Wellness & Well-being Highlights May 6

Wellness & Well-being Highlights

for the

Week of May 6, 2024

This week’s edition of our Worker Wellness & Well-being blog highlights the issues faced by the number of adolescents who are caring for their parents and/or grandparents…which may impede their growth in education and socialization—to how to prepare for and obtain healthy sleeping habits—to the importance of taking the stairs v riding the elevator. This week I would like to focus on the issue of money laundering. Anyone who has read more than 2 editions of this weekly blog knows that I have 3 goals: destigmatizing Mental Health, providing awareness and actions regarding the opioids crisis, and preventing suicides at home and in the workplace. It is no secret that when more and more states legalized marijuana for medicinal and recreational purposes, we put a dent in the Mexican cartels’ revenue stream. Being shrewd business people, they turned to a new, easier to produce, and more addictive (and deadly) products to recapture those losses: first heroin and then fentanyl. A recent news story indicates that a Canadian bank allegedly laundered those profits back to Chinese suppliers…the ones that still provide the precursor chemicals to the Mexican cartels. In turn, they make Fentanyl and then distribute it thru their US networks. A few decades ago, for a short time, I worked as a labor liaison for the UBCJA in Mexico. Many of meals were shared with Mexican contractors. Often, our conversations turned towards the issue of supply and demand. A quote from one of those in attendance never veers far from my mind: “If US consumers would stop using illegal drugs (demand) Mexico would stop sending them north” (supply). If it were only that simple! The fact is that >70% of the US people who began to use heroin for the first time started their journey by means of a legal prescription for opioids.

Here’s a brief overview of the “waves” related to the opioids crisis in the USA:

1^st wave: overprescribing of legal opioids (mainly for chronic pain v its intended use: acute pain)

[early 1990s to ~2002]

2^nd wave: users turning to heroin to feed their need (since the feds put doctors on notice regarding monitoring the number of Rx they issue…thus placing their license to practice in jeopardy)

[~2003 to ~2012]

3^rd wave: Fentanyl (a synthetic opioid that is 50-100x more powerful than heroin…much easier to produce and distribute than heroin)

[~2012 to ~2016]

4^th wave: Polysubstances (mixing Fentanyl into non-opioids such as meth, cocaine, and Xylazine. NOTE: While Narcan has a good track record saving lives…it cannot reverse a non-opioid overdose. Therefore, rescue breathing skills are vital.)

[~2016 to present]

Without a doubt, there are many players who—intentionally or unintentionally—created the mess our nation currently faces. Like with most aspects of our lives, it would be irresponsible to blame one group or the other (i.e. doctors, Big Pharma, Congress, cartels, etc.). As you will find in the article linked below, institutions that handle large sums of money have played a significant part as well!

Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/td-bank-probe-tied-to-laundering-of-illicit-fentanyl-profits-aae71243?st=kkcewja2kqgg6es&reflink=article_gmail_share

When children care for parents

Vets / Families / Trauma

Today’s POW & Trauma

DOJ & Marijuana

Govts sit on Opioids Settlements

Ensuring Psychological Safety @ Work

Healthy Sleep