93,331 Overdose Deaths in a Single Year
Unintended consequences of impetuous global lockdowns. Tip of the iceberg?
New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that over 93,000 people died of a drug overdose in the US last year. That’s a nearly 30% jump from 2019’s 72,151 overdose deaths. To give further perspective, in 2018 there were 67,367 overdose deaths and 2017 had 70,237 instances where people lost their lives using drugs. That’s right we saw a drop in overdoses from 2017 to 2018.
Now this is a topic that is very personal for a number of reasons and I have a great deal of apprehension toward discussing it publicly. Although, I do believe that the stigma of drug addiction is part of the problem and why many people suffer in silence, prolonging their sickness for years. Nevertheless, I’m still apprehensive to write it out so indelibly in black and white, even though I’ve talked about it openly in court rooms and meetings, I’ve made jokes about it while on stage in front of crowds of people, I’ve discussed it with countless doctors, counselors, officers ranging from probation to police and everything in between. Yet still to sit alone and write it out so clearly feels almost taboo or like I’m being exposed.
Over the past few days, I’ve heard countless news casters, podcasters, journalists and TV personalities of all styles and backgrounds try to discuss and report this story in such a disconnected, detached way that it makes me cringe. It’s always a bit alarming to me when you see “professionals” discussing something that you have intimate knowledge of and they are so off base. You can't help but wonder “if they are this disingenuous and wrong about this....
Every time there is a serious issue in this country it seems like our media and government officials can’t see the forest for the trees. Just like mass shootings, murder, and gun violence was a problem before the AR15 and bump stock (remember that one) gained national attention; addiction, overdose deaths, and the war on drugs was a problem before fentanyl. Fentanyl is just as prevalent today as it was in 2018 when we saw a drop in overdoses.
Yet, every news organization out there has made fentanyl the villain of this sad story, along with many other misconceptions and misrepresentations of addiction and the people affected by it. Many left-wing news organizations have even tried to put a racial spin on these findings making statements like “white people were able to gain a doctors trust and get prescription opioids easier” or “these issues tend to affect black communities more drastically.” While these statements may have some level of truth, I find it an insulting way to try and distract some of us from the greater problem.
I understand why it’s reported this way, I understand how the human psyche works and that people crave simple solutions to problems that are hard to understand. We can't help but to try and simplify the problem so we can identify the culprit. We want a common enemy, to point at, and say ““as long as we’re cautious of this “thing” then we are safe. Our loved ones are safe.”” We try to cling to what little order and control we have in this terrifyingly random and chaotic world. I get it, it's how our minds work, we try making sense of things that just don’t make sense.
But we eventually all must come to the realization that issues like addiction are extremely complex and in desperate need of attention. That man's connection to mind altering substances and why we use these substances goes back further than Christianity. Even the ancient Greeks acknowledged this issue in their God Dionysus. These problems are engrained within each and every one of us, engrained in our society. We need to stop trying to put band-aids over major societal issues.
Fentanyl hasn’t changed, what has changed is a global pandemic that has affected every aspect of our lives. The rise in overdose deaths along with the rise of alcoholism, substance abuse, mental illness, domestic incidents and divorce are just some of the symptoms of an already broken system put under extreme pressure through lockdowns and political polarization. Throw in stimulus checks and unemployment payments and we’ve created the perfect storm for anyone who has ever had even the slightest of addictive tendencies.
Although these numbers are alarming and impossible to ignore, I believe we have to zoom out a bit, we need to resist the medias hyper focused narrative. I believe we must take a broader, yet careful look; in an age where we are making huge strides in so many aspects of life, how is it that we are doing so poorly at satisfying some of the most basic of needs. There is so much focus around measures of our economy like the latest Dow Jones industrial average or NASDAQ numbers, I hear so much about GDP, immigration and vaccines. Yet, we are failing on some of the most basic of metrics. Are people living or dying? Do people have the will to live, finding meaning in life, or is drug addiction and suicide on the rise? Are average citizens happy and stable enough to get married, have children, start families or are numbers declining in all these areas? Is marriage becoming just another benefit exclusive to the privileged and wealthy elite?
93,331 overdose deaths in a single year is unacceptable, the war on drugs is unacceptable, the way this country treats non-violent drug offenders is unacceptable. Police officers armed to the teeth, executing no-knock warrants on American citizens is completely unacceptable and unconstitutional. The author Michael Malice once tweeted
Our justice system and Government as a whole is becoming nothing more than a bloated, overweight extension of corporate America. I find great beauty in our free-enterprise, capitalist economy, it’s one of the reasons why this incredible country is able to stay relevant and at the forefront of many vital industries. But how can we have a slow-moving bloated government regulating and trying to keep up with huge companies and a society that is morphing and evolving at 5G speeds.
Legislation needs to catch up to technology and society, these overdose numbers are just the beginning. These sad statistics are just the first consequences of government officials around the world making uninformed snap decisions, throwing the globe into a locked down panic of misinformation and doing it all without any real fore-thought or insight into these types of unintended consequences.
To any individual or families out there that were directly impacted by the tragedies I described above I am deeply sorry and know what many of you are going through, I would never mean to reference these numbers lightly or use them in a trivial sense. Please know you can always reach out for help.
If you yourself are in trouble, feel free to contact me and I will personally do all that I can to help. I’m always here, Thank You.