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Pick up a newspaper these days, turn on a TV newscast, or catch reports on the internet or from wherever other source, and you are destined to get the latest updates on the Florida hurricane recovery efforts, the ups and downs of the stock market, the goings-on involving the Jan. 6 investigation, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the abortion issue, as well as developments on the NFL front, Major League Baseball and the start of the NHL season.
Meanwhile, Wednesday evening brought the news of the decision by the OPEC+ oil-exporting countries to cut production sharply to support sagging oil prices.
The action was described by the Associated Press as a move that could "deal the struggling global economy another blow and raise politically sensitive pump prices for U.S. drivers just ahead of key national elections."
According to the AP, energy ministers cut production by a larger-than-expected two million barrels per day starting next month, opening avenues of blame galore in the nation's political gallery.
But there is other important news that people of this country need to know about and to give much serious thought, particularly the drug problem that continues undermining the nation's fabric.
The Wall Street Journal devoted part of its Oct. 1-2 front page and an entire inside page to the opioid fentanyl, which the Journal said is driving overdose deaths to record numbers.
It is absurd for anyone living in the Southern Alleghenies region to think that the fentanyl problem is everywhere else but not here. The region would benefit from a detailed report of fentanyl infiltration into this region's six counties -- Blair, Cambria, Bedford, Somerset, Huntingdon and Fulton -- and the overdose and death tolls, to date, emanating from that powerful substance.
A good question people here should be asking is how many arrests, convictions and pre-trial guilty pleas tied to fentanyl have there been over the past x-number of years, collectively and by individual year. Statistics about an issue as important as this one should not be lost amid all of the other important news of the day.
Consider these important points contained in the Journal article:
- Although prescriptions in the U.S. outside of hospitals for opioids fell about 44% in the eight years leading to 2020, opioid overdose deaths nearly tripled in that time span, and moved even higher in 2021. Preliminary federal data for 2021 indicate that about 82,000 lives were lost.
- According to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, the proportion of seized counterfeit pills in the U.S. containing a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl increased to 44% in 2021 from 10% in 2017. Last April, DEA issued a warning to law-enforcement departments across the country about an increase in fentanyl-related mass-overdose events involving three or more overdoses around the same time and location.
Fentanyl, a powerful legal medication, is prescribed for cancer patients and others experiencing severe pain. Law enforcement officials point out drug dealers often sell powder drugs they claim are heroin or cocaine but actually contain an illicit form of fentanyl.
The situation has evolved into one in which illicit drugs have become deadlier than ever because of fentanyl's pervasiveness.
Indeed, there are many troubling issues dominating the news, but the fentanyl problem must not be omitted from the list.
The word "crisis" remains a correct categorization for it.