Heroin Is A Border Problem

Since the anti-gun crowd is so concerned about stopping deaths shouldn’t they be up in arms over the fact that heroin overdoses are responsible for more loss of life than homicides in New York City?

If attention were directed to this killer, one might have to actually look at what has led to the drug becoming rampant across the country, and more importantly, how its flow through our porous borders displays the inadequacy of the DHS leadership in Customs and Border Control.

The use of heroin, a drug that is produced in Columbia, Mexico, Afghanistan, and Burma, is said to be up 400%. This fact suggests a direct correlation to the health of our borders. If the borders were secure, we simply wouldn’t be seeing this astronomical increase in illegal drugs or illegal aliens for that matter.

There are tens of thousands of honorable Americans working to secure our borders and keep us safe, but what cannot be overstated is the failure of this administration and politicians from both sides who continue to ignore the critical issue of security not only along the southern border, but along our coastlines, through our ports, and each of our fifty states, in view of air travel.

I don’t think  the issue is that we can’t secure the border. We just don’t have the leaders possessing the backbone to make it happen.

One of the consequences of our faulty border is the skyrocketing use and availability of heroin. Who would have thought school nurses in middle schools and high schools would be stocking naloxone, a reversal drug to opiate overdose, in their first-aid kits? What brought us into this situation?

In a nutshell, around 1997 a company called Purdue Pharma brought OxyContin to the attention of physicians nationwide and recommended the use of them by giving away goodies like trips and cool stuff to take home to the family.

Pretty soon the docs were writing prescriptions left and right for Oxycontin, and by 2002 they were handing out 10 times more than they were in 1997. Simply put,  there was an abundance of happy pills for the taking if you were so inclined. And, the addictiveness of the drug had been far down-played in exchange for profit.

In a lawsuit concerning the misleading of the public regarding the risk of addiction, Perdue plead guilty and paid the DOJ $634.5 million dollars. But according to an Atlantic.com article,

“One of the consequences of the marketing blitz was a fundamental change in the way pain was perceived, both by doctors and by patients. Pain was no longer understood as something that had to be endured—it could be easily and quickly treated with pills.”

Such is the instant gratification culture of today. There is little to no perseverance being taught or displayed today when it comes to physical pain. So our young people, for example, immediately look to alleviate any unwelcome feeling, when in reality it is generally a short lived nuisance as our bodies are wonderfully created to heal themselves, if given the chance.

In regards to the Oxycontin, the doctors, lawyers and pharmacies wised up to the overwriting of these types of opioids, and they slowed the scripts. Thus, the pills became more rare on the street which pushed their value up. The lack of prescription drugs produced a need, and that need was filled by heroin. Some say a single Percocet, a combination of acetaminophen and oxycodone, sells for $20-$40 a pill, whereas heroin is about the price of a pack of cigarettes.

So, many addicts and others, to include young teenage kids, turned to heroin which is the cheaper high and abundantly available in big cities and even rural areas. West Virginia has double the rate of  the national average of heroin overdoses. Obama was in West Virginia last Wednesday to talk about drug overdoses, especially of prescription type and heroin. His advice was:

“governments at all levels need to better coordinate with each other and with private and faith-based groups for earlier treatment, more hospital beds, counseling and getting past the stigma.”

What he didn’t talk about was his environmental policies that have crippled West Virginia’s economy, which in turn feeds into those searching to escape the depression, frustration, and boredom that lack of work produces. These are the types of people who look to drugs for the answer. I don’t think this state ever received a helping of Obama’s hope and change.

The president also failed to mention how those at the federal level could do a heck of a lot more to stop the influx of heroin at our borders. He takes no responsibility of the multibillion dollar heroin business that finances the cartels, gangs and terrorism. After all, over the years he has basically supplied the cartels with guns, allowed MS13 gangs to come across our borders and won’t even name our enemy when it comes to terrorism on our soil.

It appears, once again, he is working hard at destroying the American people by not providing for the fundamental Constitutional protection from enemies both foreign and domestic. Any entity pushing heroin into this country should be considered our enemy, but the gates are open wide to this substance.

Seeing that the supply and demand of heroin is up, but the price is low makes me think there is a glut on the market and the need on the street may be for more peddlers of the trade.

I wonder if all these low level drug dealers who are being released from prisons might just have jobs waiting for them as they exit their confinement? Leave it to Obama to figure out how to ease unemployment and overcrowded prisons.

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