- American Cannabis Report Editorial Staff
Opioids: "A death toll equal to 9/11 every three weeks."
The American Cannabis Report has reported extensively on the opioid crisis in America. CNN now says that 142 people die per day of overdoses caused by opioids - an amount that equals the devastating result of 9/11 every three weeks.
Since 1999, the number of American overdose deaths involving opioids quadrupled.
From 2000 to 2015, more than 500,000 people died of drug overdoses, and opioids account for the majority of those.
"The average American would likely be shocked to know that drug overdoses now kill more people than gun homicides and car crashes combined," the commission said.
The President has formed a national commission on the national opioid epidemic (so-called by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), led by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and including Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, former Rep. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island and Republican Gov. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts.
Among the recommendations of the commission are:
to rapidly increase treatment capacity for those who need substance abuse help;
to establish and fund better access to medication-assisted treatment programs;
to make sure that health care providers are aware of the potential for misuse and abuse of prescription opioids by enhancing prevention efforts at medical and dental schools
To equip all law enforcement with naxalone.
WHAT'S MISSING?
Remarkably, or perhaps not, the commission has not recommended a tactic that organically reduces the death toll by about 30%: legalization of cannabis.
Image Source: NPR.org