President Trump recently declared the opioid epidemic a ‘public health emergency’ in the United States. While this focused national attention on America's deadly drug addiction, the opioid crisis hasn't spiraled out of control because of a lack of government intervention. It's spiraled out of control largely BECAUSE OF GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION. Bad government policy like the war on drugs has lead to the creation of illegal black markets where the deadly narcotic drug fentanyl is being laced into the drug supply at an increasing rate. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/national/fentanyl-overdoses/?utm_term=.10dcace97f40 Drug addicted users who believe they're buying painkillers, cocaine, heroin, or other opiates, are actually getting heroin laced with fentanyl, cocaine spliced with fentanyl, or fentanyl death pills (pain killers disguised to look like oxycodone, Percocet or Xanax, but are actually made with fentanyl). https://www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2016/4/8/fentanyl-death-pills-spreading-coast-to-coast The results of the dangerous drug combination has been deadly, In the past three years, the fentanyl death toll has risen by 540%. https://www.evergreendrugrehab.com/blog/540-sad-reality-fentanyl-death-toll-2017/ https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/02/upshot/fentanyl-drug-overdose-deaths.html If that's not bad enough, government rehab programs offered through medicaid enables drug users to live a drug addicted lifestyle free of charge. Medicaid takes care of the bill. Not only will they provide free methadone, enabling users to substitute one dangerous addiction for another, in some states Medicaid will pay for the cab ride over to the methadone clinic. And if that's not enough, in some cases, Medicaid gives known drug addicts a free card loaded with unlimited government funds and will even transfer the funds directly into the users bank account. This makes it easy for those suffering from heroin addiction or opiate addiction to fund their lifestyle without any income. http://www.nationalreview.com/article/449171/medicaids-opioid-problem-has-it-made-epidemic-worse If the powers that be wanted to win the war on drugs they wouldn't be talking about creating more poisonous policy, they'd be getting rid of bad policy that nurtures this opioid epidemic. But solving the drug problem would threaten the power and profits of those who thrive of off keeping Americans down, which makes you wonder if this opioid crisis we're facing is not accident. With the problem spiraling out of control, it's time that we seriously ask, is the opioid epidemic a government engineered crisis? On today's episode of the Propaganda Report podcast, we explore that question, talk about how those in power exploit America's drug problem for their own benefit, look at the problem through a libertarian lens, and we take calls from those who are currently struggling to overcome addiction, those who have lost loved ones to drug overdose, and those whose stories of survival remind us that even in the darkest of times, nothing is more powerful than hope.  If you haven't subscribe to the podcast iTunes. Rate and review us. We'd love to hear from you. https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-propaganda-report/id1156744457?mt=2 Or subscribe on your Android listening platform of choice. http://www.subscribeonandroid.com/propagandareport.libsyn.com/rss If you want to donate out and help out the show, you can do so on Paypal at https://www.paypal.me/BradBinkley  or better yet, you can become a Patron.  https://www.patreon.com/propagandareport Check out our website https://propagandareportdaily.com/ for weekly propaganda analysis and media deconstruction.  And finally, subscribe to us on Youtube for weekly videos.  Monica's Youtube Page https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr2pBNPE7Nb8EBzcqIUmPDA Brad's Youtube Page https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH7FRyuCTiCN2jiSaCDMv1Q Thank you for listening.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices