Man, had a total shock last night. My sister, who lives with my Mom, called me last night. A friend of my niece, who also lives there, DIED in the house on Thursday morning! She overdosed, and when everyone woke up, they found her purple in bed. They tried CPR and called 911, but paramedics couldn't save her. She was in her early 20s. I met her Thanksgiving and she seemed like a very nice girl. Now she's gone.
If you guys weren't aware of this, drug overdose deaths have been skyrocketing in this country, blowing well past auto fatalities and to more than 40,000 deaths per year in the U.S.
The cause of the rapid growth in drug deaths has been a combination of the opioid painkiller epidemic, and the corresponding rise in the number of heroin fatalities because of people switching from pills to the easier to come by and less expensive illegal drug.
Anyway, it's a real nightmare, and don't think it can't happen to someone you know. I have a teenage boy who lives with me and he brings friends to overnight frequently. I know they smoke pot, but lord knows what else.
It's a huge problem with no easy answers. Just making painkillers harder to get for prescription users, as the Obama administration has done, isn't working. Addicts will get their fix, and the changes just make it harder for law-abiding citizens to get relief.
Let's see what Mr. Trump does with this national crisis, and I'm not exaggerating the importance of drug deaths. Like gun violence, they're a mounting problem that something has to be done about. Doing nothing is unacceptable. But what can be done?
You should talk to that teenage boy about this and let him learn from her passing. You might be saving his life.