Despite the implementation of strict guidelines and prescription monitoring, doctors and dentists are still flooding the U.S. with addictive pain medications at twice the rates widely considered safe. With the annual death toll from drug overdose—much of it opioid-related—reaching a record 72,000 people in 2019, opioids are nevertheless being handed out in large volumes, with the U.S. consuming 80 percent of the world’s opioids.
Dentists are also part of the problem: data shows that half of all the painkillers handed out by dentists are unnecessary and inappropriate—especially for mild pain that could be treated with Tylenol and an ice pack. Even more disturbing, dentists regularly give powerful opioid pills to younger patients who are most vulnerable to addiction.
Meanwhile, Big Tobacco is trying to make up for lost profits from the collapse of the vaping market by introducing a new product—oral nicotine pouches, which are neither heated nor inhaled. The industry came under attack for marketing vaping devices to young people, which has led to a teen nicotine epidemic. And critics say the new nicotine products are also cause for alarm as they still raise long-standing health concerns.
And finally, the number of felony marijuana arrests are declining in California, a legal marijuana state—but not for Blacks and Hispanics. Overall arrests declined 27 percent, but Hispanics accounted for 42 percent and Blacks 22 percent. Law enforcement has long been criticized for disproportionate marijuana arrest rates for people of color, fueling the movement to decriminalize the drug.