Big Pharma, American Carnage

Opiates are a class of drug derived from the poppy (Gr. opion). They produce euphoric effects by binding to opioid receptors in the brain, spinal cord, and other areas of the body. They reduce the sending of pain messages to the brain and reduce feelings of pain.

“Today, with much of the discourse on drug addiction controlled by medical bureaucrats, it is common to speak of addiction as an “equal-opportunity disease” that can “strike anyone.” While this may be true on the pharmacological level, it was until quite recently a sociological falsehood. In fact, most of the country had powerful moral, social, cultural, and legal immunities against heroin and opiate addiction. For 99 percent of the population, it was an adventure that had to be sought out. That has now changed.”

“The best way for a society to avoid the dangers of addictive and dangerous drugs is to severely restrict access to them.”  And until relatively recently they did.

“But two decades ago, a combination of libertarian attitudes about drugs and a massive corporate marketing effort combined to instruct millions of vulnerable people about the blessed relief opioids could bring, if only mulish oldsters in the medical profession could get over their hang-ups and be convinced to prescribe them.”

In other words, the rejection of Christian morality in favour of libertarian views on drugs, just like on sex, has resulted in social carnage.

“The calamity of the 1990s opioid revolution is not so much that it turned real pain patients into junkies—although that did happen. The calamity is that a broad regulatory and cultural shift released a massive quantity of addictive drugs into the public at large. Once widely available, the supply “found” people susceptible to addiction.”

With the opening of ‘safe-injection sites’ to manage the problem, we can expect the carnage to widen, and as usual the most vulnerable are put most at risk by the do-gooders.

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