How passionately do you feel about the opioid crisis costing our government over $500 billion dollars and over 60,000 lives per year?
Not all of us have conservative families but considering 43% of Washingtonians identify as such, apparently about half of us do. While close to 50% of Republicans are now in favor of legalizing cannabis, there is still a large portion that want to see the plant banned. At many dinner tables this holiday season, many of us will be subject to Uncle Nelson’s or Aunt Kathy’s slander about the Devil’s Lettuce.
“Damnit Mitch, when will you stop smoking this reefer and get a real job!”
What most of these family members, like Uncle Nelson, won’t bring up at dinner is the Opioid crisis.
According to a new report from the White House, opioid misuse cost our country $504 billion dollars in 2015.
Now that Trump has declared a state of emergency surrounding opioids, we hope that some of our conservative brothers and sisters might bring it up. Raising awareness about this crisis may single-handedly be the best thing he has done in office.
According to a new report from the White House, opioid misuse cost our country $504 billion dollars in 2015. Five hundred and four billion fuxking dollars.
I’ve been at many holiday dinners over the past few years and witnessed plenty of people voicing their distaste for the legalization of cannabis. Yet remain silent on drugs hidden away in their bathroom or kitchen cabinets. Many of these are the same pharmaceutical drugs that killed over 60,000 people last year.
Counties and cities in Eastern Washington and Oregon have outlawed the cultivation and even the sale of the product. These individuals view cannabis as something so terrible that it’s not worth the tax revenue for their area. When you head home for the holidays and your family brings up how much they hate the legalization of marijuana, ask how they feel about the 64,000 Americans that died from opioids last year. It might seem extreme to them, but every day people are dying and cities are going further and further into debt. We don’t encourage being disrespectful to family, friends, or generally anyone, but these days, conversations surrounding cannabis and opioids effect just about everyone you come in contact with.
If things go south quick, just excuse yourself from the table and go rip your vape pen in the bathroom. What else can you really do besides respectfully stand up for what you believe in?
