DC has highest percentage of heavy drinkers, according to the Center for Disease Control (WTOP)
Detox.net used that data in their own report, which has some nice, illustrative graphics (linked here).
Drug and Substance Abuse
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ZipDialog Roundup for Saturday, June 10
Articles chosen with care. Comments welcomed. Linked articles in bold purple
◆ The aftermath of Comey remains “He said. He said.” One he is Comey, the other is Trump.
Other than Trump’s foolhardy bravado in offering to testify under oath to Mueller, nothing really happened.
The newspapers generally covered the testimony honestly. The outlier was the New York Times. Here’s my blog post on that:
How Five Newspapers Headline Comey’s Testimony: Four are Fair, One is Not
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Comment on Conspiracy Theories: The Comey testimony and its aftermath underscore and reinforce a larger shift in public discourse that is very troubling: the rise of conspiracy theories.
America’s media in tandem with the Democratic party and progressives are now playing a constant drumbeat of conspiracy theories, mostly about secret collaboration between the Kremlin and Trump to throw the 2016 election.
We haven’t seen anything like that since Joe McCarthy.
Trump does not come to this with clean hands. His claims about Barack Obama’s birth certificate were a major conspiracy theory for years.
◆ Britain’s Tories face a trainwreck. Their call for a snap election has produced a hung Parliament and likely a shaky coalition government
The headline in The Independent: Theresa May tries to move on after humiliating result as critics begin to circle
A chastened Theresa May is attempting to move on from her botched election gamble, under intense pressure from members of her own cabinet and Tory backbenchers to dramatically improve her game. . . .Ahead of what is promising to be a bruising meeting with Tory backbenchers next week, MPs publicly questioned Ms May’s position and her campaign, with one even branding it “madness”, while others demanded changes to her Brexit strategy and raised concerns about a deal with the Northern Irish DUP [Democratic Unionist Party] . –The Independent
May met with the Queen and said she intends to form a government. But there is considerable question about her future.
The Tories could toss her out before the next election, which is likely to come fairly soon.
Meanwhile, here are the main effects of the British election. It
- Requires Conservatives to partner with a small party (DUP) from Northern Ireland to form a government
- Shows the failure of Theresa May’s campaign; she was a bad candidate who ran on her personality, not future policy
- Rejects the Conservatives positioning themselves as mushy, big-state centrists, far away from Thatcher’s free-market policies.
- Gives Labour its biggest gains since late 1940s, even though (or perhaps because) the party is headed by a very, very far leftist.
- Labour’s huge gains under Jeremy Corbyn, an unabashed socialist who supports a number of terrorist regimes, mark a major political shift in the electorate.
◆ Spain’s Catalonia region (Barcelona and surrounding area) will hold a referendum on leaving Spain (NPR)
The Spanish central government sees the vote as illegal, so this sets up a confrontation.The Washington Post story is here.
“There is not going to be any illegal referendum that goes against the Constitution,” the government’s spokesman . . . said after a weekly cabinet meeting. “We are facing an increasingly radical strategy that has less and less support.”
[But Catalonia’s regional president] Carles Puigdemont said the decision to call for the vote was reached after more than 18 months of efforts failed to establish a dialogue with Madrid.He also said the vote was nonnegotiable because Catalans backed his plan for secession by voting for his coalition of pro-independence parties at the end of 2015. –Washington Post
Comment: The region has a long history and its own language, Catalan, that is related to Spanish but different.
◆ Repealing Obamacare puts the Senate’s centrist Republicans in a bind. An example from Ohio, in his USA Today story:Rob Portman’s dilemma: How to repeal Obamacare without undermining opioid fight
The key problem: any cutbacks in Medicaid, which Ohio expanded as part of the ACA, would harm addicts’ ability to get care.
Comment: Repealing and Replacing Obamacare depends on solving very hard problems like this.
◆ Meanwhile, Politico reports that “Conservatives near revolt on Senate health care negotiations”
Comment: Staunchest opponents appear to be Rand Paul (R-KY) and Mike Lee (R-UT). Skepticism about the bill voiced by Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Tom Cotton (R-AK)
Republicans have 52 votes. They would need 50 votes plus the Vice President to pass a bill and send it to a reconciliation committee with the House.
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ZipDialog Roundup for Wednesday, May 31
Articles chosen with care. Comments welcomed. Linked articles in bold purple
◆ US anti-missile success over Pacific is a huge technological achievement.
The tasks now: keep improving the technology, keep testing, and start producing them for deployment
These anti-missile systems are not designed to deal with a massive attack, such as one China or Russia could launch.
They are meant to deal with rogue nations or, conceivably, an accidental launch.
Snarky Comment about those who fought hard to stop these systems: I don’t agree with those who say that the West Coast and Hawaii should not be protected since their Senators and Congressman–and their voters–have opposed missile defense every step of the way for 35 years. True, if they had succeeded, their cities would be the first ones at risk. But leaving them defenseless, as they actually wished to be, would be very ungenerous. Still, it will be interesting to see if their Senators and House members will vote for these systems even now. After all, they might end up voting for a defense bill.
And while the folks on Nob Hill and Pacific Palisades look down their noses at the rest of America, they might want to pause and remember who worked so hard to save their sorry butts from their ill-considered judgments.
◆ Illinois, which models its finances on Greece and Puerto Rico, enters the last day of the legislative session without a budget. This is getting to be a habit. (Chicago Tribune story here.)
Comment: You can guess the story. Who controls the legislature? Mike Madigan and the Democrats. Who is the governor? A republican. Who wants few cuts, big tax increases, and no reforms to a system that has been running on fumes for years? Oh, go ahead, guess.Odd, isn’t it, how the low-tax states now have public services as least as good as the high-tax states? What that means is that you don’t get more potholes fixed if you pay higher taxes. You just get the same number fixed but pay higher wages and benefits to public-sector unions and to a paving contractor who knows a guy.
Meanwhile, Illinois’ neighboring states of Wisconsin and Indiana have put their financial houses in order. Indiana is especially well run and has been for years.
◆ “Kathy Griffin apologizes for severed Donald Trump head photo after backlash“ (Washington Post)
Would she have apologized if Hollywood applauded (as they may well have done, privately)?
In fact, everybody condemns it, as they should. It is disgusting. And it shows how low our public mudslinging has gotten.
Even CNN is “rethinking” Ms. Griffin’s participation in their cash-cow show on New Year’s Eve.
Comment: But I was more struck by how CNN presented the episode on its main web page. It illustrates what corporate fecklessness truly is.Here is the ONLY thing CNN has to say about Kathy Griffin there (early morning 5/31/17). She’s just “political.” Gosh. And we learn that she begs forgiveness (from whom, I wonder?).
A reputable news organization would have headlined the vile act, not the apology, and they would not have worked so hard to protect their asset by spinning it as “political.” But then again, they are CNN.
Kudos to Anderson Cooper, who did the right thing. Griffin’s co-host on New Year’s Eve publicly tweeted that he found it disgusting and unacceptable. Exactly right.
Btw, ask yourself what would have happened if she had done this with the head of Pres. Obama. I can tell you. She would never work another day in her life. And she would never attend another dinner party or reception. For Trump’s head, she will suffer some, especially on TV, where advertisers will shy away. But she won’t miss a single cocktail party in Hollywood and, after a month of apologies, she’ll be working again and telling funny stories about how “shocked” people were but were privately giving her high-fives.
◆ Opioid Epidemic spurs race to find safer painkillers (ScienceNews.org)
The need for new pain medicines is “urgent,” says Nora Volkow [director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse].Scientists have been searching for effective alternatives for years without success. But a better understanding of the way the brain sends and receives specific chemical messages may finally boost progress.
Scientists are designing new, more targeted molecules that might kill pain as well as today’s opioids do — with fewer side effects. Others are exploring the potential of tweaking existing opioid molecules to skip the negative effects. And some researchers are steering clear of opioids entirely, testing molecules in marijuana to ease chronic pain.
Comment: Lots of research but no breakthroughs, so far. US prescriptions for opioids have fallen a bit since 2012 but are still around 250 million annually and have been since 2006.
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ZipDialog Roundup for Saturday, April 29
Topics and articles chosen with care. Linked articles in bold purple
◆ North Korea responds to US criticism at United Nations by launching a test missile. It blows up, their 4th straight failure
The Reuters headline has it exactly right: North Korea test-fires ballistic missile in defiance of world pressure
North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile on Saturday shortly after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned that failure to curb Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs could lead to “catastrophic consequences”.U.S. and South Korean officials said the test, from an area north of the North Korean capital, appeared to have failed, in what would be the North’s fourth straight unsuccessful missile test since March. –Reuters
Comments:
- If someone is hacking these launches, they are doing a good job.
- China’s reaction here is crucial. If Kim did this after he was warned by Beijing, he will pay for it.
- Trump is playing the China card correctly. His public position is “China and the US are working together on this.” That does more than save face for China. It says, subtly, that if China cannot stop North Korea, it is Pyongyang that is showing up Beijing, and Beijing won’t want to let that happen.
- Sending Tillerson to the UN was important. It says to the world: “This is on our front burner.”
- At some point, the US will have to decide whether to include Chinese entities in any sanctions aimed at North Korea. All North Korean connections to the world, meager as they are, go through China. Any sanction against Chinese entities, even a small move against a small bank, meant as a signal, would risk future collaboration with China on the North Korean issue. So, the US will probably hold off on that for a while.
- What has been missing in the analysis: those missiles aimed at South Korea and Japan could also hit China, and Beijing has to worry about that if North Korea continues its nuclear program.
◆ Despite all the happy talk, the US economy grew very slowly in the first quarter. Under 1%. (New York Times)
The reason: a sharp, unexpected slowdown in consumer spending. The NYT offers a sensible explanation of the political and economic consequences of the 0.7% growth number:
The softness last quarter also provides crucial ammunition for the Trump administration’s arguments that big tax cuts and regulatory rollbacks are necessary for the economy to grow the way it did in the 1980s and 1990s.Tax cuts, regulatory relief, trade renegotiations and an unfettered energy sector are needed “to overcome the dismal economy inherited by the Trump administration,” said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. “Business and consumer sentiment is strong, but both must be released from the regulatory and tax shackles constraining economic growth.”
The first-quarter fade is also sure to be noticed by the Federal Reserve as it contemplates whether to proceed with two more interest-rate increases planned for this year. –New York Times
◆ MS-13 Murderous Drug Gang targeted by DOJ. Jeff Sessions tells them: “We are coming after you” The South American drug cartel has spread across the US, branched into other criminal enterprises, and committed a string of murders recently on Long Island. (Fox News)Comment: They are major profiteers from the opioid epidemic and were among the targets of candidate Trump’s famous “bad hombres” comment.
Politically, the Trump Administration is wise to focus on gangs like this. US citizens are being victimized, and even the staunchest defenders of open borders don’t want to defend the entrance of criminal gangs like MS-13.
◆ Bernie calls Barack’s Wall Street paydays “distasteful” (CNN)
Comment: Sanders made the comment from his office, not one of his three homes.
Elizabeth Warren has made similar comments about Obama’s high-priced speeches to financial executives.
Pres. Obama’s spokesman, Eric Schultz, responded,
Obama will continue to focus most of his post-presidency on writing a book, giving speeches and “training and elevating a new generation of political leaders in America.” –CNN
Comment: Neither Sanders nor Warren will want to go too far here. They want to keep up the heat on Wall Street for their progressive base, but attacking the former President, who is very popular among Democrats, is not a game with much upside for them.
Comment: Democrats certainly need a new generation of political leaders, the ones Obama’s spokesman is promising.
- The most popular Democrat is not even a member of the party. He is a Socialist.
- The current, elected leadership is all drawing Social Security
- Rising D’s in their 40s and 50s were wiped out en mass during the Obama presidency. His record of grooming future leaders is, ahem, not strong.
◆ Marine Le Pen, in the runoff for France’s presidency, faces more stench from her political base, the National Front
After Le Pen advanced to the runoff last Sunday, she resigned her leadership of the National Front. Her successor was Jean-François Jalkh. In on-the-record interviews in 2000, he denied the Nazis used poison gas to kill millions in concentration camps. When those comments were publicized this week, Jalkh denied making them. But they were on tape. So, now, Mr. Jalkh has decided to spend more time with his family and has been replaced by the mayor of a northern industrial town. The search is undoubtedly on to see if he said what he really thinks to anybody who recorded it.The story is in the Washington Post.
Comment: Le Pen is an underdog in the runoff, but her presence at the top of French politics is a very disturbing sign.
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ZipDialog Explainer: Key charts showing America’s Drug Epidemic and the Violent Gangs who Profit
Today’s ZipDialog Roundup included a story about violence by the notorious MS-13 gang, originally from El Salvador, now entrenched across the US. Engaged in a wide range of crimes, it is still mainly a drug cartel.
Today’s story was about several bodies, tortured and mutilated, found on Long Island. Police attribute to crimes to the MS-13 drug gang.
A friend wrote that she knew judges in the area and that are reporting large numbers of rapes and other violent crimes by the El Salvadorans.
My Response
Comment: These drug-selling gangs are a scourge. It is stunning that, for so long, it was considered bad form to even talk about them because they were “immigrants.”
That’s when PC becomes truly dangerous: it blocks a serious discussion of the problems. The problems don’t disappear; it just means the most extreme voices speak about them and, sadly, find a hearing.
We need good people to come here from all over the world, not cartels selling drugs. And we need to be able to talk about the issues honestly, without slipping into racist generalizations or, conversely, being falsely accused of them.
The Crucial Data
Here is some vital data, in a few charts based on official sources (the Drug Enforcement Administration, Centers for Disease Control, and so on). To see a more complete report, go to the 2016 National Drug Threat Assessment (here) It is painful reading, but it is essential for an informed debate on these issues, which range from drug treatment to sanctuary cities.
The increasing use has led to increasing deaths, not only because “regular” heroin is deadly but because it is increasingly dosed with lethal opioids, particularly fentanyl.
While violent deaths from other sources are steady or declining, those from drug poisoning are rising.
The “demand side” is obviously an internal US problem.
The “supply side” are gangs who bring the drugs in, mainly from Mexico.
It’s not just heroin coming across the southern border. It’s also cocaine, mostly from Columbia.
The fentanyls come from legitimate drug manufacturers, who products are channeled into illegal uses, and, increasingly, from China. Some is smuggled directly into the US. Some comes across the US border after being shipped through Mexico or Canada.
There are a number of competing Latin American gangs who sell these drugs, as the data from Texas clearly show.
But no one should think these gangs are limited to border regions. They have spread out across the United States. Rooting them out is, quite rightly, a high-priority issue.
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Thank you to Marcia Sukenik Weiss, whose thoughtful comments prompted this outline of the epidemic. -
ZipDialog Roundup for Friday, March 31
Topics and articles chosen with care. Linked articles in bold purple
◆ Michael Flynn’s lawyers float an idea: he’ll testify if House and Senate investigators give him immunity. At issue, Russia’s influence in the 2016 election and their contacts with the Trump campaign.
The Wall Street Journal broke the story.Flynn’s lawyer confirmed it; and now everyone is reporting it.
Comment: The Senate will take the lead here, in cooperation with the FBI. The committee on the House side is tied up in controversy over ties between its chairman, Devin Nunes (R-CA), and the Trump White House.
◆ Trump begins trade-policy review “as he levels new threats at China” (Washington Post)
- The review will cover major products and major trade partners.
- China’s leader, Xi Jinping, visits Trump next week.
◆ Historic first: SpaceX launches a satellite into orbit on a reused rocket booster. A tremendous technical achievement for Elon Musk’s company, one that dramatically lowers costs. SpaceX is aiming to launch new payloads every 2-3 weeks. Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ firm, has also reused rockets but has done so on suborbital missions. (Space.com)
◆ Opiates: Ohio officials, led by Gov. John Kasich, working to restrict painkiller prescriptions (Toledo Blade)
Calling the proposed rules a “done deal,” Gov. John Kasich said these actions, coupled with a crackdown on the law enforcement side, will eventually reverse Ohio’s distinction of ranking first in the nation in overdose deaths.“We’re paying the price right now for a lot of the neglect that happened in the past,” he said.
In battling their patients’ acute pain, doctors and other health-care providers could prescribe no more than seven days’ worth of opioid dosages for adults and five days for minors. The potency could not exceed an average of 30 morphine equivalent doses per day.
Physicians could prescribe more than that only after they’ve justified it based on the patient’s medical records. Exceptions would be made for cancer, palliative care, end-of-life, and addiction treatment. –Toledo Blade
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Dumbest comment of the Day: EU top bureaucrat, Jean-Claude Juncker, says he will urge “Ohio and Austin, Texas” to secede from the US if Trump doesn’t stop praising Brexit Story here.Comment: Looks like ole Jean-Claude’s been in the liquor cabinet again.
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- The review will cover major products and major trade partners.