overdose. Which sets a dangerous precedent. Drug dealers are peddling poison, and should be punished for it. But the logic that charges them with murder is the same logic that charges gun makers for shootings, car makers for collisions, knife makers stabbings, etc. If someone else is legally liable for my decisions, then I can do anything and everything that strikes my fancy, because I won’t be penalized. Just so long as I use something I bought from elsewhere along the way. ‘It’s my boots fault, they made me kick him’.
We had an addict (former? recovering?) named Lenny give a touching speech about his experiences. I felt this was the best part of the presentation, as it both identified the underling source for the problem, and a way out.
Lenny at least twice attributed his recovery being due to the “Grace of God“. Good to hear in a public setting. Once you have accepted that you are a broken being, and so is everyone else you know, where else do you go? Not going to get out of the mess through mortal capacity.
He stated that, before his injury and the addiction that grew out of that, he hadn’t used drugs, apart from the “normal recreational stuff”. A blinding glimpse of the obvious: We have this problem, because drugs are used as “normal recreational stuff”. It creates an atmosphere of casual acceptance, thus making it easy to slip into addiction. All while being able to pass it off as ‘normal’, in the name of ‘recreation’.
To be fair, we’ll always have those who choose to use drugs. As was pointed out tonight, opium has been used for over three thousand years. Chasing the symptoms (overdoses) won’t do a thing for the underlying issue (recreational drugs).
Anecdotal story that was shared tonight: a group came to the ambulance base in search of Narcan, so that when they overdosed later that night, they wouldn’t die. As cruel as it sounds, the solution to the problem is right there. Let it self correct, let the addict die. We all have to die at some point. If that’s how a particular person chooses to end their life, so be it.
At previous events where this presentation was discussed, it had been mentioned that free drug samples would be handed out, of the Narcan variety. So far as I could tell, this rumor was not true, and there were no drug hand outs. Although, it was stated that the whole state has a prescription, and that any pharmacy will give you some, with the bill being covered by the state. Because the best way to handle too many drugs, is to give away more drugs?
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the April 11, 2018 Opioid Epidemic Forum. Come back to the Middle School next week, at 6PM to learn about Juul‘s. You won’t look at a USB stick the same way again.
