Opioids dopes

President Donald Trump’s war on opioids is beginning to look more like a war on his drug policy office.

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway has taken control of the opioids agenda, quietly freezing out drug policy professionals and relying instead on political staff to address a lethal crisis claiming about 175 lives a day. The main response so far has been to call for a border wall and to promise a "just say no” campaign.

  Politico

How in the name of Sam Hill is a border wall going to address the opioid crisis? The opioid crisis is due to overprescribing and pharmaceutical companies dumping massive quantities of the drugs into local areas where addiction is rampant, along with DEA and Congressional complicity. The deadly shit that's coming over the border is a direct result of the demand for drugs created by the doctors and drug companies.

"Just say no." Are you fucking kidding me? How'd that work for Nancy Reagan? Maybe they could get Melania to push that, instead of the campaign she's not mounted against bullying, which was supposedly going to be her thing. Surely if Melania told people to just say no, they would. Maybe they'd even just say no to their doctors who are prescribing the drugs.

Idiots. Willful idiots. They know damned well what's causing this crisis. They either don't care or they're complicit in keeping it going.

"It’s fair to say the ONDCP has pretty much been systematically excluded from key decisions about opioids and the strategy moving forward,” said a former Trump administration staffer, using shorthand for the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which has steered federal drug policy since the Reagan years.

The office’s acting director, Rich Baum, who had served in the office for decades before Trump tapped him as the temporary leader, has not been invited to Conway’s opioid cabinet meetings, according to his close associates. His schedule, obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request, included no mention of the meetings. Two political appointees from Baum’s office, neither of whom are drug policy experts, attend on the office’s behalf, alongside officials from across the federal government, from HHS to Defense.

I wouldn't give you a farthing (what's a farthing?) for the government's drug policy ever since Johnson started his infamous "war on drugs," but the fact that the head of the drug office has been replaced by two political appointees below him speaks volumes.

In Ohio just this week, it was first lady Melania Trump who attended an opioid event at a children’s hospital. The president toured a manufacturing plant and gave a speech on tax cuts.

Good god. They may actually put Melania out on this.

A White House spokesperson declined to disclose who attends the meetings, and Baum did not respond to a request for comment, although the White House later forwarded an email in which Baum stressed the office's central role in developing national drug strategy.

Yes, we can see.

A little documentary recommendation: "Death by Fentanyl" in "The Naked Truth" series on Netflix.

And, also: any one of NPR's several opioid crisis reports. This one - Pharmaceutical Founder Arrested In Alleged Nationwide Opioid Scheme - mirrors the Netflix story.

Or how about these two Washington Post articles:

•  Investigation: The DEA slowed enforcement while the opioid epidemic grew out of control
• The opioid crisis isn't just about negligence. It's about complicity.

Or this CBS report: "Ex-DEA agent: opioid crisis fueled by drug industry and congress"

Take your pick. Or google "opioid crisis" and see where it takes you.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.