Horrifying video shows how opioid addiction transformed the city of Baltimore

[David Icke Bot]

Horrifying video shows how opioid addiction has transformed the city of Baltimore into a Third World city

BY ANDREW CHEETHAM ON 16 JUNE 2017 GMT
https://www.davidicke.com/article/415964/horrifying-video-shows-opioid-addiction-transformed-city-baltimore-third-world-city



‘If you want to see just how quickly drugs can plunge a beautiful and thriving city into desolation, look no further than Baltimore. On the surface, the city has plenty to offer, with lots of history, a lovely harbor, diverse entertainment options, and top research and medical facilities. However as opiate addiction has spread throughout the city over the past several years, it has turned it into a place that is no longer befitting of its nickname, Charm City.

In fact, a more suitable nickname would be The Heroin Capital of the United States as the city now has the dubious honor of having the highest per-capita rate of heroin addiction in the nation. Of the city’s 645,000 residents, it is estimated that around 60,000 are drug addicts and 48,000 of these people are hooked on heroin.’




Read more: Horrifying video shows how opioid addiction has transformed the city of Baltimore into a Third World city

[David Icke Bot]

State attorneys general announce nationwide bipartisan probe into opioid marketing & production

BY ANDREW CHEETHAM ON 16 JUNE 2017 GMT
https://www.davidicke.com/article/415967/state-attorneys-general-announce-nationwide-bipartisan-probe-opioid-marketing-production



‘The majority of state attorneys general have joined together to investigate the growing opioid epidemic and what part drug manufacturers played in creating and prolonging the crisis.

On Thursday, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey announced that her office has been working with the bipartisan coalition to evaluate “whether manufacturers used illegal practices in the marketing and sale of opioids and worsened this deadly crisis,” according to a statement.

Healey’s office, which is on the executive committee leading the investigation, said the attorneys general are using their investigative authority to issue subpoenas for documents and testimony. However, they have not identified any specific targets of the ongoing investigation.

“State attorneys general almost never announce the existence of investigations before they are completed, but the opioid crisis is a uniquely dire situation,” Washington DC Attorney General Karl Racine said in a statement.’


Read more: State attorneys general announce nationwide bipartisan probe into opioid marketing & production

[David Icke Bot]

Proof of illegal kickbacks: Doctor admits he was compensated by opioid manufacturer for issuing unnecessary prescriptions

https://www.naturalnews.com/2017-10-29-proof-of-illegal-kickbacks-doctor-admits-he-was-compensated-by-opioid-manufacturer-for-issuing-unnecessary-prescriptions.html

'A Rhode Island-based physician has recently admitted to participating in a fraudulent scheme and accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks to illegally prescribe fentanyl, a highly-addictive opioid. A Reuters report has revealed that Dr. Jerrold Rosenberg, 36, has pleaded guilty before the U.S. District Court in Providence on grounds of health care fraud and illegally prescribing the addictive fentanyl-based cancer pain drug Subsys. The drug, an under-the-tongue spray, is manufactured by Chandler, Arizona-based Insys Therapeutics Inc.

According to the prosecutors, Rosenberg participated in the fraudulent scheme from 2012 to 2015 and had received a whopping $188,000 in kickbacks. The prosecutors have reported that the kickbacks have been in the form of speaker fees from Insys. The prosecutors also noted that the speaker fees became the doctor’s basis in prescribing the opioid spray. Likewise, the reports have indicated that the physician fraudulently claimed that the patients suffered from cancer pain when the prescriptions are not given, thus securing insurance approvals for Subsys.

The doctor has agreed to settle $754,736 in restitution to healthcare benefit programs as part of the plea agreement. Aside from this, the physician is facing a maximum prison sentence of 15 years and is slated to be sentenced on Jan. 16. The doctor’s lawyer has declined a request for comment.'

Read more: Proof of illegal kickbacks: Doctor admits he was compensated by opioid manufacturer for issuing unnecessary prescriptions



Last Edit by Palmerston

[Phoenix Rising]

A monetary fine is a nice start in a process of restitution for an unethical doctor
who is deliberately addicting his patients  for the sake of a nice vacations,  Rolls Royce, personal plane or a lavish lifestyle.
Taking away his/her license to practice would be another appropriate consequence.
Notice that it is not mentioned ?
This guy is free to go back out there and start doing this all over again.

But why does this punishment only address the over-prescribing of Fentenyl ?

All opiates are addicting, as are many other drugs that are routinely  and recklessly prescribed to over- trusting patients.
When their health insurance runs out,
they no longer can afford access to their addicting drug,
they go through agony and  may even risk death
depending on what type of addicting drug they have been taking.

I'd like to see a  so called doctor  like this deliberately forced to take large quantities of benzodiazepines, such as valium, lorazepam and others.
Get that dose up there really high so that he is physically dependent ,
shakes in between doses,
cannot think straight,
struggles with cramps in his limbs and abdomen,
feels like his nerves are all on fire ,
screams out in agonizing pain,
risks having brain seizures.
Then cut him off from his supply.

Not only will he suffer excruciating symptoms depending on what drugs he was prescribed,
but he is at risk for permanent brain damage, coma and death,
if he does not suicide first.
Let him experience what he has done to his patients,
to the people he has pledged to "First do no harm".

Even when someone completes a detox from these drugs,
there is no guarantee that they will be free from serious side effects.
It may take years of drug-free living to get the drugs out of the system.
Even then, the side effects of some drugs are permanent.

I guess you can tell that I am on the side of protecting the patients.

The American Medical Association and the British Medical Society have  ways of protecting their own from harm.
They are called attorneys .
The organizations have  vast sums of money to avoid bad publicity
and to arrange out of court settlements.
Many times they attempt to convince patients that they have no chance of winning a court case,
so people who have been severely harmed receive no restitution.

It is you and I who need advocates and protection from unethical practitioners.



Last Edit by Palmerston

[David Icke Bot]

  AlteRnet.org

Why Should Taxpayers Pay for the Opioid Crisis When Pharma Caused It?
http://www.alternet.org/personal-health/why-should-taxpayers-pay-opioid-crisis-when-pharma-caused-it





'As everyone today knows, opioid narcotics like fentanyl, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, morphine and oxycodone have created a toxic epidemic in the United States with at least 100 daily overdose deaths. This happened because Pharma paid off doctors, medical associations and federal lawmakers to loosen opioid regulations.

There was a reason narcotics were traditionally limited to severe pain cases, not "everyday" pain—they are addicting and can kill, as we are now seeing. But Pharma—especially the Sackler family's Purdue which makes OxyContin—banked on the fact that younger doctors and patients did not remember why narcotics were so heavily restricted. They were right.

As new Pharma-driven prescribing guidelines were drafted and the industry-appeasing FDA waved new pills and patches through despite daily deaths, brazen "pill mills" and "Oxy docs" popped up, as did legions of addicts. Soon "opioid addiction" treatment clinics popped up to play the other side of the street—the addictions caused by the pill mills—further enriching Pharma.'



Read More : Why Should Taxpayers Pay for the Opioid Crisis When Pharma Caused It?


Icke

[David Icke Bot]

NaturalBlaze.com
http://naturalblaze.com/


Cannabis Protects The Brain From Traumatic Injuries And Concussions, Study Finds
http://www.naturalblaze.com/2016/10/cannabis-protects-brain-traumatic-injuries-concussions-study.html



'Big Pharma doesn’t want you to know about everything marijuana can do.

More and more studies on the abilities of THC are being released recently, and the results are astonishing. Though many have suspected that the drug works wonders on the brain and central nervous system, studies on these theories have been few and far between because of marijuana’s legal status and a lack of funding for illegal drugs.

That’s slowly starting to change as more states embrace the drug both medicinally and recreationally. As a result, more studies have been conducted to determine what the effects of THC on the body are and the findings are miraculous.'



Read More : Cannabis Protects The Brain From Traumatic Injuries And Concussions, Study Finds

[Phoenix Rising]

I want to clarify my position on the use of opium based drugs.

I came down heavy on that doctor who was making a mint
by deliberately over prescribing fentynyl
to patients who did not need it.

For those of us in serious chronic pain,
opiates are a God-send.
morrphine is enabling me to have a level of functioning
that would be impossible for me without it.

Opiates come in many variations.
I learned about them in my first job as a psychologist
when I worked with heroin and other drug addicts.

It has been used for helping our footsoldiers endure surgery and have a better quality of life.

For example, here is an interesting article I found about its use during the CIVIL WAR.
Seems the North liked to blockade its transportation to the Confederate soldiers.
You'll find that little gem in the comments section.

MORPHINE USE DURING THE CIVIL WAR
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/about-morphine-use-during-the-civil-war.131012/



Last Edit by Palmerston

[Phoenix Rising]

Also, you bet our politicians are going to have NO TROUBLE whatsoever
getting any drug they want when they believe they need it.
Just think of the Clintons and Mena Arkansas.

The FDA started out as an agency to PROTECT the PEOPLE
from unscrupulous manufacturers of patent medicines
at the turn of the 20th century.

Before then,
everything was available over the counter
but there was no way to ensure
poisonous additives were  NOT part of the medications sold to veterans,
housewives for headaches and menstrual pain,
and people with chronic illnesses.

The same with cannabis.

The FDA had nothing to do preventing people with getting the drugs they needed.

Funny, and rather sad, how life has changed
as soon as money becomes an issue.

I remember I was quite surprised to learn this
and it changed my attitude from someone critical of drug users,
to someone more awake to government scams.
I became more compassionate
and was able to understand addiction as an illness.



Last Edit by Palmerston

[David Icke Bot]

  AlteRnet.org

If You Can't Afford $4,500 for a Dose of Medicine, You Don't Get to Live
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/price-gouging-life-saving-naxalone





'The war on opioids is in full force, and we are losing. More than 64,000 Americans will die overdose deaths this year. Tighter regulations on prescription narcotics may just be shifting those with opioid addictions back to heroin cartels. During his last term, President Obama signed a bill funding $1 billion into programs combating opioid addiction, including programs that increased access to naloxone, the antidote for opioid overdoses. The current administration announced this year its plan to grant $485 million from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to states to fight opioid addiction. At the same time, synthetic opioids like carfentanil are proving highly resistant to common doses of naloxone, sometimes requiring 10 or more doses of naloxone to reverse an overdose.

The opioid crisis quickly became a state of emergency. More than 40 states responded by making naloxone available without a prescription for the express purpose of enabling family members to revive their loved ones in case of overdose. Other local initiatives have involved the push to make naloxone available to all first responders, including the police and even their K9s who may be exposed to lethal levels of opioids at crime scenes.'


Read More : If You Can't Afford $4,500 for a Dose of Medicine, You Don't Get to Live


Icke



Last Edit by Palmerston

[David Icke Bot]

  AlteRnet.org

The Feds Think Pot Is a Greater Threat Than Opioids
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/midst-opioid-crisis-feds-still-prosecuting-more-pot-people-heroin-dealers





'By now, anyone who is awake is aware that the country is experiencing a lethal opioid crisis. Opioid overdose deaths are at record highs, President Trump has declared a national public health emergency, and Congress is considering an ever-growing number of bills aimed at addressing the crisis.

Someone needs to tell the DEA and the Justice Department. While their public policy pronouncements identify opioids as a key concern, a look at who is actually being prosecuted for federal drug offenses shows that heroin and prescription opioid cases account for only a small fraction of all federal drug cases.

Most tellingly, at a time when more than 60 million Americans enjoy legal marijuana in their home states and when opinion polls show strong and increasing majorities in favor of legalization nationwide, drug agents and federal prosecutors are still devoting more resources to marijuana than to heroin.

And it's not just marijuana. The feds also pursued more cases against methamphetamine offenders and cocaine offenders than they did against heroin dealers, even though the number of heroin and prescription opioid users far outnumbers either the meth or the cocaine using populations and even though meth and cocaine are far less implicated in the overdose crisis than heroin and prescription opioids.'


Read More : The Feds Think Pot Is a Greater Threat Than Opioids


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Last Edit by Palmerston

[David Icke Bot]

Dangerous medicine: America’s opioid epidemic isn’t the only prescription drug-based crisis killing hundreds of thousands

https://www.naturalnews.com/2017-11-24-dangerous-medicine-prescription-drugs-are-still-drugs.html


'By now, you may have heard that the U.S. is experiencing an opioid epidemic. The number of Americans who overdose on opioids has quadrupled since 1999. More than 500,000 people have died from opioid overdoses from 2010 to 2015. President Donald Trump declared the opioid crisis a national public health emergency in 2017 as CDC numbers reveal 64,000 deaths from opioid overdose in 2016. For many people, the addiction begins with prescription opioids. Over time tolerance builds. In order to numb their bodies and keep a dopamine rush going, many get the pills illegally, start using cheaper street heroin, or overdose on fentanyl hybrids that are up to fifty times stronger than heroin.

As the severity of the crisis gains national recognition, it is important to recognize that this is not the only drug crisis ravaging American families. There is also a psychiatric drug crisis, a central nervous system stimulant crisis (amphetamine for children), an immunization overload crisis, among other prescription drug dependency issues.

You see, for the most part, modern pharmacopeia is a powerful, dangerous drug cult masquerading as helpful medicine. The statistics do not lie. About 330,000 American and European patients die annually from appropriately prescribed prescription drugs. This is the fourth leading cause of death – iatrogenic deaths, or death by medicine.'

Read more: Dangerous medicine: America’s opioid epidemic isn’t the only prescription drug-based crisis killing hundreds of thousands



Last Edit by Humphrey

[Phoenix Rising]

Philadelphia approves ‘supervised injection’ of heroin, other drugs amid opioid epidemic

Published time: 24 Jan, 2018 04:24
Edited time: 24 Jan, 2018 07:50

https://www.rt.com/usa/416807-philadelphia-opioid-safe-injection-sites/

Officials in Philadelphia are moving to open safe-injection sites for drugs like fentanyl and heroin as the opioid crisis persists. But the state attorney general insists there's “no safe way to inject” the highly addictive drugs.
Officials in Philadelphia announced on Tuesday that they would encourage the creation of addiction engagement sites that would oversee medically-supervised consumption of drugs, WCAU reports.
Such a center is called a safe-injection site, and they are staffed with medical professionals who can immediately respond in the event of an overdose. The sites also provide critical access to clean medical supplies, such as needles, along with addiction rehabilitation services, according to WCAU.
City officials have yet to announce a framework for overseeing the program, potential locations, or a timeline for when sites could open.

According to a scientific review of safe injection sites released by city officials, the sites could save between 24 and 76 lives each year, while also preventing as many as 18 cases of HIV and 213 cases of hepatitis C. Philadelphia saw more than 1,200 overdose deaths in 2017, and is now in the midst of its deadliest public health crisis in modern history, the Philly Voice reports.
Philadelphia Health Commissioner Dr Thomas Farley said the basic purpose of the sites would be speaking with drug users and offering them addiction treatment services.
Farley stated that the sites “bring people into drug treatment,” a purpose that transcends being “simply a site for supervised injection,” according to WCAU.
“Part of what we’re doing here today is publicizing this interest in the hopes that there are funders who will appear who care about saving lives and see this as an opportunity to do so,” Farley said, according to WCAU.

However, within hours of the announcement for the sites, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro signaled a sharp rebuke of the plan.
“There is no safe way to inject heroin, fentanyl and carfentanyl,” Shapiro said on Tuesday, WCAU reports. “These are dangerous drugs with devastating consequences.”
Shapiro added that the program being proposed by city officials is not “an effective path to treatment.”

READ MORE: ‘Same big pharma that hooked people on opioids now profits again from addicts’ switch to heroin’

Tuesday's announcement by the city comes on the heels of a recommendation put forth last year by The Mayor's Task Force to Combat the Opioid Epidemic. One of 18 prevention action items included in the group’s final report was the creation of safe-injection sites.



Last Edit by Humphrey

[David Icke Bot]

Global Research CA

The Opioid Epidemic in America – Killing One Million Workers: The Triumph of Capital
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-opioid-epidemic-in-america-killing-one-million-workers-the-triumph-of-capital/5627300


'The link between capitalism and drugs reaches back to the middle of the 19th century, when the British Empire forced their surplus opium crop from their South Asian colonies into the Chinese market creating massive demand from millions of addicts. The Chinese government, which had banned the use and sale of opium, was alarmed at the growing social chaos created by mass addiction and went to war with the Western powers to halt the flood of drugs. Their defeat at the hands of the British and their Chinese drug lord allies opened China to massive exploitation and pillage for the next century. Chinese opium addicts were a tremendous obstacle to organizing national resistance. In essence, the British East India Company and its imperial protectors transformed China into the history’s largest ‘shithole’ – until an earth-shattering revolution broke the chains of addiction and degradation.

In the 21st century, a similar process of deterioration has been occurring internally in the United States. The ‘prescription opioid epidemic’ is ravaging American families, neighborhoods, communities, cities and states – shredding the entire fabric of US society, especially in rural, mining and former manufacturing ‘rust belt’ regions. Hundreds of thousands of mostly working class victims have died and millions of addicts, unable to resist the destruction of their futures, have replaced a once powerful labor force.'



Read More : The Opioid Epidemic in America – Killing One Million Workers: The Triumph of Capital


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Last Edit by Humphrey

[David Icke Bot]

The Activist Post

Before US Troops Protected Poppies In Afghanistan, There was No Opioid Epidemic in America
http://www.activistpost.com/2018/03/before-us-troops-protected-poppies-in-afghanistan-there-was-no-opioid-epidemic-in-america.html





'The Afghanistan War is the longest in United States history, and despite initial claims that the goal of the invasion was to keep Americans safe by destroying the Taliban and al-Qaeda, the result has been a massive increase in opium production that has fueled an on-going opioid crisis in the United States and ensnared more than 2.5 million Americans in heroin addiction.

As whistleblower and former FBI contractor Sibel Edmonds noted, before the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in 2001, there were around 189,000 heroin users in the United States. By 2016, that figure increased to 4.5 million—an estimated 2.5 million heroin addicts and 2 million casual users.

The number of heroin overdose deaths in the U.S. also skyrocketed with a 533 percent increase from around 2,000 deaths in 2002 to more than 13,200 deaths in 2016. The is part of more than 64,000 deaths attributed to drug overdoses in 2016, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Spam_A Spam_B If the United States’ goal was to eradicate the source of heroin in order to cut down on addiction and overdoses among Americans, then troops would be destroying opium fields with flamethrowers. Instead, the opposite is happening and U.S. troops have been caught guarding poppy fields. Under supervision from the U.S., Afghanistan is now responsible for producing 90 percent of the world’s opium supply.

As the U.S. warns that there is no end to the Afghanistan War in the foreseeable future, the country’s contribution to the world’s opium supply continues to increase. Coinciding with the completion of a massive troop surge, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and Afghanistan’s Ministry of Counter Narcotics released a report claiming that the “area under opium poppy cultivation increased by 63% since 2016, reaching a new record high.”'



Read More : Before US Troops Protected Poppies In Afghanistan, There was No Opioid Epidemic in America


Icke




Last Edit by Humphrey

[David Icke Bot]

zerohedge.com
http://www.zerohedge.com/


Opioid Crisis Leaves 700,000 Americans Dead: 'Epidemic Continues To Worsen And Evolve'
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-29/opioid-crisis-epidemic-continues-worsen-and-evolve-700000-americans-dead





'More than 700,000 Americans died from drug overdoses from 1999 to 2017, about 10% of them in 2017 alone, according to a new report published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In total, there were a staggering 70,237 drug overdose deaths last year, which is more deaths than all US military fatal casualties of the Vietnam War. Opioids were involved in 67.8%, or 47,600 of those deaths. Of those opioid-related overdose deaths, 59.8% of them, or 28,466, were due to synthetic opioids.

The report, which was published online in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), also examined drug overdose deaths from 2013-17. During that time, "drug overdose death rates increased in 35 of 50 states and DC, and significant increases in death rates involving synthetic opioids occurred in 15 of 20 states," the report said adding that the rapid increase was driven by fentanyl. Spam_A Spam_B Of the 35 districts reporting data, 23 states and DC noticed increased rates of death directly linked to synthetic opioids. Fentanyl overdose deaths surged 150% from 2016 to 2017.

The CDC said overdoses were seen in both men and women, as well as non-Hispanic blacks, non-Hispanic whites and Hispanics, blacks, had the largest relative change, which was 25.2%. The most significant increase in deaths occurred among 25 to 44-year-old men, a sobering reality that demonstrates America's prime working age men are deteriorating.

"Through 2017, the drug overdose epidemic continues to worsen and evolve, and the involvement of many types of drugs (e.g., opioids, cocaine, and methamphetamine) underscores the urgency to obtain more timely and local data to inform public health and public safety action," the report said.

From 2013-2017, the largest increase in drug overdose death rates involved synthetic #opioids (other than methadone) - likely fueled by illicitly manufactured #fentanyl. Read more @CDCMMWR: https://t.co/l3uXaje3vw pic.twitter.com/wFwBGuRhgC

— Dr. Robert R. Redfield (@CDCDirector) December 21, 2018

In a separate, but relevant report, Altarum, an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based health care research and consulting firm said the opioid epidemic’s economic toll is disastrous. The report said, "the societal benefit of eliminating opioid overdoses, death and use disorders reached $115 billion in 2017, up from $95.3 billion for 2016."'



Read More : Opioid Crisis Leaves 700,000 Americans Dead: 'Epidemic Continues To Worsen And Evolve'


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Last Edit by Gladstone