“Dope. They sell that shit to schoolkids.”
“It’s worse than that.
“How’s that?’
“Schoolkids buy it.”
— Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men
There has been a lot of attention around this region and elsewhere about deaths and near deaths from overdose of the super-potent synthetic opioid fentanyl, especially by teenagers and young adults. An overdose of this drug can fit on the tip of a pencil. Drug trafficking cartels disguise fentanyl as pills of legitimate medicine and other, less potent, street drugs that used to control pain.
No matter what law enforcement can do to interdict the supply side, it is up to the parents primarily (and secondarily to the educators) to stanch the demand side. So longs as there are huge profits to be made, illegal manufacturing and vending will occur. Even if it we possible to locate and destroy every drug cartel’s headquarters and lab, and arrest and incarcerate (or execute) every kingpin and their lieutenants, new ones would take their place, sooner or later.
“Here’s the elephant in the room. All those who have died — who were poisoned or who overdosed — had purchased or accepted something that was not legally prescribed for them. There is an element of personal responsibility.” — Eduardo Chavez, DEA Special Agent-in-Charge, Dallas.
We should be compassionate towards the parents of minors who are drug abuse casualties, but neither they nor their children are absolved from all blame. Some persons — schoolkids — who are casualties are at least partially excused by parents or loved ones because “they only thought the were taking [some less potent, but illegal pill.]” But why use a medicine that is not prescribed? No one should buy or use any prescription medication unless it prescribed by a licensed practitioner and sold by a licensed pharmacy.
