WaPo's explosive investigation of the flow of opioid pills

[Anonymous]

Well said. Plus, it's much easier to whine and criticise, than to actually do something.

[Anonymous]

Its a great investigative piece that has the receipts for what everyone has know for a decade or more.

The truth is that we have very weak oversight of drug companies, insurance companies, and doctors. There are regulatory paperwork requirements, but law enforcement and prosecutors don't go after the bad faith actors, prosecute them and put them out of business.

[Anonymous]

You cannot claim to cover "the opioid crisis" while limiting it to only "pills." That would be called "bias by omission."

The opioid crisis necessarily includes fentanyl - primarily from China.

I question WaPo's motive here.

[Anonymous]

The motive is clear: another crisis to associate with you know who.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have they blamed Trump yet? No? I'll return in 5...

He is the president right now and could be pursuing punishing these people. But will he? Would he do something useful?

I guess it’s back to telling brown Americans to go back home.

Well, I'm sure as soon as he says or does something, it will be deemed offensive and hurtfull and will be condemned by our beloved media. Followed by yet another impeachment motion, to much joy of DCUM?

Exactly. And, then, a lawsuit will be brought claiming discrimination of some kind or other. Or, charging that he has no authority to take action. Oh, and he will be called racist for doing it.
It's all very predictable at this point.

+1,000
Predictable and pathetic. Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one on the Acela corridor cares about the opioid crisis. It’s kind of like the polio epidemic in Pakistan. Sad, yes, but a world away.

This is untrue. There are people who live in DC who know people who died in this crisis. People care but it is a huge complex problem that needs real action but Americans care more about illegal immigration. This is what the GOP decided to fixate on. (Notice I didn’t say fix because they have made it worse.)

Washington DC itself has the third highest opioid overdose death rate in the country. Do people not care because they are black and poor?

https://www.kff.org/other/state-indicator/opioid-overdose-death-rates/?currentTimeframe=0&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Opioid%20Overdose%20Death%20Rate%20(Age-Adjusted)%22,%22sort%22:%22desc%22%7D

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one on the Acela corridor cares about the opioid crisis. It’s kind of like the polio epidemic in Pakistan. Sad, yes, but a world away.

This is untrue. There are people who live in DC who know people who died in this crisis. People care but it is a huge complex problem that needs real action but Americans care more about illegal immigration. This is what the GOP decided to fixate on. (Notice I didn’t say fix because they have made it worse.)

We're in a weird state where it's clear to most people that there is some sort of drug crisis going on and our cities are increasingly filled with homeless people, who are increasingly young white people, with drug problems. But at the same time there's very little initiative to try to address the problem. The Republicans won't do anything because they don't care about poor people and believe them to be responsible for their own failures. The Demcorats won't do anything because it's white, not people of color, who are affected and the Democrats also don't like poor people either, which we clearly see in the utter failure of Democratic leadership to make any meaningful change in areas of deeply entrenched poverty in places like Baltimore. They'd rather spend their time writing pseudo-intellectual articles on some racial bogeyman as the origin of all problems rather than actually tackle the real roots of the problems behind opoids and other drugs.

I'd argue that they want urban blacks to stay poor and helpless and believing success is unachievable because racism, so that they can pander for their votes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have they blamed Trump yet? No? I'll return in 5...

He is the president right now and could be pursuing punishing these people. But will he? Would he do something useful?

I guess it’s back to telling brown Americans to go back home.

Well, I'm sure as soon as he says or does something, it will be deemed offensive and hurtfull and will be condemned by our beloved media. Followed by yet another impeachment motion, to much joy of DCUM?

Jesus. Do Trump supporters ever miss an opportunity to cry persecution? Open your eyes and grow up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You cannot claim to cover "the opioid crisis" while limiting it to only "pills." That would be called "bias by omission."

The opioid crisis necessarily includes fentanyl - primarily from China.

I question WaPo's motive here.

Correct me if I’m wrong, it very few people start out on fentanyl. Heck, they’re not even trying to use fentanyl at the end of their drug use, they’re trying to use heroin. And very few people start on heroin, they start because their doc prescribed pain pills. The pills are the starting point from which the crisis springs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I am a liberal and live in DC. I am a teacher in a wealthy and well known suburb and I know three people (well, two directly and one indirectly) who have died from the opioid crisis. One was a student, one was the parent of a student and one was the friend of a colleague (and we needed a sub for a week due to that as she was totally traumatized). I was present at the funeral for the parent of the student. You can imagine how distraught my student was at the death of her mother. This crisis affects many, many people. If you think it doesn't, think again. I support Elizabeth Warren for her boldness in speaking to these people and empathizing with the situation (also Bernie Sanders). The Rs have yet to send someone to talk about this in rural America (or any part of America) as far as I can see . . . maybe someone can tell me differently. Whoever gets up close to these people will win IMO. But yeah, Trump can't find a way to make it about him by going to those people . . . it's better to go to rallies and have his Cabinet officials tell him how great he is and have people chant about immigration.

Translation: Trump has action plan and follows it, but since I'm a female liberal I must support a female liberal who all talk but hasn't done squat on pretty much any subject, while I do my best to indoctrinate McLean (or Langley?) students as much as I can, while blaming the current POTUS because I irrationally hate him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I am a liberal and live in DC. I am a teacher in a wealthy and well known suburb and I know three people (well, two directly and one indirectly) who have died from the opioid crisis. One was a student, one was the parent of a student and one was the friend of a colleague (and we needed a sub for a week due to that as she was totally traumatized). I was present at the funeral for the parent of the student. You can imagine how distraught my student was at the death of her mother. This crisis affects many, many people. If you think it doesn't, think again. I support Elizabeth Warren for her boldness in speaking to these people and empathizing with the situation (also Bernie Sanders). The Rs have yet to send someone to talk about this in rural America (or any part of America) as far as I can see . . . maybe someone can tell me differently. Whoever gets up close to these people will win IMO. But yeah, Trump can't find a way to make it about him by going to those people . . . it's better to go to rallies and have his Cabinet officials tell him how great he is and have people chant about immigration.

Translation: Trump has action plan and follows it, but since I'm a female liberal I must support a female liberal who all talk but hasn't done squat on pretty much any subject, while I do my best to indoctrinate McLean (or Langley?) students as much as I can, while blaming the current POTUS because I irrationally hate him.

You need to believe it's irrational because the alternative is being honest with yourself about what is empirically true and why you support him. That would be scary, right? Admitting at this point that you have aligned yourself with?

[Anonymous]

Well, if trump has an "action plan" why do I know two people who have died of overdoses in Virginia this year? He"s had a couple years now, but people are addicted. They are just putting them in jails; a son of an old friend just hung himself in jail after being jailed due to drug abuse and mental illness acting out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, if trump has an "action plan" why do I know two people who have died of overdoses in Virginia this year? He"s had a couple years now, but people are addicted. They are just putting them in jails; a son of an old friend just hung himself in jail after being jailed due to drug abuse and mental illness acting out.

So, here's the thing, friend.

This crisis started, in earnest, under Obama. It grew to a crisis under Obama. What exactly did he do?

The reason I point that out - this is not something that came to be overnight. It has been growing. It will not be fixed overnight, as much as we would want it to. It will take time. Each day that the number of overdose deaths decreases is an improvement. Each day an addict stays clean is an improvement. That is the way I view it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, if trump has an "action plan" why do I know two people who have died of overdoses in Virginia this year? He"s had a couple years now, but people are addicted. They are just putting them in jails; a son of an old friend just hung himself in jail after being jailed due to drug abuse and mental illness acting out.

So, here's the thing, friend.

This crisis started, in earnest, under Obama. It grew to a crisis under Obama. What exactly did he do?

The reason I point that out - this is not something that came to be overnight. It has been growing. It will not be fixed overnight, as much as we would want it to. It will take time. Each day that the number of overdose deaths decreases is an improvement. Each day an addict stays clean is an improvement. That is the way I view it.

Why doesn't Trump spend his valuable time spreading news of his "action plan" and visiting communities devastated by this crisis? Why hasn't he tweeted out links to this important Post story to help garner support for taking action against the big pharma companies that created this mess? Friend, answer me this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, if trump has an "action plan" why do I know two people who have died of overdoses in Virginia this year? He"s had a couple years now, but people are addicted. They are just putting them in jails; a son of an old friend just hung himself in jail after being jailed due to drug abuse and mental illness acting out.

So, here's the thing, friend.

This crisis started, in earnest, under Obama. It grew to a crisis under Obama. What exactly did he do?

The reason I point that out - this is not something that came to be overnight. It has been growing. It will not be fixed overnight, as much as we would want it to. It will take time. Each day that the number of overdose deaths decreases is an improvement. Each day an addict stays clean is an improvement. That is the way I view it.

Why doesn't Trump spend his valuable time spreading news of his "action plan" and visiting communities devastated by this crisis? Why hasn't he tweeted out links to this important Post story to help garner support for taking action against the big pharma companies that created this mess? Friend, answer me this.

Funny you should mention that. Just in the last couple of months....

The First Lady has been working on this for a while...

In WV: https://twitter.com/FLOTUS/status/1148381461734670338 (there are several more tweets about her visit)
Briefing on the opioid epidemic: https://twitter.com/FLOTUS/status/1139556880085397505


White House has tweeted several events as well.

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Opioid addiction can happen to anyone—and we must work together to fight the stigma and save lives, says @Surgeon_General Jerome Adams.
https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1138455712680546307


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"First Lady, you've raised awareness about a deadly killer. You've helped lift the stigma, which will save countless lives going forward. Best of all, you're saving our children."

— Eric Bolling, "America This Week" host, who lost a son to accidental overdose involving opioids
https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1125836772448059397