Tuesday, September 11, 2018

OPIOIDS - CHINA'S WAR ON AMERICA

A NATION DIES OF OPIOID ADDICTION

AMERICAN BIG PHARMA, RED CHINA and NARCOMEX PARTNER FOR THE BIG BUCKS
“The drug epidemic is the product of capitalism and the policies of the capitalist parties, both Democrats and Republicans. There is, first of all, the role of the pharmaceutical companies, which have amassed huge profits from the deceptive marketing of opioid pain killers, which they claimed were not addictive. Prescriptions for opioids such as Percocet, Oxycontin and Vicodin skyrocketed from 76 million in 1991 to nearly 259 million in 2012. What are the numbers and profits now?

OPIOID AMERICA: CHINA AND MEXICO PARTNER TO ADDICT AMERICA

http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-opioid-war-on-america-chin

 $ERVANT OF RED CHINA FOR RAW CA$H, $ENATOR FEIN$TEIN’S DRIVER IS A $PY FOR HER CHINE$E PAYMA$TER$!


THE CLINTONS AND RED CHINA:
A MONEY MAKING TRAITORSHIP!
"Ask Jeff Sessions about the charges.  Money was flowing into the Clinton Foundation from all over the world, disguised, rerouted through a Canadian charity, all to obscure its origins."

OPIOID MURDERS BY BIG PHARMA


“While drug distributors have paid a total of $400 million in fines over the past 10 years, their combined revenue during this same period was over $5 trillion.”

“Opioids have ravaged families and devastated communities across the country. Encouraging their open use undermines the rule of law and will do nothing to quell their continued abuse, let alone the problems underlying mass addiction.”


Congress Seeks Ways to Punish China for Sending Illicit Synthetic Opioids to U.S.


Most illicit fentanyl is manufactured in China, sold online
September 10, 2018 Updated: September 11, 2018   
WASHINGTON—Lawmakers are seeking ways to hold China accountable for its role in fueling the opioid crisis.
China is the source of most illicit synthetic opioids that end up in the United States, either through the postal system or via Mexico and Canada.
More than 71,500 Americans died of a drug overdose in 2017, according to provisional datareleased Aug. 15 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 40 percent of those deaths can be attributed to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, which was originally developed as a painkiller and anesthetic.
Fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more potent than heroin—two milligrams of fentanyl is a lethal dose for a non-opioid user. It is often mixed with heroin or pressed into fake painkiller pills made to look like real prescription drugs, making them more deadly.
“I know that [China] could take offense at anything we say here, but we have to be candid—our American brothers and sisters are dying in every one of our districts,” said Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), chair of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee for Africa, global health, global human rights, and international organizations, at a hearing on Capitol Hill on Sept. 6.


A gelcap containing heroin and fentanyl sells for around $8 in Ohio. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

“Chinese officials have repeatedly dodged the blame for contributing to the fentanyl crisis,” he said.
Top Chinese officials have pushed back on any blame, saying there is no proof that illicit fentanyl is coming from China and that the United States should focus on controlling demand, Smith said.
Paul Knierim, deputy chief of operations of global enforcement for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), said China is one of the world’s top producers of the precursor chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamine and fentanyl, as well as the chemicals used to process heroin and cocaine.
“Over the past several years, DEA has identified numerous illicit fentanyl-class substances and hundreds of synthetic drugs from at least eight different drug classes, the vast majority of which are manufactured in China,” Knierim said.
“Because of its low dosage range and potency, one kilogram of fentanyl purchased in China for $3,000 to $5,000 can generate upwards of $1.5 million in revenue on the illicit market—with the potential of being lethal for 500,000 people.”

Using the Postal System

Knierim said drug traffickers often use freight forwarders—companies that arrange importing and exporting of goods—to ship fentanyl to the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
“The original supplier will provide the package to a freight forwarding company or individual, who transfers it to another freight forwarder, who then takes custody and presents the package to customs for export,” Knierim said.
“The combination of a chain of freight forwarders and multiple transfers of custody makes it challenging for law enforcement to track these packages. Often, the package will intentionally have missing, incomplete, and/or inaccurate information.”


Paul Knierim, deputy chief of operations of global enforcement for the Drug Enforcement Administration, speaks at a hearing on China fentanyl production, in Washington on Sept. 6, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)
Paul Knierim, deputy chief of operations of global enforcement for the Drug Enforcement Administration, speaks at a hearing on China fentanyl production, in Washington on Sept. 6, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

For small packages, the U.S. Postal Service is the preferred method for drug traffickers, as the total volume is high, and less information is required to get a package through.
The USPS handled more than 275 million inbound international packages in 2016, according to an investigative report conducted by the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and published in January.
That volume is three times larger than the combined volume (approximately 65.7 million) handled by the three largest express services—FedEx, UPS, and DHL.
On average, for the 2017 calendar year, 64 percent (or 204 million) of packages sent to the United States had no advanced electronic data about “who sent the package, where the package was going, or what was in the package,” according to the report.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is responsible for identifying suspicious packages sent through the international mail stream—primarily at mail centers located at five major airports, in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Miami.
For many years, packages from China weren’t sent from the USPS to CBP for inspection, due to high volume.

Cooperation

Kirsten Madison, assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, said the State Department is trying to deepen counternarcotics cooperation with China.
“This bilateral cooperation has yielded concrete results, including arrests, seizures, and takedowns of clandestine labs by Chinese law enforcement,” she said.
The Department of Justice announced its first indictments against two Chinese manufacturers of fentanyl and other opiate substances last year.
Approximately 160,000 chemical companies operate in China, according to the State Department.


Kirsten Madison, assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, speaks at a hearing on China's fentanyl production, in Washington on Sept. 6, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)
Kirsten Madison, assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, speaks at a hearing on China’s fentanyl production, in Washington on Sept. 6, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

On Aug. 29, China added a further 32 new psychoactive substances, including fentanyl analogues, to its controlled substance list, bringing the total to 175 since 2015. However, clandestine chemists can easily continue developing and synthesizing new synthetic opioids that don’t appear on any schedule of controlled substances, said Knierim.
“Sadly, these substances are often first discovered when DEA receives reports from local hospitals and coroners in connection with a spate of overdoses,” he said. “Unfortunately, the existing process to temporarily schedule a substance is reactionary and not agile enough to keep up with bad actors engineering illicit substances for the express purpose of skirting our laws.”
The DEA has operated an office in Beijing for the past 30 years to work with the Chinese regime. Knierim said the agency also plans to open bureaus in Guangzhou and Shanghai.

Limited Motivation

Opioid addiction isn’t a problem in China, and Smith doubts the regime has any real motivation to stem the flow.
“The Chinese have been masters in purporting to be in compliance with international treaties,” he said, citing the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. “They’ve milked that big-time, for years.”
“It doesn’t take much for a police state like China, if it’s serious, to crack down,” he said. “They certainly crack down on dissent, they crack down on labor unions. … They know what people are saying when they go on Facebook, or any other social media. Their abilities there are incredible.”
Smith asked Madison if the State Department would look into using the Global Magnitsky Act—which targets corrupt officials and human-rights abusers—against Chinese officials who might be complicit in the illicit opioid trade.
“Perhaps it is time we start thinking outside the box and use something like Global Magnitsky to ensure that corrupt Chinese officials and narco-traffickers are held to account,” he said.
“I’ve chaired 65-plus hearings on Chinese human-rights abuses and the complicity of the Chinese government in human-rights abuse is legendary. It is so awful.”


1 in 4 Elderly Americans Hooked on Xanax: Study

September 11, 2018 Updated: September 11, 2018   
A new study seeks to 
shine a light on millions of 
elderly Americans and 
their addiction to anxiety 
or sleep relieving drugs, as 
the opioid epidemic 
continues to rock the 
country at the same time.
Benzodiazepines, a class of sedative that comes in the form of drugs like Valium or Xanax are meant to calm anxiety, improve sleep, or quell depression. But the study, compiled by researchers from the University of Michigan (U-M), found patients ran a “high risk” of becoming drug dependent.
Researchers found that one in four senior Americans (averaging 78 years old) who were prescribed these benzodiazepine sedatives ended up using them in the long term, for at least one year after.
The findings, published on Sept. 10, in the JAMA Internal Medicine journal looked at benzodiazepine use by low-income older adults in a Pennsylvania program that aids with drug costs.
Researchers studied 576 adults who received their first benzodiazepine prescription between 2008 to 2016. Of them, 152 (26 percent) still had a current or recent prescription one year later.
The findings come despite warnings against the long-term use of Benzodiazepines, especially among older people. Usage can potentially raise the risk of car crashes, falls, broken hips, and other harmful side effects.
They found that for every 10 additional days of prescribed medication, the patient’s risk for long-term usage nearly doubled over the next year.
Lauren Gerlach, the lead author of the study and a geriatric psychiatrist at U-M said stricter prescribing rules and alternative treatments need to take place.
“This shows that we need to help providers start with the end in mind when prescribing a benzodiazepine, by beginning with a short-duration prescription and engage patients in discussions of when to reevaluate their symptoms and begin tapering the patient off,” she said in a statement.
“We also need to educate providers about effective non-pharmaceutical treatment alternatives, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, for these patients.”
Gerlach also pointed out 2 other “concerning” findings from the study.
The first was that Benzodiazepine users who ended up using the drug long-term were more likely to have a diagnosis of anxiety, which the report noted is sometimes an indication for long-term use.
The second finding was how long-term users were more likely to report sleep problems. Benzodiazepines are not recommended for long-term use as a sleep aid, since it may detrimentally affect sleep times the longer they are used.

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