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Despite her good intentions [in her July 24 guest opinion], Karen Mulvahill failed to identify the most important cause of opioid-related mortality and morbidity: drug prohibition, better known as the War on Drugs.

To see that the War is a killer, one must first know that most overdoses are accidental. Users don’t want to die. They perish because the War on Drugs prevents them from obtaining pharmaceutical-grade narcotics that can be ingested safely.

Surgery patients who receive prescription opioids for pain occasionally become addicted—but they rarely overdose, and they never die from fentanyl poisoning. Those fates are reserved for people who consume street drugs, which addicts do because the War on Drugs—which has killed thousands of people, turned thousands of users into criminals, and undermined entire countries—denies them access to pure substances whose potency is known.

Charles Silver | Empire

Michigan Medicine

Peninsula Community Lecture Series

MUST REGISTER TO ATTEND victors.us/MMPeninsula

Monday, Aug 21, 2023 — 3pm

NEW TREATMENTS FOR MELANOMA AND ADVANCED SKIN CANCERS: ARE WE CLOSE TO A CURE?

In this dynamic presentation, Dr. Lao will share advances in melanoma therapies and review where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going in skin cancer treatments and research.

Christopher D. Lao, M.D. Professor, Internal Medicine and Dermatology Medical Director, Clinical Research for Oncology in a

The seasonal Black Raspberry Bramble at Fingers Crossed in Northport. Photo credit: Meg Stojcevski.

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