If you have HBO, I highly recommend watching the latest episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (Season 9, Episode 5). It may be available on other platforms.
In this episode, Oliver takes on the misguided drug war approaches that have led to the massive number of overdoses due to fentanyl and advocates some serious harm reduction approaches.
Update: here is it on Youtube:
I have another idea. As a 20 year chronic pain patient who needs opiate medications just to function and have any kind of life outside of bed, my medical treatment for the last 5 years has been dictated by federal law enforcement. Due to the poorly written 2016 CDC Opioid prescribing guidelines, I am being punished for the actions of those who misuse and abuse opioids. The DEA decides what amount of prescription opiates my pain management doctor can prescribe. If they decide that a doctor is prescribing too much, he/she can be prosecuted and sent to prison. This certainly makes it easy for the DEA to look like it’s actually doing something, as all they have to do is search through state PDMP’s until they find a doc who THEY think is writing too many scrips. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel! I mean doctors only go through years of training in order to learn how to properly diagnose and treat medical conditions! So, of course, they dare not tempt the DEA to go after them, as they can lose their livelihood. But the REAL problem, as we all know, is the explosion of illicit fentanyl on the streets. It is not, nor has it EVER been, prescription opioids causing the exponential increase in overdose deaths in this country. (Read the reporting of Josh Bloom @acsh.org for the truth of what’s happening.) Since everyone knows that the WAR ON DRUGS has been a complete and utter failure since day one, why wouldn’t the DEA want to take the path of least resistance and continue to sit on its’ ass, looking to bust doctors who are only trying to help relieve the needless suffering of those in pain? Because it’s easier to do that than to go after street drug dealers, who are responsible for the breathtaking rise in OD’s due to the prevalence of illicit (NOT prescription) fentanyl in almost every kind of street drug.
Humans have a natural proclivity for drug use, and Congress should note the fact and go with the flow. For example, a new study supports the drunken monkey hypothesis, “that our attraction to booze arose millions of years ago, when our ape and monkey ancestors discovered that the scent of alcohol led them to ripe, fermenting and nutritious fruit.”
Pain relief from cannabinoids is safe in conjunction with opioids. Anyone familiar with combining both, as I once did recovering from a broken clavicle, can confirm the research findings. Cannabinoids win again:
Improvements in brain connectivity found in psilocybin therapy helps in treating depression, and may provide a therapy for anorexia and addiction:
John W. Whitehead, a constitutional law attorney, calls out no-knock warrants: