First context:
@QuantumPhysics expressed his admiration for the way the PRC handles its drug problem. I was pointing out that the problems we currently face are from Fentanyl from Communist China. So as admirable as someone might think they are, they sure don't work except perhaps for the PRC.
I think that you misread me, I don't think that they're admirable but I sure as hell won't blame them for a problem that they
didn't create (they do create a lot of problems but this isn't one of them). All the PRC is guilty of at this moment is that they produce Fentanyl (probably for their own people) which in of itself isn't a bad thing because they're certainly not alone in that regard. What
is bad is that, of course, their government is corrupt as hell and so the Triads can pretty much get whatever they want. Nevertheless, I'm not so quick to just scapegoat China because every country has organised crime and every country has corrupt politicians that look the other way, even our fools in Ottawa.
Big Pharma started it, absolutely, re-packaged old compunds in a new way then claimed there was little or no addiction risk. Doctors bought in and the overprescribing began. Why did they buy in though? Bayer (the people that brough us Aspirin) started commercial production of heroin in 1898 marketed as a cure for morphine addiction. The results of that should have told them all they needed to know. With the invention of the syringe/hypodermic needle in 1853 a total disaster was guaranteed. I suspect doctors are not taught relevant history such as this
I think that you give doctors far too much credit here. I think that they knew
exactly what they were doing. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if it turned out that many of them were on the take, receiving "incentives" for the number of prescriptions written. In fact, I'd be literally shocked if it turned out that this wasn't the case. Doctors know exactly how dangerous that
any opium compound can be. I mean hell, the general public actually knows the dangers of opiates and if the (usually ignorant as hell) general public knows, you can be damn sure that doctors know
"perhaps the single most addictive substance to human beings on the planet" Hyperbole. I and millions of other people use them daily with no problems. Am I physically dependent? Yes. I am also physically dependent on another medication, but no one is having a stroke from that fact. Look up a medical definition of addiction. I display no signs nor do I expect to after this many years. For most of human history we have had zero for pain. Opium's praises were sung by many. You want something evil with no upside? Try crack cocaine.
I'm sorry about your situation, I do mean that. Not with pity but with sympathy (as we Canadians do). However, I never said that there isn't an upside to opium-based compounds. Of course there's an upside because if there weren't, doctors wouldn't be using morphine in hospitals or prescribing heroin to terminal cancer patients. When used wisely, they are some of the greatest discoveries of humanity for aiding the stricken. American soldiers used them in Vietnam to deal with the daily mental anguish that they were put through. When used as they should be, withdrawal isn't really all that hard because they're meant to make a person who would otherwise be in constant pain feel normal. That at least prevents psychological dependence. It's when people take them when they shouldn't (and get high) that they become junkies.
Any doctor that was giving out Oxycontin and (especially) Fentanyl like candy on Hallowe'en should have had their medical licence revoked and incarcerated for criminal negligence at best and manslaughter at worst. The first and most sacred line of the Hippocratic oath is "First, do no harm." Every doctor that threw these drugs at people was breaking that sacred first line. A terrible side effect of this is that they have damaged the trust that people have in the medical community. I think that the recent rise in anti-vaxxer lunacy and these doctors betraying the trust given to them being so close together can't be mere coincidence.
"Blaming China is absurd..." well the current problem is fentanyl from the PRC. You might ask them why they produce so much and why its production is so poorly controlled that enough can be diverted to feed a continent (or more). Covid restrictions have exacerbated the problem because users can't get their PRC made fix so they are turning to more dubious things and fatalities are up.
The answer to this is simple. They make so much because they have a population that is four times that of the United States and they probably export it to other countries for medical use. I must assume that Iran would be extremely grateful for this because of what the Americans are doing to the people there by denying them medicine. Those poor people are suffering not because of any actions of their own but because of the actions of the US government (Mein Trumpf). People talk like Iran is a threat but let's be honest here, their military budget is smaller than ours and Canada isn't exactly considered to be a threat to anyone. China producing a surplus for Iran, in my mind, is a humanitarian operation, not a drug cartel.
However, as I said, the Chinese government is of course corrupt as hell (not that we have angels in Ottawa) and the Triads probably smelled some huge profitability in the huge number of North American opioid addicts and someone paid off someone to get their hands on whatever they could. Some of this stuff might even be substandard product that was supposed to be disposed of. After all, organised crime doesn't give a rat's posterior about people's lives as long as they get rich. Who else has those exact same characteristics? Oh yeah, BIG PHARMA. Now THAT is irony.
Honestly, I don't think that the PRC had any real desire to hurt anyone (they're not complete maniacs) but, like Ted DiBiase used to say "Everybody's got a price!". I blame organised crime for the distribution of the Fentanyl because it is they who are actually doing it and while the organised criminals who are bringing it in may be Chinese, the people selling the it on the streets of Victoria, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Brandon, Thunder Bay, Sherbrooke, Moncton, Sydney, Cavendish and Labrador City are not.
My last complaint is that I along with many others who judiciously use opiates, aware of the risks and keeping the laws surrounding their use are being made to jump through seemingly never ending restrictions while what would mitigate the problem (stopping more imported/smuggled fentanyl) is being ignored.
It's clear that you're in a really tough spot and your anger is completely justified. I agree with you 100% that our government is failing us (what else is new?) but I think that focusing your anger at China is a bit unfair because the true fault lies with the shortcomings of our society. I don't know if you've noticed (I sure have) but we're starting to turn into the USA and it scares the hell out of me. Money is now more important than people's lives and this is not the Canada in which I was born and raised.
If things get any worse, I may use my UK or EU citizenship (I have both) to retire across the pond and away from the toxicity that has been turned into the norm here. I'm from Montreal originally (primarily Anglophone but fully bilingual) and I'll tell you, the South of France sure looked good when I was there.
If the smugglers are successfully importing all of this Fentanyl, it means that a person at the Port of Vancouver who looked the other way is just as corrupt as the person in China who looked the other way. On the other hand, if the Triads threatened their families, it's kind of hard to blame them for playing along. I can't say for certain that I wouldn't have done the same in their shoes.
I don't condemn your rage, quite the contrary, I applaud it. I just think that it needs to be directed at the truly guilty parties and it looks like you know who they really are. Good discussion!
