Dark side of drug abuse

The darkness that is substance abuse has always been with us. Alcohol has been around, apparently, since Ancient Egypt. A century ago, it was the poppy fields of China and Central Asia and the opiates they became. A “Boxer Rebellion” brewed in China at the turn of the 20th century, as the Chinese resented foreigners using their land to manufacture drugs for Europe. During both World Wars, chemistry brought new ways for people to abuse themselves in the form of amphetamines, quaaludes and valium.

Here in the United States, imprisoning substance abusers was a reaction to the “Yippie” generation of the late 1960s and 1970s. LSD, mushrooms and other psychedelic experiences, along with ubiquitous use of marijuana, were a part of the baby boomer youth and a coping mechanism for the dislocation from the Viet Nam disillusionment. Draconian laws were passed as a “law and order” movement seized ascendancy in our approach to criminal justice.

In the law of unintended consequences, this tough on drugs movement directly led to the rise of narcotraffickers and Miami’s “cocaine cowboys.” After powder cocaine ran its course, crack cocaine infected urban America. Marijuana, while still a major domestic cash crop in some states, piggy-backed on the distribution networks from Colombia and, then, Mexico, leaving us still today struggling to stem the flow of illegal drugs across our borders. Still, the addiction that came from pushing drug abuse into a black market of gangs and narcotraffickers did not penetrate the consciousness of “Main Street.” The general public essentially ignored what has happening to so many broken souls.

In the last 20 years or so, addiction has penetrated suburban and rural parts of our country. These communities have not been immune to the scourge of drug abuse as Methamphetamine and now, our newest challenge, a prescription pill epidemic that is killing our loved ones and neighbors.

This era of opioid addiction echoes when crack cocaine and methamphetamine abuse were in their hey day. We missed an opportunity to address addiction as a national health crisis in the past and now we seem completely unable to develop a sound national approach to combat the latest. State and local governments are certainly trying to come up with strategies to redirect our criminal justice system away from a “lock ‘em first” approach. Yet, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has mandated that the Justice Department should always seek maximum prison sentences.

The problem is that the “bad guys” are not the same as we have been dealing with in the past. While it is true that there are “pill factories” in Mexico and elsewhere, the bulk of our opioid addiction comes from our own existing supplies. In this sense, this is a cousin to the spike in meth abuse, which was fueled by “home brews” set up by meth addicts. In other words, we can’t blame porous borders for the current epidemic.

Nationally, the annual number of overdose deaths from prescription drugs and/or heroin has almost tripled from 2012 to 2015, according to the National Institutes of Health. This number does not include any increased non-drug abuse suicide rates from those depressed by the grip of addiction. To put this in perspective, in Georgia, about 1,000 people a year died from drug overdose between 2006 and 2014.

Locally, in middle Georgia, there was an outbreak of drug overdose in our local hospitals. As many as four people died, with dozens of others admitted into emergency rooms in the throes of an overdose. The cause of this rash of overdoses is unknown.

Speculation is that a mixture of homegrown fetanyl-laced pills are being distributed. This changed pretty dramatically with the adoption of the Affordable Care Act, to a large extent due to the Medicaid expansion components of it. This has not solved the epidemic, but it has blunted its impact in many communities, where treatment programs are funded with public monies.

In the face of this epidemic, the worst of our schizophrenic attitude has to be our healthcare system. Right now, we are at war with ourselves. Historically, addiction treatment has been an orphan disease in terms of health insurance coverage. “Obama Care” mandated such coverage and expanded Medicaid to include addiction treatment. More is needed, much more.

Recently, the Trump administration announced that it was releasing less than $500 million in federal grant monies to our 50 states for addiction treatment. This prescription pill epidemic is not a $500 million problem, particularly if Trump Care becomes law and mandates for substance abuse in health insurance policies and Medicaid funds are wiped out. Criminal justice needs to come down hard and investigate “pill doctors” willy-nilly prescribing pain pills to patients who become addicted to opiates. Treatment programs need to be expanded and fully funded.

Substance abuse is not a problem individual families can solve without aggressive help from governments. We have a health care epidemic in communities through out the nation. This is an issue, which should cut across partisan lines. Let’s do something and do something now, before another 1,000 Georgian citizens die from overdose and/or drug induced suicide.

Local attorney Jim Rockefeller owns the Rockefeller Law Center and is a former Houston County chief assistant district attorney and a former Miami prosecutor. Visit www.rockefellerlawcenter.com to submit confidential legal questions and to review former articles and frequently asked questions.

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