Apparently, there’s another epidemic ravaging America, and I had no clue.
Which isn’t hard, because I cultivate not having a clue, but even this one is surprising to me.
Who knew … that fentanyl overdoses are the leading cause of death in ’Murrica for those between 18 and 49.
What? Yeh. News
Makes me wonder if (a) this is a culling, and (b) if the cost of living is just too high (pun? Yahbad)
It seems as though the You Ess of Ayyyy got caught with her knickers in a bunch because neither the administrations of Obama nor Trump nor Biden really understood just how bad our opioid addiction really was/is.
Apparently, once the feds came down really, really hard on Big Pharma (Oxycontin? Anyone? Anyone? Everyone!!!) and put the legal manufacturers out of business … oh look, a criminal enterprise vacuum.
Al Capone in 4K HD, but from China, and more so Mexico.
Did you know I did not know but did you know that Mexico had 26,000 homicides in 2022?
My goodness that’s a lot of bodies.
And directly related to the war for control of the drug trade … to feed ‘Murrica’s habit.
Wow.
Guess that gets me back to my original question … are folks checking out on purpose?
Question #2: Is the Gub’mint letting them?
In the Land of Fruits and Nuts / oh wait, I mean San Francisco / in the Land of Fruits and Nuts, members of the … “unhoused” … community typically have lots of drug addictions … no surprise there ‘cuz how hard it is to be homeless really methinks really, really, really hard, like don’t know how they do it hard, like everyday kind of hard … but anyhoo LoF&N had outreach centers for the … “unhoused” … so they could get showers or a meal or — get this — a safe space to get high, so if they overdosed, they could get a dose of Narcan to bring them back.
Well, surprisenot, funding issues and controversy (over giving addicts a spot to get lit go figure) have resulted in the last of these places to close beginning 2023 … so the EMTs are saying there will be bodies in the street.
Rather than helping someone recover from an overdose after the Narcan blast, they’ll just bring sheets to cover the bodies because it will be too late, the drugs will have done their damage, and the person will be all the way dead, instead of mostly almost dead.
Maybe this is the official solution to the homeless crisis … let ‘em die, burn ‘em up (cremation), bury ‘em deep (potter’s field) … guess dead is cheaper if not better
(I love how nobody caught the misspelling in King’s “Pet Sematary” for the longest time … man is a genius and a national treasure, even if his movies suck … ‘cept the ’76 Carrie, and Dead Zone … BTW I will mourn when Chris Walken dies / so much admire for Frank White & Vincenzo Coccotti … and “buckwheats” … how very horrid)
but as I digress down this rabbit hole, methinks that the problem (people on the streets) is too big to solve at this point, and we (the collective we) have thrown up our hands and given in to the inevitable.
We no longer owe a debt of humanity to each other, and soon will eat our young. And our old. And our unwanted.
It’s scary (but not really ‘cuz FAITH) to think that this … all this suffering of mankind, womankind, kidkind, serves the LORD because HE is not a respecter of persons, but of faith, and good works, and humility, and grace.
But most important … charity. {1 Corin. 13:13}
More of that, we (the collective we) could heal the world.
But.
The masters of mankind work to keep us distracted by/in/with nonsense.
(TikTok? Instagram? Anyone? Anyone? Everyone!!!)
Methinks, however, we
(the collective we)
are much stronger
than they
(masters of mankind/purveyors of nonsense).
We just have to recognize that, and act accordingly.
The big question: Can we? Will we? Do we really want to?
Or will we (the collective we) choose nonsense?