Thanks to the “real” media and the “real” reporters who work at places like the New York Times, Washington Post, and “60 Minutes,” we as a nation just dodged a bullet.
Our president, who has made a living off of dishonesty and distraction, was about to appoint Rep. Tom Marino (R -Penn.), as our new drug czar. However reporting by the Post and “60 Minutes” uncovered a lot of problems with Marino, not least of which was the fact that he had taken lots of money from drug companies who peddle powerful opioids. Additionally, he helped draft – and pass – a law that severely restricted the DEA from going after shipments of opioids sent to crooked doctors and “pill mills” that put millions of drugs like OxyContin on the black market.
Thankfully, the “60 Minutes” episode and Washington Post story caused Marino to withdraw from consideration. Trump, by the way, referred to Marino as “a great guy.”
According to many recent news reports, more than 200,000 Americans have died of opioid overdoses since 2000, and yet we just witnessed another blazingly obvious example of the hopelessly corrupt president who promised to “drain the swamp” doing exactly the opposite and filling it with cronies, crooks, billionaires, and the very type of people he said he’d remove. People like Marino.
In the meantime, while there is mounting evidence that cannabis, and specifically CBD, can actually act as an “off-ramp” from opioid addiction, we have to deal with an idiot Attorney General and an increasingly large cadre of unqualified buffoons in positions of power simply because they’re masters at brown-nosing Trump.
So what to do? As I’ve said many time before in this magazine, reading real newspapers and watching real news on TV (as opposed to Breitbart, Fox and InfoWars) is a start. All the wacky “fake news” that Trump calls “real news” is chocked full of conspiracy theories, downright dishonest stories, and hack articles designed to confuse and create problems. It’s no coincidence then that Trump and his family are under investigation for all kinds of conflict of interest issues and a disinformation campaign promoted by Russian hackers.
Finally, while I’d never suggest that Trump has the same intentions as Hitler, it’s an absolute fact that he used the same tactics to get elected: First, he singled out groups of people as a threat to the US (Muslims, Mexicans, Gays). Next came the always predictable denunciation of intellectuals and the media. After that, we got lots of false information from his minister of propaganda (Steve Bannon). And finally, in a feeble attempt to deflect attention from the real story (Russia!), he’s gone after his political opponents (Hillary) in much the same way dictators and strong men have for decades in countries like Panama, Iraq, and the Philippines.
Make no mistake, without the educated professionals at places like The Washington Post and “60 Minutes” exposing Marino as a lackey for Big Pharma, we’d almost certainly have a drug czar who is hostile to cannabis, but openly acts as a cheerleader for the opioid industry.
As I’ve said before, support the The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and all the rest of the media who are unafraid of Trump and his threats. It’s all we have left to keep total corruption and a dictatorial president in check!