Posted on 06/18/2014 3:35:53 PM PDT by DBCJR
England has seen a 10% fall in the number of opiate and crack [the top 2 illicit drugs abused] users since 2005 with the largest reductions being seen in the last few years. This also includes a significant fall in the number of people injecting these drugs: from 93,401 in 2010 to 2011, to 87,302 in 2011 to 2012.
THE DIFFERENCE: England approaches the issue as a "public health" issue. In the USA we approach substance abuse as a "legal" issue. Until we fund treatment adequately, attacking demand, law enforcement attempts to shrink supply will just make profit margins greater for criminals. We applaud shrinking the supply of illicit drugs but call for the full funding of treatment. According to a report by Trust for America's Health, prescription drug abuse has quickly become a top public health concern, as the number of drug overdose deaths - a majority of which are from prescription drugs - doubled in 29 states since 1999. The rates quadrupled in four of these states and tripled in 10 more of these states. See map at link.
Prescription drug related deaths outpace those from heroin and cocaine combined. Drug overdose deaths exceed motor vehicle-related deaths in 29 states and Washington, D.C. Prescription drug abuse costs the country an estimated $53.4 billion a year in lost productivity, medical costs and criminal justice costs. Only one in 10 Americans with a substance abuse disorder receives treatment.
The report recommends:
1) Support for Substance Abuse Treatment. Again, focusing on the demand-side of the market for illicit drugs.
2) Mandatory Prescription Monitoring Programs to prevent "Doctor Shopping", a bill the Public Safety Committee would not allow out of committee this legislative session, amid strong lobbying by pharmaceutical and physician special interest groups.
This is America! We want to kick somebody’s azz.
Heck it was in the 80s when I saw the first study that said spending the money on treatment rather than punishment would have an overall larger more positive effect. But treatment doesn’t let cops buy tanks and do no-knock raids.
Which matches the rise in Muslims in the nation. They are not drug users...just producers.
Actually Muslims are famous for Cannabis use, and avoiding alcohol, it is a separation between their world and the West, and has been for thousands of years.
Treating opioid abuse as a health care problem needs a new methodology, at the hospital level.
That is, right now, opioid and synthetic opioid drugs are used effectively for severe pain. However, they are so dreadfully addictive that in- and outpatient recovery needs a methodology that includes detoxification and pain analysis and therapy.
Opioid drugs use opioid receptors in the body. Opioid antagonists are other drugs that block those receptors, thus preventing the effects of opioids. Typically they are used at large doses in case of overdose. But this therapy would use smaller doses to break any addiction.
A public health issue? So dealing with addicts is what makes the NHS what it is?
Limited government be damned.
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