Over the last few years, drug overdoses have become a leading cause of death in the US and in Minnesota. Since these most often affect younger adults, it is truly tragic. Minnesota released a preliminary report on overdose deaths for 2023. The number of fatalities declined from 1384 in 2022 to 1274. While this is good news, overdose deaths remain elevated from a few years ago, largely due to the fentanyl epidemic. While fentanyl accounts for the highest number of deaths, overdose fatalities due to methamphetamines and cocaine increased. All the decline in total deaths reflects is doing a better job of preventing people from dying of an overdose. The total number of overdoses treated rose, indicating that Minnesota has made no progress in reducing drug use. Our law enforcement ranks are depleted and frankly, our AG is a worthless racist more interested in prosecuting police than stopping drug trafficking. Also of note, the number of cannibis poisonings rose by over a third as it is legalized and we can expect an even greater increase in coming years as this supposedly safe drug becomes commercialized. (DOH Report)
We just had another big fentanyl bust in Duluth yesterday (https://www.wdio.com/front-page/local-news/duluth-search-warrant-discovers-almost-2000-m30-pills/). It seems like these are happening every few weeks. While we definitely should go after the suppliers of this poison to the fullest extent of the law, there’s just going to be another supplier a week or two behind them. I don’t know what the answer is, but we have to address the root cause which is the demand for fentanyl from a section of the public. There’s always going to be somebody willing to step in when the profit motives are as high as there are and the demand exists, even with the risk of going to prison for a long time. The only way to alleviate this problem long-term is to address the demand side.
I go back and forth on whether legalizing marijuana is a good thing or not. I’ve never used and have no intention of doing so. While people are going to use it whether or not it’s legal, I don’t think there’s any question that more people (at least marginally) are going to use it if they can walk into a store and buy it rather than buying it from someone on the black market. Will a few of these users go on to become hard drug users? Probably. But one can argue that alcohol is a gateway drug to everything else as well. We know what happened the last time we tried to make that illegal.