The Patriot Post® · Wednesday Opinion

Best of Right Opinion

• Star Parker: What’s Driving the Opioid Crisis?
• Marc A. Thiessen: Tariffs Will Force Trump to Break Key Campaign Promises
• Michelle Malkin: Give VA Secretary David Shulkin the Boot
• Walter Williams: Hidden Agenda or Ignorance?
• Todd Starnes: Court Ruling Could Banish Memorial Crosses From Arlington Cemetery

For more of today’s columns, visit Right Opinion.

Opinion in Brief

Star Parker: “According to a recent report about opioids by the Social Capital Project, organized in the U.S. Senate, ‘the oversupply and abuse of legal prescription pain relievers is at the heart of the crisis.’ This has led to action in Washington with legislation such as the Opioid Addiction Prevention Act, which would impose limits on opioid painkiller prescriptions. However, Dr. Sally Satel … challenges this picture, which she calls ‘a false narrative.’ According to Satel, data show ‘that only a minority of people who are prescribed opioids for pain become addicted to them, and those who do become addicted and who die from painkiller overdoses tend to obtain these medications from sources other than their own physicians.’ … I believe Satel zeroes in on the real heart of the crisis when she says, ‘What we need is demand-side policy. Interventions that seek to reduce the desire to use drugs, be they painkillers, or illicit opioids.’ Here, I see an interesting parallel to the gun debate. That is, the center of the deadly problem is with the disturbed user or perpetrator, rather than with the instrument — whether it is a gun or a drug. The instrument is the result rather than the cause.”