Freedom and Existence

Freedom and Existence 

Henry T. Hill

October 13, 2019

Yet, to this thought I hold with firm persistence the last result of wisdom stamps it true; He only earns his freedom and existence who daily conquers them anew. 

From Victory at Sea, Episode 18, “Two If By Sea” 

Twenty-nine words give a life-long guide to daily life. But what do these words mean, and how do these words present a life-long guide? Threats to our freedom and existence no longer come from the Japanese military machine or the German military machine. In fact, the threat of military machines extends to our volunteer military soldiers in certain trouble spots around the world. 

Today’s threats to our freedom and existence come from choices American young people and adults make that have life-long consequences to their freedom and existence. Today’s threats to our freedom and existence come from Mexican government tolerated drug cartels, from Chinese government tolerated drug labs, from American government tolerated drug dealers and from American drug abusers themselves who share their abuse and the effects of their abuse with their families and friends and the rest of society, and thus “infect” others with drug abuse and its consequences. 

1. The choice to take addicting drugs has the life-long consequences of both fighting the addiction (losing your freedom) and of risking disease and early death (losing your existence). Smoking, according the the CDC “Youth and Tobacco Use” 2018 statistics, at the current rate among youth in the U.S. will cause 5.6 million of Americans younger than age 18 to die early from smoking related illnesses. This represents about 1 of every 13 Americans aged 17 or younger. According to the Mayo Clinic’s “Nicotine dependence”,  tobacco smoke contains more than 60 known cancer-causing chemicals and thousands of other harmful substances. Smoking harms almost every organ in your body and impairs your immune system. About half of all regular smokers will die of a disease caused by tobacco. 

According to the National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revised in 2019, reports that 16,849 overdose deaths occurred in 1999. More than 70,200 Americans died in 2017 from drug overdoses both illicit and prescription. The sharpest increase occurred from fentanyl, “manufactured death,” and fentanyl analogs (other synthetic narcotics - “China White”) with more than 28,400 out of the 70,200 overdose deaths in 2017. 

2 milligrams of fentanyl, a lethal dose for most people.  Wikipedia “Fentanyl” 

The Council on Foreign Relations in “The U.S. Opioid Epidemic” updated September 17, 2019, reports that more than nine hundred people a week die from opioid-related overdoses, and experts predict that the death toll may not peak for years. According to the CDC, 47,600 overdose deaths involved opioids. Contrast this figure with the 58,220 names that appear on the Vietnam Memorial Wall with the first official death June 8, 1956 and the last official death May 15, 1975 (6,915 days). This was war. 47,600 overdose deaths in one year equal a rate of 130 a day which would fill the Vietnam Memorial Wall in 448 days or one year and 83 days. As a nation, people became outraged about the human cost of the Vietnam War. No national outrage exists over the human cost of 47,600 overdose deaths a year. Do not these overdose deaths present Americans with a war? Remember, one only earns their freedom and existence who daily conquers them anew. 

According to the CDC, “Complexity of the Basic Reproduction Number (R0) ,” the basic reproduction number (R0), pronounced “R naught,” acts as an indicator of the contagiousness or transmissibility of infectious and parasitic agents. R0  defines the expected number of secondary cases produced by a single infection in a completely susceptible population. Researchers report the R naught number as a single number value or low-high range. For example,  Ebola has an r naught number of two, so on average one person with ebola will pass ebola on to two people. The R0 number of other diseases follows: 

Measles-airborne-R12-18, 

Smallpox-airborne-R5-7, 

Polio-fecal-oral route-R5-7, 

HIV-AIDS-sexual contact-R2-5, 

SARS-airborne-R2-5, I

Influenza (1918 pandemic strain)-airborne-R2-3. 

Researchers have an r naught number for HIV-AIDS, but what about an r naught for addictive drugs such as nicotine; cannabinoids such as marijuana, hashish; opioids such as  heroin, opium; stimulants such as cocaine, amphetamine, methamphetamine; “club drugs” such as methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), flunitrazepam, GHB; dissociative drugs such as ketamine, PCP, salvia divinorum, dextromethorphan (DXM); hallucinogens such as LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin; and other compounds such as anabolic steroids and inhalants? Most drug abuse behavior starts when one person or a small group either receives as a gift or buys drugs for the first time. What if parents and/or caregivers and/or teachers would spot this behavior and effect a protocol that would stop the spread of  “the contagiousness or transmissibility of infectious and parasitic agents (drugs)?” What r naught number could researchers assign to heroin beginners, to cocaine beginners, to club drug beginners, to hallucinogen beginners and to other drugs beginners? The easiest time to stop addiction begins with day one of drug abuse, and the level of difficulty to stop the addiction increases each day. The drug abuse war already rages. One only earns their freedom and existence who daily conquers them anew. 

According to “The U.S. Opioid Epidemic” the costs of this drug epidemic include:

1. The third straight yearly decline in life expectancy.
2.  Higher rates of hepatitis C, HIV and other diseases related to shared syringes.
3. Quadrupled rates of neonatal abstinence syndrome from 2000 to 2012
4. More children in foster care.
5. A declining labor force participation, 20 percent with men and 25 percent with women from 1999 to 2015 because up to 25 percent of job applicants failing drug tests.
6. The U.S. providing Mexico with roughly $3 billion in the past decade in counternarcotics aid for police and judicial reforms in the Merida Initiative.
7. The U.S. giving Columbia almost $10 billion since 2000. 
8. The U.S. administrations increasing the number of border patrol agents.
9. The increase in health care cost. According to a 2019 Premier analysis of 647 healthcare facilities, opioid overdoses resulted in $1.94 billion in annual hospital costs; over 100,000 patients with 430,000 total visits in emergency departments; inpatient and other care settings. 66 percent insured by public programs including Medicare, 16 percent by commercial payers, and 14 percent uninsured. Extrapolating the cost trends the total costs amount to $11.3 billion annually or 1 percent of all hospital expenditures. 34 percent suffered heroin poisoning while 58 percent suffered overlapping or unspecified prescription opioids and/or heroin laced with synthetics, e.g. fentanyl.
10.  The societal cost which according to “The societal cost of heroin use disorder in the United States,” a 2017 peer reviewed 72 endnotes documented report, the estimated cost equaled  $51.2 billion for 1,008,000 heroin users which averages $50,799 per user per year. To put this in context with chronic illnesses, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) costs $2,567 per patient per year and diabetes costs $11,148 per patient per year. Costs per heroin user do no include incarceration costs and lost wages (opportunity cost losses). Since many heroin users share needles the cost of treatment for infections including TB and HIV increase the per patient cost. 96% of heroin users abuse at least one other substance which also makes the research difficult. 

Where do the drugs come from?

Most of the heroin, which now costs a third of what it cost in the 1990’s, comes from Mexico with eight cartels controlling production and distribution including the distribution hubs in major U.S. cities. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) calls these cartels the “greatest criminal drug threat to the United States.” Narcotics cross the U.S. southwest border and also come in by air and sea. Afghanistan produces the most heroin, but Mexico and Colombia supply the U.S. market.

According to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission Staff Research Report entitled “Fentanyl: China’s Deadly Export to the United States” 2017, Chinese chemical and pharmaceutical facilities produce most of the fentanyl which commonly enters the U.S. through Mexico. The behavior, or rather lack of behavior, of the Mexican and Chinese governments directly threatens our freedom and existence just as the Japanese and the Germans did in World War II. Experts can only estimate the quantity of fentanyl that enters the U.S.; however, in July 2013 one Chinese supplier transported nearly 2,000 pounds of controlled chemicals to Florida. In a perfect world, Congress could pass a law that would allow parents, spouses, relatives and other concerned and involved persons to sue the Mexican and Chinese governments for the production and distribution of illegal drugs to the aggrieved parties. America needs to answer this threat. One only earns their freedom and existence who daily conquers them anew. 

Works Cited

“Basic Reproduction Number.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 13 Sept. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_reproduction_number.

“Commonly Used Illegal Drugs.” Center on Addiction, Center on Addiction, 14 Apr. 2017, https://www.centeronaddiction.org/addiction/commonly-used-illegal-drugs.

Delamater, Paul L, et al., “Complexity of the Basic Reproduction Number (R0) - Volume 25, Number 1-January 2019 - Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal - CDC.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Jan. 2019, https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/25/1/17-1901_article.

“Drug Overdose Deaths | Drug Overdose | CDC Injury Center.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 27 June 2019, https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/statedeaths.html.

Felter, Claire. “The U.S. Opioid Epidemic.” Council on Foreign Relations, Council on Foreign Relations, 17 Sept. 2019, https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/us-opioid-epidemic.

“Fentanyl.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 3 Oct. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fentanyl.

Jiang, Ruixuan, et al. “The Societal Cost of Heroin Use Disorder in the United States.” PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, 30 May 2017, https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0177323.

“Nicotine Dependence.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 9 Mar. 2018, https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/nicotine-dependence/symptoms-causes/syc-20351584.

“Opioid Overdoses Costing U.S. Hospitals an Estimated $11 Billion Annually.” MarketWatch, MarketWatch and Premier Inc., 3 Jan. 2019, https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/opioid-overdoses-costing-us-hospitals-an-estimated-11-billion-annually-2019-01-03.

“Overdose Death Rates.” National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), 29 Jan. 2019, https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates.

“Two If By Sea - Episode 18.” Edited by Henry Salomon, "Victory at Sea" Episode 18 "Two If By Sea", National Broadcasting Company (NBC), 1953, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OJkAomrhqw.

“Youth and Tobacco Use | CDC.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019, https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/youth_data/tobacco_use/index.htm.

“Vietnam War Casualties (1955-1975).” Military Weapons, MilitaryFactory.com, https://www.militaryfactory.com/vietnam/casualties.asp.

Appendix A

Drug Test 

Note to parents: Parents, take the test. Have you child take the test. If you child scores significantly higher than you do, ask your child where they learned these “street names?” You child’s freedom and existence depend on you and their teachers and their support systems to help your child fight every day for their freedom and existence. One only earns their freedom and existence who daily conquers them anew. 

Directions: According to the Center on Addiction commonly used illegal drugs come in the following categories: Cannabinoids, Opioids, Stimulants, Club Drugs, Dissociative Drugs (feelings of being separated from one’s body, delinium, respiratory depressions, respiratory arrest and death), Hallucinogens, and Other Compounds. Use the following underlined abbreviations to label each of the following street names by category:

Can - Cannabinoids - Marijuana and Hashish

Opio- Opioids - Heroin and Opium

Stim - Stimulants - Cocaine, Amphetamine and Methamphetamine

Club D - Club Drugs - Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), Flunitrazepam and                 GHB  

Dissoc D - Dissociative Drugs - Ketamine, PCP, Salvia Divinorum and Dextromethorphan (DXM)

Hall - Hallucinogens - LSD, Mescaline and Psilocybin

Ot Comp - Other Compounds - Anabolic Steroids and Inhalants

Not Know - I do not know

1. Acid
2. Blunt
3. Skag
4. Charlie
5. Adam
6. Angel Dust
7. Green
8. Candy
9. Roofies
10. Robo
11. Purple Passion
12. Skunk
13. Truck Drivers
14. Sinsemilla
15. Poppers
16. Sally-D
17. Gym Candy
18. Boom
19. Ice
20. Special K
21. Shrooms
22. Gangster
23. Georgia Home Boy
24. Buttons
25. Reefer
26. Crank
27. Trees
28. Mexican Valium
29. Cheese
30.  Flake
31. Magic Mint
32. Yellow Sunshine
33. Whippets
34. Rope
35. Gum
36. Soap
37. Peace Pill
38. Cubes
39. Eve
40. Love Boat

Answers: 

See the Center on Addiction “Commonly Used Illegal Drugs.” 

1. Acid - Hal
2. Blunt - Can
3. Skag - Opio
4. Charlie - Stim
5. Adam - Club D
6. Angel Dust - Dissoc D
7. Green - Can
8. Candy - Stim
9. Roofies - Club D
10. Robo - Dissoc D
11. Purple Passion - Hal
12. Skunk - Opio
13. Truck Drivers - Stim
14. Sinsemilla - Can
15. Poppers - Ot Comp
16. Sally-D - Dissoc D
17. Gym Candy - Ot Comp
18. Boom - Can
19. Ice - Stim
20. Special K - Dissoc D
21. Shrooms - Hal
22. Gangster - Can
23. Georgia Home Boy - Club D
24. Buttons - Hal
25. Reefer - Can
26. Crank - Stim
27. Trees - Can
28. Mexican Valium - Club D
29. Cheese - Opio
30.  Flake - Stim
31. Magic Mint - Dissoc D
32. Yellow Sunshine - Hal
33. Whippets - Ot Comp
34. Rope - Club D
35. Gum - Opio
36. Soap - Club D
37. Peace Pill
38. Cubes - Hal
39. Eve - Club D
40. Love Boat - Dissoc D