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submitted 1 month ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/health@lemmy.world

Summary

Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr., despite his history of heroin addiction, supports ending a $56 million federal Narcan distribution program that helped drive a nearly 24% drop in U.S. overdose deaths in 2024.

The program, administered by SAMHSA, trained over 66,000 people and distributed 282,500 kits.

Critics warn that cutting Narcan funding could reverse life-saving progress, especially as fentanyl-related overdoses persist.

Kennedy argues the crisis requires deeper societal change beyond "nuts and bolts" solutions, while public health advocates condemn the move as dangerously premature.

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[-] ThePantser@sh.itjust.works 161 points 1 month ago

Drug addict says, "fuck you, I got mine"

[-] Zachariah@lemmy.world 36 points 1 month ago

You should work for the LA Times.
You know how to write a headline.

[-] Barbudo@lemm.ee 14 points 1 month ago

But this is the Latin Times

[-] hank_the_tank66@lemmy.world 17 points 1 month ago
[-] Barbudo@lemm.ee 10 points 1 month ago

Nah, it's the workout rag called Lat in Times.

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[-] andros_rex@lemmy.world 23 points 1 month ago

Imagine being rich and getting addicted to heroin. Literal everything has been designed to benefit you - unlike your sister you weren’t born with the wrong chromosomes so any obnoxious behavior was written off. Never worrying about where your next meal would come from, how you’re going to get a job, dealing with mental illness you can’t afford to get treatment for…

How much do you have to suck to fail so hard when everything has been lined up for you since birth?

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[-] Asafum@feddit.nl 90 points 1 month ago

"This administration is so unpredictable!"

Is it though? It seems pretty simple:

Does it help people and not directly benefit the ultra wealthy? Kill it.

Does it hurt people we don't like or boost the oppressive power of the state? Boost it!

That seems to be the Trump administration in a nutshell.

[-] msage@programming.dev 37 points 1 month ago

"This administration is so unpredictable!"

proceeds to act project 2025 as it was written

Pikachu face

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[-] laurelraven 61 points 1 month ago

56 million to drop the OD death rate by nearly a quarter? This is exactly the sort of thing I want to see my taxes doing, directly improving people's lives, and the cost is a drop in the bucket for federal budgets.

And his reasoning is bullshit, you can work to address the deeper cause while mitigating the symptoms, it isn't an either/or

[-] Dragonstaff@leminal.space 31 points 1 month ago

Doubly infuriating is that they have NO intention of "addressing the deeper cause". This asshole drug addict is just "personal responsibility"-ing drug addiction.

"Why don't you just have your family send you to the best treatment centers available like I did?!"

[-] pepperjohnson@lemm.ee 55 points 1 month ago
[-] nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 1 month ago

Just dropping this here on the off chance you dont have this saved to your phone or something yet. For me it's the gift that keeps on giving.

[-] boughtmysoul@lemmy.world 52 points 1 month ago

This is the same man who once sawed the head off of a whale, strapped it to his roof, then forced his children to endure being rained upon by whale juice.

Just internalize that. This man is in charge of health

[-] Agent641@lemmy.world 31 points 1 month ago

At least it's not the same guy who dumped a dead bear in Central Park oh wait it totally is!

[-] Illogicalbit@lemmy.world 23 points 1 month ago

Thought to myself, that can’t possibly be true, but then:

Kathleen Kennedy said when she was 6 years old, her dad got word that a dead whale had washed ashore. He got a chainsaw, cut off the whale’s head and strapped it to the roof of their minivan for a five-hour drive home.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/rfk-jr-kennedy-whale-investigation-09c494d8164c6f9bde9ece39637ea4d3

[-] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I'm sorry, what?

EDIT oh. But also still what?? Why???

[-] Absaroka@lemmy.world 35 points 1 month ago

Pro-Life Party in action.

“Much has been said over the last three months about Mexico and Canada,” Trump said. “But we have very large deficits with both of them. But even more importantly, they have allowed fentanyl to come into our country at levels never seen before, killing hundreds of thousands of our citizens and many very young, beautiful people, destroying families. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it.”

My, how quickly they abandoned the 'we must protect our people' reasoning used to justify tariffs.

[-] Madison420@lemmy.world 32 points 1 month ago

Past? Have you drug tested him? Does he seem altogether put together?

[-] rayyy@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

Drugs? Did someone mention drugs? The white house is teeming with drugs and drug users. RFK Jr is sure to get a little drug splash accidentally, of course. Look, he hates McDonalds but there we was chowing down with Krasnov.

[-] HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 28 points 1 month ago

I was at a music festival and a group of people were saying their friend stopped breathing. We confirmed and i supplied the narcan from a donation program and a friend who has administered it before brought him back while we called for paramedics who came within a few minutes and took over. The guy survived. RFKjerk wants that guy to have died. He has zero place in health or the government

[-] Captainvaqina@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 month ago

He has zero place on planet earth.

[-] grte@lemmy.ca 28 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Well, opioid deaths were going down. Can't be having effective policy in this administration.

[-] SabinStargem@lemmy.today 27 points 1 month ago

RFK, like the rest of the oligarchs, cannot appreciate how society allowed him to live his best life.

[-] njm1314@lemmy.world 23 points 1 month ago

Kennedy argues the crisis requires deeper societal change beyond "nuts and bolts" solutions, while public health advocates condemn the move as dangerously premature.

So do that first brain worm. You could keep the program going while you work on all that.

[-] drolex@sopuli.xyz 10 points 1 month ago

Ah but that's the conservative approach everywhere in the world. Yes there's a societal issue. No we won't do anything about it. Actually, correction: we will make it worse.

[-] KulunkelBoom@lemm.ee 21 points 1 month ago

Of course he does. This mush mouthed brain dead stack of rotten shoe leather is a COMPLETE disgrace to the Kennedy name. The only thing keeping this sorry sack of shit out of a white jacket and a rubber room is his family's legacy AND MONEY.

[-] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 19 points 1 month ago

But what was the Kennedy name? Joe dealing with the mafia to get JFK elected? JFK escalating the Vietnam war? Bay of pigs? Ted at Chappaquiddick?

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[-] peteyestee@feddit.org 20 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

We are being cleansed. It's pretty obvious isn't it?

Depopulation of the unwanted by those above us.

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[-] Rucifer@sh.itjust.works 18 points 1 month ago

He is a danger to us all. The whole starting tariffs to punish Canada and Mexico for fentanyl making its way into the country was obviously a farce. They don’t give one single fuck about anybody but themselves!

Republicans fully committed to their platform of spite and hate.

[-] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 16 points 1 month ago

This sucks. I worked in EMS through the peak of the opioid epidemic, and once Narcan became commonplace and widely available, our OD calls dropped noticably.

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[-] fossilesque@mander.xyz 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I honestly have no words... This one is hitting me in ways that I cannot describe. What these people have done to my generation through the creation of this epidemic is inhumane, and this step back has made me have a full blown cry. Hug the ones you love, you never know who is suffering. If you are reading this and you are suffering as well, know that you are loved too.

[-] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago
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[-] WrenFeathers@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago

He just summarily wiped out a large portion of the MAGA voting base in the southeast.

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[-] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago

Nurgle would be proud.

[-] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 month ago

Does anyone know how long Narcan's shelf life is? I have some but I want to know if it is worth stocking up

[-] SOB_Van_Owen@lemm.ee 11 points 1 month ago

My understanding is that it's quite long. I saw cited a 90% effectiveness at 30 years.

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[-] barnaclebutt@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

[RFK voice] I killed my brother by forcing hard drugs on him that he'd get addicted to and ultimately overdose. All I'm doing now is killing the American people that are addicted to drugs. What's not to understand about that?

[-] vxx@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

I'm curios, does anyone know an ex heroin junky that went straight edge and didn't substitute heroin with another addiction? Because I don't

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this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2025
634 points (100.0% liked)

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