RFK Jr. Kills Lifesaving Narcan Program, Will Replace With Thoughts And Prayers
Not actually an exaggeration.
For fourteen years of his life, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was addicted to heroin — and, credit where it’s due, that’s a hell of a hard thing to give up. It’s also often a dangerous drug to give up, in fact, because many overdoses occur when a user relapses and goes back to the same amount they were using when they quit. That’s just one reason why Narcan has been a miracle for so many.
One might think that, given his own past experience, he would be very on board with anything directed at helping opiate addicts, especially things like the incredibly successful $56 million grant that funded a program meant to distribute Narcan to first responders and train them to use it properly.
Nope!
As it turns out, that grant will be eliminated, along with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) that provided the funding.
According to the CDC, which is also (of course) losing many of its employees and much of its funding, there was a 24 percent decline in overdose deaths last year, due in large part to the widespread availability of Narcan. In fact, October 2023 to September 2024 had the lowest number of overdose deaths of any 12 month period since 2020.
Still, even with that decline, overdoses remained the number one killer of Americans ages 18-44, suggesting we still have a ways to go.
In a speech at the Illicit Drug Summit in Nashville last week, Kennedy suggested that the real problem was that the children don’t have enough faith and hope, and also that they use their cellphones too much.
Via USA Today:
During his speech, Kennedy said that America is struggling with faith and hope.
Solving the addiction crisis requires a variety of interventions, including suboxone and methadone treatment, readily available Narcan intervention for overdose cases, and fentanyl detectors, among other practical strategies, he said.
Ultimately, he said, those “nuts and bolts” strategies won’t solve the opioid crisis in America.
“We need to really focus on reestablishing historic ties to the community,” he said. “We have this whole generation of kids who lost hope in their future.”
He said he supports banning cell phones in schools as a way to improve connections for young people in the community.
Yes, instead of taking concrete measures — or, rather, hoping some rich person is willing to help, because the US won’t actually be funding them anymore — let’s just take kids’ cell phones away and tell them to have more faith and hope. Perfect! And so much cheaper!
Plus, just think of how successful Republicans’ “thoughts and prayers” initiatives have been in combating school shootings. Why spend money on things that will keep people from dying when what they really need is faith and hope and a “spiritual awakening” like Kennedy said he had.
Funny how it seems that the Trump administration is only interested in addressing the opioid epidemic by doing things they already wanted to do in the first place, like demonizing immigrants and Canadians, or Trump’s dream of executing drug dealers.
But speaking of “community,” one of the other things the Trump administration is planning to cut is funding for Head Start, which is often the only early childhood education option for people in certain areas (often rural areas). Research has consistently shown a link between how kids do early in their school careers and future drug addiction issues.
You know what I couldn’t find, though? Any link from cell phone use to drug addiction issues. Well, other than an article in The New York Times from a few years ago titled “Are Teenagers Replacing Drugs With Smartphones?” It’s all about how, despite the opioid epidemic, teenagers are doing far fewer drugs than they used to, and some researchers believe that one reason for that could be the constant stimulation they already get from their computers and smartphones.
But hey! Why pay attention to actual research when you can just listen to your gut telling you that you really want to complain about how all the kids today are always on their phones? Clearly, the Trump administration isn’t all that interested in research, anyway, considering how much of it they are cutting off funding for.
Narcan has saved tens of thousands of lives. There are former addicts walking around clean today who might otherwise be dead because of it. There are families who don’t have to deal with the loss of someone they love because of it. But the Trump administration clearly doesn’t care enough about those people to spend that money — just like they don’t care about the people who will die because they killed cancer research funding, or the people who will die because they eliminated HIV prevention initiatives, or the people who will die from all of the other cuts they are making to the Health and Human Services budget.
But hey! Let’s look on the bright side. Although the HHS will no longer be spending money on these things, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will sure as hell be pouring it into trying to find the “cause” of autism by September, because human lives are just not as important as him getting to “prove” that he’s right about vaccines.
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
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