Americans have enough problems to fill their plate for a lifetime.

Most are leftovers from the previous administration.

From healthcare to immigration to social issues, Americans will be dealing with problems created by the Obama administration for many years, possibly decades, to come.

One issue brought to the forefront by the Obama administration is opioid use and abuse by Americans:  legal as well as illegal usage.

Because of statistics compiled by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) that group heroin and prescription opioids together, Americans watched last year as Sen. Kelly Ayotte introduced bill S. 564, The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) to Congress authorizing the Attorney General to issue funds to the states to combat this “problem.”

Fortunately, the bill failed to pass.

However, Donald Trump has latched onto the government declared “opioid crisis” indicating he plans to “declare the national opioid crisis a ‘state of emergency’.

Breitbart reported:

President Donald Trump announced that he planned to declare the national opioid crisis a “state of emergency,” allowing the release of federal funds to help combat the alarming rate of overdose deaths and addictions.

“I’m saying officially right now it is an emergency. It’s a national emergency,” Trump said on Thursday.

Trump announced his intentions during a press gaggle at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey after he was asked about the opioid crisis. He indicated that the administration was currently drawing up the paperwork to make it official.

“We’re going to spend a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of money on the opioid crisis,” Trump said.

When government operates outside of its prescribed limits, government exponentially expands to exert increasing control over the lives of those it governs.

The Constitution of the united States of America does not authorize control of health care or medical treatments of the individual or people to government.

Yet, President Trump plans to address the “national opioid crisis” by declaring a “state of emergency” that will release federal funds to combat overdose deaths and addictions.

How is the government to distinguish “addicts” and “abusers” from those who have legitimate pain conditions treated with prescription opioids?

Answer – they can’t.

So, government will target every citizen needing prescription opioids as part of their medical treatment, doctors who prescribe opioids for their patients with pain conditions, and individuals abusing illegal street opioids, such as heroin.

After all, the rhetoric coming from government is that opioid pain medication users are turning toward heroin.

A narrative that is more than likely false; but, government’s promotion of this narrative fuels concerns the public has with illegal drugs and their prevalence in the united States.

Moreover, there is a big difference between “tolerance,” “dependence” and addiction.

According to WebMD, “‘addiction’ is a widely used word.  But many people don’t use it accurately.”

Addiction is far more than a craving. It also means there are troubling consequences that can often disrupt someone’s personal life or job.

“Addiction means the individual has lost control over the use of the drug. They’re using it compulsively, there are consequences to using the drug, and they continue to use it anyway,” says Gary Reisfield, MD.

He’s a chronic pain and addiction specialist at the University of Florida.

Tolerance and dependence are not the same as addiction.

Tolerance is common in people using opioids (such as hydrocodone, oxycodone, and morphine) for chronic pain.

It means the body has become used to the drug, and it has less effect at a given dose, Reisfield says.

Dependence means that there are unpleasant withdrawal symptoms if a person abruptly stops taking a drug.

People who aren’t addicted can develop drug tolerance or dependence. And both can be absent in people who are addicted to certain drugs.

Opioid pain medications are some of the most commonly abused prescription drugs.

However, the risk that well-screened people will become addicted to opioid drugs when they’re taking them for chronic pain is actually low, Reisfield says.

A 2008 study that compiled previous research found that about 3% of people with chronic non-cancer pain using opioid drugs abused them or became addicted.

The risk was less than 1% in people who had never abused drugs or been addicted.

As it stands right now, individuals who suffer from medical conditions that involve pain requiring treatment with opioids have a difficult time finding physicians outside of pain clinics willing to treat their condition because of the current monitoring of physicians prescribing opioids by government.

With the newly declared “state of emergency” because of opioid use, how will this affect prescribing physicians and individuals with acute and chronic pain conditions?

Breitbart continued its report:

“It is a serious problem the likes of which we have never had … there’s never been anything like what’s happened to this country over the last four or five years,” he said.

Trump’s decision follows the recommendation of his opioid task force led by Gov. Chris Christie.

“We hope that the President declares a public health emergency in this country,” Christie said in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on August 1.

On Tuesday, Trump held a meeting about the crisis, vowing to work harder to enforce drug laws and prosecute drug criminals.

“I’m confident that by working with our healthcare and law enforcement experts, we will fight this deadly epidemic, and the United States will win,” he said.

Who better to head a task force regarding medical conditions and treatments involving opioids than Chris Christie?

Who better to make recommendations regarding medical treatments than a politician?

No one should make a mistake and think this is to “crack down” on illegal drug use, illegal drug trafficking or illegal drug addiction.

It’s interesting the surgeon general, Obama appointee Murthy, declared guns a “health care issue” in a 2015 tweet.

And, American citizens witnessed Obama’s attempt to use the Center for Disease Control (CDC) through executive order for gun confiscation, target retirees for gun bans, again, through executive order, and implement the United Nations Anti-Gun treaty.

With Obama holdovers still populating many government positions and many still fiercely working toward disarming the public, this new “public health fight” has the potential to be abused as a back door to gun confiscation, especially with Christie’s flip-flopping stance on gun control and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s anti-gun stance.

A previous article at Freedom Outpost, “Senator Kelly Ayotte Supports Unconstitutional CARA,” discusses what problems those who use opioids responsibly for a legitimate medical condition face when government exceeds its authorized limits contained in the Constitution.

Here’s the deal.

American troops in Afghanistan are used to patrol and guard the opium poppy fields there.  Mexican drug cartels smuggle drugs into the US to the tune of $64 billion dollars annually.

One can bet the drug cartel members smuggling drugs are entering the united States illegally.

When Libertarian Dr. Ron Paul ran for president in 1993, he informed “a  gathering of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, the CIA was involved in trafficking drugs as part of the Iran-Contra debacle.”

Dr. Paul’s statement was called a conspiracy theory at the time, but it turned out to be fact.

Even in 2015, ZeroHedge reported that rumors continue to persist that the CIA is helping export opium from Afghanistan.

Yet, President Trump, on the advice of Chris “Bridge-gate” Christie will declare a “national emergency” to target American citizens instead of addressing the root causes of the problem.

Why are American troops being used to patrol and guard poppy fields in Afghanistan?

Trump should stop that immediately.

With the continued false narrative that the president is Commander-in-Chief of the military forces at all times instead of just in war time, Trump has the authority to order that activity to cease.

Enforce immigration laws and deal with illegal alien invaders crossing the borders and living in the republic.

Build that wall!

Close the borders.

Immigration law provides for the president to exercise these measures to protect the republic.

Moreover, government, aka the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), should cease importing opium from poppy fields in Afghanistan into the US.

While it may remain rumor and evidence may be circumstantial, ask this question:  when has the government or one of its agencies ever ceased an activity once it started doing it – legal or otherwise?

The activity usually expands.

Declare a national emergency on unsecured borders and illegal alien invasion since the Constitution authorizes control over immigration and protection of the republic from invasion to the central government – Article I, Section 8.

Exercise control over the military to cease protecting Afghanistan poppy fields.

Truth of the matter is that opioid pain medication can be addictive, just like some prescription sleeping medications, over the counter nasal sprays, benzodiazepines, and anti-depressants.

However, when an individual takes the opioid pain medication for its specific purpose as prescribed, the individual has a small risk to become addicted.

More than likely, addiction is being inaccurately used and applied to tolerance and/or dependence.

Pain clinics treat some individuals with alternative measures, such as epidural injections, when the individuals’ pain warrants it.

In certain conditions, pain relief can be achieved with the addition of physical exercise.  Surgical intervention can relieve some pain conditions.

However, chronic pain sufferers who are not candidates for surgical treatment, whose pain has no surgical treatment, whose pain cannot be managed with alternative measures, who pain requires additional alleviation with break through pain, or whose pain is caused by a medical condition such as cancer, will need these medications for the duration of their condition, usually the rest of their life.

But, with this new determined “fight with this deadly epidemic,” innocent individuals dealing with pain conditions relying on opioid pain medication to alleviate their suffering will find themselves and their doctors under the electron microscope of Big Brother.

Innocent individuals will be caught up in the dragnet of law enforcement stepping up the enforcement of drug laws in order to prosecute drug criminals.

If this was truly about prosecuting drug criminals, there would be no need for government to even examine law-abiding citizens receiving legitimate medical treatment.

Moreover, the coupling of health care professionals with law enforcement is a recipe for disaster.

It compromises the physician-patient relationship and the confidentiality a patient is afforded when seeking medical treatment.

Who knows what physicians will be required to report on their patients under “task force recommendations.”

Who knows what government will sanction against physicians deemed to be prescribing too many opioids according to some non-medical government bureaucrats who pick an arbitrary number out of a hat.

Government could also “issue” a mandate limiting the quantity of opioids physicians can prescribe, as well as limit specific ones.

With any fight or “war,” there are always casualties – even in social wars.  In this war on opioid pain medication and its users, the casualties will be innocent individuals who will be relegated to suffer with their pain because of the limiting of opioid pain medication as government tightens the noose around the neck to combat overdose deaths and addictions.

Instead of combating the source, government intends to target citizens.

Government will begin to automatically link anyone that is prescribed opioid pain medication with heroin use or the potential for heroin use.

Could government use this as an excuse to disarm citizens in their zeal for gun confiscation?

Could government use this as a testing ground to target other “addictions” – alcohol, food, sex, etc – under the guise of a “health crisis,” deaths from drunk driving, lost time from work due to alcohol addiction, transmission of diseases through sexual activity, and the “epidemic” of obesity plaguing society today?

Remember, opioid pain medication is legal, so is alcohol, food, and not for profit sexual activity.

But, once government oversteps its authority in one area, others will surely follow.

While none of these activities are illegal, the resulting problems from participation in that activity could be used to further infringe on the right to privacy (Ninth Amendment, Fourth Amendment).

Regardless of what anyone thinks or says, government does not have the constitutional authority to infringe upon the medical treatment or control the health care of the citizens of this republic.  Any attempt by government to do so under any “guise” is a usurpation.

This new “action” by government is another means to exercise control over citizens and further destroy the Constitution.

Article by Suzanne Hamner

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