opioids

Kentucky fried crisis, clearing convictions and Putin's chef + this day in history w/the assassination of Malcolm X and our song of the day by Courtney Barnett on your Morning Monarchy for February 21, 2018.

Olympics outbreaks, epidemic levels and food stamp collectors + this day in history w/Saint Valentine and our song of the day by Shakey Graves on your Morning Monarchy for February 14, 2018.

Bread price fixing, Twinkie bonuses and toxic places + this day in history w/the Great Baltimore Fire and our song of the day by Lord Huron on your Morning Monarchy for February 7, 2018.

Rock stars Tom Petty and Prince both died after overdosing on opioid drugs. The Sackler family reaped $14 billion in ill-gotten gains after manipulating the medical industry into prescribing their dangerous drugs. The Sacklers are now selling their fatal drugs on the international market after facing lawsuits, bad press and new regulations in America. [...]

Just as California's law went into effect allowing the recreational sale of marijuana, and despite the fact that 40+ states allow marijuana for personal and/or medical use, AG Jeff Sessions rescinded federal guidelines that previously allowed the states to make their own policy on this issue. [The federal government continues to wage war against the marijuana industry but will not touch the problem of opioids, which is much more serious and far more deadly.

US deaths from drug overdoses skyrocketed 21% last year, and for the second straight year dragged down American life expectancy. The government figures put drug deaths at 63,600, up from about 52,000 in 2015. For the first time, the powerful painkiller Fentanyl, and its close opioid cousins, played a bigger role in the deaths than any other legal or illegal drug, surpassing prescription pain pills and heroin. The highest drug death rates were in ages 25 to 54.

The Sackler family which owns Purdue Pharma is listed as the 19th most wealthy family by Forbes, with $13 billion in assets. Two million people in the US are addicted to prescription drugs, and 64,070 Americans died by overdose in 2016. [...]

New study shows that half of the men who dropped out of the workforce are on opioid painkillers. In 2015, 91.8 million Americans, roughly one in three, used opioid painkillers such as Vicodin and OxyContin. [...]

A survey released by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) shows that more people in the U.S. use opioid painkillers than tobacco, highlighting the tragic opioid crisis gripping the country. [1]

On August 10, 2017, President Donald Trump declared the opioid crisis a national emergency in a move that many speculated he wouldn’t make. Only 2 days before the announcement, Trump vowed to “win” the fight on painkillers and heroin, but stopped short of declaring an emergency. [1]
On August 8, following a meeting with Trump, Health and Human Services secretary Tom Price said that such a declaration was unnecessary, but said that all options were on the table, including a declaration of emergency. [2]
It is unclear what sparked the reversal.