Everyday we're hearing about the ' opioid epidemic'. The blame game, most often, wants to demonize physicians for prescribing pain medication. Physicians are no more to blame for heroin deaths than gay men for the 'aids epidemic' ,or Blacks for the 'crack epidemic' . I realize I'll make no friends w/this blog, but, stay with me....

What many in the media, so-called, self-proclaimed  experts would have you believe that some 'bad' doctor prescribed pain medication , then, cut the patient off, so, then the patient went to buy them 'on the street', eventually finding them too expensive, opted to buy  the 'cheaper' heroin powder, put it a spoon w/a bit of water, cooked it up and injected it into a vein...

So, let's personalize this: Academy Award winning, Golden Globe winning actor/father ,*[BAFTA]* Award winning,  [Volpi] Cup winning, etc, etc, etc:  Philip Seymour Hoffman had been prescribed some pain medication, doctor cut him off, so, finding the  street price for the pills too expensive,  went down to the corner, bought some powder from some guy, took it back to his luxurious apartment (that wasn't too expensive), cooked that powder up and, injected it into his vein...and died....doesn't quite fit, does it? How about the little girl from Girard Ohio: *["April 6th, 2012 was Christine Sheesley's 17th birthday, and tragically the day the teenager died.*...Prosecutors told the jury the victim decided she wanted to try heroin on the day she died(her birthday)...What happened is that Tyler Stevens cooked up the heroin, pulled out a syringe, filled the syringe, and injected it in his arm. After he injected it in his arm, he filled that same syringe with another dose of heroin, and this time stuck it in Christine's arm,"  ...what would these so-called, self-proclaimed experts say about these two? A 16 year old kid, young girl, with an older, junkie boyfriend. Yeah, it's been nearly half of a century since I was a teen, but, what I do remember, that I don't believe has changed, is that ladies like to be wooed, brought flowers, sent cards, taken out on dates for dining, dancing, etc. That's not what was happening here. I believe that this child was out to suppress or kill some awful emotional pain.

We need to take societal responsibility. .... they'll have us forget trauma, forget all the child abuse/ sexual molestation, disenfranchised humans, young and old....just blame doctors and the pharmaceutical industry. So many politicians are making their 'bones' on the rotting souls of others. They're suing drug companies, continuing to demonize physicians, never looking at the trauma, from war, from child abuse/molestation, from our societal disintegration....never looking down at all the backs they've stepped on, all the fingers they've crushed on the ladders of their 'successes'....the blinders they use to ignore the human implosion.

It's, as always, the easy fix(hmmm..., in this context, I should say 'repair'). Like our failed prison systems, let's build more rehabs...watch corporations financially bloat , like the private prison industry...and, keep the revolving doors moving, never, NEVER, EVER looking at how to stop the bleeding , in other words, why are SO MANY people going to junk?

 Oh, and, lest we forget Andrew Frye. Andrew was found dead, dead from an overdose in an Akron,Ohio Super 8 Motel:

Teenage boy, 16, died of overdose after doing heroin in motel room with his own mother...At 6am on Wednesday, Andrew, his mother and her friend Jessica Irons all took heroin together at the hotel. Heather told her son to shoot up in the bathroom because she didn't like to watch him take drugs....Police say that Heather never had custody of her son but just wanted to be 'the fun weekend mom' ...a "fun weekend with mom", with mom who never had custody of her son. Will the so-called 'experts' tell is how some bad physician working with some evil drug company 'hooked' them on pain killers then 'cut then off' and they, eventually started scoring some powder from some guy, mixing it with water, cooking it in a spoon and shooting it into their veins....yeah.

 Our societal leaders fail to call out legislators who fail to put paedophiles where they belong: in an all-adult society...forbidding their contact/access to children. When I was young, paedophiles needed to be in or connect with families who,had children, or , gain parental confidences by entering  religious organizations, etc. Now. there are so many children who have single parents who are so busy trying to make a 'living' or are too busy 'clubbing' , partying, running the streets, or, kids who are just, as I call, 'feral' children, kids raising themselves, that these monsters have greater access to hurt children, without fear of repercussions, than ever before!  Do we hear any legislators/ leaders addressing this?

 I admire those who are attempting to treat  addictions by addressing the trauma, but, what about,again, stopping the bleeding, PREVENTING ADDICTION ? Do we EVER hear that?  We certainly  haven't done it with the burgeoning prison system.

We're on a down-slide. The War On Drugs: The term was popularized by the media shortly after a press conference given on June 18, 1971, by United States President Richard Nixon—the day after publication of a special message from President Nixon to the Congress on Drug Abuse Prevention and Control—during which he declared drug abuse *"public enemy number one"*

The Amount spent annually in the U.S. on the war on drugs: More than $51,000,000,000 . No one thought we'd see teenagers shooting junk...dying. People shooting dope in their cars while they have little ones with them. There's a difference in 'getting high' and passing out...dead.

I've been calling it ' chasing the wrong dragon'. [Johann Hari has been on the show and will be back this fall. Johann's book: Chasing The Wrong Scream, addresses real issues. I've also connected with Professor Bruce Alexander, who built Rat Park, and exposed the fallacies of the so-called Partnership  for a Drug Free America's 'caged rat ad'. Stay tuned for Professor Alexander, soon, and Johann Hari this fall. I will continue to call out those for chasing the wrong dragon, and, explore ways for 'we the people' as we try to heal, us, U.S.

**Professor Bruce Alexander is on with me tomorrow/Tuesday 18 July.

We'll be doing Skype video, available at facebook.com/louiebfree**