MY OPIOIDS....3/3/23

A few years ago I had a box in my possession with hundreds of hits of of Fentanyl, Oxycodone, Oxycontin, and Morphine. These were drugs that were left behind after a friend who suffered a brutal bout of cancer finally died. Her doctor kept prescribing these painkillers even though she took very few of them because they made her sicker than she already was.

I took on the task of getting rid of these pills and although I could have easily earned a quick $10K or more on the streets of Seattle, I chose instead to turn them into our local sheriff's department which just so happened to have a pre-scheduled "Drug Take Back" the following day. The authorities who were part of the chain of custody that day seemed to be a bit shocked that so much drug firepower was assembled into one tidy package.

I took the opportunity to rant about the fact that no wonder there was a drug problem out there when doctors prescribed this stuff indiscriminately without ensuring that the previous prescriptions weren't piling up. All of the armed officers nodded in agreement and seemed a bit bemused by my passion.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, well over 100,000 people died of a drug overdose in the 12-month period ending in March of 2022.