US Health

Drug Overdoses in the United States

I demand we recognize our drug demand problem, and quit kidding deluding ourselves there is a supply problem.

Death Rate and Rate Change by Year

Nearly every year since 1968, the rate of deaths, calculated per 100,000 to normalize for population changes, has increased. American addiction and thirst for drugs has swelled, and the consequences have been fatal and devastating for family, friends, and communities.

Make no mistake about it, however, this is not a supply problem -- it is a demand problem. Regardless of your dogma and your ideologies, we have never and will never rid American streets of anything illegal, as long as there is a will from the consumer that outweighs the perceived consequences. Any kid in America can get any drug they want, because for centuries United States prohibitions have been failures and politicians continue to saber-rattle and jawbone the supplying nations and punish the dealers and supply chain, which is a tremendous disservice to American communities, not to mention a tragic perpetuation of structural racism.

Start giving 5 and 10 year sentences to white suburban teenagers and old white politicians for doing heroin or oxy and the overdose numbers will drop like lead balloons. The folks who actually want the drugs never get to appreciate the inhumanity of the system like the dealers--they get the easy way out--death.

Death Rate and Rate Change by Year

Joe Biden was the first president in TWELVE terms (that's FORTY-EIGHT YEARS!) to see the overdose death rate decrease, and it decreased a whopping 17.7% from the end of Trump's first term, when it skyrocketed nearly 29%.

America forgot to celebrate this win, because it never realized it happened. American was too busy consuming this fiction that foreign nations and immigrants were to blame for our drug problems and violence in our streets (another disinformative claim).

Congratulations to us for reversing the trend -- let's hope it continues!