BehindBlueI's
Grandmaster
- Oct 3, 2012
- 25,936
- 113
How does any of that help the end user? supposedly we’ll get “clean” suppplies of heroin with known potency and no fentanyl/carfentanil? I thought the goal was to stop OD deaths and the destruction of families
Even ignoring:
Funny how if someone else’s Money is on the ground and you take it that is theft. But if you get government to grab it from your neighbor and then give it to you that is wonderful
The criminal justice system is not a healthcare system. Yet we're expected to deal with everyone's overdoses and addiction issues, mental health episodes, etc. Forcing the round peg into the square hole may sorta-kinda plug the hole for a bit, but long term it doesn't work. We're seeing the results of decades of round peg-square hole.
Then, of course, someone will complain we don't have the resources to investigate identity theft or check fraud. Guess how many detectives and investigators at all levels of law enforcement are dedicated to the illegal drug trade...
You want a law to deal with it? How about a law that would penalize the drug manufacturers who, in large part, turbo-charged the current crisis.
A final strategy highlights the profits that opioid companies have reaped at the government’s expense through allegedly unfair business practices. In these “unjust enrichment” claims, governments argue that opioid companies should have to disgorge such profits. This argument has intuitive appeal, as it did in litigation over tobacco, firearms, and lead paint, because attorneys can point to huge pecuniary gains enjoyed while the government was saddled with vast medical and law-enforcement costs. Such claims have struggled to find legal footing in cases involving other products because courts typically require evidence that the government conferred a benefit on the company. For opioids, though, government payment for excessive prescriptions under public insurance programs directly contributed to companies’ profits. Already, two large settlements have occurred in cases that included unjust enrichment claims, although pharmaceutical companies avoided admitting fault (see table).
I know, .gov sucks and corporations are people too, but as long as there's an economic incentive to create addicts and pass the cost of treatment off to others, the crisis isn't going anywhere.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/29/health/purdue-opioids-oxycontin.html
Dealing with end users individually isn't working and never will. Dealing with the sources of the problem, which we can pretty much guarantee will never happen because the big boys are deeply in bed with the decision makers, could potentially make a difference.