Why Is the Fentanyl Crisis Terrifying the World? - VisualPolitik EN
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 พ.ค. 2024
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The fentanyl crisis has already become the biggest steamroller of young Americans. We're talking about tens of thousands of young people losing their lives to this opioid every year. So at VisualPolitik we've asked ourselves a few questions: How has fentanyl got so out of control? Who is producing it and how? How is it changing the patterns of narcotic use? How far can a crisis that many are already calling the silent pandemic go?
#Crisis #America #Pandemic
7:24 The colors for US and Italy lines seems swapped.
I am a physician working in the US, this is a serious issues. The most horrible part is a lot of young people using street drugs dont even know their drugs have fentanyl in it. Making the drugs more addictive and more dangerous and cheaper. Its a horrible problem.
Maybe people shouldn't take fricking "street" drugs at all?
@@Mobin92 what a genius man, you deserve a nobel prize
@@englishaccount4016 It wasn't that fucking hard to not buy and take some. What is wrong with people? The problem is that you are snorting literally random shit, not that that shit suddenly has even more dangerous shit in it! Also if anything, legalize most "soft" drugs and sell them in a pharmacy!
I don't buy that argument. Street drugs laced with fentanyl has been reported for many years. Like cigarette smoking will increase the chance of cancer. Everyone knows that unless he is living in a cave.
People choose to do it despite knowing full well the consequences.
Last week in the Philippines, police had intercepted 5 kg of fentanyl pills.
They don't know whose making them.
Since the Chinese druglords are heavily involved in the drug trade here, it's not surprising considering china is also the source of fentanyl precursors.
You missed one very important part to why Fentanyl is such a big problem in the US.
The fact that the pharmaceutical companies and a lot of doctors overprescribed OxyContin then the government stepped in and put a stop to it, but they didn't address the fact that they were cutting off a few million addicts and creating the perfect environment for the black market to step in and profit off of all those addicts in need of a fix.
This is why I hate pain meds. Too many horror stories.
@@benceze when you need one when you’re gurgling on your last breath and they give you ibuprofen, you can thank people like the person above you
Stop brah
@@BillyCrystal-hc5jp How do you get that from what I posted? Pain meds are vital for people actually in pain. How does saying that the overprescribing of them caused a real problem equal I want to eliminate them?
@@otterrufus People knew they were addictive before they took them, regardless of what you think. They serve a purpose
Thanks for covering this guys. One of my uncles died of a fentanyl overdose a few months ago. We tried everything to get him the help he needed but he couldn't overcome his addiction and he sadly died. I hope this raises awareness of how serious this is. Most people aren't taking what's happening seriously but lives are being affected
When it was others you all laughed. Now when it's happening to you all it's a big deal😂😂😂Boy Karma is undefeated.
Your uncle died twice?
Unpopular opinion: the US could self-collapse in the long term before they have any chance to fight China. From this drug, to widespread guns violence, to systemic racism, to uncontrolled industrial military complex...
😂😂😂
He got the help he needed
At 7:18 you say the United States is the only country who's life expectancy declines 2 years in a row after the pandemic... but your graph shows that to be Italy (not USA)
Something is wrong either with the graph or the text.
most likely graph@@kubilaykara3167
A link to the source would be nice. The labels must be wrong.
I stopped the video to look if someone had an explaination because it bugged me to no end lol (I'm Italian) since it was easier for me I did some research, I can confirme life expectancy in Italy dropped in 2020 (from 83,6 years to 82,3) and rebounded in 2021 (to 82,9 y)
Very good to know - I also thought there was something wrong with the graph. Perhaps US and Italy have been mixed up.
I know nothing about drugs or drug addiction never having used anything more potent than aspirin. However, the big question for me is not about the various drugs but why society is so broken that so many people seem to need to get off their face on anything. You're never going to combat any drug problem until you tackle the misery faced by so many ordinary people who have just lost hope and don't care if they live or die.
Great comment.I was about to say the same.
As I grew up in Asia, the west's addiction always seemed odd.Though I don't expect any western country to address the root cause since that needs introspection
You should try drugs. All the coolest and most talented people used them. Heck, we idolize the certain people because of that.
You are forgetting that many people became addicted to opiates through their doctor prescribing opiate based pain medication. The same opiate based pain medication was then distributed on the black market for recreational use. All this took place while the drug companies were falsely claiming their products were safe when prescribed by a doctor. Even the doctors were taken in by the marketing.
Many people start off on prescription painkillers because, in the US, it's cheaper to throw pills at the symptoms rather than actually address the problem.
This then creates a demand which trickles into the recreational drug culture, and boom! Millions of new addicts created.
Most new users are teens with useless or absent parents. Teens with mental problems (basically most teens) and others without hope. They’re addicts on a short road to hell before they even have a life. The newer xylazine cannot be reversed with narcan,so the drug problem looks closer to solving itself.
The various waves of drug epidemics in the US are also indicative of socio-economic factors in the US that neither party wants to talk about. There are deep and serious philosphical flaws in the US as a society that lead to this kind of nihilism.
It a lot of childhood trauma
Republicans/conservatives talk about nuclear family, faith, evils of drug use, school vouchers, etc.
You’re not kidding, the US has a lot of bad karma built up through these flaws and it has come back to bite us harder than a crocodile
@@glasshalffull2930 but then they protect the drug companies largely responsible for these epidemics
This is the realest comment I have ready anywhere all year
I had 2 friends die from fentanyl last year
They thought it was something else, took it, and died a few minutes later. That's how quickly you can lose your life
Please, don't do drugs
😢❤
Hahaahahahahaha......Reagan slogan again
@@timloo6191 I hope whatever you're going through in life gets better, and whatever pain, or anger you're going through, you'll overcome
@@timloo6191. Then GO ahead, DO ALL the drugs you CAN!!! Can I have your car?
Test your drugs. Telling people not to do them is assinine. I might as well tell you to just stop breathing.
During the height of the crack cocaine crisis, I saw a documentary showing the entire process. I was horrified at the huge number of buyers in the U.😮S. who were 'trust fund babies' and kids of wealthy CEOs, and movie stars... not those always shown on the streets in tents.
Apparently money doesn't buy happiness.
The culture sends the message that you are not cool if you don't do drugs. Modern advertising has destroyed people's minds. When the cigarette companies wanted more revenue, they used Hollywood to send the message that smoking was sophisticated to capitalize on the female market. People are clueless to how much of their behavior is programmed by the wealthy who control the "Message" Get them when they are young before they gain critical thinking skills.
Word on the street is they're putting Fentanyl in the crack cocaine now. A lot of crack smokers are dying from it
I believe there are also social factors which make a society more vulnerable to drugs.
There are lots of drugs in other countries, but they don’t have this big of an impact.
You don’t usually see tent villages in Europe .
Bingo. When people see a future without the drugs, they will take it.
And you would have a hard time finding fentanyl too.
Because we have laws and controls and customs.
The US main issue is that they elect corrupted politician who have ties with both pharmaceutical industry AND with organized crime.
Thus no legislation and no will to solve an issue thay earns them a lot despite the huge casualties...
@@etienne8110 sorry. No. Vote red. Vote blue. The problem is that people do not have ways out of the poverty cycle. When people are given hope AND OPPORTUNITY, they will choose to walk away from the death spiral.
@@6thface not having access to deadly drugs is a thing in itself.
There is also poverty in other countries. Yet no fentanyl issues.
Take some more copium.
@@6thfacethere are hundreds of poor folks who won millions and hundreds of millions in a lottery. A great chance to build a great future! Yet, many just wasted their millions and went back to poverty in a matter of months. Giving money and opportunities will not solve all these problems as some people think. This issue is not that simple. Some people have mental issues, some are poorly educated and simply are not capable of making right decisions, even given the opportunities.
The legend on the graph at 7:16 does not align with the video commentary. Were the colours for the US and Italy mixed ?
Yea, I have seen the effect of this stuff, its common up here in Canada, not just the USA.
Only advice is if someone ask you if you want to buy/have drugs, simply tell them to F off and be on your way.
It's not worth your life to end up getting addicted, in the case of depression, talk to your doctor and get help professionally there is always better ways to get help then short term solutions that end up ruining your life.
as somebody who had to face violence and addictions I would like to ask US Americans to think about WHY people use weapons and drugs. WHY are there more school shootings in the USA than in the rest of the world combined? WHY is the abuse of drugs as worse as in Somalia, where they use Khat like US Americans use coffee?
I bet you could already write a book with your own answers to these great questions. The answers you will get will all be opinions and yours will be just as good. The topic is what’s important not the answers per se. Now you just saw a video about it and you commented on it, which is good. But will this topic come up outside of this context at all? Will your opinions ever graduate from this tiny forum here, is the question. It is hard to bring topics up in a social context. People won’t talk about the topic naturally. Therefore, it will get swept under the rug. As it has been for a few decades now.
@@SK-le1gmor you could look at some facts.
American politicians have ties with both pharmaceutical companies and organized crime...
That seem like an issue when you would like to restrain access, and thus gains, to a drug...
Simple: we are the third most populated country in the world. India has trouble collecting data because of infrastructure, China lies about data because they are a totalitarian country. We have almost as many people in the US as in the entire EU. So of course we will have more school shootings and more addicts. Vast majority of Americans have never seen or even met someone who has been at a shooting and for every American on drugs there are ten who have never touched any.
There's plenty of stabbing mutilation setting people on fire and violence throughout the world, England has recent years had its fare share of hatchet attacks
I live in germany and have been addicted to opioids for a few years and was always glad that fentanyl is not that big of a thing here. It is being consumed, but only by a very low, badly addicted clientel. A few days ago I met a guy and sold him some weed, next day I hear he overdosed on heroin that contained fent....
*I live in Spain and take a high dose of fentanyl daily prescribed by my doctor for chronic pain. I use a 50mg patch but it is so powerful that it keeps me in a zombie state and my dreams are always nightmares. Lately I am cutting the patches in half and to control the spikes in pain, I use 20mg of morphine daily also under prescription. The fentanyl is a curse but it does work on my pain. I would never ever use it if I could live without it.*
Maybe you can live without it. I have seen a lot of scientific studies lately that show that ibuprofen+acetaminophen are better pain killers than opiods. This comes with different risks (like live damage) but that is manageable. Maybe you can discuss with your doctor (or with other doctors) whether you really need opiods.
@@miroslavhoudek7085 dude, no one gets on a fentanyl patch without going thru a ton of other treatments, trust me, i've needed one for 15 years.
@@miroslavhoudek7085 We will see. Thanks.
@@miroslavhoudek7085 I worked for 6 months, as a medic, with a team specialized in treatment of pain.
Every person has his own response to every drug.
Studies can show things in general, but switching a thing for another isn't so easy as one may think. Actually, sometime is really problematic.
@@miroslavhoudek7085 nothing beats opioids for abdominal and cancer pain. I was on fentanyl for over two years, mostly at 75mcg/hr and i needed it. Withdrawal took six months of gradual steps. If i needed it for pain, i would do it without hesitation! The side-effects were terrible and isolating. Still, you can live a life vs paralyzed with pain.
Thank you for putting this information out there. People need to know.
How about fighting the main cause of drug use: lack of perspective, poverty, permanent stress, a vengeful and unforgiving society, inequality
@cardboardpolitician Here in Africa, it is clear to see that it is not hardship and poverty that cause social disintegration. We have lots of hardship and poverty in Africa, but Africans have strong family and tribal ties, that glue them to traditions and respect for elders and ancestors and living a good life to please our ancestors. The places where you see drug abuse and gangsterism -- in the townships that are home to mixed race people. They do not have the roots, the values, the traditions. The lost souls on the street are either white or mixed race.
We had all of that hardships that you describe when I was growing up. Society has never been as soft as it is today. The devastating part is the loss of the extended family, and mom at home, waiting for kids to come home from school. And school was only half day.
@@annatanneberger1 This is a bit of a simplistic view. The situation of hardship you are describing is not the hardship these people are in. The US is a very individualistic society and being a failure is seen as YOUR fault, not the system. The whole problem with these people is the lack of a safety net, either family or the state. Beeing poor in many places in Africa is the norm, and is not your own fault. In the end, poverty is relative. And the feeling of beeing poor is relative to you surrounding.
@@hansklok3564 You are confirming exactly what I said. Just in different words. It is not the poverty, it is the lack o social cohesion. Which is gradually being eroded here as it has been in America and Europe - TV, mass media, propaganda, you're nothing if you don't own a fancy car and designer clothes, etc, etc, etc. People are being loosened from their roots and traditional values. And, most importantly, people must look to the government to solve their problems - but only if you vote for us.
@@annatanneberger1 misread your comment, my bad :$
@@hansklok3564 ❤
something I will never understand, is why so many people, already knowing that sht is harmful and they will end up in ruins both economically and physically, they still try it and fall...
It gets rid of pain and not just the physical pain.
Despair,disillusionment and no hope
@@eddieobrien1411 despair and no hope in a first world country in which unemployed people get government money? nah... despair and no.hope is in third world countries in which people don't know if they will eat or not the next day...
@@aegaeon117 first world problems... pain because wi-fi is not working at home, and because of that they go and get that harmful sht...
Children aren't often raised in loving supportive households amny have children foe their selfish issues and do t care for them
Great video and thank you for the information
Thanks for the video.
Life in first world countries must be unbearable for people to numb their pains with drugs.
Why not just make it a mandatory 20 year sentence for selling fentanyl
Great subject . Thank You for your work. wow. I had no idea.
This is so sad. What is happening that ppl feel the need to escape so badly that they take this stuff????
I believe we are here for a relationship with our creator God and without that relationship we have a huge empty gap in our lives which people fill up with whatever they can from money,items or escapism through drug but the trouble is we need to grow in our needs or the empty place keeps calling so more money more items more drugs but they never fill that hole only a relationship with jesus can
Even if China does stop producing it. Reports show India is already taking market share for the precursor market. More crackdown in China means more opportunities in India for this drug. This unfortunately is a demand issue
China doesn't produce fentanyl. Some chemical precursors are, but they are used for many legitimate purposes. The American mainstream mass media blames China for America's own failures. I live here in China and if someone were caught smuggling fentanyl to teh US they would face a death sentence.
And no one seems to be addressing the demand side of things. Why is no one wondering why so many Americans take drugs? Most people, myself included, would never take any pill, injection, or snort any drug for any reason. If there's a demand, supply will always be there no matter what.
"Personal responsibility" Republicans made drug usage a crime to hide from rather than a condition to seek help for.
@@arturturkevych3816 I agree with you. However, I think most people will accept drugs when they are on their backs and facing surgery. That's the only time I have taken such things.
That is where our Duterte is getting his fix from
It was such a proud moment to witness both parties agree on something together. If only this could continue, I really wish to see that day during my lifetime.
For power you need votes, for votes you need to bring up your base. Outrage and vilifying the other side are most effective, and many people don't actually care about the truth. So as long mass education isn't becoming much better, this will never change.
Except Democrats don't really care. It's just politics for them. If you believe Biden and other Dems really care then your part of the problem.
The standard is that low huh
@@Thekidisalright To take a page out of Democrats playbook.. It’s proud moment when the Nazis and Allied forces both agree on something together. Which is very funny because right now and in the past they both agreed that Russia had/has to be stopped.
going from a two party system to a one party system? ... if you want a fascist dictatorship, sure go ahead
15 months clean and sober from fentanyl and meth, 3 years sober from heroin.
Very worrying information. Thank you for bringing it to the forefront.
Thank you for doing this episode. It is a serious problem that is ripping American communities apart
When the government made life suck so much everyone has to do opiates to cope 😂
Yeah, kind of like what happened in China before the Opium Wars. It is as if China is emulating the UK and the US has taken the role of China.
That's the side effect of a culture that values libertarianism so extremely that the response to the most basic needs is "bootstraps".
Only made worse by a born-privileged elite who deliberately insert policies that sabotage government functions to promote their profitable weak state agenda.
Then they blame Mexicans and China for their cope.
Yep. I started using ‘shrooms because of this. High inflation, high taxes yet sh!thole Ukraine gets billions. Yay, government. 😒😒
No personal accountability sounds right
Amazing video
Keep doing your magic
Gotta love the upbeat music on such a heavy topic...
1:21 Yeah, let’s attack the symptoms not the underlying cause.
What Joe is talking about is spending more money on interdiction and prosecution, neither of which has worked the last five decades of the War On Drugs. The war has only made drugs cheaper and plentiful.
Dude, that IS what we do now, at least in Seattle and San Francisco. Guess what? It hasn't worked either. We have plenty of programs but they and the understaffed and overwhelmed social workers can't handle the constance pouring in of fentanyl addicts. It's a CRAZY drug.
@@mordant221if you legalize opium which comes from a plant nobody will even make illicit fentanyl anymore. Drug prohibition is unconstitutional and ineffective.
That is all the USA ever does, which is why it has such huge problems, because it has never worked, and it will never work. But it does sound good, be though on drugs, so we will never stop doing it
@@mordant221 Soooo because the programs are understaffed and overwhelmed and not working that's the wrong answer? How about we try overstaffing them and overfunding them? We've already tried the War on Drugs, spent billions and failed miserably. Let's trying spending billions on addressing the cause of addiction and see how that works out?
@@88COR88I like this idea, and the money should come straight from the Sackers.
This is a cultural problem. In a happy country, drug use is less common.
Where is this happy country?
B.S.
Any wealthy country who borders Mexico would have a similar issue.
@@badluck5647 100% of wealthy countries bordering Mexico have this issue, which is to say the United States does, but a sample size of one proves almost nothing. There are wealthy countries with lawless neighbors (i.e. Finland next to Russia) which do not have similar problems with addiction. It is absolutely the case that our cultural decline and our addictions have been feeding each other in a vicious cycle.
@@TheBurningWarrior Russia isn't Mexico. The number of people that trucks that travel between the US and Mexico compared to the number of people and trucks that travel between Finland and Russia is like comparing swimming pools to inland seas. It is simply too easy for drug cartels to bring drugs over the US border while bringing drugs through Scandinavian ports in very complex and expensive.
@@badluck5647Only depressed countries need drugs that much. U.K, Germany do not.
The best way the US political establishment could parry outrage for the massive increase in people falling under the poverty line in the US was to turn a blind eye to opioid epidemic. As individualistic as the US citizenry is, they are still compassionate to homeless people, and people who have fallin on hard times. One thing it supremely difficult to have sympathy for is drug addicted people that stink, their faces are half rotting off, are crazy, and cant hold a conversation or garner sympathy. Dehumanising very vulnerable populations was the best way to fracture sympathy while keeping outrage for over-capitalistic society minimal. Bravo USA.
A family member of mine overdosed on it. Luckily, he was revived, but it really is a huge problem in the states.
Goddamn I knew it was a problem but didn't expect it to be so huge since we don't have it as big here in 🇪🇺
Compare this to the Opium Wars between the UK and China. It is as if the Chinese have taken the role of British traders and the US has assumed the role of China.
Not yet.
@joelugo2547 hard drug use in Europe is a lot less common than in the US. Some countries even managed to win "the war on drugs" by using social programs and addressing the demand side of things. Netherlands, Switzerland and some other countries had huge heroine problems in the past that they tackled and reduced drastically.
Demand for drugs is way more important than supply. If people don't want them, then there won't be overdoses. This is the main reason the American war on drugs cannot win or be successful. As long as there's demand, there will be supply, especially when entire countries like China support the drug production as part of their hybrid warfare.
Our capacity for self destruction knows no bounds...
That map at 7:24 is wrong. Unless the actually death rate of the US they are saying in 2021 is wrong…
what is wrong with it? im kinda confused
Red is representing Italy, pink is the U.S.. What he is saying about the US is what the graph is saying about Italy.
It can't be tackled, in North America at least due to the fact that health care is for profit and profits supersedes logic and common sense to deal with the cause rather than treat the symptoms
Even the homeless shelters and outreach centers are for profit. There's a handful of bitter old women collecting minimum wage and they took the job for the power trip they can have.
you do know that as a physician we are tracked by the FDA whenever we prescribe opioid...and any anomaly of prescribing opioids will be looked into by the FDA.
so if you start sending a whole bunch of opioid scrips (be it norco, oxy, dilaudid) you will be checked by the FDA. lots of doctors have lost their license this way.
Honestly its noting to do with physicians now...its all just street abuse.
The car at 0:27-0:32 is my 2013 Honda fit I was driving in downtown portland after having my side window busted ! That’s why you see wrap over my window . That’s crazy Asf! Small world 🤣
We’ve spent 70 years ruining peoples’ lives over a little weed or mistakes at young ages. If you’re convicted over drugs, you’ll have a really hard time getting a job or anywhere in life and those are the exact situations that lead to more addictions. And it’s not like you can rly get help when it’s so expensive and these people are already generally less well off.
american society is ridiculous
Sorry but we all have to take responsibility for our actions. My family and I immigrated from China to the US. We were dirt poor, lived in the ghetto, and didn't qualify for any free stuff that American citizens got. But we buried our heads to study our butts off. Why? Because we didn't expect any handouts, sink or swim is up to us. We came qith nothing, but we studied our way out of ghetto, while others sank or drowned in it. It's personal choice. Don't expect anyone to help you, it's your life, make your choice and live with the consequences.
Easy solution: If you can't handle the problems, don't do drugs. If you decide to do them anyway, accept the consequences that may come. Some drugs are less problematic than others. But no matter what someone takes, it was in the end their own decision. This goes for a lot of other things in life, not just drugs btw.
@@xiphoid2011 You misunderstood the point, nobody wants to get rid of responsibility, today even minor abuse as adolescent kid get you a criminal record that will technically make you poor for life because you are instantly not able to get most of the better jobs. In some states even for personal use of light drug like weed. Without ability to get a second chance, there is statistically very likely people in such bad life situation, from which they see no way out as this system is simply not giving second chances, are much more likely to get back to drugs to cope with the misery.
I would recommend you to check how Switzerland in the 90s fought drug usage rise first with repressions, but only after they switched soft tactics like public funded rehab assistance and lowered personal use of drugs from criminal act down to offence they actually reversed the situation because they technically eliminated people having second offense drastically.
Nah. Everyone that was ever put in jail for weed deserved it. If they're out messing with fentanyl they didn't learn their lesson the first time.
I think the guys at Visual Politik are on this, including Mr Clean here.
😆 nah he isn't, if he was he would be able to do his job, he would become a shell and not the person we know who is sharp and who researches and presents facts, good luck trying to do that kind of work he does on fent
This is already a massive issue in Lethbridge AB Canada. It's not uncommon to hear of a homeless person overdosing on it. Having noproxin (however it's spelled) readily available is getting to be common place in the event that someone unknowingly comes into contact with a lethal dose.
I think you're thinking of Naloxone? That's usually what is used as first aid for people undergoing opioid overdoses
I think you meant naloxone (narcan for the commercial name)
Naloxone is beeing distributed among addicts in Sweden, and it has saved lives. At first som rabid anti-drug people were against it, arguing it was facilitating drug use. I figure it also facilitates giving people a chance to eventually perhaps stop using drugs.
I have heard that that drug doesn't work of someone's taking fentanyl.mixed with the horse tranquilizer
@@greensorrel6860 it will work only on the fentanyl part.
It is a specific antagonist of opioids receptors.
Whereas the horse anethesic is a hypnotic affecting the neural transmissions. So, yes, this one won t be affected by narcan.
Yet in overdosing the most dangerous one is the opioide which slows breathing (until you breath no longer...) thus narcan is still useful even in combined intoxications.
It’s already a problem in Canada too. The real question is how is Portugal faring?
We are doing ok. Not very common to see drug use in the open. I come across weed and cocain in the night but nothing more. Of course there are hard drugs still. In 2022 there were 136 fentanil related deaths in the EU...
At 7:21 there is something odd, you talk about US's life expectancy going down, but what is showing on the diagram is Italy. Which one is it? Did you misinterpret the numbers or swap the colors?
End the war on drugs. That idiocy is magnifying all the drug problems.
Thankyou....
I have a bud who works as a detention officer at a female prison. Because their special pocket is used to smuggle easily, fentanyl kills nearly 3 women a week, and 8 ODs every two days just in his jail.
I'm a huge fan of the special pocket🐳
After 6hrs of surgery I woke in pain and tubes sewed into my body. I was in a bad way. I was given a needle of something and felt my body sink into the bed no pain total relaxation it felt good. The scary part is that for months my mind would go back to that feeling. The normal pain killer i was getting intravenous wasn't the same If offered i would want it again.
Do you know what I heard from drug addicts about addiction? “You can quit, not take it for ten years. And now you’re sitting in the hospital, in line to see the doctor, and this has nothing to do with your former addiction. And you suddenly hear the sound of a needle being thrown into a bucket. After 20 minutes, you’ve already found someone to buy a dose and looking for a vein."
It's horrible
Genial verlos ahora en Inglés... Felicitaciones
Hamilton, Ontario. A person collapsed from OD in front of my home. My tenant was there. She administered naloxine, CPR, and called an ambulance. I think the person survived... Horrible.
The Chinese haven’t forgotten the Opium Wars….😏
That is exactly what I was thinking. They simply shifted their revenge against the Anglo-world from the UK to the US.
It is a reverse opium war by China.
@@NotSureNotSureNotSure A reverse Opium War would have some poetic justice to it, but no. China is not doing it to America; America is doing it to itself. China doesn't produce fentanyl. Some chemical precursors are, but they are used for many legitimate purposes. The American mainstream mass media blames China for America's own failures. I live here in China and if someone were caught smuggling fentanyl to teh US they would face a death sentence.
"Buhgodah" is Bogota in case you didn't catch that! the woman who does the voiceovers REALLY needs to look up pronunciations for place names and foreign personnages.. this is the unteenth time I've heard her just massacre certain names, not even using the standard English pronunciation
It's A.I
Someone said it is an A.I. voice. They should really just dump that and use a real person, like they did before. The A.I. voice is absolutely horrible at pronouncing place names.
I do not mind the AI, but a carbon-based life-form (CBLF) should listen to it for errors in pronunciation before release.@@ProsandCons26
it's the FB shorts AI, lol
🤦🏻♂️ sorry, I'm old and didn't think of that 🤣 why would you use AI to do such simple voiceovers. I'd do them for a fair price 🤓
Hi. That graph at minute 7:22 might have the colour coding wrong. The two fold decrease is set to Italy and I guess it should be the USA as you state verbally. Great video. Thank you for making good information available.
Thank you VisalPolitik crew for surely not getting monetized for our viewing pleasure!
There was a time when you could buy drugs from the pharmacy, there was a very small problem with abuse. Only after Nixon and Reagan pushed war on drug abuse exploded because it made it very attractive for organised crime.
Spot on. I remember when PCP, Crack, and meth were crisis each in their own time. No doubt these were and are bad drugs, but Fentanyl is just this year's headliner.
It was always a problem it wasn't until the culture changed to make it acceptable that it became widespread. Drugs were considered cool. Nixon and Reagan were reactionaries and democrat and Bush presidents kept the policies alive.
@@quartermaster1976 well not quite, I remember the 60s and 70s. You had a fringe group, mainly heroin and pot. LSD etc started with the 69 movement. Nixon started to get hard on drugs and cocaine got popular because herion was pushed down because with end of Vietnam war and control of the golden triangle. Regan made cocaine valuable, hence you got the massive growth of it in the 80s. The same story with the alcohol prohibition. You make things illegal and you place a price.
@@jantschierschky3461 Politicians are just clerks it's the culture that made it valuable.
@@quartermaster1976 the culture changed after, like the prohibition did with alcohol.
Reminded how with Prohibition, hard liquor became more popular as it was easier to smuggle.
Also reminded how drug test kits were considered enabling with raver culture and outlawed.
It seems whatever the US decides to do, it makes things worse.
No, what it seems is that the decades long 'war on drugs', started for racist reasons, DOES NOT WORK. I can't comprehend WHY we continue to do the same thing and keep expecting a different result.
OTOH, decriminalization, safe injection sites, and safe drug sources have ALL shown very promising results in other countries, we need to get to a point where instead of locking people up and vilifying those using these substances, we instead start focusing on the REASONS they are so drawn to these substances, supporting them in their use, and helping them move on from using.
Of course, there are too many forces out there benefiting from the perpetual war on drugs, it's become a sort of industry in and of itself.
It's legal to carry 2.5 grams of each and every individual drug here. You can have free coffee and muffins while your drugs get tested. THERE WILL BE NO ARRESTS FROM DRUG TESTING!!!
It ain't helping. I know a 13 year old on the street for 2 years already, she doesn't have long to live.
@@HotdogwaterHotchocolate-qj7kh Where is "here" that federal drug policy doesn't apply?
You don't think a 13 year old living on the street might contribute more to her circumstances?
@@HotdogwaterHotchocolate-qj7kh Ah, so British Columbia.
Per the Vancouver Sun, fentanyl death are trending downward there.
Exactly, a "war" on drugs, that doesn't care about consumption is useless.
The big problem is that the drug dealer are lacing other drugs with Fentanyl and as such making even less potent drugs used as recreational drugs like ecstasy or a bombs creating almost immediate dependency
The big problem is that there are customers buying from a drug dealer, that's the problem, the traffickers and dealers don't consume.
Wow, now I wanna try that stuff
Imagine Grant walking around in the streets of Baltimore asking corner dealers how much they are selling the Fenanyl, and whats the profit margin.
American city’s are like a zombie wasteland
Cities.
So government should do something
@@eddyr1041 No, it should not. If anything, government is responsible for creating the conditions that has lead to people using drugs to cope. Government does NOTHING right, not even national defense.
There are problems but the fear-mongering is ridiculous. People wouldn’t be spending crazy amounts to live in them if that really were true.
12:18 I've never heard Bogota pronounced like that and it isn't the first time a similar mistake has been made. How rushed is production behind the scenes that these basic errors keep slipping through?
Ba Goater - nice...
Maybe they are from Argentina pronouncing in English...
@@selenium-es7hl Every Argentinian (and every Spanish speaker) knows how to say Bogotá
Ya, have noticed that. More and more errors are cropping up in these videos.
It's probly one of those AI text readers, like the ones on tiktok or smt, chill
I was working in an electrical apprenticeship where drug testing was mandatory. Yet still on some jobs and even in the classroom people were getting high after unloading shipping containers full of construction material. I remember being so dizzy in class once along side a few others and this one kid was so high they threw him out of the apprenticeship. All those years of putting up with drug testing just to get exposed to that stuff from the imported construction materials. That kid started off with a willing desire to study and learn and by the time he somehow got poisoned all he did was scream he was a bird... and they kicked him out... that's how I remember it. I never heard of fentanyl in my life until after I got so sick working I nearly died and didn't think I was going to survive.
Estonia had fentanyl use and overdose boom about 10 years ago. Then it was said it is a problem only we have and it will never replace heroin. Since then the situation has improved a lot, mostly because the criminal networks have been just shut down. However, there is stuff out there that is orders of magnitude more potent than fentanyl.
So shutting down drug trafficking networks does work. Contrary to what some delusional people might want you to believe.
Wow even tiny Estonia has fentanyl use? This is terrible I haven't been there since 2010 but I love Estonia a lot I hope it gets better.
Maybe this is an opportunity to really terminate not only fentanyl but all kinds of chemical drugs, by all of us staying away from any kind of drug and creating a world wide culture of not consuming drugs in the fist place.
Say to someone terminally ill and suffering from extreme pains. What a BS comnent
7:26: is the graph correctly labelled? Your audio points to the US having a large dip during COVID and then a secondary dip thereafter, but the only line (the red one) charted that way is labelled "Italy."
Sadly, so many folks feel the need to be comfortably numb from their pain.
The key is in Mexico. The US must force AMLO to choose sides, at the moment he is with the cartels.
I was washing my car the other week, when (out from the corner of my eye) some pills levitated themselves into the air, and forced themselves down my throat. There was literally nothing I could do stop this.
I am now fentanyl addict 💉 who robs
women & vulnerable people because they are less strong. Do hope that I live to be 100, and not die from fentanyl (-just like the last person I robbed).
Nothing is my fault. Of course it is simply amazing how only a very tiny minority, of disadvantaged people like me, become like me. That: The vast majority work usefully productively (just like my non-sarcastic self!). But at least rich people (who can afford not to live near my crime ridden postcode) feel sorry for me.
You got it, billions and billions of dollars wasted in "war" against production and distribution (the producers and traffickers don't consume this stuff), but no punishment for the costumer or consumer, it's so stupid that's hard to believe these are policies in smart countries.
Either you fight the whole chain of the process or you legalize the whole thing, in between is just moronic.
It was cruel of you not to manage your pain with opiates
I had to stay in a motel until my apartment was ready. There were numerous OD's that had happened within that time frame. The one that made me sad was a mother and her young son tried to revive her with Narcan. It didn't work. 😢😢
7:34 have you seen italy catastrophic fall? We got fentanyl problems too here
It could be stopped but people would be uncomfortable with the methods necessary.
Countries that execute drug users still have drug users.
Chinese retribution for the Opium Wars?
Unironically yes, at least from the Chinese perspective.
That is exactly what it is. Since the UK is no longer top dog and has been replaced by the US, they still view it as sticking it to the Anglo-world.
Literally what i was thinking
It's more likely that China is using fentanyl as a bargaining chip for their broader geopolitical goals. It's no coincidence that China suspended cooperation with the US on drug enforcement after Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan.
you da man!
The number 1 reason is American culture millions of people daily smoke cigarettes, vaping and weed all three in 10 minutes. The mayor of NYC proclaimed New Yorkers light up promoting weed sales.
At 9:09 he says "... that are then passed off as another hallucinogenic substance..."
Fentanyl isn't hallucinogenic, and wouldn't pass for one. Oof.
They have put it in ecstasy, but yeah, he's a bit off there
Right. Nobody is marketing fent as a “hallucinogenic substance”. Even the cases of it being in MDMA pills are extremely rare, more likely cross contamination than intentional adulteration.
As long as there is a market, it is literally impossible to stop the flow... it has to be a 3-pronged approach
- Educate people to stay off drugs and allow for access to safer drugs (make cannabis more accessible)
- Keep denting supply chains by constantly increasing the cost of their operations raids - real impact will only be from improved economic opportunity in backward areas
- It shouldn't be difficult to figure out the kingpins or organizational operators for trafficking, employ military-level espionage to figure out weaknesses, assets etc., and target them
But I doubt if the government would fund the operations enough to do it well
Look at the Opium Wars between China and the UK and ask yourself why there seems to be a number of similarities between that crisis and the current Fentanyl crisis.
That doesn't work because the root causes of the problem are complicated
The kingpins were purdue pharma lol
The same government that's in the ropes with BLM and the likes demanding to defund the police?
Yeah I doubt it.
Do you not know that the DEA exists and it has a budget of $2.66 billion in 2024? Or roughly 10% of the entire Italian military budget.
This is so horrific
Happy birthday 🎊🎁🎉🎈🎂
I really think that opioids issue in the US is exactly the same case as alcohol addicition in Russia - it is in the best interest of the state (now getting a bit out of hand but still...). It is a systemic addiction helping keeping ppl in check
Yes, yes yes. And the war in Ukraine is feeding the profits of the arms dealers. Got to keep the profits up for the 1%.
Sorry, I disagree. Addicted individuals don't produce anything, can't pay taxes, and just end up being a burden to both our medical system and the state as a whole. I do believe some rich people are involved in the distribution but please explain how you think the state would profit from this. As for controlling people, that is done more through propaganda and religion in the US.
@@brianh9358the state as such does not benefit from it. It's rather a small group of elite politicians at the top who benefit from it by pushing for deregulation and doing nothing about the problem or as in Canada officially funding 'safe supply' from tax payers' money in exchange for outright kickbacks or by receving lucrative high-payed jobs with high welcome bonuses in the lobbying industry once their term ends. A typical revolving door phenomenon.
@@brianh9358Thanks for an earnest response. In the US, those addicts make high profits for the health industry and the prison industrial complex. In S. America, the Golden triangle and probably Afghanistan, US has used "illegal drugs" to support covert wars not allowed by Congress, citizens or the UN. It also supports the propaganda machine, since anytime people start complaining about military spending and the real cost of war, the headlines are usurped by the latest drug crisis. The EU doesn't have clean hands either. TH-camr Leeja Miller "Why the US has So Many Prisoners " explains it much better than I can. Skip to 12 minutes 30 seconds if you just want to focus on the drugs issues.
@@brianh9358
Your comment got me thinking.
In America, it’s quite plausible the state would profit. It creates a death sentence for the people you mentioned - the unproductive simply get weeded out more quickly and die. Maybe profit is the wrong word. America can cut its losses, would be a better way of putting it, but that’s essentially the same thing.
I agree with you, though, that the comparison to alcoholism in Russia doesn’t make sense in this context, because many alcoholics are functional. I doubt there are many functional fentanyl addicts.
I admit it’s a very dark viewpoint, especially as an American myself, that our system would essentially mete out the penalty of “death” for its most vulnerable citizens. But given how our culture reduces much of life to productivity and making bank, it tracks.
No matter hos bad this crisis is or gets, the most terrifying situation is the rich eating our lunch. The pharmaceutical companies are responsible for most of the drug problems in this country, and need to be held responsible. Citizens United is a major driving force in exaggerating the gap between the haves and the have nots.
people need to take an own responsibility too.
But nobody holds a gun to another's head and forces them to take drugs( My family has been destroyed by members who "had it all", good parents, talent, encouragement, etc., but wanted to be " cool".)
I dont think its just only drug problem. It also come from various layers, homelessness, unemployment, crimes, low social standard, financial problems. These things contribute in massive influx adding drug users for many times.
Crazy how our of control it is in the States. A few months ago I was at this metal festival near Hamburg, one of the co-headliners (Holy Mother from New York) introduced one if their songs by saying hardly no one knows someone who hasn't been affected by the epidemic of opioid usage.. I mean, unless you're from Frankfurt, Köln, or Berlin.. maybe a couple other places.. you're not that likely to encounter this kind of situation on a large scale. Frankfurt is kinda bad though.. gave me real San Francisco vibes, poop on the street and everything and that in Germany's finaicial capital. I hope it doesn't get so out of hand like in the states.. and hope those over the pond find a way to escape the stranglehold of addiction
Well, it might help if the US doctors stopped prescribing opiates for everything. Just sayin' :)
Agreed. Pills should be the LAST choice, and only for those that are a clear danger to either themselves or others. If they are not at risk of harming someone, they don't need mind altering chemicals.
The Opium wars 2.0
The Chinese have long memories and play the long game.
So insightful how "America's" issue, has become "Crises Terrifying the World"
Thankfully the use of fentynal illicitly is extremely low here in Australia. Nearly all deaths are from prescribed medication, mainly cancer patients who are terminal
Well, two centuries ago, the British intentionally brought opium to Chinese people because they did not like China's position in the world (the British wanted a lot of things from China; China was self-sufficient and wanted nothing from the British). This opium and the problems it created led to the rise of corruption and the decay of the society in China. The opium wars led to a "century of humiliation" for China and the loss of Hong Kong. Americans and French along with British benefited a lot, many became millionaires (including Franklin Roosevelt's granddad) at the expense of Chinese lives destroyed. So, it is not surprising that China is okay with the spread of opioids in the US or the UK and the problems in these societies. Karma is a bitch.
Took too long to find this comment. China’s playbook for EVERYTHING they do (not just Opium Wars 2.0) in the contemporary age is written in the past by their traumas.
@@Willsmiff1985I guarantee 99% of Americans have no idea what you’re talking about . But I was very messed up what the Brit’s did To china .
I don’t think the fentanyl crisis in North America has anything to do with the opium wars in the 19th century
@@kickedinthecalfbyacow7549 Nobody says that they are related. The narrator in the video says that Chinese supply chemicals for fentanyl manufacturers, and they are not concerned with the consequences. My comment was explaining why China would not care if many Americans became drug addicts, and this would lead to problems in society.
@@july9566 Most modern British do not know that either. I hate when I hear snarky comments about barbaric Chinese from Brits who see themselves as noble, special folks from a country with a great past. As for Americans, they know very little history; ignorance preserves their feeling of moral superiority; and they think that the US has the right to police everything in this world. Do you think they know about smallpox blankets for natives? Dozens of thousands of kids with horrible birth defects born in Thailand after spraying agent Orange. Korean war tragedies? 100,000+ dead civilians after invading Iraq? Experiments with viral infections on humans in Guatemala conducted by American doctors long after WWII. Nazi engineers brought to work for American science? If Americans knew about their true legacy, they would not be so quick to judge other countries.
I noticed there was no mention of how Chinese Synthetic Opioids have gotten from the Mexican drug cartels to the United States in vastly increased quantity following the pandemic. While it is not the only place where the Fentanyl epidemic needs to be addressed, the reason (beyond potency) why supply is so vast and cheap cannot be ignored in any real attempt to curb its deadly effects.
There are liberals getting checks somewhere along that line sadly, that’s why they have the open border policy.
Might be what hunter got the money for
.... dude you need just milligrams to get off. We couldn't dent the cocaine and weed trades and you need hundreds and tens of thousands of times those drugs to get off respectfully.
Fentynal is quite literally a needle in a hay stack.
@@6thface I think the point he was making is that China is selling it to the cartels without being held criminally responsible, I know it’s China but at the same time they are still a country that should be held accountable for international drug dealing/production
Ty dr sack let
01:18 Oh now they're gonna address the issue.
The problem is that as more border restrictions and import controls are put in place, it actually incentivizes things like carfentanyl precisely because they ARE more potent, meaning you need to smuggle way smaller amounts for the same or greater profit. Easier to smuggle 1 gram than 1 kilogram. And for the user, that makes it cheaper per-dose and easier to find than good old-fashioned smack.
You think that's true, but it's only half the story (economics) --- the street culture's a bit different. People WANT the harder stuff. If someone is dying from a dealer's batch, that dealer becomes more popular. How do I know? I have personally witnessed it on the Downtown Eastside in Vancouver, BC. The junkies have a culture or perception around doing the hardest and most dangerous drug to appear more tough, "cool", etc. It's bizarre but there is a social / cultural incentive among the junkies.
So let's have a weak border and get more in easier
This is Opium Wars going full circle...
Exactly. The Chinese have long memories and play the long game. To them, the US simply replaced the UK as the representative of the Anglo-world and so all of their grievances against the British have simply been shifted over to the US.
I don´t know if someone already mentioned it… but the grapjic at minute 7.22 is read/interpretated wrong.
The red line that is going down is the italian line.
Eighter the graphic is wrong, or it is interpretated wrong, or someone is colourblind.
Extremely Good coverage thank you… WTF Is your guy’s background music though. Seriously takes the Emerson out of the video at times
People should consider their body holy and not even eating processed foods sugar etc let alone drugs
each fentanyl death is one step closer to solving the problem of drug addiction in america
Nice
Nice video but there is a glitch in the Graph at 7:17 where the red graph line you are talking about is meant for the US while in the legend is erroneously made for Italy