It came and went without much notice, but last week a new report showed drug deaths increased last year to nearly 110,000 Americans—an increase from the previous year’s nearly 107,000 deaths.  And these are undercounts, just drug poisonings—they don’t include drug involved suicides or fatal car crashes.  Consider: With drug deaths, we are now losing the equivalent of two major commercial airline crashes per day in America. This isn’t carnage—it’s slaughter.  

As for children, for Covid we closed schools, shut down athletic and other programs, vaxxed and masked our kids and scared the heck out of them.  Yet, in 2021, alone, we lost 154 percent more children from drug poisonings than Covid. And it’s getting worse.

We are actually witnessing a decrease in life expectancy. That’s unheard of in a society as wealthy, educated and developed as ours.   

We can ignore this problem, we can appease it, or we can roll up our sleeves and actually do something to stop the slaughter.