Carl Lowe | Feb 05, 2014
If you’re concerned that the heroin that likely killed the actor Philip Seymour Hoffman is a threat to society, some experts warn that deadlier drugs are threatening many more lives. And it’s probable that you unknowingly took some of these drugs today.
Dr. Jonny Anomaly of Duke University argues that our unbridled use of antibiotics is much more dangerous than heroin. He argues that government should stop wasting money waging an “unwinnable war” against illegal drugs like heroin and devote those resources to curbing the overuse of antibiotics.
According to Anomaly, we need to phase out the use of antibiotics in farming (especially in factory farming) that results in antibiotic residues residing in our meat. If you ate meat from a restaurant or the supermarket today, you may have ingested some of these residues.
Anomaly also says we should also offer cash incentives to Big Pharma to help conserve existing antibiotics. Plus, we should ban the over-the-counter sales of antibiotics in developing nations and set up global surveillance to track antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
If we neglect this danger, he says, antibiotic resistant infections can potentially kill millions and make it very difficult to treat illness.
Anomaly says: “…[M]ost of the violence and crime associated with narcotics is caused by laws that prohibit drug use, rather than drug use itself.” And the position that stimulant drugs increase violent tendencies is not based on strong evidence.
He admits that a drug habit is a burden on friends and family, but claims that this does not justify treating this behavior as a crime.
Although supporters of tough action on illegal drugs fear that not harshly penalizing drug use can make it easier to get ahold of them, Anomaly says that countries like Portugal that have decriminalized recreational drug use have not suffered an epidemic of drug problems.
This “suggests that consumption has not significantly increased for most drugs, and has actually declined for some… greater accessibility does not necessarily lead to more drug use by either adults or children,” says Anomaly.
He concludes: “…[P]olicymakers should stop wasting resources trying to fight an unwinnable and morally dubious war against recreational drug users, and start shifting their attention to the serious threat posed by our collective misuse of antibiotics.”
http://easyhealthoptions.com/news/the-widespread-drug-abuse-deadlier-than-heroin/
