In view of the national epidemic of painkiller and psychotropic drug abuse in the United States, along with the legalization of marijuana in the majority of its states, many American experts have noted the emergence of a real narcotics epidemic in the American society. Taking the road to legalizing the supposedly mild drugs, representatives of the leading political and business circles in the US graphically demonstrate to the world the fact that the nation’s heath and welfare are not their greatest concern. It seems that receiving extra personal profit and promoting the new gold rush will prove sufficient, thanks to increased marijuana sales, to not only bring down their own populous in narcotic fuelled flames, but to take down other countries, on whom Washington is actively imposing its so-called American democracy and its own business. The enormous drug market is a guarantee that neither the current US authorities, nor the opposition will ever find an answer to the question: who meets the demand and the growing appetite of the Americans for drugs?

As a US study confirms, the new conditions in the country towards the active legalization of marijuana, it has pushed cigarettes out of schools and other educational institutions of the United States. Referring to the recent studies, the conservative news portal and political analysts of the USA, The Daily Caller, said that the growing popularity of cannabis among students can be explained by the fact that all the smaller number consider marijuana as a potentially harmful substance. Yet in 1991 80% of high school students considered cannabis harmful, whereas today this opinion is shared by only 39.5%.


Comment: The elimination of smoking in public spaces is quite in keeping with the efforts of the political elite to control the population. Smoking natural tobacco actually improves cognitive function and lowers social withdrawal, whereas narcotics make people more docile and thus easier to control.

Marijuana for the Masses: Legalized cannabis and why the government wants us to go to pot

But a significant impact on reducing the fear among students of using marijuana came from recent changes in the government policy in the form of decriminalization and legalization of recreational use of marijuana in certain states with minimal explanations from representatives of the American health care system as to the potentially harmful health effects as a result of its use. Currently, medical marijuana is legal in 24 states, and the recreational use of cannabis is allowed in Colorado, Washington, Oregon, District of Columbia, Alaska, and a number of other states.

However, from the uncontrolled use of marijuana, many US residents are moving very quickly to hard drugs, particularly heroin, the use of which has recently grown steadily in the United States. As pointed out by the American television network ABC News, a significant increase in heroin-addicted Americans makes drug treatment clinics operate at maximum capacity, every tenth clinic is treating more patients than its capacity allows. Currently, in the United States more than 11 million people are officially recognized as abusing prescription painkillers, leaving a growing concern that many of them will be among those experiencing heroin addiction. According to a recent Rasmussen Reports opinion poll, 45% of respondents believe that the increase in the abuse of heroin is a much more serious threat to their communities, than what it was five years ago.

The Head of the US Office of Drug Enforcement (DEA), Chuck Rosenberg, also called heroin a “Threat to the national security” on Fox News. In the period of 2007-2013 the number of heroin abusing Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has increased by almost 150%, and the number of victims of heroin abuse has doubled over the last two years of this period of time. As Rosenberg said: “There are huge reserves of heroin. It’s cheap, in fact, much cheaper than prescription pills. This is a multi-billion dollar industry. What are the bad guys doing with the money that Americans pay for the drugs? What do they finance abroad? – I’m sure the money goes to terrorist organizations.”

The Huffington Post draws attention to the fact that the heroin epidemic in the US leads to an explosive increase in the incidence of hepatitis C among Americans. According to federal sources, about 3 million Americans are infected with the hepatitis C virus; the number of infections grew from 2009 to 2013 by 273% nationally, while heroin addiction more than doubled among young people aged 18-25 years in the last decade.

On narcotic movement of American society into oblivion wrote the recently independent American analytical portal, The end of the American Dream, indicating that 60% of adults in the US consume prescription drugs. And, as evidenced by the results of the Gallup poll, 18.9% of respondents said that they use psychotropic substances almost every day.

According to a new shocking study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, 59% of the US adults take at least one prescription drug. And, according to the National Institute on drug abuse problems, 15% of the American high school students abuse prescription drugs. In general, as noted by the American experts, prescription painkillers kill today more Americans than heroin and cocaine combined. The percentage of women taking antidepressants in America is higher than in any other country of the world. Cases of American children being prescribed antidepressants are 3 times more common than of children in Europe. It turns out that the authorities push these drugs to Americans as extremely beneficial, and pharmaceutical companies are neck-deep engaged in the absolutely obscene increase of pain and suffering of the population. Consider the number of prescription sedatives, tranquilizers, antidepressants. The latter have some extremely negative side effects. Many antidepressant drugs contain a warning that “suicidal thoughts” are one of the side effects that can be expected. It is therefore very significant that between 1999 and 2010 the suicide rate among the Americans aged 35-64 years increased by 30%. Meanwhile, the bosses of pharmaceutical companies continue to sleep peacefully at night.

It is very important to note that in the recent years almost every mass murderer in the US used antidepressants that cause extreme irrational behavior. The media fails to mention the connection between these facts, since pharmaceutical companies have acquired a lot of advertising space.

Yes, the US authorities are trying not to advertise such information as the stronger the drug intoxication of the population is, the easier it will be to carry out its unpopular and inhumane policy.

Valery Kulikov, political analyst, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.