My Cousin Wrote This: As A Police Captain, I see the opioid epidemic every day

[angelatc]

My cousin is a police captain in small town America. He's a good guy, and I think this is a good article.

http://www.vox.com/first-person/2017...is-ohio-police

In particular I thought this paragraph might strike a chord with us:

In a lot of ways, this shift toward social services has been a shift back to how I remember the old days of policing. A couple decades ago when I first entered the force, the emphasis was all about community policing. We were problem solvers first and foremost, and part of that involved some degree of social work.

As time went on, I saw a shift in priorities. Policing became less about getting people help. The focus became more on reactive, call-to-call arrests and jail time and less on problem solving. That social work element wasn’t as important, and I think a lot of our officers have sort of forgotten how to do that side of the job.

If you ask me, and nobody does, the problem isn't that there is not enough money in Social Services. It's that there are not enough jobs. People, men especially need to feel some sense of value. Collecting a government stipend does not provide that.

[tod evans]

Tell your cuz that more government isn't going to fix too much government..

[timosman]

Tell your cuz that more government isn't going to fix too much government..

Having the government own everything would result in a state of nirvana. Join the collective before it is too late!

[angelatc]

Tell your cuz that more government isn't going to fix too much government..

He would tend to agree. His wife would not.

[Lamp]

His wife would not.

That is to be expected

[angelatc]

That is to be expected

She's a social worker.

[Lamp]

She's a social worker.

I was gonna say because she's a woman and women tend to lean towards center left political opinions but alright I guess.............

[Brian4Liberty]

Sometimes a bad batch of heroin, something laced with fentanyl or some other poison, will come into town and we’ll be fielding nine or 10 overdose calls in one day.

In addition to laced heroin, Chinese counterfeiters have been producing pills that duplicate the look of regular prescription pills, but contain far more powerful and sometimes untested drugs. It's part of the reason for overdoses. It's what killed Prince.

[RJB]

I was a volunteer fire fighter in a town with under 1000 people and the county had less than 10,000. You pretty much knew or at least recognized everyone. I actually trusted all the police in that area. If they caught some kids drinking, they'd simply take them home. I loved that area, my wife didn't.

I moved to a more populated area and volunteered for a while. I met some cops who were good and wanted to help, but a lot were just sociopaths.

[Brian4Liberty]

After that was the pill boom. Prescription drugs were everywhere, sold out of “pill mills” where get-rich-quick doctors or pharmacies sell large quantities of Oxycontin or Xanax for no legitimate medical reason. The pill boom was much harder to combat because many abusers had actual prescriptions for painkillers. There was nothing to stop them, legally, from walking around with bottles of powerful opioid pills in their pockets.

Hmmm. A bit of big brother mentality there.

[Ender]

In addition to laced heroin, Chinese counterfeiters have been producing pills that duplicate the look of regular prescription pills, but contain far more powerful and sometimes untested drugs. It's part of the reason for overdoses. It's what killed Prince.

The answer is to get rid of the WoD, but no "official" never talks about that.

[Athan]

If you ask me, and nobody does, the problem isn't that there is not enough money in Social Services. It's that there are not enough jobs. People, men especially need to feel some sense of value. Collecting a government stipend does not provide that.

I agree. The way it feels, the government and society is intentionally trying to give us guys the shaft and work against us.

[Anti Federalist]

If you ask me, and nobody does, the problem isn't that there is not enough money in Social Services. It's that there are not enough jobs. People, men especially need to feel some sense of value. Collecting a government stipend does not provide that.

And it will only get worse as we hurtle headlong into the hellish haut monde that the futurists have planned for us.

In the west anyways, men, having long been locked out of and, to steal a "liberal's" word, disenfranchised, from government and society, the decisions will then fall to the matriarchy.

And with no jobs for anybody, any human endeavor supplanted by much more efficient and precise robotics and AI, it will be "stipends for all".

Since women, as a rule, favor these handouts and stipends: because health care, and baby food, and tampons, and abortions are "human rights".

[fedupinmo]

I have heard murmurings of this fantastical new prescription database being proposed because of the attention recently paid to opiod addiction and I just know that Uncle Sugar would NEVER use that database to deny gun purchases, right? We all know how secure that database would be, too.
Reefer Madness is striking again, right in front of our eyes.

[UWDude]

And it will only get worse as we hurtle headlong into the hellish haut monde that the futurists have planned for us.

In the west anyways, men, having long been locked out of and, to steal a "liberal's" word, disenfranchised, from government and society, the decisions will then fall to the matriarchy.

And with no jobs for anybody, any human endeavor supplanted by much more efficient and precise robotics and AI, it will be "stipends for all".

Since women, as a rule, favor these handouts and stipends: because health care, and baby food, and tampons, and abortions are "human rights".

That's Marx's predictions as well.

[Working Poor]

Tell your cousin that maybe if the CIA wasn't the biggest drug dealer in the world this problem might not be quite as sever.

[Wooden Indian]

Wants to "legally" stop me from walking around with pills. Shocking.

Considers himself and his cronies as my caregivers. Shocking.

Wants the government to tell my doctor what he or she can prescribe to me. Shocking.

Can we rename this thread to "Why my cousin is a dick"?

Sorry, been awake 15 minutes so maybe I'm misreading something.

[Origanalist]

Wants to "legally" stop me from walking around with pills. Shocking.

Considers himself and his cronies as my caregivers. Shocking.

Wants the government to tell my doctor what he or she can prescribe to me. Shocking.

Can we rename this thread to "Why my cousin is a dick"?

Sorry, been awake 15 minutes so maybe I'm misreading something.

Protected and served, whether you like it or not.

[invisible]

In addition to laced heroin, Chinese counterfeiters have been producing pills that duplicate the look of regular prescription pills, but contain far more powerful and sometimes untested drugs. It's part of the reason for overdoses. It's what killed Prince.

Interesting. I've never heard this before, do you have a source for this with more detailed information? Not saying that I doubt your statement, I'm actually interested in reading about this.

[merkelstan]

As a libertarian I am in favor of freedom of choice. But an addict has limited ability to choose. It does seem like a conundrum!

[tod evans]

As a libertarian I am in favor of freedom of choice. But an addict has limited ability to choose. It does seem like a conundrum!

You seem to be obsessed with addiction........

Are you by chance a product of the DARE program?

[Wooden Indian]

There is no "but", my friend.
A free man should be left alone to do as he sees fit as long as he isn't harming another.

If the family or personal friends are concerned they should intervene. If social clubs and church groups want to reach out and offer assistance, that's swell... but there is no "but" and I see no conundrum.

[Brian4Liberty]

Interesting. I've never heard this before, do you have a source for this with more detailed information? Not saying that I doubt your statement, I'm actually interested in reading about this.

With regard to Prince:
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...Cause-of-death

Up until now, the counterfeit and tainted drugs from China seem to be a dirty secret. Perhaps it doesn't serve the war on drugs to acknowledge poisoning from China. And the international trade/relations ramifications might be tricky. First they kill our pets with tainted food, now they kill people with tainted drugs.

But Fox did run a segment on this just last night, so perhaps it will get some attention.

[Valli6]

A police captain is nothing but a politician in uniform. They don't see much up close because their role requires them to sit at a desk and talk most of the day. They're the ones who get in front of cameras and talk to the press.

Ask the cops who answer the 911 calls, and they'll tell you the increase in overdoses is due to the fentynal, not the heroin itself. And more people are using heroin/synthetic opiods since Obama's been in office because it's so much easier to keep moving it across the border - along with the nation-wide sales force that's been set up.

Think about it - it's much simpler and therefore, more profitable to sell a synthetic drug mixed up in a lab, than something that has to be processed from a plant grown in a field over a period of months.

[Ender]

Tell your cousin that maybe if the CIA wasn't the biggest drug dealer in the world this problem might not be quite as sever.

'Zactly.

[tod evans]

A police captain is nothing but a politician in uniform. They don't see much up close because their role requires them to sit at a desk and talk most of the day. They're the ones who get in front of cameras and talk to the press.

Ask the cops who answer the 911 calls, and they'll tell you the increase in overdoses is due to the fentynal, not the heroin itself. And more people are using heroin/synthetic opiods since Obama's been in office because it's so much easier to keep moving it across the border - along with the nation-wide sales force that's been set up.

Think about it - it's much simpler and therefore, more profitable to sell a synthetic drug mixed up in a lab, than something that has to be processed from a plant grown in a field over a period of months.

You left out how government is reducing the legal means for pain sufferers to obtain relief forcing an unprecedented number to explore the black market.

The more involved government gets the more $#@!ed up the whole situation will become.

[pcosmar]

She's a social worker.

What would they do without taxes?

[phill4paul]

You left out how government is reducing the legal means for pain sufferers to obtain relief forcing an unprecedented number to explore the black market.

The more involved government gets the more $#@!ed up the whole situation will become.

Definitely. When I threw my back out there was no way I could have made it to go see a doctor for 3 days. First time in my adult life I had to piss into a urine bag while prostrate. My hernia operation didn't even keep me from doing that. Docs don't make house calls anymore. I'd hate to think what it would have cost to call for a gurney and ambulance crew. Thankfully I had some opioids on hand. The truth of the matter is that the ole lady should have been able to go down to the corner store and picked me some up.

[Occam's Banana]

As a libertarian I am in favor of freedom of choice. But an addict has limited ability to choose. It does seem like a conundrum!

How so? I don't see any conundrum here.

Even granting that "an addict has limited ability to choose" (whatever that might mean), how can forcing punishments or treatments upon addicts do anything but further constrict the range of choices available to them?

(And this is not to mention the restrictions upon the range of choices available to non-addicts, which will inevitably accompany any such forcible interventionism ...)

[angelatc]

What would they do without taxes?

Volunteer? (Probably not.)