OPINION:
Unnecessary loss of human life is tragic irrespective of the cause. Thus, it seems beyond strange to learn that drug deaths occur six times more frequently than gun homicides — but are dismissed with scarcely a note of concern. Indeed, we are told these fatalities (70,000 per year) are “non-violent.” Does that mean they should be ignored and drug use should be more broadly legalized and accepted as a societal norm?
Aside from its horrendous death toll, drug use engenders a diminishment of work and parenting skills in huge numbers of mentally impaired individuals — which leads to a great many grandparents raising the children of their drug-compromised offspring. As for gun violence, the vast majority of Chicago and other inner-city homicides are linked to illicit drug commerce.
The death inflicted by crazy people utilizing guns (as in the recent El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, shootings) makes for rabid emotional theater, but we should keep in mind that those 32 fatalities are dwarfed by 90 drug deaths per day.
Is mob emotionalism driving these (and other) perspectives?
FRANK GARDINER
Provo, Utah
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