Editorial voices from elsewhere
Editorial voices from newspapers across the United States:
There is big money in pain, which is why the makers of prescription painkillers seem so interested in ensuring doctors keep prescribing opioids despite an addiction crisis that claimed 165,000 lives in the United States since 2000.
An investigation by the Associated Press and Center for Public Integrity showed even as drug makers claim to be fighting the prescription drug epidemic, they are using a 50-state strategy and handing out millions of dollars in campaign donations to weaken or outright kill legislation to limit the use of drugs such as OxyContin, Vicodin and fentanyl.
The AP and the center found between 2006 and 2015, Big Pharma spent more than $880 million nationwide on lobbying and campaign contributions. That was far more than advocates for a crackdown on prescription drugs could spend; it dwarfed what the gun lobby doled out over the same period.
The solution is for legislators and physicians to show courage in the face of these pressures. Legislators and Congress should take appropriate action to ensure that the drugs are available to those who need them but aren’t overprescribed. And physicians, knowing the risk, should be more reticent in prescribing these drugs.
Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., must have known it was treading into dangerous waters when it announced an investigation of its past connection to slavery.
In August, the school announced a multifaceted approach to help it atone for its past. First, two school buildings named after the two Jesuits who were directly responsible for the sale will be renamed. The school will also offer any descendants of the university’s slaves preferential treatment in its admissions process, giving them the same opportunity as the descendants of alumni.
The school’s response will likely find critics on both ends of the political spectrum. There will be those who say the current school leaders have no culpability and the school owes no apology or reparations for actions that occurred more than 180 years ago. Others will see the school’s efforts as a classic case of too little too late; that the school should offer more profound and meaningful concessions if it truly wants to seek forgiveness for its past.
Although the debate is obviously far from over, Georgetown should be lauded for acknowledging its past and working to come to terms with it in a very public way. School officials have indicated they do not consider the issue resolved, and they are open to more dialogue. That’s an important step in a discussion that has been hundreds of years in the making.
Drivers in West Virginia face a greater risk to their vehicles than in most other states. The assaults come from all directions, including the apparently massive bugs that end their lives against our windshields; and the berry-filled birds that perch in trees above our parked cars.
First comes news from State Farm Insurance that in their annual analysis of auto collision claims, the Mountain State comes in at the top of the list for the likelihood a vehicle will strike a deer. The odds last year were 1 in 41 – a 5.4 percent increase over the previous year. That makes 10 years in a row West Virginia drivers had the greatest chance in the country of hitting a deer. There may not be much in the way of policy that could affect those numbers – we call our state Wild and Wonderful for a reason – but the folks lobbying for another day in the week to hunt deer on their private property might have a couple of ideas.
On the other hand, legislators should probably take a look at how to reduce the kinds of numbers seen in an audit of Division of Highways data that showed 1,320 claims filed against the agency by drivers, most of whom had hit potholes that damaged their vehicles.
That is an 800 percent increase over the number of such claims filed just five years ago.
Of course, there is less money to spend on paving and road maintenance these days. But failing to properly maintain roads is costing the state money, too.
If the matter is not addressed, the Division of Highways is facing a bumpy road.