Trump’s ill-advised donation and the Opioid Crisis

Trump donated his 3rd quarter salary to The Department of Health and Human Services last week. He designated the money to go towards the education of Americans to help combat the opioid crisis. In other words he wants more government propaganda that is filled with misinformation and outright lies about compounds derived from the opioid plant. This to me is a mistake. The HHS has a trillion dollar budget and along with the War on Drugs has created a healthcare system that is broken due to the absence of true individual choice. This donation besides being given to a corrupt, bloated and inefficient government entity is also adding to the lie based hysteria called the Opioid Crisis.

Those who claim there is an Opioid Epidemic (which actually makes no sense) is based upon the 33,000 Opioid involved deaths in the last year. In reality the vast majority of these deaths are caused by black market heroin laced with fentanyl. The War on Drugs and the ridiculous prescription restriction medical cartel has contributed to these deaths. I believe every adult has the right to consume what substances they choose. When individuals are free to buy what substances they want to for their own reasons, the cost of healthcare will plummet, deaths from adulterated black market products will end and individuals will get adequate relief for their emotional and physical pain.

Trump could have donated his taxpayer salary to MAPS if he really wanted to help people. MAPS is funding research that has proven that MDMA is a great treatment for folks with PTSD and their budget is only $5.1 million. Another option for Trump’s donation would be to fund research that is aimed at reducing the top three killers of Americans which are Cardiovascular disease which kills 600,000+ per year, Cancer which kills another 600,000 and medical errors hat kill an estimated 250,000 people per year. He could have also brought much needed media attention to the tragedy of suicide in the US. Over 44,000 people per year take their own life.

The opioid crisis is merely a rebranding of the War on Drugs. With the legalization of Cannabis in many states and the backlash for their plans to Schedule I Kratom, those who profit from the War on Drugs are looking for anyway to stay relevant and maintain their levels of funding. In fact the so-called experts say that billions and billions will be needed to combat the opioid crisis. If they really wanted to eliminate a vast majority of the opioid related deaths they could tomorrow legalize heroin. Instead the CDC and the VA are setting guidelines for doctors to reduce or even eliminate the use of effective pain medications that people with pain need. This will lead more people to look to the black market, which will result in more deaths. We don’t need more government intervention in our healthcare decisions.

We definitely do not need more government propaganda that is filled with lies concerning pain medicine. What we truly need is more freedom.