by Robert M. Traxler
If I were to tell you drug overdoses kill more Americans than guns would you believe it? Well, you should believe it.
The issue we need to discuss today is why the good folks on the left have not mobilized against drugs to the extent they have against guns. Like it or not, the Second Amendment to our Constitution exists, and we have the right to possess firearms, and that angers the left.
The anti-gun lobby spends tens of millions every year to attempt to stop the sale of legal weapons; their rational is that guns kill people. Well drugs kill more people than guns, and the liberal party is nowhere nearly as upset with drug deaths as gun deaths. Guess you are deader from a gunshot than a drug overdose.
The expansion of heroin use is nothing short of epidemic; millions of people start with prescription pain killers, and then as the supply of opioids dries up, they find heroin cheaper and more available.
Watching the coverage of the New Hampshire primary, the pundits were saying that the number one issue in the primary is heroin use. That sounded too strange to believe so I researched the subject and was floored by the numbers. Drug use and drug deaths are a major social factor in New Hampshire — New Hampshire, not California, New York City, or Florida, but New Hampshire. New Hampshire has an epidemic of heroin use and the large number of overdose deaths has scared the good folks in the Granite State.
Our friends on the left side of the political spectrum are pushing for the legalization of yet one more gateway drug, alcohol being the largest, but marijuana is gaining in popularity and social acceptance. The numbers of drug deaths should mobilize the left to action; compassion and love for the downtrodden are supposed to be a hallmark of the left, but it is not politically correct to come out against drugs.
The young voters are in favor of legalizing more drugs to some extent, and the left would rather ignore a major problem than lose voters. Indeed, they even welcome more liberal drug laws rather than recognize a politically correct but major cause of the heartbreaking and tragic deaths of tens of thousands of mostly young Americans. According to USA Today, in 2015, more than 44,000 died as a result of drug overdoses, many thousands more than died from all types of firearms.
The President of the United States of America has railed against legal gun ownership but is downright mute when it comes to the larger problem of drug overdose deaths.
In a discussion with a liberal friend, he never failed to make the point the “war on drugs” is a failure and we need to liberalize our drug laws and strengthen our gun laws; perhaps he has it backwards? The compassionate progressive party is solidly against guns but tacitly for more liberal drug laws. Go figure.
Are we reaping what we have sown? Hollywood glamorizes drug use; President Clinton made a joke of his “I did not inhale” illegal drug use and drugs are shown on the media as mainstream, normal and downright fun. One of the main problems is we do not understand addiction and we have an attitude “it’s only a few prescription pills” or “it’s only weed” or “it’s only beer.” Once addicted to alcohol or drugs (especially prescription opioids or heroin), the outcome is rarely good. The massive numbers of the dead attest to the danger, especially to our young folks.
Please look up the facts on guns vs. drugs deaths. Radical left-wing sources like the Huffington post, CNN, and the three TV networks have all reported on the drug death numbers, though normally not in a side-by-side comparison with gun deaths. A side-by-side comparison between gun and drug deaths would be a useful tool in deciding where to expend our limited resources; however, to quote former Vice President Al Gore, it is “an inconvenient truth.”
I attempted to find a number on the minutes/hours spent by our President speaking on guns vs. drugs, but could not find a definite number. It is safe to assume that President Obama has expended many more hours concerned with guns than drugs. Our president has also released a very large number of drug dealers early from prison because they are considered nonviolent. After all, we only have 44,000 more Americans dead per year from drugs than died in 10 years of Viet Nam, or six times the number of Americans who have died in both Gulf Wars and Afghanistan combined to date, each year; we all should be delighted there is no violence involved.
Our friends on the liberal side of the drug control issue should beware of what they wish for, for they may get it. The road to the morgue is paved with good liberal intentions.
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