 Donald Trump is back on Twitter spreading lies about the real cause of the opioid epidemic here in the United States. So in this video, we're going to use one of his least favorite things, which are facts. What is up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul, where we talk about the problem, but focus on the solution. And if you're new to my channel, what I like to do is take a look at what's going on on Twitter or YouTube or just in society in general and just try to see what lessons we can learn from them. So if you're into that stuff, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. So yeah, this morning I was over on Twitter just kind of catching up with the news and all that jazz and I saw a tweet from Donald Trump, but by the way, did you know I'm on Twitter? Follow me on Twitter and Instagram at the Rewired Soul, alright? But anyways, I retweeted this because it was absolutely ridiculous and he does this all the time. So his tweet said, 90% of the drugs coming into the United States come through Mexico and our southern border. 80,000 people died last year, 1 million people ruined. This has gone on for many years and nothing has been done about it. We have a $100 billion trade deficit with Mexico. It's time. Alright? And this is a live by omission. One of the things that he does is he blames Mexico because obviously he's trying to get his wall built, but the thing is that we all need to realize this opioid epidemic that we're currently in is not because of other countries. Yes, other countries do ship in drugs, but 90% of the drugs coming in are not from Mexico. They're coming from right here in the damn United States. So when I retweeted this, somebody commented and said, well, maybe he's, you know, just focusing on the other countries because they have been doing a crackdown here in the United States about prescription drugs that we're handing out. And while that's true and things have gotten better and I'm about to show you some stats behind it, the thing is, it's a live by omission because he's saying that 90% of the drugs coming in and here's the thing. Pharmaceutical drugs are drugs, okay? And they're responsible for a lot, a lot of the opioid deaths here in the United States. Recently, the BBC cited a study from the Lancet Commission on Global Access to palliative care and pain relief. This study showed the US gets 30 times more opioid pain relief medication than it needs. Mexico only gets 36% of what it needs. China gets about 16% of what it needs. India gets 4% of what it needs. Nigeria gets 0.2% of what it needs. So yes, this is a fact, okay? We get way more prescription opioids shipped to the United States and distributed than any other country on the planet by a huge margin. So when I make videos talking about Suboxone and other prescription medications, like it's just important to understand that we as Americans have been trained to believe that we need these medications in order to deal with physical pain, psychological pain, and I'm not saying nobody needs medications, but when you look at these statistics, like ask yourself a question, ask yourself an honest question. Do you believe that the United States just happens to have more people struggling with pain than any other country on Earth? So why is it that we're getting so many opioids in the United States and distributing them to people? All right, so what you're seeing on the screen right now are stats from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, all right? So according to the NIDA, there were 17,000 deaths from prescription opioids compared to 15,000 deaths from heroin. Most of the prescription opioid deaths involved no heroin at all. Most heroin deaths did involve another narcotic, all right? So one of the lies that we are being fed is that heroin is the leading cause of overdose death in the United States. This is not true. Prescription opioids are still the leading cause of opioid deaths, not heroin. You can also see here that many people dying from benzos, like Xanax or Valium, had opioids in their system as well. Now these are CDC statistics that show we are doing better, but it's still a major problem. Now, although these numbers are trending downward, the CDC also states in 16% of US counties enough opioid prescriptions were dispensed for every person to have one. While the overall opioid prescribing rate in 2017 was 58.7 prescriptions per 100 people, some counties had rates that were seven times higher than that. So think about that for a second. Think about how many opioids we are prescribing here, especially when you combine the fact that most people who get started on heroin were hooked on prescription opioids before they ever tried heroin. I'm a recovering prescription opioid addict and I was this close to getting on heroin just because it would have been easier access, all right? Nobody wakes up in the morning and they're like, you know what? I'm gonna try some heroin today. You know, most people get hooked on prescription opioids and then they look for something that's cheaper and stronger, especially since doctors are cracking down on how much they do prescribe. So think about the people who are getting hooked on the medication. Then they can't get more of the medication. Now they go to the black market to get some. So now that we have evidence showing that prescription drugs are still the primary problem, you might be asking yourself, well, why do we keep blaming other countries? And I think we might have the answer right here from OpenSecrets.org. So the Democrats, their total contributions from Big Pharma are over $6.9 million and to the Republican Party, it's over $9.9 million. So is it any wonder that politicians like Donald Trump and senators and all of them are trying to blame other countries like Mexico and China for a problem because Big Pharma is trying to keep the drug addiction right here in the United States so they can be the drug dealers rather than other countries. So statistics aside, this is something that I witness personally every single day happening to people who are in my life. So one of my very good friends, he recently had a back spasm. And his back started killing him. So he went to the emergency room because his back was killing him. And they prescribed him morphine and fentanyl. Morphine and fentanyl, two of the most powerful opioids. Like when you hear the opioid epidemic, you obviously think of fentanyl. For a back spasm, they gave him fentanyl, okay? Fentanyl is like a very last resort pain medication. So when my friend was texting me and telling me about this because he lives in another state, I'm like, oh my God, they gave you fentanyl. And as somebody who has worked in the addiction treatment field, as a recovering addict myself, like I'm like, oh my God, like is my friend gonna get hooked on opioids? And thank God, thank God he's doing all right now. He didn't get hooked on the drugs. But if he had a genetic disposition to these drugs, he might have become an addict. So you guys, next year is the 2020 elections. And I want you to remember this stuff, all right? When politicians are telling you things like where the drug problem really is, like remember these statistics. All of the sources that I cited will be linked down in the description below. You can find all these sources as well, all right? So when people like Donald Trump are saying 90% of the drugs are coming from other countries, remember, most of the drugs are coming right here in the United States from doctors prescribing them to people and getting people hooked, all right? Now, something else somebody brought up on Twitter was using marijuana for chronic pain management. And I'm thinking about doing a video on that, comparing studies with, you know, marijuana for pain management compared to like opioids. If that's something that you want to see, let me know down in the comments below. Or if you have any experience with pain management and using something else like marijuana to manage your pain, let me know down in the comments and maybe I'll make another video on it, all right? But anyways, that's all I got for this video. If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you're new, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. 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