Goldman Asks The Big Question: What Does The Opioid Epidemic Mean For The Economy?
America is slowly waking up to the opioid epidemic.
And it's been a long time coming.
Later today, we'll publish a letter from a reader that sheds a bit of light on just how late the government and the mainstream media truly are when it comes to recognizing what's going on.
Basically, it's a "you think you know, but you have no idea," type of deal.
Opioid painkillers have been an epidemic for more than two decades in some parts of America. In Appalachia, for instance, oxycodone and hydrocodo
Never could figure out the attraction to drugs. How stupid. I have a hard time feeling sorry for them.
“Contrary to what you’ll read in the papers, almost none of this has anything to do with Mexican drug cartels and indicting “El Chapo” won’t do one goddamn thing to stop it. Indeed, in many cases heroin addiction is a consequence — not a proximate cause.” You’re goddamn right. I’m going on a slight tangent here. Politicians back home (MX) ramped up the -borrowing a term from American folklore- “war on drugs” about 10 years ago. Our problem is drug-related but a bit different though. We’ve had contraband and ‘bandits’ since pre-colonial times. It’s an economic issue. Arresting/killing a few of the top narco guys only creates smaller groups with less contacts in the global black markets and keener to mess with civilians/non-narco. Now we have a entire generation of people who chose/had-to join the narco because of lacking economic opportunities. I wish I knew a viable solution. This will continue to hurt Mexican economy in more than one way. Countries are not islands anymore, the world is a small place. Good post, H.
exactly. the more decentralized those cartels become, the worse it gets.
it’s probably good to take down the mid-level soldiers, but if we’re all being honest with ourselves, taking down the El Chapos is just about the last thing you want to do. that just creates all kinds of chaos.
and unlike the American mafia, you can’t cripple a drug cartel simply by removing the guy at the top. it doesn’t work that way.
so it’s not like, for instance, the Gambino family, where you convict Gotti and the whole thing falls apart the next day (basically). you arrest El Chapo and the drugs keep coming. the only thing that changes is the level of violence which actually goes up.
The “war on drugs” is really a “war on the mentally-unhealthy”. Jailing users has only made things worse. Take the money wasted on drug enforcement and put it toward healthcare.
It is a mental health issue. Stop funding drug enforcement and start funding healthcare. What has 100 years of the “war on drugs” accomplished?