As a paramedic, when someone is sick I need to treat what could kill them before I do anything else. If my patient can’t breath or they’re bleeding profusely, that needs to be where my attention goes. Once I get the things that are going to kill the patient under control, I can look at other issues.
This treat-the-crisis approach is what we need for our social response to drugs. The toxic drug supply is killing more and more people each year. Until we get poison like fentanyl under control, we need to put our focus on these toxins.
The method that we’ve tried to use to control all illicit drugs is actually making the current drug crisis worse. Drugs like cocaine and heroine were the exclusive products of gangs and dealers. They could do whatever worked best to increase the cash intake from sales. People using them were subject to risks, but death was lower down on the list.
The War on Drugs helped to create the Toxic Drug Crisis that we’re living. Drug Lords who controlled the supply of street drugs became titans of an underworld organized to evade law and punishment. It was into this world that a new kind of illicit drugs, manufactured rather than grown and processed, was introduced. Far from law or regulation, it was easy for people operating in this shadowy world to add the new synthetic drugs to popular street drugs. The user asks for coke and thinks that’s what he’s getting. But, the dealer’s product is purposefully tainted with powerful synthetic compounds.
Synthetic drugs are cheap, easy to make and can be distributed using all the newest gadgets like social media, couriers and communications apps. Fentanyl and other synthetics don’t need a nice big plot of land to grow the crops or a production centre to blend a usable form of the drug. A batch of synthetic drugs can be mixed up just about anywhere. There is no quality control.
When we commit ourselves to controlling the poisons that people are adding to drugs we’ll stop tainted drugs from killing people like my son.
If illicit fentanyl is cheap and easy, it’s also potent. Just a bit cut in with the old fashioned drugs – cocaine, speed, heroine – will up their kick and boost the dealers’ profits way way up.
When my attempts to control a life-threatening problem fail, I move on to other options quickly. Street drugs went from risky to deadly when they became tainted with synthetics like fentanyl. Trhough this, we’ve kept our focus on policing drugs. The don’t-do-drugs tactic never worked, but now that the drug supply is tainted, it’s a sure way to look like your treating the problem while you watch people die.
The tainted drug supply already killed my son, Archie. Tainted street drugs need to be where we focus our efforts to keep our loved ones who use drugs alive. And, since we’ve already tried drug prohibition and it didn’t work, you and I need to move on to another option for controlling what will kill those we love.
When we commit ourselves to controlling the poisons that people are adding to drugs we’ll stop tainted drugs from killing people like my son.
Archie MV 