Drug Overdose Deaths Spike Throughout U.S. as COVID-19 Lockdowns Cause Surge in Hopelessness, Despair
Shane Trejo
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An analysis from the White House has shown that drug overdose deaths are spiking as the coronavirus pandemic lingers on, most likely due to lockdown policies that are causing a surge in hopelessness and despair.
Drug policy experts in the Trump administration have found a 11.4 percent in fatalities in 2020 over 2019. This is particularly shocking considering that the opiate crisis in America is still under way, and it is now worse than ever due to coronavirus panic.
“The pandemic has caused my level of concern to go up,” White House drug czar Jim Carroll said to POLITICO in an interview.
The problem has exacerbated considerably because a billion-dollar federal research program to discover new ways to treat addiction has been shelved because of the coronavirus pandemic. The human cost of the pandemic is immeasurable, and the negative ramifications will likely be felt for generations.
“The concerns we have are related to the big challenges people are facing right now with Covid: isolation and uncertainty resulting in very high levels of stress,” Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute for Drug Abuse, told POLITICO.
Some far-left public officials have made the situation even worse by subsidizing alcohol and drugs for destitute individuals during the lockdown.
Big League Politics reported on how dope was provided for homeless people by San Francisco authorities while they were holed up under quarantine:
The city of San Francisco, Calif. is giving out free alcohol and drugs to its homeless population that has been holed up in hotels during quarantine.
The city has already given booze, cigarettes, or marijuana to 43 homeless individuals in an attempt to reward them for staying put in the hotels. This is meant to keep them from wandering off and spreading coronavirus throughout the city.
San Francisco Department of Health spokeswoman Jenna Lane said: “They’re doing San Francisco a great service by staying inside. We’re saying, ‘We’re doing what we can to support you staying inside and not have to go out and get these things.’ ”
The city’s health department claimed in a tweet that this is a “harm reduction based practice” not funded by the taxpayer. However, they did not provide any documentation showing how this program is being privately funded in the tweet.
They claim that subsidizing substance abuse for the homeless helps “guests successfully complete isolation and quarantine and have significant individual and public health benefits in the COVID-19 pandemic.”
San Francisco has opened up hotels to house 270 homeless individuals who have either tested positive for coronavirus or been determined prone to infection. City officials are using drugs, alcohol and cigarettes as enticement tools to get the homeless to properly quarantine.
Dr. Grant Colfax, who works as the health director for the city, explained at a Wednesday press conference that the policy utilizes “the best evidence to help people manage their addictions.”
“In some cases, this will include helping them manage their alcohol and nicotine use so they can stay safe and in-place as much as possible to help their communities and help themselves,” Colfax said.
The blood is on the hands of political leaders in both major parties for how they have raped the Constitution throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
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