Just How Bad Is The Opioid Crisis?

Just How Bad Is The Opioid Crisis?

By Kurtis Bright

A Snapshot Of An Epidemic

The U.S. is not at all unique for the numerous drug crises it has suffered over the course of its history, crises both organic and manufactured.

From the blanket outlawing of absinthe at the turn of the last century--the entire case against which was constructed on the flimsy story of one mentally unbalanced man who went on an absinthe bender and subsequently slaughtered his family--to of course Prohibition, to the reefer madness of race-baiting Harry Anslinger’s 1930s reign (which continues to destroy lives to this day) to the separate and unequal crack and powder cocaine laws of the 1980s and 1990s that resulted in such different outcomes for their respective users, Americans are no strangers to drug-related problems stemming from legislative overreach.

And that’s why it's so important to be very clear just how bad the current opioid epidemic really is: this is no mythological epidemic secretly designed to persecute minorities, nor is it yet another shabbily-constructed excuse to impose religion-based temperance on the masses. The opioid crisis in the US is a very real phenomenon, and it is affecting people of all races and socio-economic status.

The current crisis of opioid addiction has been called the worst drug epidemic in American history, which, while it sounds hyperbolic, could well prove to be true. Death rates from opioids are approaching deaths from AIDS during the 1990s, climbing to nearly 30,000 per year. Opioid addiction has affected people from all walks of life, across all regions of the U.S. It has destroyed homes, destroyed families and destroyed millions of lives--and it is perfectly legal.

Not only that, there are a handful of companies making a fortune from all this misery.

This is a new drug war, one that is being waged against the American people, rendering them helpless, addicted, penniless and likely to be devoured by the justice system. Here are a few more alarming facts:

·        Opioids kill more people than cars - Way back in 1999--you know, an ancient, far-off time of 18 years ago--the U.S. suffered more than twice as many motor vehicle deaths as fatal drug overdoses. Fast-forward to 2014 and those numbers have been inverted. Now there are nearly 40 percent more deaths from opioid drug overdoses than result from car crashes. The stark, sad statistics: 29,230 people died in car crashes in the U.S., whereas 47,055 died of drug overdoses.

·        We are dying from our prescriptions - Cocaine and heroin combined killed about 5,700 Americans in 1999, whereas opioids killed 4,030. In 2014 the rate of opioid deaths had skyrocketed 369 percent, while cocaine-related deaths have fallen below even those caused by benzodiazapines, a common sleep aid and anti-anxiety medication.

·        Doctors are writing triple the opioid prescriptions - A factor we cannot ignore in the surge in opioid abuse is the fact that prescriptions written for opioids have tripled over the course of 20 years. Is there really that much more pain out there that needs to be managed? Or is it perhaps that the marketing sections of pharmaceutical companies have done a spectacular job cajoling doctors and convincing the rest of us that opioids are safe, a claim that is demonstrably false? Doctors wrote about 76 million prescriptions for opioids in 1991. By 2011 that number surged to 219 million.

·        Addiction to opioid prescription drugs crosses all racial barriers - Predictably, the media spotlight on increased opioid abuse and its attendant problems is laser-focused on white, middle-class users. However, the rate of abuse has also skyrocketed among African-Americans and Latinos, which goes hand-in-hand with an uptick in heroin abuse among all racial groups as cheap Mexican heroin has flooded the U.S. since about 2005, and presents a more affordable alternative to pill addicts when their prescriptions or money dries up.

The opioid scourge should finally put to bed a couple of tired old stereotypes: one, that the problems of drug abuse and drug addiction are strictly about illicitly manufactured drugs. And the second is the notion that drug addiction only happens to “those people,” meaning black, brown, poor and otherwise marginalized people.

Consider this: there are now 12 states where there are more prescriptions for opioid drugs than there are people. Those aren’t all going to criminals and cartoon street-rat degenerates.

The stark truth is that billion-dollar drug companies are killing us, and smiling all the way to the bank in the process. Given the popularity of the Netflix show “Narcos,” following the life and death of Pablo Escobar, it would behoove us to take a step back and consider who the real drug lords are today.

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Natural Born Cancer Killers

Natural Born Cancer Killers

By Kurtis Bright

Cancer-Killing Substances the Pharmaceutical Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know About

As the litany of greedy and short-sighted acts of the food industry and the pharmaceutical industries continue apace, more and more people are turning to natural, healthy alternatives whenever possible. Naturally, big business doesn’t much cotton to the idea of your money going anywhere but directly into their pockets. Thus they work very hard to keep information about these alternatives out of the public forum.

This is especially true when it comes to herbal medicine. It is far too easy to overlook all the “new” discoveries that are made on a near-daily basis, as modern researchers chase down remedies that have been known to indigenous peoples for centuries. These are just a few substances that have been shown to have extraordinary capabilities for combating cancer.

• Brucea Javanica - Native to southeast Asia and northern Australia, this shrub has been used in Chinese medicine for centuries to treat a plethora of ailments. Studies have shown promise for the plant’s abilities to combat breast cancer, bladder cancer and leukemia.
• Graviola - This tree native to South America is the source of the soursop fruit, which has shown tremendous promise in killing cancer on a cellular level. One study from Purdue University showed that it can selectively kill cancer cells, while another study conducted by the organization Cancer Research U.K. showed that it was especially promising in killing the cells of liver cancer and breast cancer.
• Paw-Paw - This little-known plant sprouts a tropical-looking fruit similar to the papaya, however the paw-paw only grows in the Midwest region of the U.S. Despite these decidedly non-exotic beginnings, the paw-paw may disguise the most remarkable anti-cancer plant yet discovered. The aforementioned Purdue study on the graviola plant also examined the paw-paw and found it also showed great promise in killing cancer on a cellular level.
• Fucoidan - Found on the sea bed, the fucoidan plant has been proven to stop lung cancer in its tracks, according to a study published in the journal Phytotherapy Research. It also boosted white blood cell counts while triggering the death of cancer cells.
• Artemisinin - The sweet wormwood plant’s extract artemisnin is another staple of Chinese medicine that has shown signs of being able to discern and attack cancer cells while leaving healthy cells alone. The rate at which it does so is about 12,000 to one--pretty good odds if you can get them.
• Lei Gong Teng - This plant has long been called the “thunder god vine,” and it has tremendous potential for fighting cancer. It also set off a cascade of cancer cell death in studies, and specifically showed strong anti-leukemia properties.

The sad fact is that most of us have never heard of these plants. This is partly due to the suppression of long-term human studies that might prove a threat to the medicinal monopoly western medicine has on health and treatment. However you should continue to research them, perhaps setting up google alerts on them. You can be sure that the future of human health is not to be found in a lab--it is hidden deep in the forest and on the bottom of the sea.

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