RealThingsVille
Please bear with me while I do something rarely seen around here (i.e. use political party material, straight-up), but I think there is an important point to be made based on the oft-repeated behaviour of our current provincial government. And, of course, this something you won't see discussed in any serious manner in the local proMedia once the horse race begins in earnest.
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First, there was this:
And now there is this:
Don't know about you all, but I for one do not want to see a fentanyl overdose graph that looks like the housing price graph at the top of the post come this time next year before something significant is finally done.
OK?
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And now for more up-close-and-personal news of the non-political kind.
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14 comments:
I know this will sound racist...China is killing our children..
Pressure needs to be applied to China itself...
Anyone convicted of exporting fentanyl out of China or receiving imported Fentanyl need a life sentence in jail..
New laws need to be written, Fentanyl producers, sellers, importers, exporters must be jailed, including being jailed while waiting for trial..including mandatory extradiction from China to Canada ..
Only the harshest of laws will stop this..
No diplomatic immunity, no release from jail pending trial, automatic jail and fast-tracked trials..
Sometimes the democratic bar needs to be lowered..
Cheers
One more thing Ross...
Christy Clark will try and score political points on this..
Something about a leopard and it's spots
considering how many youth are dying more like death penalty
http://www.poconorecord.com/news/20161106/opinion-give-death-penalty-to-drug-dealers-convicted-of-murder
Fentanyl Detected Overdose
Fentanyl Deaths
I listened to Health Minister Terry Lake being interviewed on CKNW this morning about the opioid crisis, and he was railing away at the lack of action by the feds and how they had to get their act together on things like high-level agreements with China, border inspections, and more funding for the RCMP. The reporter reminded him that his government was criticized because of slow approvals to prescribe Maloxone that may have contributed to at least one death in a provincial treatment center.
He immediately pivoted to the excuse that hindsight is 20/20 and a year ago no one could have predicted the massive increase in the importation of fentanyl and said he and the provincial health officer talk about that all the time.
So they couldn’t have predicted it and acted sooner, but the feds should have.
Crisis explained.
Lew: calling the fentanyl crisis an "opioid crisis" is one of those ear-wormy little inaccuracies that help the College of Physicians implement a "crackdown" policy on legitimate chronic pain sufferers, the vast majority of whom have absolutely nothing to do with the illicit street-drug overdose crisis. The College's policy subjects patients to arbitrary treatment ostensibly to address the fentanyl crisis on the streets which is almost entirely supplied by organized crime with fentanyl it makes and markets itself. Tokenism mightn't seem a farfetched reaction in the circumstance---at least until the alarm is attended, but considering the revelation that the College's stated rationales for its new policy have been largely disproved by facts law enforcement and health officials have revealed in focusing on the street crisis, and considering the policy's potential for harm, perfunctory tokenism by the College is a tad more than simply odd or conspicuous.
Put bluntly, the College seems to be taking advantage of the fentanyl crisis to rationalize a methodical demonization of opioids which includes a crackdown on prescribing opioids to chronic pain sufferers, apparently to back a narrative that ultimately absolves doctors of liability in irresponsible overprescription lawsuits. The narrative depends on, among other things, the premises that diverted prescriptions are a significant source of street-drugs and that a significant amount of street-addicts were hooked by way of overprescribing opioids. Yet it's evident that virtually all 80mg OxyContin tablets seized by police are counterfeit and laced with illegally-made fentanyl, and that most street-addicts got hooked by purchasing illicit-drugs on the streets.
The medical profession has gone to considerable lengths to create an overprescription crisis that doesn't exist, referring to it as an "opioid crisis" ---even when it's obvious the context means "fentanyl crisis"---subliminally preparing for more overt propaganda regularly heard on private radio: that the current street crisis results from alleged overprescription of opioids and that they should therefore only be prescribed for terminally ill patients. The remaining part of the narrative is, naturally, that opioids are too dangerous and patients too prone to abusing them to be prescribing them at all except in extreme circumstances. To affect this, doctors must also testify that they can't trust patients because can't tell if they're lying, that opioids have never been shown to be effective anyway, or that doctors don't really understand pain because they don't teach it at doctor school. The obvious lameness of these arguments and the weight of refuting evidence begs the question: why would the profession go to such an extent and put patients in harm's way?
The only time the College's two premises were substantially true to any extent had to do with the OxyContin fiasco--that's when there really was overprescription: it was on the manufacturer's word that OxyContin wasn't addictive---which was eventually proved a bald-faced lie---and it was only OxyContin, not other opioids; that's also when patients tended to get hooked and start behaving like addicts---but again, it was just in the special case of the OxyContin fiasco. Class action lawsuits continue because hundreds of thousands of patients, maybe more, got unwittingly hooked when doctors overprescribed OxyContin on the maker's false claim, each settlement (compensation for addiction treatment, wrongful death, pain and suffering, etc.) broadening the liability to include any doctor who prescribed OxyContin to a patient who subsequently became a junkie. Talkin a huge amount of money here. I suspect that's what's really behind the College's policy.
So let's make sure to refer to the fentanyl crisis by its proper name and not help perpetuate an ulteriorly motivated campaign that harms innocent sick people. Thanx
if its not a photo op, Christy isn't going to care. Its families first, jobs, jobs, jobs, 100K jobs and trillions of dollars. anything real just doesn't get addressed unless it looks like its going to effect her. The rise in housing prices forced the photo op queen to do something, even if it wasn't much. she could have lost an election if the voters were homeless.
Now those who take fent. by accident or on purpose, those only amount to about 60 or 70 dead a month, so there isn't going to be a lot of impact on the population at large. Will the B.C. Liebrals do anything? Not likely this is one of those things that just don't generate good thought, great photo ops or fun times. It also won't get donors to open their wallets.
The province has the highest rate of child poverty, the disabled live well below the poverty line, children have died in care due to neglect. Have Christy and her B.C. Lieberals done anything to improve things. Not so much so no one had better expect Christy or this government to do anything about the number of people dying from Fent. they just don't count in Christy's books.
Christy decides to spend $12B on Site C, which is neither wanted nor needed by most. Now try to think of $12B in the fight against fent. i.e. injection sites, more rehab centres, more resources to track it and prosecute importers. Ya, its a nice dream but not happening. Its not great photo op stuff.
Selling fent. these days, ought to have a charge of attempted murder attached to it. In Alberta in two cases where death was caused by the use of Fent. the dealers were charged with attempted murder. Why can't B.C. do the same.
Its not a great secret where it is imported from nor who distributes it. Not much is done about either.
Alberta passed legislation to ban pill presses in late May of this year. Fines range from about %50,000 to over $300,000 and possible jail time. There is no reason that our provincial government couldn't have taken the same measures. Their lack of inaction and deflection to other levels of government were nothing more than a dereliction of duty.
My guess is that there were no votes to be gained by dealing with this issue and a minute amount of lip service was deemed sufficient by the party brass. I also suspect that many of the BC Liberal Party supporters could care less.
Almost makes you wonder if there is a pill press lobby...
On the fake 'Oxy is not addictive' prop-offensive and all it has wrought down south where cheap black tar heroin stepped in to keep the epidemic raging after the flurry of script writing got the ball rolling, the go to guy is Sam Quinones.
He talked to Maron recently...Here.
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Thanks Scotty.
Two of my relatives have recently experienced the concerted effort on the part of the medical establishment to drastically reduce opioid prescription. One of them died two weeks ago after spending a month or so in far more pain than necessary.
A Google search using the term “opioid crisis” shows how mainstream and pervasive the term is used to broadly cover legal and illegal use of natural, semi-synthetic and synthetic opioids, so at this point we might be facing too steep an uphill battle to successfully differentiate between crises with another moniker. Especially with the advent of newer illicit synthetics like carfentanil to further muddy the waters. But I’ll accept your caution and describe the issue more judiciously in future.
Cheers.
BTW, about 8:15 this morning on CKNW there was very good interview with a UBC prof on the issue and I recommend the audio vault to have a listen.
Mr. Lake is in Ottawa today for a 'summit' on the matter.
Hopefully, real concerted action will quickly follow.
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Some months ago it was suggested the province ban the sale of pill presses and our good Premier photo - op, said, NO, it was the jurisdiction of the federal government. I would suggest she didn't want to pass a law because, 1. It would have required a fall session; 2. its easier to blame the federal government; 3. who knows who uses these presses in B.C. Who knows perhaps there is a pill press lobby. with all those private parties to "collect" cash we really don't know who the money is coming from now do we.
as to Lake being in Ottawa, right, as if that is going to do anything. We have to wait for Ottawa. Of course now Christy Photo op queen can blame the feds for the Fent. problem in B.C.
As Grant G. writes, we need to deal with China on the subject of importing Fent. and or its ingredients, but that is not going to happen. When the federal government abolished the Port Police force, I do believe some time under Mulroney's reign, there went most of the policing in Ports. Bringing in drugs, etc via the Port of Vancouver is very easy and not much is done to prevent it. That would cost money, money Christy, photo op queen would rather spend on a bridge to nowhere and a dam which will slide away some day.
C'mon kiddies! Connect the dots. A big chunk of the real estate business is fueled by drug money. Great way to launder drug money. Real estate scum own sparkle pony bitch. Gotta protect her people.
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