Drug epidemic in the USA: who earns money on it - ForumDaily
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Drug epidemic in the United States: who earns it

Фото: Depositphotos

In 2016, the absolute anti-record was set in the USA - from overdose with potent substances perished 64 000 people. This is almost 20% more than a year earlier. And several times more than in 1990's. For comparison, for all the years of the Vietnam War, 58 000 Americans died.

More than 24 million Americans take prohibited substances The most popular drug is marijuana. However, it is almost universally legalized and does not see it as a threat. Another thing - opioids.

By approximate estimated, 2 million Americans have opioid dependence, 95 million more took their prescription over the last year.

Various opioids are one of the most popular painkillers in the country. Drugs based on them are included even in the basic insurance. Edition "Secret" tells how a panicky fear of pain put the USA on hard drugs. ForumDaily publishes an abbreviated version of the text.

Mutki and troubles

In May, Ohio State 2017 accused five large pharmaceutical companies in the deliberate distribution of drugs containing opioid drugs.

According to officials, giants Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Johnson & Johnson, Endo Pharmaceuticals, Allergan lobbied their interests among doctors to prescribe opioid medications to patients: OxyContin, Oxydone, “heroin’s cousin” - fentanyl - and others.

At the same time, companies did not just keep silent about the side effects, but produced special commercials that denied any risk from taking opioids and emphasized the advantages of such drugs over the more “soft” ones. In many ways, apparently because of this, 2012 tablets were discharged per year by 68 per patient, including infants. By 2016, the number of overdoses increased by 25%. Not only Ohio is worried today - the authorities of Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and a dozen more “village” states speak one after another of an opioid epidemic.

Фото: Depositphotos

Warm arrival

The problem did not arise yesterday. Initially, opioids were recommended for patients with sharp and short-term pain, but gradually doctors began to prescribe them even in those cases when it is possible to do with painkillers simpler. As a result, two thirds of Americans in 2001 – 2007 the dead from overdose, taking medication prescribed by doctors. Edition American Journal of Psychiatry found that many of the dead doctors also prescribed powerful sedatives of the benzodiazepine class, although their combination with opioids is deadly.

Among children and adolescents, the trend is the most dramatic. A year after, in the USA, doctors were allowed to prescribe the strongest opiate oxycontin to children, the number of opioid poisoning among young patients from 2 to 4 years more than tripled twice.

Baby addicts

Forensic experts declarethat the fourth generation of “prescription drug addicts” is being brought up in the States. For example, hospitals in the city of Cincinnati (Ohio) conduct mandatory drug tests not only for young mothers, but also for newborns - the number of babies suffering from opiate withdrawal syndrome (they are dependent on birth), in 1999 – 2009. in USA increased three times The threshold for susceptibility to opioids is constantly increasing, due to which patients have to increase the dose or “change” to more potent painkillers. The next stop for many is heroin. By Statistics, 80% opium addicts eventually begin to use it.

1 of heroin in the black market of the USA is from 5 to 10 dollars - it is from 8 to 16 times cheaper than packing opium containing pills like oxycontin. The US authorities have declared a total war on heroin, but, paradoxically, the drug does not disappear from this and does not even go up.

Фото: Depositphotos

Grech, Gerasim, Hera

Heroin comes to North America from Afghanistan and Mexico. And for 10 years, the area of ​​plantations in Mexico increased 10 times. The raw material itself is almost worthless: with the round-ups, not the drug cartels lose, but small farmers from poor villages, where the cultivation of poppy is practically the only source of income.

The price is formed as follows. To produce 1 kg of heroin, you need 10 kg of opium, which costs a little less than $ 2000. But the bulk of the cost is in transit: after crossing the US border, the goods take off in price 9-12 times. Wholesale dealers increase the price tag even in 3-4 times. As a result, 1 kg of pure heroin on the street or on the Internet will cost about $ 200 000 ..

 

Golovnyaki

According to various estimates, the drug epidemic in the United States is already about 10 years, but now it is entering the active phase.

Answering the question of why no one sounded the alarm earlier is quite simple. The fact is that today postmortem toxicological tests take an average of three to six months. Earlier this period was even longer. In turn, specialists need years to collect comprehensive statistics on drug mortality. Thus, the final data on death toll from an overdose in the 2014 year were published only in the 2016 year. And the resulting after-the-fact and already late data instantly cause panic. To fight the US drug annually spend $ 193 billion, of which $ 11 billion accounted for the treatment of addicts.

According to a study The Benefits and Costs of Drug Use Preventionconducted by the RAND analytical center, the most effective means of combating drugs are precisely prevention and rehabilitation programs. If, during the destruction of the plantations, every $ 1 million spent by the government removes kg of hard drugs from 10 trafficking, then the same $ 1 million spent on prevention reduces consumption by 100 kg.

Read also on ForumDaily:

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How one family made a fortune from the opioid crisis in the United States

Trump declared an opioid crisis a national emergency

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