There are all sorts of ways to measure social pathology. Here at meaning in history we tend to measure social pathology in terms of the prevalence of deviant anti-human ideologies. On the other hand, such ideologies have an impact on day to day life in America, as we see all around us--in our families, our local communities, our nation.
CNN offers today a very graphic measure of social pathology. Of course, they blame it on "the pandemic," and no doubt the attempted social lockdown of most of the country played a major role. However, the causes undoubtedly run deeper:
Drug overdose deaths in 2020 hit highest number ever recorded, CDC data shows
(CNN) Drug overdose deaths rose by close to 30% in the United States in 2020, hitting the highest number ever recorded, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday.
More than 93,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2020, according to provisional data released by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. That's a 29.4% increase from the 72,151 deaths projected for 2019.
"Overdose deaths from synthetic opioids (primarily fentanyl) and psychostimulants such as methamphetamine also increased in 2020 compared to 2019. Cocaine deaths also increased in 2020, as did deaths from natural and semi-synthetic opioids (such as prescription pain medication)," the NCHS said in a statement.
"This is the highest number of overdose deaths ever recorded in a 12-month period, and the largest increase since at least 1999," Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health, said in a statement.
"These data are chilling. The COVID-19 pandemic created a devastating collision of health crises in America," added Volkow.
As in recent years, inappropriate use of opioids was behind most of the deaths. The NCHS reported that overdose deaths from opioids rose from 50,963 in 2019 to 69,710 in 2020.
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While this pathology is certainly not confined to our major cities, one presumes that this plays pretty directly into the stunning rise in murders and shootings generally, which are overwhelmingly gang--and therefore drug--related.
Americans will have lots to think about come 2022: Pathological ideologies in our schools and public life, pathological inflation, pathological attacks on election integrity, pathological levels of crime and drug use.
Will America step back from societal suicide?
Some time ago I read that the deaths due to opioid overdoses usually occurred in persons other than those for whom the opioids had been prescribed. The doctors we know are extremely careful with painkillers. After my hip replacement, I was given a prescription for only five days of an opioid (1 per day), with another prescription for a relatively short term quantity of a lower level prescription painkiller.
ReplyDeleteA number of our doctors have posters on their examining rooms warning about the dangers of these drugs.
These drugs are big money for those who produce them (China produces much of the fentanyl) and those who distribute them. They are flooding our country via our open southern border.
George Floyd, who had to pass a counterfeit $20 bill in order to buy cigarettes - was overloaded with at least four different drugs. At least a few of them in quantities sufficient to kill him all by themselves. He managed to obtain them somewhere, somehow.
Here is information from the National Drug Intelligence Center (DoJ) on drugs and gangs. It documents how active gangs are in the production and distribution of drugs in our country. The numbers are stunning. The date on this report? 2005. It was archived with a warning that the data was probably outdated and useful for only historical purposes. We can be sure the numbers have increased mightily since this report was compiled, but the description of the gangs and their drug-related activity is still interesting. Big business.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.justice.gov/archive/ndic/pubs11/13157/index.htm
So let's open the border up so the Chinese can send more fentanyl, the Mexicans and other triad countries can move more cocaine, heroin and meth.
ReplyDeleteThe drug-makers in Mexico are said to be lacing their oxycontin with fentanyl (from China), but selling it as oxycontin to the unwary. This is some of what is coming across the border.
ReplyDeleteThis could be considered off-topic but at the very least I think it is tangential and I think it very good:
ReplyDeletehttps://fee.org/articles/how-the-government-used-the-pandemic-to-crush-small-businesses-and-why-an-interview-with-carol-roth/
What to do when "our" government is now our enemy, has interests directly averse to the majority of its constituents and no longer recognizes the system under which it was predicated and authorized? How does one counter the Wall Street / Banking / Tech / Media Fascist behemoth? How does one overcome the massive corporate and CCP donations to pols? How does one root out and remove the deep state, including its IC and the DOJ components? How does one end the federal college loan and subsidization scam? I don't know... but meanwhile peoples' lives have been ruined through no fault of their own. They trusted the system and played by the rules of the game. Then they learned the game was rigged. Then they lost hope. We see the result.
@disz
DeleteThat last part is key: people lose hope and drugs are the answer in a society where God and values have already been abandoned.
Perhaps that was the biggest danger posed by Trump. He threatened to give people hope, for a better job, better wages, a renewed sense of family and community rather than division. Coincidentally? Opioid deaths went down for the first time during his administration.
I suspect drug deaths and crime will continue to rise unless there is some kind of revival.
Bin
Seeing as Sociopathology is the *study* of sociopathy, I urge that you refer to the spreading of drug overdoses as (being the) *sociopathic*, not as (spreading) the sociopathological.
ReplyDelete