Opiods help thousands and many people need these drugs. My mother is a cancer patient and has to jump through hoops to get her meds filled with back and forth trips. Has to turn in empty bottles and account for all pills. Again, you cannot blame the oxygen for the fire. We need serious reform and make help available as all other advanced countries have already done and proved it works...but the US is full of greedy, ignorant conservatives on their throne of perfectness and pure hypocrisy.
You are correct that people need these drugs, and there should be a distinction drawn between cancer patients and people with a dicky back. The problem is that for a while now, Purdue and other companies have been flooding us with “oxygen” and people just want to put out the fire. Sadly it will take time to to normalize the response once the flow of “oxygen” has been staunched, and poeple will suffer until then. More people and society as a whole are suffering now though.
If terrorism killed as many people as opiates and ruined as many lives, it would be justifiable to fight that war. There is also a difference between reforming corrupt Rx and business practices, and fighting a “war”. Most of all though, this is not a case of people making informed choices to use dangerous drugs, they were grossly misled.
I guess the point is that legislation is difficult to undo, is typically written to implement short-term political goals that are not always in the public interest, and further disenfranchises the outgroup of the day
Drops all marijuana charges? Boy am I glad I'm not in Philly or I'd be in city hall every day demanding this person's removal and incarceration for aiding and abetting drug users immediately.
I don’t agree with you, but even if I did I’d ask if you knew the difference between aiding, and abetting. You can make a lousy argument in this case for abetting, it unless you’re claiming that the PA DA gave people pot or paraphernalia, aiding is right out.