Addiction is the effect; despair is the cause.
The government, no matter at which level, prefers to consider addiction as the problem because they can blame everyone else for the problem thereby avoiding their responsibilities. Governments blame the parents, the doctors, big pharmaceuticals while the local governments blame the states and the states blame the federal government.
If it is despair that causes addiction, overdoses and death, the blame falls squarely on government. The government has failed to provide for jobs with a living wage, education, healthcare, protection of workers, the wealth gap etc.
The fact that no one sees it as “death from despair” rests squarely with the media. Whether it is Wolf Blitzer, Joe Scarborough, Sean Hannity, Rachel Maddow, or any other talking head; the buck stops there. They literally could start each news story each night with “because of their despair….”. Until the media CNN, ABC, CBS, NPR AND FOX start looking into and reporting on this “causal” relationship, the public will remain ignorant.
It is not an ignorance by choice. They are, whether they are farmers, shop keepers, or auto workers, too busy trying to get by to be focused on the problem. What they do know is that something is not right. They know that they will not have the same lifestyle of their parents. They know that the “middle class” is no longer achievable for themselves, their children or their grand children. They are stuck on the bottom of Maslow’s pyramid of needs. Self actualization will never be achievable for them. There is no future for them, their children or their grandchildren.
If you want a clue as to why adults turn to drugs to solve their problems, I suggest that as you watch TV tonight you jot down a list of medications being hawked by the pharmaceuticals. Think about it. What they are saying is that if you have a perceived condition, you should insist that your doctor prescribe it for you. Drugs are touted as the answer for everything from “shaking leg” to erectile dysfunction.
Death by addiction or death by despair?
Death from an overdose or death from lack of care.
Allthingshominidae 