October 13, 2021: Drug Overdoses Set Record and Salt Can Kill You

10/13/21: The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that there were 93,331 drug overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2020. 

That mark surpassed the toll for 2019 by more than 20,000, setting an all-time high for this country. Roughly 60% of all overdose deaths were opioid-related. It would not make sense to blame President Trump for this frightful toll, but then again, we know he blamed Obama when overdose deaths rose in 2016. We also know that in 2019, he took credit for “a tremendous amount of progress” in the fight against opioid abuse and for a decline in deaths that he claimed resulted. 

Now the numbers are in and any progress the Trump administration made proves to have been illusory.

 

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PRESIDENT BIDEN has been taking a few lumps of late, but in small ways and large, his administration has shown how different it is from the circle-jerk administration run by Donald J. Trump. 

For example, the Food and Drug Administration is recommending that manufacturers cut the amount of salt they add to processed and packaged foods. Even baby foods and meals in chain restaurants may be affected. 

Whereas President Trump yipped and yapped about how government regulations made his toilet too hard to flush – and ignored the larger issues, such as a burgeoning drought in the American West. He claimed climate change was a hoax  and fought for our First Amendment right to use plastic straws and throw them in the ocean. Today, the FDA is under new management.

 

Dr. Janet Woodcock, the acting commissioner, told NBC News, that the goal was to reduce rates of heart disease. Cutting sodium intake, “would have a major impact on hypertension, heart disease and stroke,” she explained. 

Current guidelines recommend 2,300 milligrams of salt per day for adults. That would equal about one teaspoon of table salt. The average American adult consumes almost 50% more than that, every day. 

Right-wing types will no doubt start shouting about how the “nanny state” wants to pry the saltshakers out of our freedom-loving hands. 

You know, kind of like when they said liberals wanted to take away their coal, and their Christmas ornaments, and their hamburgers and guns. All of which, by some miracle, they still enjoy.