drug treatment detox
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">really belated 1219</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">vs strict fr</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">vs war on drugs</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">//tough on crime
</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">strict fr again?</font></div><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/to-us-oligarchs-majority-views-on-taxing-the-rich-count-for-little/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/to-us-oligarchs-majority-views-on-taxing-the-rich-count-for-little/</a></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> noah b</font></div><div style="font-size: small;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With one political party entirely committed to expanding inequality, and the other divided on the issue, overwhelming public support and commonsense ethical commitments don’t carry much weight.
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That’s how oligarchies consolidate. The wealthy horde power and wealth, then that power and wealth gives them the ability to shape institutions to further increase their power and wealth.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Yellen has had some successes in restraining wealthy and corporate power. She negotiated an international agreement with 136 countries to implement a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/what-is-global-minimum-tax-deal-what-will-it-mean-2021-10-08/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">global corporate minimum tax</a> of 15 percent.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">At some point, corruption stops being a bug in democracy and starts becoming a feature of oligarchy.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Has the US passed that threshold?</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Based on the sweeping and effective resistance to commonsense solutions to reign in wealthy tax scofflaws, the answer is not encouraging.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since the 1970s, the United States has become steadily and inexorably more economically unequal. According to <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/02/07/6-facts-about-economic-inequality-in-the-u-s/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Pew</a>, upper income families have brought in a larger and larger share of total income.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>US income inequality is the highest of all G7 nations. Its Gini coefficient is .434, well above second highest UK at .392.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">In 1968, the top 20 percent of households earned 43 percent of national income. By 2018, the top 20 percent of households earned 52 percent.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">In 1989, the richest 5 percent of families had 114 times as much wealth as families in the second poorest income tier. In 2016, they had <em>248 </em>times as much wealth.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">In <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-08/top-50-richest-people-in-the-us-are-worth-as-much-as-poorest-165-million" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">2020</a>, the 50 richest Americans had almost as much wealth as the poorest half of the US population.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>This massive concentration of wealth is also a massive concentration of power.</b> The wealthiest people have access to the best lawyers, the best tax attorneys and the most powerful politicians.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That means that it is very difficult for the government to restrain them, or to create a more equitable economy and society against their wishes.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>That’s how oligarchies consolidate. The wealthy horde power and wealth, then that power and wealth gives them the ability to shape institutions to further increase their power and wealth. [amp fdbk]</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">An example of oligarchical power is billionaire tax evasion. A <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/03/26/wealthy-tax-evasion/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">recent IRS study</a> found that wealthy Americans conceal more than 20 percent of their earnings. They are able to do this because of complex accounting scams involving offshore tax shelters.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The lost tax costs the government at least $175 billion a year in revenue. The top 1 percent of earners are responsible for a third of unpaid federal taxes.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition to these straightforwardly illegal accounting tricks, the very wealthy also benefit from at least nominally legal loopholes.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For instance, wealthy people have many assets that increase in value over time, but they do not pay taxes on those assets until they sell them.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>They can borrow against those assets without paying taxes, since again the assets aren’t considered income</b>. Then, if they die before selling the assets, they can pass them on to their heirs using trusts and other accounting shenanigans to avoid the estate tax.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">ProPublica called this strategy <a href="https://www.propublica.org/video/buy-borrow-die-how-americas-ultrawealthy-stay-that-way" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Buy, Borrow, Die</a>. It’s a key method for hoarding generational wealth, and entrenching oligarchy.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Biden administration, led by Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, have proposed strong measures to rein in billionaire corruption. In part, they want to restrain inequality. In part, they hope to fund other priorities like climate mitigation and anti-poverty measures in the administration’s Build Back Better infrastructure plan.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">To address billionaire tax evasion, BBB included <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/budget/2021/10/bidens-irs-spending-plan-makes-it-through-build-back-better-act-framework/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">$80 billion</a> to boost capacity and staff at the IRS. That would help make up for the steady budget-cuts under Republican administrations. Those have led to a 60 percent decrease in audits of taxpayers who earn more than $1 million. Biden said the investment would allow the IRS to collect $400 billion in taxes.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Biden, Yellen and Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden have also been pushing for a <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-nightly/2021/10/26/the-billionaire-tax-loophole-hunt-is-on-494854" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">billionaire tax</a> to force the very wealthy to pay taxes on the increased value of their assets.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This would strike at the heart of the oligarchic “Buy, Borrow, Die” lifestyle. It would force the ultra-wealthy to pay their fair share, like everyone else, every year, year after year.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Policies that prevent the rich from escaping a tax burden everyone has to pay should be easy to pass in a democracy. You’d think preventing billionaires from cheating on their taxes would be a popular policy.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>And you’d be correct.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">A 2019 poll, for example, <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/04/democrats-taxes-economy-policy-2020-1144874" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">showed</a> that 76 percent of Americans agreed that the wealthiest should pay more in taxes. Proposals to tax income over $10 million at 70 percent — a huge increase over current rates — obtained more than 50 percent support.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">In an oligarchy, though, public support doesn’t necessarily count for all that much.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A notorious 2015 study <a href="https://www.vox.com/2014/4/18/5624310/martin-gilens-testing-theories-of-american-politics-explained" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">found</a> that politicians were much more likely to listen to and follow the political preferences of economic elites than those of the less affluent.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">You can see that playing out in the politics of billionaire taxation.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">Build Back Better, which included the beefed-up IRS funding, was scuttled by millionaire West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, in large part, <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-manchin-build-back-better-child-tax-credit-drugs_n_61bf8f6be4b061afe394006d" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">reportedly</a>, because he was worried that poor parents would spend money on drugs.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A wealthy politician refused to enforce the law against billionaires because he was worried that poor people are natural criminals.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That is what you call class consciousness.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Wyden’s proposal to end “Buy, Borrow, Die” also failed after opposition from <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2021/10/27/billionaire-tax-dead-on-arrival-after-manchin-blasts-proposal-mere-hours-after-its-release/?sh=34f6a763bc36" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Manchin</a></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. </span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It was of course opposed by Senate Republicans, whose main goal is to shovel as much money as possible to the rich in as short a time as possible.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yellen has had some successes in restraining wealthy and corporate power. She negotiated an international agreement with 136 countries to implement a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/what-is-global-minimum-tax-deal-what-will-it-mean-2021-10-08/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">global corporate minimum tax</a> of 15 percent. This would make it harder for businesses to escape tax burdens by moving their corporate offices. Congress still has to pass the treaty, but Yellen said she was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/oct/10/us-treasury-secretary-yellen-global-minimum-corporate-tax-debt-ceiling" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">confident</a> they would do so.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The corporate minimum tax is a substantial achievement. But it’s also a small dam erected against the tsunami of inequality in the US.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With one political party entirely committed to expanding inequality, and the other divided on the issue, overwhelming public support and commonsense ethical commitments don’t carry much weight.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">The wealthy have been expanding their power and influence for decades in the US. The result is that the US regularly chooses to make the rich richer rather than <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/01/21/1074413273/end-expanded-child-tax-credit-families-effects" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">helping the poorest feed their children</a>.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The outlook for change is likely to be even bleaker if Republicans recapture one or both legislative chambers in November.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yellen and Biden are to be commended for fighting an ongoing rearguard action against corruption. But if government inability to restrain corruption is a feature of oligarchy, then the US is already well down a path that it is very difficult to retrace.</font></p></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 2 22 </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">dunno is this is gonna have legs/meme</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></font></font></font></div><div><b>U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn has a hold on a stopgap continuing resolution that must pass by Friday if the federal government is to avoid a costly and dangerous shutdown. The Tennessee Republican, a peddler of conspiracy theories and far right-wing extremism, falsely insists that an HHS program includes $30 million in federal funds to buy “crack pipes” for drug abusers.</b></div><div>
</div><div>Politico co-congressional bureau chief Burgess Everett Monday afternoon reports<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer “says he’s working on scheduling the continuing resolution, which must pass by Feb. 18 to avoid shutdown. He has not filed cloture on it yet, hoping to work it out with Sen. Blackburn, who wants reassurances HHS isn’t handing out crack pipes.”</span></div><div>
</div><div>The “free crack pipes” claim, which exploded across the country last week thanks to a false report from the right-wing outlet Washington Free Beacon, has been thoroughly debunked by The Washington Post and other investigative outlets, but the GOP is refusing to let the falsehoods die.</div><div>
</div><div>“It’s amazing to us that they continue to ignore this issue, and they continue to say they are fighting drugs when indeed they’re enabling drugs,” Blackburn told Newsmax on Monday.</div><div>
</div><div>Congress will have to jump through several hoops to avoid Blackburn’s shutdown, given how late in the process they are. The House, which has already passed its bill to avert the shutdown, would have to again pass another bill, the Senate’s which Blackburn is blocking.</div><div>
</div><div>Fox News’ Chad Pergram:</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>It’s clear for Blackburn the issue isn’t the crack pipes, which are not and by law cannot be included in the HHS program.<b> Blackburn has repeatedly voted in favor of shutting the federal government down, which she did by voting against continuing resolutions in December 2021 and September 2020.</b></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha drugs are done by those ppl POC losers moral degenerates, social darwin take themselves out but tempered by opioid?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">it's systemic b/c at least recognized demand vs war on drugs bad guys foreigners who inject poison in Am, narcos</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">safe injection sites; give teenagers condoms?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">note crack evokes RR 80's ghetto BS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/free-base-pipe/">https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/free-base-pipe/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx vid twt?</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>Right-wing website made up viral fake claim Republicans like Marco Rubio are now pushing: report</div><div>[Marco Rubio embarrasses himself again by doubling down on false attack of defense secretary]</div><div>
</div><div>David Badash and The New Civil Rights Movement February 10, 2022</div><div> </div><div><b>This week Republican lawmakers and voters have had a great time pushing a false claim that the Biden administration is spending tens of millions of dollars to pay for "free crack pipes" for drug abusers</b>.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> The claim came from a report by the right-wing website Washington Free Beacon</span>, including a quote falsely attributed to an HHS spokesperson, according to The Daily Beast.</div><div>
</div><div>It's no surprise The Daily Beast is calling "a lie" made its way to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives and a U.S. Senator's Twitter account.</div><div>
</div><div><b>"The Washington Free Beacon seemed to take a big leap to assert that free crack pipes would be part of a harm reduction package</b>," The Daily Beast's Roger Sollenberg reports, calling it "a lie rocketed around conservative media."</div><div>
</div><div>The report, published Monday and titled <b>“Biden Admin To Fund Crack Pipe Distribution To Advance ‘Racial Equity,’” cited an HHS spokesperson as confirming that a sweeping harm reduction package “will provide pipes” to smoke, quote, “any illicit substance.”</b></div><div>
</div><div>The Free Beacon's article reads: <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“A spokesman for the agency told the Washington Free Beacon that these kits will provide pipes for users to smoke crack cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, and ‘any illicit substance.’”</span></div><div>
</div><div>The Daily Beast reviewed the email chain between the Washington Free Beacon and HHS. <b>It's unclear how the Free Beacon made the "any illicit substance" claim, given the HHS email specifically states no federal laws would be broken.</b></div><div>
</div><div><b>In fact, The Daily Beast reports the HHS spokesperson says the Free Beacon “omitted the information shared with him about the grantees needing to comply with federal, state, and local laws—the very language that would prohibit crack pipes.</b>”</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">The damage has already been done. The "free crack pipes" claim is now one more myth in conservatives' false reality.</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Arizona far-right Republican U.S. Congresswoman Debbie Lesko made the false claim on the floor of the House of Representatives:</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Florida Republican U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, linking to an article literally titled: "Biden administration denies funding programs that hand out crack pipes to prevent infection and promote 'racial equity'" says in a video posted to his Twitter account, "The Biden administration is going to be sending crack pipes and meth pipes, targeting minority communities," a claim he knows is a lie.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Fox News entertainers Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity both made the most of the claim, with The Daily Mail reporting: "Tucker Carlson slams policy to hand out free crack pipes and needles warning it 'will result in addicts shooting up on the streets.'"</span></div><div>
</div><div>The genie is out of the bottle, and no one on the right has any intention or desire to put it back.</div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/when-auto-plants-shutter-opioid-deaths-skyrocket/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/when-auto-plants-shutter-opioid-deaths-skyrocket/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/when-auto-plants-shutter-opioid-deaths-skyrocket/" rel="bookmark" title="When auto plants shutter, opioid deaths skyrocket" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" font-weight="font-weight" color="color" rgb="rgb" important="important" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; line-height: 1.4; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">When auto plants shutter, opioid deaths skyrocket</font></a><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/when-auto-plants-shutter-opioid-deaths-skyrocket/" rel="bookmark" title="When auto plants shutter, opioid deaths skyrocket" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" font-weight="font-weight" color="color" rgb="rgb" important="important" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; line-height: 1.4; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">1219 an</font></a></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>When auto plants shutter, opioid deaths skyrocket</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Written by Nicole Karlis / Salon December 31, 2019</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A study published on Monday found a shockingly strong link between declining participation in the labor force and opioid use.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts General Hospital led the study that was published in JAMA Internal Medicine. From a variety of data sources, researchers gathered the number of opioid-related deaths between 1999 and 2016 in 112 counties near major automotive manufacturing plants; 29 of the counties had an automotive assembly plant closure during the study period. <b>Researchers found that in those counties where automotive assembly plants had closed five years earlier, opioid deaths were about 85 percent higher among people between the ages of 16 and 65 compared to counties where such plants remained open.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Major economic events, such as plant closures, can affect a person’s view of how their life might be in the future,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">” Atheendar Venkataramani, the study’s lead author and a professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, said in a news release. “These changes can have a profound effect on a person’s mental well-being, and could consequently influence the risk of substance use.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">After an automotive plant closed, the group with the </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">largest increase in opioid overdose fatalities was non-Hispanic white men between 18-34 years old, followed by non-Hispanic white men ages 35-65 years old.</span></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">While the study shows a large association between plant closures and fatal opioid overdoses, the authors emphasize that the closures are not the only reason for the country’s opioid crisis. Indeed, the prevalence of prescription opioids is a notable factor, too. However, the researchers hope that this study will raise concerns around underlying factors associated with the opioid crisis. Solutions to the crisis, the study states, should “likely involve complementary interventions to reduce the prescription and illicit opioid supply as well as interventions to diagnose and treat substance use disorders in regions of the country hardest hit by structural economic change.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>“Our results are most relevant for the worsening population health trends in the industrial Midwest and South, regions that have experienced some of the largest increases in opioid overdose deaths and in which the automotive production and other manufacturing industries have long been economically and culturally significant,”</b> Venkataramani said in the news release. “While we as clinicians recognize and take very seriously the issue of overprescribing, our study reinforces that addressing the opioid overdose crisis in a meaningful way requires concurrent and complimentary [sic] approaches to diagnosing and treating substance use disorders in regions of the countries hardest hit by structural economic change.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Until then, the researchers suggest that there are health policy changes that can be implemented immediately.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><b style="">“There is an urgent need to rapidly lower the threshold for accessing evidence-based treatment for substance use disorders,</b> for example, at the level of state Medicaid policy and private payor utilization management,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">” senior author and co-study lead Alexander Tsai, MD, an associate professor of psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, said in the news release.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>It is estimated that more than 130 people die every day as a result of opioid overdose</b>.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Nicole Karlis is a news writer at Salon. She covers health, science, tech and gender politics. Tweet her @nicolekarlis.</div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></div></div>