Physical and Mental Health Issue: US Citizens and their Love of Drugs. Drugs deaths are down and have been for a while, but...

[Dante]

Its not scape goating. When Immigrants ended upliving on the streets in tents, and had to take over school gymnasiums, and hotel buildings to live, because too many of them came at once..... there was a real problem.
Part of that real problem was we were unable to properly VET the ones we allowed in... were unable to sufficiently protect migrant children with the absolute certainty they were not being abused, and plus things got so bad for communities that even liberal mayors who were in favor of sanctuary cities.. were forced to complain about it.

You sit here and want to over simplify things with quippy catch phrases, well Wake the F*** up.
You cant actually be an American. You never seem to post one thing that reflects the wish of benefit for this country.

Most of the people we see living on the streets in tents in our neighborhoods are native born Americans like the family profiled in the OP linked article.

Let's start out with this woman and her family. It seems her whole family contributes mightily to the problem.

One of Evelyn Tharp’s sons died of a drug overdose. So did her brother. And two nephews and a niece. Her surviving son and daughter wrestle with severe mental illness and drug use.

 

[Dante]

Supply and Demand: 101

The Old Time Bootleggers knew it.

I keep seeing things about foreigners being responsible for Americans doing drugs and dying from poor lifestyle choices. I believe we need to stop making excuses. Hold people accountable as well as responsible for their own actions. This does not mean be mean to others, scrap empathy and sympathy. It doesn't even mean tough love as many understand it. It means what it says:

Hold Americans responsible and accountable for doing drugs and dying from poor lifestyle choices.

Drug deaths are down in one Ohio county and much of the U.S. Why is complex.​

The story of Hamilton County is the story of much of America in 2025. Overdose deaths have fallen sharply, offering hope the crisis will further ease.

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Let's start out with this woman and her family. It seems her whole family contributes mightily to the problem.

One of Evelyn Tharp’s sons died of a drug overdose. So did her brother. And two nephews and a niece. Her surviving son and daughter wrestle with severe mental illness and drug use.

Each week, Coyne drops by the family’s home in the hardscrabble Price Hill neighborhood. She ferries Tharp’s 44-year-old daughter to receive medication that treats opioid addiction. Coyne has arranged many stays at hospitals and treatment centers for Tharp’s 39-year-old son — and revived him multiple times after finding him unconscious from overdoses.

“He’d be dead if not for Sarah,” Tharp, 67, said.

wtf?

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The story of Hamilton County, which includes Cincinnati, is the story of much of America at the start of 2025. Deaths from drug overdoses have fallen sharply, offering hope the crisis will further ease. Here, as in many communities ravaged by the opioid crisis, users are adapting to an evolving illicit drug supply dominated by potent fentanyl and often mixed with other synthetic drugs. At the same time, lifesaving antidotes flood the streets, and teams swoop in to offer services to people who have overdosed.

...

The reduction in deaths is not distributed evenly. A national decline probably reflects sharp decreases in more populous states that began in mid-2023, said Nabarun Dasgupta, an epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In many states, declines in deaths started even earlier, he said. “The Trump administration is inheriting an encouraging landscape of declining overdoses,” Dasgupta said.

In states where illegal fentanyl may have permeated more recently — such as Alaska and Nevada — officials note increases in fatal overdoses.

Changes in the ingredients of illegal drugs may also play a significant role in reducing deaths.

In Ohio as in many states, fentanyl dealers add drugs such as the animal tranquilizer xylazine, which prolongs the sedating effect but also causes nasty flesh wounds. Paradoxically, the mix may save lives, staving off opioid withdrawal so that users may consume less fentanyl each day, Dasgupta said. “Fewer rolls of the dice,” he said.

Dear OhPleaseJustQuit - Dante's signature (for now):
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"Can people trust, fully trust a convicted felon?"
.

Is this Magaland, Magadonia?

 

[shockedcanadian]

Bullshit.

Big drug busts in Maine -- all American made.

Most fentanyl seizures 90+% ensnare native born Americans.

Stop making excuses for terribly poor choices of people who happen to be lucky enough to be born in America. They are a drain.

You are an evil man to speak this way. People get into all types of situations and experiment for a number of reasons. You never judge a man unless you have walked in his shoes. Now if a guy does something that is personal to you, fire away. Otherwise, be a humble and empathetic.

I knew a kid in high school who was quiet and certainly on the spectrum. He was bullied by others frequently. Kid wouldn't hurt a fly. I saw him later and he was an addict of something demonic, just a complete junkie, even had bruises on his face because he probably messed with the wrong guy.

This once quiet kid I knew was a shell of himself. I was told years later he took his own life. The compounding of being slow and bullied. Who introduced him to the poisons? THAT person bears a hell of a lot of the burden for this kids demise. People who are quiet and sensitive are G-ds gift to us. They project the humanity so many others have killed inside them,

I remember one guy bullied me mercilessly, in front of others too and I couldn't do anything but sit and listen to it in class. Another guy felt bad for me and spoke up as I was quiet, he was hitting a sensitive topic and he had failed a grade or two and was much bigger. He said to him "what if this guy gets angry and throws punches at you", his response "he can go ahead and do so if he wants", knowing I couldn't as I would take a severe beating right in class.

Many years later I saw the same guy, now we are both men and he was quite different to me as I was 60 pounds heavier and six inches taller, "hey man how are you? Wow you look good" etc. Whatever. I never forgot that verbal assault I took but I was impenetrable then so it never lingered. It was a serious moral victory though as he got back in his car knowing he would make that same offer on that day, to that ShockCanadian (not that I was some guy who got in fights).

It's like drinking, addictions to gambling (perhaps the worst of all addictions, I've seen what it did to my wife and I know how I suffered at her hands) or many other vices. Sometimes a person succumbs to them because they are a bad batch.

Trump himself has been honest about his older brother Fred. You can tell he really respected the man. Trump is like me in that he recognizes the potential to become addicted to something via predisposition or what have you so he just never drinks to tempt fate. That's because of his brother telling him not to at one point I believe. So many decades later and he won't forget what his brother told him. The guy had everyone going for him but he couldn't fight the demons.

From all walks of life, all circumstances, all situations, people fall victim to an addiction, vice or bad decisions. I've seen them both.

I saw a young lady one night panhandling as I was leaving a club. I was in my 20s and doing well at the time. I was a few sheets to the wind but I saw this girl who I gave a $5 bill to and I told her, "you don't have to be out here. You can apply for welfare you know"? My concern was real, I didn't want her to be a victim of the streets, do the wrong things, she still had hope. I'd been on those streets for a short time as a teenager and I was fortunate to survive. Many do not.

Meh, sorry for the length, the key takeaway is that when you say "we all make our own decisions" you take away so much that is outside of our control. Yes, what you CAN control you do, work hard, improve, be creative, find your talents and let them rise etc.

However, often in life it is about timing, good or bad, like a sick stroke of fate, even just a bad night or two, a bad interaction with someone or whatever.

I can't have hatred for an addict. Just never start and you'll never be addicted but not everyone has the right constitution or they fall into a difficult situation or pressures and they just want to escape. I've avoided MANY offers of free stuff that others would take on a dare. Once I hit a certain age it was not my style, I am low key, not a thrill seeker in that respect.