“I won New Hampshire because New Hampshire is a drug-infested den.” – the president of the United States.
I describe Trump as an authentic liar. He does it with passion and there is usually a kernel of truth in his distortions and lies (yeah, he won the primary not the general, and New Hampshire does have a drug problem). But all the chest beating and emotional responses from our elected officials failed to reveal the most important fact, the real dirty little secret.
Rich New Hampshire (the seventh weathiest state in the nation) is not a drug-infested den, despite ranking second in opioid-related deaths and first for fentanyl-related deaths per capita, but we are a treatment desert. “New Hampshire has the second lowest rate of spending (in the U.S.) on substance use treatment and prevention, so it doesn’t provide enough resources for those addicted to opioids to recover.”
Until our elected officials can publicly admit that we are irrationally wedded to the cost of everything and the value of nothing, including the lives of our citizens, we might as well be called a drug-infested den.
ARNIE ARNESEN
Concord
(The writer is the host of “The Attitude,” wnhnfm.org.)