Editorial voices from elsewhere
Editorial voices from newspapers around the United States:
There is no question that over the past decade, doctors have written too many pain pill prescriptions for our region. In 2012, West Virginia had as many prescriptions as people.
As we now know, millions of those pills were diverted to addiction, which in turn led thousands of drug users to heroin and record overdose deaths. But the number of prescriptions only tells part of the story. The large volume of doses in many of those prescriptions greatly increased the flood of pain pills coming into our region.
Between 2007-2012, the total was about 780 million pills for West Virginia alone, the Charleston Gazette-Mail has reported.
States and medical professionals are working on a number of fronts to limit the number of pain pill prescriptions, but it also makes sense to restrict the volume of pills in those prescriptions.
Both Ohio and Kentucky have taken steps to do just that.
In Ohio, new restrictions would bar doctors from prescribing more than seven days of narcotic pain pills for adults and no more than five days for minors. The limits would not apply to cancer or hospice patients, and doctors could prescribe larger quantities for patients suffering from acute pain, if they detail specific reasons.
In Kentucky, the state Senate approved a bill to limit pain pill prescriptions to three days. That proposal also includes exceptions for cancer treatments and end-of-life care, as well as provisions for longer prescriptions for specified reasons.
West Virginia should consider prescription limits as well.
In Colorado, more than two-thirds of the students who graduate from college have substantial student loan debt, averaging more than $30,000. Nationwide, the average is $37,000. Those who continue into law school, medical school or other professional programs owe much more.
Last month, the Trump administration eliminated protections against charging high fees on past-due loans made through the Federal Family Education Loan Program, which accounts for nearly half of the student loans in default. To President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, $37,000 or even $150,000 is small change, but after earning a bachelor’s degree, students average more than 20 years paying off student loans – if they can. For many, that debt is an impediment to being able to purchase a home, start a family or to work in a small town for a salary less than a city job would pay. That hampers rural America.
The Trump administration must consider ordinary citizens, not just corporate income, as it seeks a better way.
After eight years of the often thankless work required of the leader of the free world, Barack Obama seems to be enjoying doing what he wants. He’s visited the British Virgin Islands, Hawaii and French Polynesia. He’s gone kite-surfing, played golf, visited an art gallery and caught a Broadway play. After all the time and energy he put into running for president and being president, most Americans probably think he’s entitled to tend to his own needs.
But not everyone agrees. The headline on an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal suggests that he get to work on a formidable new task: “Obama Should Make Saving Chicago His Pet Project.”
Why should Obama be the person to tackle violence in Chicago? He has spent little time here since becoming president. He and his wife Michelle have rented a house in Washington, D.C., where they are expected to stay at least until 15-year-old Sasha completes high school. He has no special expertise in crime prevention, and the relationships he once had with ordinary Chicagoans are no longer fresh. By now, others know the terrain much better than Obama does.
Obama’s library and museum could be part of this effort, but it’s too much to expect the former president to be the savior of Chicago. In the first place, he has too many other things on his plate. In the second, who would want to break the news to Michelle?