The opioid addiction crisis in this country has been in the making for a long, long time. You can trace it back to the 1950s when the major pharmaceutical companies got a stranglehold on the psychiatric community.
It started with a strong desire of the psychological community to be taken as seriously as medical doctors were. Psychologists were treating people for common depression and anxiety and leftover PTSD, (shellshock) from World War II. They were making recommendations to their patients and having them overridden by swaggering medical doctors who strutted in and out of hospital wards with a three-mile smile and a pack of Camels. Psychologists wanted more authority.
The desire of the psychological community for additional gravitas had its mate in the pharmaceutical industry’s desire for greater sales. With a combination of heavy lobbying and monied-up “research” they developed the DSM and psychiatric medication.
The drugs they developed were (and are) no different to classic anti-anxiety drugs like Quaaludes AKA, “momma’s little helper.” The new drugs that really hit the scene in the late 50s and early 60s were just drugs, with effects- intentional and unintentional- which people used to alter symptoms.
Like any good drug, they made you feel different (better, in the best cases). But there is always a drawback. Invariably, they would cause some unintended damage like sclerosis of the liver, addiction, kidney problems and so on.
The difference was the story behind them. The story we were given was that some people had an imbalance in their brain chemistry that was causing a mental illness. A claim that has never been scientifically proven. It was the advertising miracle of the century- and it’s still selling pills today.
It wasn’t long after that when President Nixon signed a big agreement with medical insurance companies whose grand idea was to provide the least care possible while charging the most money.
The end result was a medical monopoly against which the common person had no alternative. There was no Internet to do one’s own research on- only a doctor’s skewed and paid for advice, and whatever TV news was saying about bacon and eggs that week.
(Bacon and eggs, by the way, are good for you if cooked properly.)
But the medical/pharmacological empire had a problem, street drugs. Street drugs were still cheaper than the drugs they were selling- and less harmful even. So Nixon needed to double down on substances like marijuana, heroin, and cocaine- all of which are easily less dangerous than today’s prescription pain pills.
Through the 80s, it became clear that the drug war could not keep cheaper street drugs out of the hands of Americans. So, George Bush Sr. went after the poppy fields of the Middle East with a war based on false pretenses. Since then, we’ve had troops in Afghanistan to patrol and control the poppy fields where the vast majority of the world’s opium supply comes from.
Today, we have an opioid crisis. When people go to the doctor for pain, they get put on synthetic opium- modern painkillers. These drugs are massively addictive and intensely dangerous. They are also prohibitively expensive. So when people get addicted to these drugs, lose their homes and jobs due to addiction and bankruptcy- they become heroin addicts.
Heroin is less expensive and actually less harmful than modern medical opioids. That means a person can survive longer as a heroin addict. Inevitably, they are arrested, brought back into the system where the only available painkillers are- you guessed it- sold to them by big pharma.
And don’t think those poppies from Afghanistan are going to waste. They are being patrolled by US troops to make sure the right people get their hands on them.
So, that’s the story behind the opioid crisis that everyone is wringing their hands about. And what is being done about it? The Senate is passing laws! Oh, great, they’ll fix everything right? Not quite. Washington’s latest shot at fixing the opioid crisis is really just a veiled plan to keep big pharma doing what it does best- addicting and killing Americans.
The new Senate bill just passed 99 to 1 against. It’s called “S.T.O.P.” and we’re told it takes aim at opioid addiction. The truth is that the bulk of the money it controls is being redirected to boost big pharma opioid treatment solutions for addiction and chronic pain.
In other words, the government and the biggest dope pusher in the world have just gone to bed together again while the American people are left out in the rain.
~ American Liberty Report
