It is maddening and inhumane how we are failing to keep our family, friends and neighbors from being destroyed by bad actors. And how the political class protects them. This is how a failed state treats its citizens.
Sadly, the drug problem continues to get worse. Fentanyl is pouring into the country at an alarming rate and it is more than Congresswoman Elise Stefanik’s problem. Both our US Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, as well as our governor and state legislature must take action and should also be called out! This is a serious issue that needs the immediate attention of the federal government and our own state government.
And, also, we need to figure out why there is such a market for it here. As long as we take drugs, someone, here or abroad, will get them for us. And when we stamp out one drug, another fills the void.
There is also a sub-problem on how to get treatment for those addicted. The Virginia legislature refuses to pass Medicare for all and that limits the options for treatment. I suspect treatment is a big problem in the North Country.
I remember a day when we worried that our kids would make a mistake, do something stupid and live to regret it. Now we worry that they will make one mistake and they won't live through it at all. Just had a friend that lost a family member due to suicide while high on pain killers. It touches everyone in some way. Hurts my heart.
We hear a lot about how pervasive our drug problem is, but so little about the why. Other than the Dopesick narrative where people got started on painkillers. I know that is real; I know more than one person that happened to, started taking oxy for back pain etc.
But we've had different kinds of drug epidemics for as long as I have been alive. I grew up in a white working class neighborhood where recreational drugs were big and I know more people than I should that died from heroin overdoses. Also a few boys who came back addicts from Vietnam. Then, I was a community organizer during the crack cocaine days, saw the girl who was the cashier at the local drug store become a street prostitute. Now, as you point out, we have oxy and fentanyl. Urban/rural, no difference. A couple of years ago, there was a center spread for a National Geographic issue on how the drug epidemic has ravaged the Kensington neighborhood of Philly, not far from where I grew up. Around the same time, I saw a Northwoods Law episode where the rangers were talking about how widespread the problem was in an extremely rural community in Maine.
I wonder sometimes why we Americans need to self-medicate so much. Is it as bad in other countries? Do they have the same problems with addiction we have? Maybe some of it is slippery slope/gateway drug type stuff, but it feels like something more than that; some kind of mass self medication/self destruction kind of thing. I know that sounds super alarmist, but when you read about the destruction of entire communities it is very unsettling, and I think there is more to this than "I started taking drugs for pain" or because "I was a little bit of a reckless teenager".
Ken, your ability to blame Representative Stefanik and only her for all problems is uncanny. It's been raining for days now and you know she's behind that too.
No, not at all. But I don’t see her addressing problems in her district that are significant. The Sacklers are to blame for opioid crisis, not Stefanik. Has she done anything to address treatment in North Country.
Stefanik fails to even address most of our concerns here in the north country. She is consumed by her own personal political ambitions. Just watch her statements.
It is maddening and inhumane how we are failing to keep our family, friends and neighbors from being destroyed by bad actors. And how the political class protects them. This is how a failed state treats its citizens.
Often the addicts become distributors. Only way they can afford the drugs.
Sadly, the drug problem continues to get worse. Fentanyl is pouring into the country at an alarming rate and it is more than Congresswoman Elise Stefanik’s problem. Both our US Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, as well as our governor and state legislature must take action and should also be called out! This is a serious issue that needs the immediate attention of the federal government and our own state government.
And, also, we need to figure out why there is such a market for it here. As long as we take drugs, someone, here or abroad, will get them for us. And when we stamp out one drug, another fills the void.
There is also a sub-problem on how to get treatment for those addicted. The Virginia legislature refuses to pass Medicare for all and that limits the options for treatment. I suspect treatment is a big problem in the North Country.
I remember a day when we worried that our kids would make a mistake, do something stupid and live to regret it. Now we worry that they will make one mistake and they won't live through it at all. Just had a friend that lost a family member due to suicide while high on pain killers. It touches everyone in some way. Hurts my heart.
We hear a lot about how pervasive our drug problem is, but so little about the why. Other than the Dopesick narrative where people got started on painkillers. I know that is real; I know more than one person that happened to, started taking oxy for back pain etc.
But we've had different kinds of drug epidemics for as long as I have been alive. I grew up in a white working class neighborhood where recreational drugs were big and I know more people than I should that died from heroin overdoses. Also a few boys who came back addicts from Vietnam. Then, I was a community organizer during the crack cocaine days, saw the girl who was the cashier at the local drug store become a street prostitute. Now, as you point out, we have oxy and fentanyl. Urban/rural, no difference. A couple of years ago, there was a center spread for a National Geographic issue on how the drug epidemic has ravaged the Kensington neighborhood of Philly, not far from where I grew up. Around the same time, I saw a Northwoods Law episode where the rangers were talking about how widespread the problem was in an extremely rural community in Maine.
I wonder sometimes why we Americans need to self-medicate so much. Is it as bad in other countries? Do they have the same problems with addiction we have? Maybe some of it is slippery slope/gateway drug type stuff, but it feels like something more than that; some kind of mass self medication/self destruction kind of thing. I know that sounds super alarmist, but when you read about the destruction of entire communities it is very unsettling, and I think there is more to this than "I started taking drugs for pain" or because "I was a little bit of a reckless teenager".
Ken, your ability to blame Representative Stefanik and only her for all problems is uncanny. It's been raining for days now and you know she's behind that too.
No, not at all. But I don’t see her addressing problems in her district that are significant. The Sacklers are to blame for opioid crisis, not Stefanik. Has she done anything to address treatment in North Country.
Stefanik fails to even address most of our concerns here in the north country. She is consumed by her own personal political ambitions. Just watch her statements.