Mac Miller was a rap artist of some notoriety
In 2010, he signed a record deal with Pittsburgh-based indie record label Rostrum Records. He subsequently began recording his debut studio album Blue Slide Park, and released it on November 8, 2011. The album went on to debut at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, making it the first independently distributed debut album to top the chart since Tha Dogg Pound‘s 1995 album, Dogg Food.
In early 2013, Miller launched REMember Music, his own record label imprint, named after a friend who died. Miller’s second album, Watching Movies with the Sound Off, was released on June 18, 2013. In January 2014, Miller announced he was no longer signed to Rostrum Records. In October 2014, it was reported Miller signed a record deal for him and his label REMember, with Warner Bros. Records. He also served as a record producer under the pseudonym Larry Fisherman, producing music for SZA, Vince Staples, Lil B, Ab-Soul, Riff Raff, Smoke DZA, and himself.
Miller died on September 7, 2018 of cocaine and fentanyl overdose. He was 26 years old.
Unfortunately, he has a lot of company.
A class of synthetic drugs has replaced heroin in many major American drug markets, ushering in a more deadly phase of the opioid epidemic.
New numbers Thursday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that drug overdoses killed more than 70,000 Americans in 2017, a record. Overdose deaths are higher than deaths from H.I.V., car crashes or gun violence at their peaks. The data also show that the increased deaths correspond strongly with the use of synthetic opioids known as fentanyls.
Since 2013, the number of overdose deaths associated with fentanyls and similar drugs has grown to more than 28,000, from 3,000. Deaths involving fentanyls increased more than 45 percent in 2017 alone.
70,000 died of drug overdose in 2017. In contrast, there were approximately 15,000 gun deaths in 2017, exclusive of suicides.
It’s so out of control that it is causing a reduction in US life expectancy.
The recent increases in drug overdose deaths have been so steep that they have contributed to reductions in the country’s life expectancy over the last three years, a pattern unprecedented since World War II. Life expectancy at birth has fallen by nearly four months, and drug overdoses are the leading cause of death for adults under 55.
Currently, Massachusetts has the highest rate of overdose deaths in the US.
Fentanyl is the poison driving the overdoes death rate increase. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50-100 times as strong as morphine. It is invaluable for pain control, especially in terminally ill patients. It allows them to function at a reasonable level as long as the doses are administered carefully and monitored. Sadly, most of it is not.
And it’s coming from China via Mexico.
And this from Sacramento’s CBS affiliate:”The pill that killed Jerome Butler, the father of three, contained the potent pain reliever fentanyl. ‘It shut down his organs. It shut down his kidneys. It shut down his liver. His brain was swollen. The doctor said there was nothing he could do for him,’ Mrs. Butler said. ‘From one pill.’ Her son’s death was one of 10 in the Sacramento area in just 12 days that doctors have traced to heavy fentanyl-laced narcotics being sold as generic opioids on the streets.”
From the standpoint of the Mexican drug cartels and their Chinese suppliers, fentanyl is a new highly lucrative profit item to supplement the existing traffic in heroin, cocaine and methamphetamines. It doesn’t supplant them. In the first place, recently the White House had to report that Mexico is greatly increasing the acreage of its opium poppy production. By the end of this year, poppy production on President Obama’s watch will have tripled. During a 24 hour period in March, the U.S. Border Patrol intercepted over $2 million in illegal cocaine and methamphetamines coming across the Texas border from Mexico.
And the United States Postal Service.
As recently reported by STAT News9 and ABC News,10 Chinese drug sellers are exploiting the federal government’s inability to track and identify shipments of illicit drugs sent via international mail.
They’re simply shipping fentanyl to the U.S. via the U.S. Postal Service, as this is a “virtually guaranteed route to not get caught” — this despite a 375 percent increase in international mail seizures between 2016 and 2017. (Interception and seizure of domestic packages containing opioids increased by 880 percent.)
This is more urgent than gun control.
Bet you didn’t know that Trump signed a law meant to close the USPS loophole for these illicit drugs:
President Trump this week signed into law a measure to overhaul the international mailing system in an effort to close a loophole that has led to the U.S. Postal Service becoming an unwitting courier for illicit drug manufacturers and contributing to the nation’s opioid crisis.
Many lawmakers and stakeholders have pushed the reform for years, which will require USPS to receive “advanced electronic data” on the contents of international packages before they reach the United States, but the Synthetics Trafficking and Overdose Prevention (STOP) Act only made its way to the president after it was included in a package (H.R. 6) of dozens of other measures aimed at tackling the opioid epidemic. Supporters of the measure were hopeful it would help stem the flow of illicit, synthetic opioids from foreign manufacturers through the mail system.
“The bill gives law enforcement the tools and resources they need to stop ultra-lethal—think of that word, ‘ultra-lethal,’ that’s a big statement—drugs, like fentanyl, from being trafficked throughout our mail,” Trump said at the White House on Wednesday.
Not surprisingly, little network press attention was given to another important recent event.
China agreed Saturday to label fentanyl a controlled substance after a meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The deadly synthetic opioid is responsible for tens of thousands of U.S. drug deaths annually.
The White House says Xi agreed to the move, long sought by the U.S., during a dinner Saturday between the two leaders on the margins of the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
U.S. officials for years have been pressing the Chinese government to take a tougher stance against fentanyl, which is 50 times more powerful than heroin. Most U.S. supply of the drug is manufactured in China.
Why is this so important?
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders says the decision means that “people selling fentanyl to the United States will be subject to China’s maximum penalty under the law.”
That’s right. It wasn’t a crime to sell Chinese fentanyl to the US. Thanks to Trump, it is now. This was long a goal, but Trump got it done.
Now if we want to put a lid on the opioid epidemic, we need to secure the border. Derek Maltz :
It’s obvious to me that many politicians have mislabeled the drug crisis as a prescription drug problem and an over-prescribing issue. There is plenty of blame to go around. Many politicians won’t blame the cartels for the deaths and do so deliberately for political reasons. It’s easier for them if they ignore the real cause.
Let’s be clear: In 2018, illicit drugs distributed by cartels are driving this crisis and the public needs to know the truth. According to research from the American Action Forum, in many parts of the country, prescription drug overdoses are down as illicit cartel drug overdoses are up.
Thanks to President Trump for addressing the crisis in Massachusetts and New Hampshire for what it is, a cartel invasion to spread their poison and make tons of money.
We need to use the brave personnel of ICE and remove these criminal aliens contributing to the destruction of our society. Now it’s time for Congress to provide real solutions. They need to provide the resources for better border security and must update the antiquated laws that no longer make sense.
Congress must secure the border to stem the tide of illegal drugs and brutal cartel activity.
He says it not a prescription problem:
Yes, it’s true our population first started consuming mass amounts of opioids from the medicine cabinet and there has been serious over prescribing for years. But now the addicted have turned to a less expensive alternative on the streets.
Unfortunately, the cartels don’t have any quality control and are mixing the poisonous chemicals with heroin and cocaine and making counterfeit pills with fentanyl. The addicted are unfamiliar with the substances they are taking, and in many cases, it’s too late.
It’s not. We’ve cut way back on opioid prescription as a profession. One study found a 22% decrease from 2013-2017. Now the cutback is beginning to affect those who really are in need of pain meds. Meanwhile, ignorant politicians continue to grandstand. It’s not big pharma. It’s China. It’s Mexico. It’s the cartels.
This illicit drug traffic must be stopped. Trump has taken two big steps in that direction.
Now build the wall.
Bonus
You know who is critical to keeping fentanyl off the streets?
ICE.
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.