Most people have experienced the incompetence of government agencies. The IRS tells you to call back another time. People stand in line all day at the DMV. You need to hire a private firm for mediation with the building department and Social Security.
Try this one. Call Behavioral Health (BH) in Yuba City and ask them about getting into a residential treatment program. Tell them you are homeless, sick from heroin withdrawals and need help right away. Oh, you have no vehicle.
Now, remember you are very sick and it’s 100 degrees out. Count how many calls and steps it will take to acquire help. Do you need to visit BH? Is it still too dangerous for counselors to meet with a real addict for fear of “catching a cold?” Or, do you need to know how to use Zoom?
How many tests do you need to enter the program and how will you the addict pay for them? Tests like TB, STIs, PCR and maybe even a physical exam. How many days will all this take? How will you pay?
Oh, what if you have no identification. (Many homeless have lost their ID.) You probably can’t get service.
However, if you dropped dead the sheriff’s department would determine who you are. The coroner offers prompt personal service including contacting family members and expressing their regrets.
It’s odd that we can’t offer the living the same service as the dead.
Maybe there is a new start-up industry in the making, mediating for drug addicts seeking treatment. Everyone is talking about the terrible homeless problem, but government controls all the money and wastes it on the same tired logic-defying approaches.
Over 81,000 drug overdose (OD) deaths occurred in the United States in the 12 months ending in May 2020, the highest number ever recorded in a 12-month period, according to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
OD deaths were already increasing in the months preceding the 2019 government concocted pandemic. The recent numbers show a massive spike in OD deaths during the Covid rules.
“The disruption to daily life due to the COVID-19 pandemic has hit those with substance use disorder hard,” said CDC Director Robert Redfield, M.D. “As we continue the fight to end this pandemic, it’s important to not lose sight of different groups being affected in other ways. We need to take care of people suffering from unintended consequences.”
The criminal behavior here is that the government’s hoax did everything that would break the spirit of fragile people leading to an “epidemic” of both overdoses and suicides. The Covid response was not about gaining herd immunity, but rather thinning the herd.
Synthetic opioids (primarily illegally manufactured fentanyl) seem to be the catalyst for the increases in OD deaths, increasing 38.4 percent during the 12-month period leading up to May 2020 compared to the previous 12-months. During this last period: 37 of the 38 U.S. jurisdictions with available synthetic opioid data reported increases in synthetic opioid-involved OD deaths; 18 of these jurisdictions reported increases greater than 50 percent; 10 western states reported over a 98 percent increase in synthetic opioid-involved deaths.
OD deaths involving cocaine also increased by 26.5 percent. Based upon earlier research, these deaths are likely linked to co-use or contamination of cocaine with fentanyl or heroin. OD deaths involving psychostimulants, such as methamphetamine, increased by 34.8 percent. The number of deaths involving psychostimulants now exceeds the number of cocaine-involved deaths.
Yuba-Sutter Counties’ horse and buggy approach to drug treatment is assuring a growing homeless industry along with more customers for drug dealers and the coroner. Government policies are killing citizens.
(Lou Binninger can be heard on No Hostages Radio podcast, live on KMYC 1410AM 10-noon Saturdays, read at Live with Lou Facebook and Nohostagesradio.com)
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