Fentanyl as a WMD? The War on Opioids Reaches a New Level of Misinformation

“This is like declaring ‘ecstasy’ as a WMD,” an anonymous source from the Department of Defense counter-WMD community commented incredulously. This source was quoted by a Task and Purpose  reporter  investigating a Department of Homeland Security internal memo discussing designating the synthetic opioid fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction. This is just the latest example of how misinformation and hysteria inform federal and state policy regarding the overdose crisis. Policy makers maintain their state of denial about the role of prohibition in the overdose crisis. Denial fosters  vulnerability to misinformation and “alternative facts” to prop up falsely held views. Denial that the war on drugs is responsible for most of the death and destruction surrounding illicit drug use makes policymakers susceptible to claims about fentanyl that are not based in reality.Misinformation about fentanyl leads to avoidable stress and overreaction among first responders. But misinformation about the causes of the opioid overdose crisis causes much more harm.  Lawmakers and policy makers continue to believe the overdose crisis was caused by doctors too liberally prescribing pain pills. This ignores the government ’s own data that shows there is no correlation between the number of pills prescribed and the incidence of nonmedical use or pain reliever use disorder. It ignores evidence that nonmedical drug use was on a steady exponential increase well before the doct...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs