Friday, February 23, 2018

Guns vs Drugs

A.S. (one of my SVP Cincinnati Partners) sent me a link to Great Courses lecture on the Opioid Epidemic with University of Michigan Professor Thad Polk.

What is the single most common cause of death for people under age 50 in the USA?  Not car accidents; not aids, not gun related deaths.

Here's the answer:

Source:  Great Courses - Thad Polk Ph.D.


The media attention and national dialogue about the tragic loss of 17 people in a gun related death crisis in a Florida school is a natural reaction to shock and compressed timing/location (at School)  of those who died. Yet the slow -  one by one - deaths by overdose are hidden from our view and slip into obscurity.  This problem is overwhelmingly more important than gun control.  

Yes we lost 17 in less than an hour because of a mentally unstable person with access to a gun.  But what about the loss of 175 people EVERY DAY (7 per hour) by their own addictive condition using the equivalent of a gun inside their brain (that death instrument hidden quite effectively inside schools, medicine cabinets, and economically available for delivery to your door).

Where is our media outrage and national dialogue for the Opioid Epidemic?


PS -  Guns and Drugs by the numbers:

(1)  There are over 310 million guns owned by 37% of USA households.  Pew Research 2/2013
(2) Healthcare providers wrote over 259 million prescriptions for painkillers in 2012 and there are 2.1 million people suffering from Opioid substance abuse and 467,000 addicted to heroin.  CDC and Drugabuse.gov




Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Lord Over Drugs

It was an "Mighty" Evening with the M5 - Mighty Methodist Men's Movie Ministry.  A last minute organization by leader T.C. resulted in 15 of us watching 15:17 to Paris.   My favorite line (for obvious reasons) - "My GOD is bigger than your statistics".

Naturally, I agree with this statement by the Mom refusing to jump to drugs as any solution to parenting.   The Teacher jumped to the conclusion that the son had Attention Deficit Disorder and suggested medication. A "fix it" with medicine problem solving mentality.  While I understand (especially with my own back pain at times) the real need for drugs and medication, I also believe we are an overdrugged culture and jump to that solution as the easiest way out.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that more than one quarter of all American children and teens now take prescription drugs on a regular basis, too -- and this percentage is on the rise as well. Many of these children are taking dangerous psychiatric medications like Ritalin and Risperdal for so-called behavioral problems like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Could it be that the early history of drug acceptance for all ailments (and especially to our children) was the seed of our hard drug problems today? 

Now the big news (although it is old news) is about the Opioid and epidemic overdose crisis that is infecting the USA (over 130 deaths per day).   Check out this interactive map from 2009 to 2014 to see it's spread and geographical dispersion at  A Deadly Crisis

One of the SVP Cincinnati Fastpitch finalists is Drug Free Club of America  and is trying to change the landscape of this picture by proactively incenting youth to say no to drugs.  

Can Government help with these statistics?   How long has the war on drugs been publically proclaimed?  Nixon used those words in 1971.  Looks like Government is losing the war.

Time for something bigger than statistics.