Making substances illegal won’t work to stop their use
By Lethbridge Herald on August 27, 2022.
Editor:
Concerning the opioid crisis, I have to disagree with people who make it a matter of crime or race. They are not.
Let me begin with my problem: As I age, how to manage chronic pain has become a challenge. I had to resist the urge to take painkillers because I am conscious of the fact that many pain remedies contain opioids.
However, we have to affirm that being able to manage problems like pain is a positive human attribute. Unlike animals, humans can refuse to accept fate and have freedom to fix problems. Human history is a story of humans overcoming aches and pains and other difficulties. We have succeeded in many ways. We should celebrate that.
However remedies often have negative side effects. So they have to be controlled. That takes discipline. Pleasure and remedy are not evil, illegal, immoral, nor unethical. We term them as such from time to time because often agents of pleasure and remedy can be addictive and toxic when we lose control of ourselves.
My maternal grandfather was a veterinarian. He began his career as an army vet. He looked after horses in the cavalry in the war between Japan and Russia during the early 20th century. Japan won, but grandpa came home an opium addict. He saw too much blood and gore. Today it’s called PTSD. He took opium regularly until he died in his ripe old age of 80’s.
Opium products were not illegal in the early 20th century. He had easy access to it also. He had a productive life. I remember the smell of disinfectant every time I walked into his den. Opium taking was quite normal all over the world then.
In England opium was taken for pleasure like alcohol, coffee and tobacco. Prominent personalities like Charles Dickens, Conan Doyle, Oscar Wilde, Elizabeth Browning were well known for that. It still is used as a remedy for many symptoms.
Just look at the list of content of some of the painkillers. It was an important export commodity for the British Empire, so much so that Britain waged war with China twice (Opium Wars), because China wanted to stop opium import. Britain won the war and forced China to
sign the 100-year lease of Hong Kong as the free trade zone. Hence opium trade continued.
That’s how heroin consumption became “Chinese,” leading to its racism-motivated illegal status. It is strange that much more potent toxic substances like alcohol and nicotine are not illegal.
Today’s most potent killer opioid based drugs, oxycontin and fentanyl, were initially produced and marketed as prescription drugs by big drug companies. After they were found to be deadly addictive and made illegal, criminals began to manufacture them in the “basements and garages” and a much worse substance began to circulate in the illegal market.
They are now the number one killer preying mainly on the poor and the social outcasts: a repeat of “whiskey trade” preying on the First Nations during the 19th century. Giant drug companies were taken to court in a class action, found guilty, and now have to pay billions of dollars for compensation.
History teaches us that making such substances illegal does not work to stop its use and harmful effect.
I was brought up in a conservative evangelical home. Alcohol, dancing, movie, extra-marital sex and smoking were Satan’s tools to lead us to hell. Those rules never worked on me, and my buddies. In the U.S., prohibition of alcohol in the early 20th century was a total failure. It created the golden age of Mafia gangsters. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was created. It made a Canadian distillery one of the richest families in the world. “War on drugs” repeated the same mistake with cocaine and marijuana.
It made criminal cartels powerful without any significant reduction in cocaine and marijuana consumption despite decades of strict enforcement. Now Canada and many countries have decriminalized weed.
I am not saying that those substances are harmless. They can be deadly taken without discipline. However, history proves that treating those who take drugs as criminals does not work. It empowers criminals and divides the society into classes. Only the poor get caught and fill the prisons and flood the streets. They become criminals while the middle class and the rich get away.
Alcohol is addictive and toxic. But it is not Satan’s tool. Most people take it for pleasure responsibly. It can be consumed safely. I am a diabetic so sugar can kill me. But I am still alive enjoying ice cream on a hot summer day. I am grateful for it. It is a precious gift of the Earth. No one must abuse or defile gifts.
Tadashi (Tad) Mitsui
Lethbridge
21-20
I do agree with some of what you say, but disagree with your idea to allow this drug to be given freely to all who want it.
To clarify, it is legal to those who it is prescribed to and many addicts are currently prescribed opioids in BC and Alberta to treat their addiction, but they want that bigger ‘buzz’, they want to completely ‘fog’ their minds and a few years ago when it was posted on the quarterly Coroner’s report we could see what drugs were found in the deceased. Often there would be the prescribed drug as well as other drugs. I am sorry, but no one will be able to sway me to believe that giving the free access to the very drug that has been killing large numbers since 2003 will work in ending the issues.
Alcohol is still killing people and destroying families and has been legal for over 100 years.
I lost a friend a few years ago that had a medical condition that caused great pain and was prescribed opioids and when he was cut off, he went to street opioids, sliding downhill, losing his business, family and then in dispair, committed suicide. I know vets that have turned to drugs, one a close friend, who lost everything to addiction and others that had PTSD but have found peace in other ways, ending the self-medicating that is so destructive and deadly.
Opioids should only be used in medical treatment that requires it and I will never be swayed that is should be used as ‘recreational’ drug or to fog their minds.
Many of these kids got into it by associating with a group doing it on the streets as they experimented, thinking it was fun and new and got addicted. Recently I witnessed some who thought the encampment was ‘fun’ and joined it short term, living in a tent and doing drugs. The addiction spreads throughout cities and no family is immune, low class, middle class or high class. When kids go through that rebellious or experimental stage, these drugs often seize them and destroys their lives. The more accessible it is the more addicts there will be and it doesn’t discrimiate in race or social stratification.
Opioids ARE a highly addictive drug, there are reaons they are controlled, making them easier to access will only increase the number of addicts.
The drug is what is killing people, safe or not and safe supplies are just as addictive! When the addicts who have used for a while to get high, they want that bigger high that takes them into another realm, whether the drug is safe or not and safe supply kills just like other drugs.
Society has been sold that allowing them to continue, supplying them will all the paraphernalia they need to do their drugs, feeding them, giving them tents to live like animals is the answer as they slowly kill themselves and end up with Hepititis C/Aids-HIV and other organ killing diseases which add to their fatality along with long term mental health problems, while society is told that harm reduction works.
BC has had 19 years to prove if harm reduction works and if it did, there wouldn’t be encampments or high fatal overdose numbers along with families destroyed and high crime rates. If something works there is always tangible proof!
BC, who screams from the hilltops harm reduction works, yet their current state proves it doesn’t, now, since it failed, are pushing for free access to the very drug that began this destruction of life and families, believing safe opioids are the answer. Safe opioids got many addicted in the first place, taking them as prescribed!!!!
We saw a rise in new drugs on the market when the push was on to legalize cannabis years ago and back then I stated that organized crime is making money off cannabis and will focus on other drugs to make money. Organized crime is there to make money with drugs and when they saw what they could do with opioids, it was a win for them since it shipped easier than bales of cannabis. They loved the new product since it was easier to transport and made more money.
If you take that revenue away, they will find a more addictive drug and one that kills more people. We have already seen organized crime experimenting with other drugs, adding them for now to opioids, such as W-18 last year which Narcan was useless in reversing, and recently a drug being sold as crack cocaine, with an animal tranquilizer called xylazine added to this turquoise colored rock, along with fentanyl, carfentanil and benzos, killing some in BC already while overdosing many others. They have the chemists and giving addicts a safe supply will cause organized crime to use another drug to make their money, it is a business and they will adapt to make their money.
So, are we supposed to give all the legal controlled drugs the addicts want to them as a safe supply? It isn’t just opioids killing them!
Effective treatment programs, society stopping coddling addicts and getting back to the stance that drugs are illegal and laws being enforced will work. Drug courts with forced treatment that have proven to have 17% recidivism is what works and they have no criminal record as they would if they went to jail if they take the treatment.
Treatment is the answer, EFFECTIVE treatment! There still will be some deaths, as there is with alcoholism, but the numbers will be dramatically reduced. The costs to society are cheaper to treat and instead of pumping hundreds of millions into non-profits every year as we see in Vancouver DTES, it is put into treatment.
Finally, do not compare alcohol to the highly addictive opioid when talking about self medicating please and opioids are still being prescribed by doctors for those with chronic pain, especially in cancer patients. I state the latter from your comment:
“….opioid based drugs, oxycontin and fentanyl, were initially produced and marketed as prescription drugs by big drug companies. After they were found to be deadly addictive and made illegal, criminals began to manufacture them…”
Oxycontin was replaced with OxyNEO®, while Percocet®, Oxycocet® Percodan® continue to be prescibed as well. Oxycontin is a trade mark name as the other 3, for Oxycodone. Fentanyl continues to be prescribed as well.
great letter, tad. it may open the minds of some that have been so miserably conditioned by propaganda and lies over several generations. of course, there will remain those that love to control the choices of all, and who love to conflate what are their lifestyle choices to what others must also choose to do. in essence, for those, there is really no choice but to live as the control freak decides that all must.
if drugs were legal, and quality controlled, we would have addicts, but not criminals; and, addicts would not have to steal and sell themselves to support their habit.
You really have no idea what you are saying…. clueless to this whole issue of addiction and encampments. Sad that you try to influence and sell others to this unknowledgeable idea that will only bring more death and suffering.
as i said…
WOW . . . not sure what to say . . . Can I say ‘interesting’ . . . How about sad that someone would think that giving free access to such a proven dangerous drug that has killed so many already.
I see so many flaws in what you state: comparing how there was the use of opioids long ago, to how you people who function well as they use it adding prominent names, to history teaches making drugs illegal failed . . . I am afraid I completely disagree with you entire letter.
Opioids have killed so many recently I cannot believe anyone would want to grant free access to the drug.
-Legalizing marijuana didn’t stop the illegal trade and many still buy from their old dealers!
-The war on drugs against the cartels is hard to win when the CIA was running Cocaine, while being in bed with the Cartels. Research it! The CIA was even involved in the poppy fields in Afghanistan and in the opium trade.
-Society has dramatically changed and the norms, values and mores have all changed, so comparing how it was long ago is not possible. I went through the love, peace and flowers era, seeing a lot of drug use and people died from heroin or other drugs, one called MDA had over 33 different drugs in it when it was tested. The diference is we respected each other and their property . . . there was no high crime rates or people stealing kids bikes, or damaging property. It was completely different. People were different!
-Treatment does work and Alberta just reported last week a reduction of fatal overdoses, as we see the results of focusing on treatment and recovery instead of enabling addicts and pushing failed harm reduction ideas that take all of the funding for treatment, paying for all the non-profits who really are not helping in getting these people treatment, but almost encourage them.
I would like to add so much more regarding your letter, but will close by stating that opioids are highly addictive and are still being prescribed, they have been controlled for a reason, because many people cannot discipline themselves to take these drugs responsibly.
Your letter infers all illegal drugs should be legal! Do you see how devastating meth to the physical body and mental health? I do question if you have seen the actual devastation on our streets, or just sat at the LSCO and talked about it over coffee with Biff!
We are just seeing the results from moving away from enabling addicts after focusing on treatment and you want to give them more access to a drug that started this whole crisis! I have watched what has happened in BC and learned that whatever BC is doing, do the opposite if you want results.
Opioids kill . . .safe supply or not! Harm reduction is a failure . . . Vancouver has proven that after 2 decades and thousands of lost lives!
Legal opioids are already prescribed in Alberta to addicts, even in Lethbridge under physician scrutiny!
no talking over a coffee with biff…i avoid coffee as it is not a strong enough drug, you know, like cannabis being made illegal for so long and making criminals out of cannabis users…because cannabis is not strong enough so it is deemed a gateway drug! hahahahaha! how can one have a conversation with fools that are so twisted and loaded with generations of lies and propaganda.
btw: i have written many times in this forum that synthetic drugs are a concern due to their higher addiction rates, which is why i keep writing that we should be using opium for pain, not synthetic opioids. moreover, the more the natural drugs of the planet are refined, such as opium to heroin and morphine, and coca to cocaine, addictions increase because they become unnatural to our bodies.
that noted, making criminals out of people that choose to self medicate or even to poison themselves does not help: have you somehow overlooked generations worth of evidence that that is not working. in fact, society has no business in the bodies of one another.
that noted, drugs are very very cheap to produce and bring to market – it is why there has been so much money made off their sale and use. if drugs were legal, and therefore cheap and quality controlled, we will of course always have addicts – whether legal or not – but we not not have near the fallout that is due to the unjust and crimes against humanity laws that make criminals out of people making choices around their bodies. let me refrain some more: coffee is a most expensive drug to bring to market, but, it is legal and cheap, and so no one steals or has to prostitute oneself in order to enjoy numerous hits of coffee. i know, you still do not get it, because you are entirely hung up on judging others.
I am not hung up on judging others . . . I am tired of seeing people die and hearing people that are not on the frontlines spew their misinformation. We are not talking about coffee . . . coffee isn’t killing thousands of people every year!
People make choices and if they make themselves a criminal by their actions, too bad. They have a choice! There now is plenty of help out there for them and drug courts do not give addicts a criminal record.
Addicts want the big high and that is why organized crime is blending speed with opioids ( google ‘goofballs’ ) to satisfy their customers, so giving addicts free access to drugs will only create more addicts, you never listened when we said the SCS would be bad for this city. Promises were made that the SCS would clean up all the issues on our downtown streets, but I witnessed the issues triple, if not quadruple! Crime around the SCS went up 6000% . . .six thousand percent . . . businesses were devastasted, livelihoods lost and families devastated due to loss of lives.
Just like BC, the SCS bragged that there were no fatal overdoses in their facility, while there were many within one block after their clients left the SCS, even one right in their parking lot.
In BC the pro-harm reductionists, such as MSTH state there have been no fatal overdoses in Vancouver’s injection sites, but ignore all that have died within 100 meters in the back alleys which the injection sites have back door access to. People are dying yet these non-profits only tell part of the story, ignoring important factors, as they push for free access to opioids now.
I am not bored and just spouting off to judge others and to be an armchair critic . . . I have seen people die . . . I have dealt with overdoses . . . I have dealt with the homeless and the addicts . . . I have walked the back alleys of Vancouver DTES . . . I am tired of watching people dying in our city when it is preventable . . . I am not making money off of it, in fact it is costing me money and jobs.
Just like the spinmasters of the SCS that said how great it would be, now people want to follow the non-profits that are pushing for safe drug supply, which will do nothing . . . addicts want that buzz . . . getting these people into treatment is needed, not the drugs that started this whole mess!
you still are judging – people have every right to do as they wish with their body, and/or with consenting other adults, so long as their choices do not infringe on the rights of others. with that in mind, your refrain is around things like “choosing” to be criminals or not, overlooking that drug laws that criminalise are subjective, unnatural, and in reality, crimes against humanity.
our drug laws mostly cause far more injustice than not. they increase the cost of drugs massively, and the spillover affects others. so, again: if drugs were legal, like coffee (which is a most expensive drug to bring to market relative to all other drugs, but, for which no one steals or sells their body in order to have numerous hits a day), there would only be some addicts. but, because affordable, there would be no need to steal or prostitute oneself to pay for a habit that is made expensive only because of our woeful drug laws that do infringe on the rights of people that are only choosing for their body. in other words, there would be no crime around drugs because drugs would be affordable.
next: legal alcohol made liquor safer and reduced significantly if not even entirely the poisoning and criminal element around booze; legal cannabis has not created a society of ineffective and criminal ridden potheads on their way to heroin addiction (you see, most people, the vast majority, as noted in the letter, make responsible choices in life including with regard to their recreation). that so many people bought into the utter bs that cannabis is a some gateway drug – in essence because it is too weak…i guess that makes milk a gateway, and sugar, and coffee for, that matter. a glaring example of the stupidity of the masses and how easily beguiled they are by “official” narrative and propaganda. just echo and regurgitate the sound bites.
with all the people that had used pot with regularity before legality, we would have had at least 20% of our population addicted to heroin based on those lies. that people can still trust the liars is another matter. the lies and the war on drugs is and was all based on lies. it is about control and authoritarianism.
again: ‘ “You want to know what this was really all about?” Ehrlichman asked, referring to the war on drugs.
“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news.”
“Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did,” he concluded, according to Baum.’ https://www.businessinsider.com/nixon-adviser-ehrlichman-anti-left-anti-black-war-on-drugs-2019-7?op=1
you and others are more concerned with forcing your life choices on others, as though you have the one and only best approach to living. like the progressives that pushed for prohibition of liquor a hundred years ago. maybe it is best you stick to doing what you feel works for you, and stay out of the bodies of others. maybe, if you and the other progressives really cared about social issues and injustices, well, i would think you would be digging at the real root of our ills, which is poverty and disenfranchisement created by greed and power mongering and by a system that is rigged to ensure there is always a large chunk of poverty and marginalisation in our midst. for a quickie 101 on that, read the fine letter by les elford in this forum. meanwhile, great if you want to help people, but supporting unjust laws that make criminals of people because they use drugs is what totalitarianism thrives upon.
I cannot believe someone can be so ignorant and uneducated that you would write such a comment. No wonder our country is in such a mess right now.
I stand by me original remark “You really have no idea what you are saying…. clueless to this whole issue of addiction and encampments. Sad that you try to influence and sell others to this unknowledgeable idea that will only bring more death and suffering.”
I have to wonder what kind of drug would make a person think like this or what happened to parenting in the early stages of life to make someone think this way!
too bad your mind is so shut. your ilk is the bigger problem, not drugs per se.
our country is in such a mess because people still have faith in serial liars – our politicians – and serial greed and power mongers – like the oligarchical uppermost of the top 1% wealthy that actually control the decisions that have rendered the mess the planet is in.
Yup all politicians are liars. Guess we need morons like biff to set us straight. Keep surffing the internet for your “facts” to educate us. The knowitalls shall make us free.
Don’t waste your time on Biff! Another NDP wreck waiting to happen and kill more people on the streets with their pipedream ideas!
Focus on the mission! Save lives!
See you at the meeting.
at the meeting?! awesome…do you all wear brown shirts? an army of fools stuck on the lies and one’s need to judge and control. always an utter failure to acknowledge what is the truth around the war on drugs, the failure that is the war on drugs, the lies around various drugs that underscored the war on drugs. do you at all consider the massive social and financial cost to all of society due to the war on drugs, and, that the war on drugs itself is a crimes against humanity issue?
instead of speaking to any of the points i have presented so very many times, you just stay snugly stuck to your judgemental and authoritarian bent. just like all that have ever been brainwashed into a cult, one has become unable to see no matter what they are shown.
question to all: were drugs legal and thus affordably cheap, as is coffee, a most expensive drug relative to other recreational drugs to bring to market, would we have crime related to drugs? (please explain the crimes you feel would then be a consequence of drug use).
“…That’s how heroin consumption became “Chinese,” leading to its racism-motivated illegal status. It is strange that much more potent toxic substances like alcohol and nicotine are not illegal. …”
So you are saying that instead of a glass of cognac and a cigar, I should do heroin? That heroin is better for you than alcohol and nicotine?
“…It was an important export commodity for the British Empire, so much so that Britain waged war with China twice (Opium Wars), because China wanted to stop opium import…”
The opium was shipped from India, exported from India and tell me why China wanted to stop the opium imports into China please? I will tell you, because of the major addiction issues it caused in China!
Which blows me away by the next statement by you:
“…Most people take it for pleasure responsibly. It can be consumed safely…”
You Sir have been following the misinformation/disinformation been spread by the non-profits, in fact, much of what you state can be found on the website of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition and a brief viewing shoes it seems to be light on facts and full of attacks on ‘colonialists’.