4 Causes of the Opioid Epidemic. Drug Prohibition Never Works.

Deaths from opioid overdoses are on the rise. Before we cave in to the calls for more government action, we should consider the actual potential causes of this devastating trend.

Drug Prohibition itself is killed and ruined many more lives than any drug it is purported to stop. The war on drugs dates back to 1914 and the government has regularly used it as an excuse to increase its reach and scope. Forget the 17 year old Iraq war, the war on drugs is the longest war in American history. It is safe to assume that war has been lost as well. The result has been a black market that produces dangerous products and dangerous neighborhoods. Many of these drugs tend to be more dangerous than legal drugs.

Iron Law of Prohibition. This is term you should try to remember. It is a term used to describe the phenomenon that when drug law enforcement becomes more forceful, the potency of illegal drugs will increase. One of the effects of strengthening prohibition enforcement is that dealers will produce higher potency drugs. For example, during alcohol prohibition in the 1920's alcohol suppliers switched from producing beer and wine to highly potent spirits, such as gin and whiskey. Given the risk, more bang for your buck I guess? Suppliers will also switch from low potency drugs to high potency drugs as prohibition enforcement increases. For example, during the 1980's during Reagan's war on drugs, smugglers switched from pot to cocaine and from cocaine to crack cocaine, resulting in a worse epidemic.

Government intervention creates more addicts. Our nation has been at war for over 17 years. We have thousands of soldiers who have been injured, mistreated, not treated at all, have PTSD, or come home to find poor opportunities. The VA literally has death lists where it hides patients names it will never get to. Intervention in the economy is also damaging. The FED is destroying the dollar. Our currency has lost 95% of its value since 1913. This tends to have a negative effect on citizens, being forced to use a currency that does not hold value and buys less every year.

Government protectionism prevents competing and alternative treatments. The FDA has had its run at regulating new medical drugs. The result impossibly high barriers to entry, millions of dollars required to pass their hurdles, long wait times for approval, if at all. The government also limits the number of doctors that can practice with licensing requirements that keep prices high of medical services, and keep potential doctors from entering the field. Certificate of need requirements also allow established hospitals to keep out competition from their market area, preventing additional options to consumers.

Enabled by government-granted monopolies, connected 'big pharma' encouraged doctors, for the past 10 years, to prescribe pills for anything and everything. The more they sold, the better. As a result, doctors began to give prescriptions for harder pain killing drugs for small and minor surgeries. The problem is, taking as power of drug as these, leads even the most normal people to possible become addicted after 30-60 days of using. After that, the prescription runs out, the injury is healed, and an addict may turn to the black market, even in efforts to ween themselves off of it. (Not recommended)

The solution is to end prohibition and occupational cartels; legalize competition in drug production and medical services. Further limiting access to potential treatments will create more addicts and strengthen the back market and the potency of illegal drugs.

What Is Anarchy? It’s Liberty, Unchained.
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