The
opioid epidemic tightens its grip on America
This
Sept. 7, 2016 photo of a grandmother and her boyfriend unconscious from an
overdose was released by East Liverpool police.AP
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SALENA
ZITO
PITTSBURGH — It’s the kind of
thing that happens in someone else’s city, someone else’s town, someone else’s
back yard.
It could never happen
here, on the charming block of 2300 Palm Beach Ave., where mid-century
single-family homes dot each side of a steep street. Where working-class
professionals keep their lawns well-trimmed and decorate their porches with
American flags and tiny butterfly lawn ornaments.
It certainly is not the
kind of thing that happens to an 11-year-old middle-school girl who, by all
accounts, seemed happy, outgoing and showed no signs of distress. No one could
have predicted that she would overdose on heroin.
Earlier this month, the
girl was found at her family home on Palm Beach Avenue just before dinner time,
lying unresponsive with stamp bags around her. A family member began performing
CPR. By the time the paramedics arrived, she was conscious. She was given
Narcan and quickly taken to Children’s Hospital in critical condition, and
because she is a minor, no further information has been made available.
Ten days later and 40
miles west of here, in East Liverpool, Ohio, a police officer almost died when
he came into contact with the synthetic opioid fentanyl during a routine
traffic stop.
Patrolman Chris Green
followed protocol when he searched the vehicle, its seats speckled with white
powder. He used latex gloves — but he took them off when he frisked the driver.
Back at the police
station Green found residue on his uniform and, without thinking, dusted it off
with his bare hands.
That mistake caused him to
overdose. It took four shots of Narcan to bring him back to life.
These are just two
snapshots from the plague of our time — America’s opioid epidemic. The slide
into addiction is well documented: Users move from legal pain killers to heroin
to fentanyl, as prescriptions dry up and cheap street opioids are replaced with
increasingly dangerous drugs.
Some forms of fentanyl
are 10,000 times more potent than morphine.
As easy access to these
drugs spreads, the opioid plague is sweeping the nation, crossing all ages,
genders, races and socioeconomic groups. It is in our cities, suburbs and
exurbs. It is happening everywhere, to everyone — even to people you’d least
expect.
East Liverpool Police
Chief John Lane is growing frustrated with the problem. Just last week, six
people overdosed in his town.
Last fall, Lane posted a
shocking photo on Facebook to
alert the nation to the crisis, thrusting East Liverpool into the spotlight. It
showed two adults, unconscious from an overdose, slumped inside the front of
their car, while a 4-year-old boy sat strapped into his car seat, staring
straight at the camera. He wore a dinosaur T-shirt, the only glimpse of
normalcy in an anything-but-normal life.
One of the two adults in
the car, it turned out, was his grandmother.
“We feel it necessary to
show the other side of this horrible drug,” East Liverpool police officials
wrote in a caption on the photo. “We feel we need to be a voice for the
children caught up in this horrible mess.”
The photo caused the
country to shudder.
And, then, the country
forgot.
Politicians forgot, too,
said Lane. “Governor John Kasich said he was going to come to town and get to
the bottom of this. He never did.”
Meanwhile, the problems
in East Liverpool are deepening.
People are dying, yes,
“but the broader dangers are ignored,” Lane said. “Think of the potency of the
fentanyl that almost killed my officer. What if a kid had hugged him in the
grocery store? Or an elderly person? They’d all be dead.”
And what if someone with
larger, more devious plans in mind used such a toxic substance in an act of
terrorism, he wonders. “Imagine if someone put that in the water system. Or tossed
it on a crowd. Now think about that, the dangers are unlimited.”
And these deadly drugs?
Well, they are pretty easy to get, Lane explains. “Just go on the Internet and
order them from China. They deliver them to your door.”
Lane is dissatisfied
with Kasich, who has cut funding and hurt the chief’s ability to go after
dealers and track down the sources.
He’s hopeful that
President Trump will make good on his promises to solve the epidemic.
Opiate abuse kills 91
people a day in the US, according to the CDC, and much of the problem is
concentrated in Rust Belt counties where Trump won big in the presidential
election.
Many voters in these
states switched their support from Barack Obama and the Democrats to Trump,
hoping to shock the political class into noticing the problems in their
communities.
In an interview with me
two weeks ago, Trump said his campaign goals remain the same.
“I told people I would
help them, and I will,” he said, pointing to the bipartisan task force on
opioids he created, with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in the driver’s seat.
Christie has earned high praise for his work on addiction in New Jersey. In his
budget, Trump also proposed $500 million to fund addiction prevention and
treatment and recovery services.
But there are still
doubts about whether he can tackle the problem in time. Trump has not yet named
a drug “czar,” and after news leaked that the White House was considering deep
cuts to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, alarm bells went off in Congress.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders dismissed that report, saying
the budget is not in its final form.
Lane needs resources to
track the sources of illegal drugs, to go into schools and start educating kids
on the dangers, and he needs politicians to stop saying they are going to help
and to start actually doing something.
“I can give you a
hundred solutions, but I don’t have the resources to do 99 of them,” Lane said.
Until then, the opioid
crisis keeps grinding ahead, destroying families, communities and futures,
oblivious to politicians and their promises.
AUGUST 30, 2016
The Obama
administration’s failure to protect the southern border has allowed Mexican
cartels to smuggle record amounts of drugs into the United States, especially
heroin, which is increasingly popular in the U.S. Once the drugs get smuggled
north Mexican traffickers use street, prison and outlaw motorcycle gangs to
distribute them throughout the country much like a legitimate business
enterprise.This has been going on for years and there seems to be no end in
sight, according to a disturbing new report published by the Congressional Research
Service (CRS), the nonpartisan agency that provides Congress with policy and
legal analysis. “Mexican transnational criminal organizations are the major
suppliers and key producers of most illegal drugs smuggled into the United
States,” the CRS states in its new report. “They have been increasing their
share of the U.S. drug market—particularly with respect to heroin.” The bulk of
the heroin smuggled into the United States transits across the Southwest
border, the CRS writes, revealing that “from 2010 to 2015 heroin seizures in
this area more than doubled from 1,016 kg to 2,524 kg.”
The trend mirrors the
increase in overall seizures throughout the U.S., the CRS figures show. For
instance, federal arrests and prosecutions of heroin traffickers have
skyrocketed with 6,353 heroin-related arrests in 2015. Additionally, the number
of individuals sentenced for heroin trafficking offenses in federal courts has
increased by almost 50%, the report says. There are at least eight major
Mexican drug trafficking organizations operating in the United States with the
Sinaloa Cartel being the most active, the CRS reveals. “Mexican transnational
criminal organizations (MTCOs) remain the greatest criminal drug threat to the
United States; no other group can challenge them in the near term.” They
operate sophisticated enterprises, using nearly 100 U.S. gangs in their
cross-border crimes, government figures show.
Because the Mexican
cartels move their drugs through the Southwest border, western states have
become part of what’s known as the “heroin transit zone,” the CRS report says.
“In addition, as the Mexican traffickers take on a larger role in the U.S.
heroin market, and expand their operations to the East Coast, authorities have
seen black tar heroin emerge in the Northeastern United States, where it had
rarely been seen,” the report states. Large quantities of a synthetic opioid
known as Fentanyl are also entering the U.S. primarily via the Mexican border,
though the drug also comes from China. Fentanyl is 25-40 times more potent than
heroin and 50-100 times more potent than morphine.
Undoubtedly, there’s
an epidemic of drug abuse in the U.S. but cutting off the source would
obviously improve the crisis. This may seem like common sense, but the CRS
gently reminds legislators to consider it. “Policymakers may examine U.S.
efforts to combat heroin trafficking as a means of combatting opioid abuse in
the United States,” the CRS writes in its report. “Policymakers may also look
at existing federal strategies on drug control, transnational crime, and
Southwest border crime to evaluate whether they are able to target the current
heroin trafficking threat.” Among the common-sense suggestions listed in the
document is “securing U.S. borders.” It comes from the Office of National Drug
Control Policy (ONDCP), which has made disrupting drug trafficking and
production a priority.
The impact of Mexican
drug cartels has been well documented for some time in a number of government
audits, even as the Obama administration insists the southern border is secure.
Less than a year ago the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) issued a report confirming
that the majority of illegal drugs in the United States come from Mexico and
Mexican traffickers remain the greatest criminal threat to the United States.
They’re classified as Transitional Criminal Organizations (TCOs) by the
government and for years they’ve smuggled in enormous quantities of heroin,
cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana.
*
FEBRUARY 07, 2017
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Illustrating that the
Mexican drug crisis is having a far-reaching impact on the U.S., a heroin ring
operated by a Mexican cartel was recently busted in an American suburb more
than 1,500 miles from the southern border. In the last few years Judicial Watch
has reported extensively on the massive amounts of drugs—especially heroin—that
get smuggled into the U.S. by Mexican traffickers who later use street, prison
and outlaw motorcycle gangs to distribute them throughout the country.
Undoubtedly, these enterprises benefitted tremendously from the Obama
administration’s open border policies.
Now we have
confirmation that these illicit drug operations have penetrated areas far from
the border. This case comes out of Rowan County, North Carolina where a local news report reveals that authorities began targeting
large-scale heroin distribution in 2013. Last week three people with ties to a
Mexican drug cartel were arrested in the county. Large quantities of heroin,
handguns, a rifle, ammunition, numerous telephones, cash and drug paraphernalia
was confiscated by police. Authorities say the Mexican heroin trafficking ring
was based in the Charlotte-Matthews area and has been supplying heroin to Rowan
County for more than a decade. “Over the past two months, investigators purchased
large amounts of heroin from two people working for this Mexican National Drug
Trafficking Organization,” the news report states.
This is hardly
earth-shattering news. A number of federal audits have documented the enormous
amounts of drugs that annually enter the U.S. through the porous southern
border, even as Obama’s Homeland Security Secretary famously proclaimed the
region to be as secure as it’s ever been. One report, published just a few
months ago, referred to western states as a “heroin transit zone” because Mexican cartels move
such large amounts of drugs through the Southwest border. That government assessment
disclosed that there at least eight major Mexican drug trafficking
organizations operating in the United States with the Sinaloa Cartel being the
most active. Heroin is the most popular drug and it’s entering the country
through Mexico in record numbers. From 2010 to 2015 heroin seizures in the
Mexican border region more than doubled from 1,016 kg to 2,524 kg, according to
government figures.
The trend mirrors the
increase in overall seizures throughout the U.S. as well. For instance, federal
arrests and prosecutions of heroin traffickers have skyrocketed with 6,353
heroin-related arrests in 2015. Additionally, the number of individuals
sentenced for heroin trafficking offenses in federal courts has increased by
almost 50%, the government confirms. In 2015 the Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) issued a report disclosing
that the majority of illegal drugs in the United States come from Mexico and
Mexican traffickers remain the greatest criminal threat to the United States.
They’re classified as Transitional Criminal Organizations (TCOs) by the
government and they’ve long smuggled in huge quantities of heroin, cocaine,
methamphetamine and marijuana.
A big part of the problem
is that the drug trafficking is being leveraged by corrupt public officials in
the U.S., a years-long Judicial Watch investigation has found. Undoubtedly,
cartel violence is real but truckloads of drugs are getting across the country
because U.S. officials at the municipal, state and federal level are turning a
blind eye or actively participating and cooperating with cartels. As part of an
ongoing probe, Judicial Watch has provided the Department of Justice (DOJ)
Inspector General and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley with
evidence, including the sworn testimony of law enforcement officers, of this
corruption and criminality in all levels of government. Learn more about
Judicial Watch’s probe here.
THE MAP OF
LA RAZA MEXICAN OCCUPATION of what was America
AZTLAN
FASCISM AT OUR DOOR
"The American Southwest seems to be slowly
returning to the jurisdiction of Mexico without firing a single
shot." -- - EXCELSIOR --- national newspaper of Mexico
THE OBAMA CONSPIRACY TO DESTROY AMERICA: DRUGS,
POVERTY and OPEN BORDERS
SOARING POVERTY AND DRUG ADDICTION UNDER OBAMA
"These figures present a scathing indictment
of the social order that prevails in America, the world’s wealthiest country,
whose government proclaims itself to be the globe’s leading democracy. They are
just one manifestation of the human toll taken by the vast and all-pervasive
inequality and mass poverty.”
IMMANENT COLLAPSE THE PENA-NIETO
REGIME AND FALL TO THE LA RAZA DRUG CARTELS ON AMERICAN OPEN AND UNDEFENDED BORDERS.
THE MAP OF
LA RAZA MEXICAN OCCUPATION of what was America
AZTLAN FASCISM AT OUR DOOR
AZTLAN FASCISM AT OUR DOOR
"The American Southwest seems to be slowly
returning to the jurisdiction of Mexico without firing a single
shot." -- - EXCELSIOR --- national newspaper of Mexico
THE OBAMA CONSPIRACY TO DESTROY AMERICA: DRUGS,
POVERTY and OPEN BORDERS
SOARING POVERTY AND DRUG ADDICTION UNDER OBAMA
"These figures present a scathing indictment
of the social order that prevails in America, the world’s wealthiest country,
whose government proclaims itself to be the globe’s leading democracy. They are
just one manifestation of the human toll taken by the vast and all-pervasive
inequality and mass poverty.”
IMMANENT COLLAPSE THE PENA-NIETO
REGIME AND FALL TO THE LA RAZA DRUG CARTELS ON AMERICAN OPEN AND UNDEFENDED BORDERS.
More significant still, a
former Mexican official, Jorge Castañeda, threatened to unleash
Mexican cartels onto the U.S. to retaliate for deportations of illegal
immigrants and the construction of a border wall.
“Mexico in a country whose
four wealthiest billionaires control as much wealth as the bottom half of the
population—the 65 million that live in poverty (which includes 13 million
living in extreme poverty)—and where the top 10 percent as a whole accounts for
67 percent of Mexico’s national wealth.”
….. the American Middle-Class at death’s door and knocking ….
Have you notice Democrat Party politicians always keep their fat mouths
closed tight on the topic of the Mexican drug cartels operating across
America???
THE DEATH OF AMERICA: MEXICO SERVES
UP THE HEROIN.
The death toll translates into an
average of one fatal overdose every 12 hours in the state of West Virginia.
*
THE DEATH of WHITE AMERICA
“Whites had the highest rate of
overdose deaths of any ethnicity, more than double the combined death rate for
blacks and Latinos.”
DOES ANYONE STILL BELIEVE OBAMA IS CHRISTIAN???
THE OBAMA SOLUTION TO END
WHITE CHRISTIAN AMERICA:
DRUG ADDICTION!!!
MEXICO: AMERICA’S DRUG
DEALER!
The same period has seen
a massive growth of social inequality, with income and wealth concentrated at
the very top of American society to an extent not seen since the 1920s.
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2016/08/obama-clintonomics-their-crony.html
“This study follows
reports released over the past several months documenting rising mortality
rates among US workers due to drug addiction and suicide, high rates of infant
mortality, an overall leveling off of life expectancy, and a growing gap
between the life expectancy of the bottom rung of income earners compared to those
at the top.”
THE MEXICAN
DRUG CARTELS HAVE GREATLY BENEFITED FROM BARACK OBAMA’S SABOTAGE OF HOMELAND
SECURITY.
LOS ANGELES IS THE WESTERN GATEWAY FOR LA RAZA HEROIN!
“Mexico in a country whose
four wealthiest billionaires control as much wealth as the bottom half of the
population—the 65 million that live in poverty (which includes 13 million
living in extreme poverty)—and where the top 10 percent as a whole accounts for
67 percent of Mexico’s national wealth.”
….. the American Middle-Class at death’s door and knocking ….
Have you notice Democrat Party politicians always keep their fat mouths
closed tight on the topic of the Mexican drug cartels operating across
America???
THE DEATH OF AMERICA: MEXICO SERVES
UP THE HEROIN.
The death toll translates into an
average of one fatal overdose every 12 hours in the state of West Virginia.
*
THE DEATH of WHITE AMERICA
“Whites had the highest rate of
overdose deaths of any ethnicity, more than double the combined death rate for
blacks and Latinos.”
DOES ANYONE STILL BELIEVE OBAMA IS CHRISTIAN???
THE OBAMA SOLUTION TO END
WHITE CHRISTIAN AMERICA:
DRUG ADDICTION!!!
MEXICO: AMERICA’S DRUG
DEALER!
The same period has seen
a massive growth of social inequality, with income and wealth concentrated at
the very top of American society to an extent not seen since the 1920s.http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2016/08/obama-clintonomics-their-crony.html
“This study follows
reports released over the past several months documenting rising mortality
rates among US workers due to drug addiction and suicide, high rates of infant
mortality, an overall leveling off of life expectancy, and a growing gap
between the life expectancy of the bottom rung of income earners compared to those
at the top.”
THE MEXICAN
DRUG CARTELS HAVE GREATLY BENEFITED FROM BARACK OBAMA’S SABOTAGE OF HOMELAND
SECURITY.
LOS ANGELES IS THE WESTERN GATEWAY FOR LA RAZA HEROIN!
MEXICAN HEROIN POURS OVER THE NARCOMEX-U.S. BORDER
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2017/05/while-these-filthy-politicians-cant.html
Americans die young, poor and addicted while politicians
angle for more amnesty and wider open borders with the LA RAZA cartels.
Americans die young, poor and addicted while politicians
angle for more amnesty and wider open borders with the LA RAZA cartels.
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