Have you noticed how most Republicans and or Conservatives, if not all, would like to require any Americans who are in need of or eligible for government programs such as, food stamps (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and even Medicaid, to take a drug test in order to receive any benefits or government aid?
And even though it has been proven that the great majority of Americans who are in need of such assistance (like children, the disabled, the elderly, single mothers) do not use drugs, most Republicans are still in favor of drug testing these individuals no matter the cost.
They simply don’t want drug users to receive or profit from tax payer’s money. And they ask, “Is that so wrong?” However, Republican Senators have recently been proposing that 45 billion dollars be added to their healthcare proposal overhaul, for states to spend on opioid addiction treatment. Because we now have an opioid addiction crisis in America.
But can opioid addicts pass a drug test? I Would think not. So why would you want to help drug users who use too many drugs and are drug addicts, when you don’t want to help children and women and the disabled and the elderly who might use drugs even when they aren’t addicted to them? That makes no sense at all…does it?
We still have marijuana users in jail for using marijuana and we don’t have a marijuana addiction problem… nor do I think we even worry about one…and we certainly don’t seem to be inclined to help any other drug users or abusers. Do we?
America has been at war with drugs for over 50 years! How are we doing so far? According to the pro-reform Drug Policy Alliance, when you combine state and local spending on everything from drug-related arrests to prison, the total cost adds up to at least $51 billion per year. And over four decades, American taxpayers have spent over 1 trillion dollars on the drug war.
And with over 2 million Americans now in jail, and half of those prisoners incarcerated for drug crimes, all that money has helped produce is the highest incarceration rate in the world… along with drug addiction rates that have statistically remained unchanged!
so why don’t we just put all of the opioid users in jail too?
Or if spending 45 billion dollars to help people who are in need of drug treatment is no big deal while also spending 1 trillion dollars to catch drug users, dealers and abusers…then what’s the big deal about spending 21 billion dollars on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families? Or spending 75 billion dollars on Food Stamps? Or 18 billion dollars on Housing Vouchers?
Instead our president wants to cut those programs by 192 billion dollars over the next decade. And they want to cut Medicaid by 800 billion dollars over that same time period… While spending 30 billion dollars on building a wall along the border of Mexico (also part of our “war” on drugs)
And most Republican lawmakers and most Republicans for that matter too, can’t wait to repeal the Affordable Care Act and dismantle the healthcare benefits that it has provided for millions of Americans…and yet, they have all of this concern for opioid addicts. Why? What’s so special about these Americans in distress that isn’t so special about other distressed Americans?
I don’t know what’s going to happen or who’s going to get which money for what or how the government is going to spend it, but one thing I know for sure is that after all is said and done and after all of the money is spent, there will still be opioid addicts… and lots of them… because no Congressman, Republican or Democrat is going to outlaw that drug or force doctors to stop prescribing it or make pharmaceutical companies stop making it… will they?
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