I’m going to disagree here. Blaming the sacklers is a copout.

People use drugs because they are unfulfilled, repressed, etc. our situation and culture is fucked up.

People are NOT going to start, or stop, using drugs due to the actions of some scapegoat. Frankly dr prescribed opiates from the pharmacy are likely our best bet. They/we(I am in recovery) are going to use something because we WANT to. Not because you are selling it. You are selling it because I want it.

Watch what happens when they pull Kratom and 7oh. Another wave of death as people turn to the streets. A new scapegoat for the capitalists sucking our lives away for their benefit. 8 hour work, they own your lunch too pretty much so that’s 9. Commute and hour each way. That’s 11. Pick up the kids cook dinner and do it all again. Just do subsist and breed the next gen of sheep to be sheared. THATS who you blame.

There is no reward doing that for someone else so we seek out a way to stimulate our reward pathway.

Data aggregation and mining have already made a mockery of the idea of humans having free will. Why cry now?

We are just a herd. Can I move THAT sheep? Maybe. Can I move the herd? Absolutely.

It isn’t 1982… a drug smuggling ship… is a container ship. With people paid off to let the container through.

There is zero control over drugs entering the United States. It’s a farce. A show. Drugs come in by the container load. 50k to the customs agent, done.

Off the top of my head Andre Norton is completely overlooked in this thread. Like… what?

Mercedes lackey.

Cj Cherryh.

Katherine Kurtz.