Tag: Drug Addiction

Joe Selvaggi discusses the challenges posed by homeless encampments, like Boston’s Mass and Cass, with Dr. Judge Glock, the director of research at the Manhattan Institute. They also explore policy alternatives aimed at addressing the needs of both the community and the unsheltered individuals.

Guest:

City Journal contributing editor Judge Glock joins Brian Anderson to discuss public policies that encourage drug addiction, the relationship of drug abuse to homelessness and crime, and the wisdom of government intervention in the economy.

Find the transcript of this conversation and more at City Journal.

Pot – Weed – Marijuana – Cannabis

 

That is what is emblazoned on a mailing that we received prior to Christmas. The words are huge and white, followed by “It doesn’t matter what you call it, MAKE IT LEGAL. Immediate action required – send your personalized petition and mail it back today – free!” I looked at my “personalized petition” and it contained the voter’s information printed on the three-fold flyer, of both my husband and I, including our full address, and our voter registration numbers. All we had to do was sign it and pop in the mail, no postage needed! It came from “Make It Legal Florida” in Tallahassee.

It then states that the “form” if mailed, will become a “public record” upon its filing with the Supervisor of Elections, because apparently, it is a planned Amendment. The amendment is titled “Adult Use of Marijuana,” and gives a ballot summary. The big glossy, colored flyer gives some incentives. They are as follows:

  1. The amendment includes “strict rules” to make sure that marijuana products are clearly labeled, childproof, and not advertised to children.
  2. It will help combat the “opioid addiction” crisis and free up law enforcement to protect us from violent criminals and sexual predators.
  3.  It will boost our economy and generate more than a hundred million dollars per year in new revenue to fund important priorities such as schools, healthcare, and public safety. The above words in bold were in bold on the flyer, so they took the time to point out the wonderful benefits of legalization of marijuana in the state of Florida.

Where do I begin? I was deeply offended that this organization dove into our County Records and obtained our and others voting registration records. I live in a state that already has a major drug problem. We are known as the capital of the pill-popping clinics, called pill mills. Just Google pain clinics in Florida and the articles are filled with doctors spreading the addiction of oxycodone across the country, reports if numerous arrests of physicians in the business of writing endless prescriptions for drugs, the increased crackdowns on drug distribution, etc. that go back decades.

Utopia Under a Tent or a Waterfall?

 

I had my six-month dental cleaning and check-up. I didn’t expect to see the same hygienist. At my last visit, she was planning a move, possibly to Portland but I told her she may want to re-think that. She got back yesterday and said parts of Oregon were beautiful, breathtaking, the waterfalls, cool breezes, deep emerald green forests and didn’t want to leave. They hiked every day. She grew up here in Florida and is ready for a change. What she wasn’t ready for was Portland. She said she’d never seen anything like it, and was shocked by the enormous homeless population. Tents everywhere. “They don’t bother you, she said, or panhandle”. But “you couldn’t help but feel ill at ease,” walking from the donut shop with a bag of fresh-baked donuts. She walked by a young man at 7:15 AM, shooting up in broad daylight. Drugs that come in from Mexico and China. She said another’s face was beaten to a pulp. The smell was awful. But Oregon she said, was truly breathtaking…

I asked her why has Portland turned into this refuge? Her first answer was the legalization of drugs, marijuana. This seems to lead to stronger drugs and the lack of incentive for work or a better life. We both wondered where they got money for drugs. She said even with the abundance of jobs, they are mostly high-tech and rents have become unaffordable as a result. I asked why don’t they build affordable housing? She said that’s in the works, but you still have to have a job, and the towns don’t have the “budget to build them.” No wins here. She then commented, “I get the concept,” like what they are doing in LA.”

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@bethanymandel did a post on her friend’s new book called, ”Leaving Cloud 9”, By Erica Anderson. http://ricochet.com/532746/when-you-leave-cloud-9/ I ordered a copy and just finished it. The story is about Erica’s husband Rick, who grows up in a broken home, broken in every way. The trailer, the parent, the poverty, the terrible abuse, a story repeated in […]

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East Coast Sister replied to Quote of the Day: Heavy Duty with a story from Baltimore, centered around a viral video. The University of Baltimore Hospital CEO apologized without excuse and promised to get to the bottom of how his hospital discharged an apparently mentally confused 20-year old woman and had her wheeled in a hospital gown […]

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I would like to hear about members’ experiences with faith-based eating disorder residential programs, particularly ones dealing with bulimia. Is there anyone here who is on the other side of that experience? How did it go and how did you benefit? Do you know someone who went through one? I direct a small, residential Christian […]

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In this AEI Events Podcast, AEI’s Sally Satel and Nicholas Eberstadt join a distinguished panel to begin a series of conversations addressing the opioid crisis ravaging the nation. The panel discussion touches the cultural factors underpinning today’s crisis, the social, cultural, economic factors driving overdose deaths, and the role of the federal government to provide treatment and prevent overdose.

Panelists include Christopher Caldwell (The Weekly Standard), Nicholas Eberstadt (AEI), Harold Pollack (University of Chicago), and Danny Seiden (Office of the Governor, Arizona). The discussion is moderated by Sally Satel (AEI).

A Deadly Struggle; An Implacable Enemy

 

There was a young woman I would like to say I was close friends with once. I suppose we both might have wanted something more than just friendship, but at the time I lived in Oregon and she in Maine. In the nineties, though the internet was booming, getting closer online was still difficult. More ways to communicate would rise in the coming years, but there was something else that interfered in our friendship. Sara was an alcoholic.

I hear a lot of comments about addiction, but in my experience, it’s a brutal master. Addiction hates you and wants to destroy you. It tells you that you don’t deserve anything better because it doesn’t want you to leave. It tells you that you can’t deal with the pain, so here’s an option that you deserve. I’m personifying it, yes, but this is a summary from Sara’s own description of her struggles. She drank to dull the pain of past abuses. She drank to dull the pain of the world around her.

Dispatches from a Life-Long Government Employee and Conservative

 

One of the common themes on the right is that the government cannot do anything right, that government programs are wasteful and that they always provide poor services. There are many examples to point at, such as the VA, Public Schools, and the like. The general attitude is that government workers are lazy, have poor attitudes, and are generally no good.

I would like offer a counter to the conservative write off of all government workers and programs. This is not to say there are not many things that need to be trimmed. It is to say that blanket statements might not be accurate. Let me start with what my organization does.

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Tonight on the US national news, it was announced that a new form of heroin that is 10,000 times stronger is now hitting American streets. You read that correctly – 10,000 times stronger than plain heroin! Is that even possible? Apparently so, and where was the story from? The brutal inner cities of Los Angeles […]

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20 years ago a prediction was made. Using CDC and National Center for Health Statistics, the prediction was that “Future Deaths” due to firearms would rise and surpass auto accidents in the US (see chart below). It was intended to be a call for gun regulation. It became just another wrong prediction, but why? Intentional end point […]

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Chris Christie’s Cheap Shot

 

“My mother was a smoker,” Chris Christie told a New Hampshire audience in a video that has gone viral. Though she tried everything – gum, patches, hypnosis – nothing worked. When she was diagnosed with cancer, he continued, “No one came to me and said, ‘Don’t treat her ’cause she got what she deserved.’ No one … said, ‘Hey listen, you know your mother was dumb. She started smoking when she was 16. Then after we told her it was bad for her, she kept doing it, so we’re not going to give her chemotherapy, we’re not gonna give her radiation, we’re not going to give her any of that stuff — you know why? Cause she’s getting what she deserves.’ No one said that.”