(AllHipHop News) After President Obama returned from his South American trip with stops in Cuba and Argentina last week, The POTUS visited Atlanta, Georgia to escalate the fight against prescription drug abuse.
Obama addressed individuals in recovery, family members, medical professionals, and law enforcement officials while attending the National Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit, targeting opioid abuse and the heroin epidemic.
The move which includes targeting prescription cough syrup also known as “lean” or “sizzurp,” looks to treat opioid users with buprenorphine.
The Department of Health And Human Services also recently released $94 million in new funding for 271 Community Health Centers to increase substance use disorder treatment services.
There is also an included focus on expanding medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorders in underserved communities among other initiatives.
The promethazine and codeine concoction was famously popularized by DJ Screw with his “chopped and screwed” style of music and his S.U.C. (Screwed Up Click) group of rappers.
Tragically the legendary DJ Screw, Big Moe and the late great Pimp C all succumbed to a lethal dosages of the potion.
Codeine, which is an opiate, produces a feeling of said euphoria, while the cough syrup also contains a drug called promethazine, which acts as a sedative.
“It’s important to recognize today, that we are seeing more people killed because of opioid overdoses than traffic accidents,” President Barack Obama explained. “Think about that, a lot of people tragically die from car accidents and we spend a lot of time and a lot of resources to reduce those fatalities. The good news is we’ve actually been successful, the problem is here we actually have the trajectory going in the opposite direction.”
A host of rappers have had public battles with their use of lean including Lil Wayne, most recently Future, and Boosie who said that the deadly concoction “almost killed him 3 or 4 times.”
“So 2014, which is the last year we have accurate data for, you see an enormous ongoing spike in the number of people who are using opioids, in ways that are unhealthy, and you are seeing a significant rise in the number of people who are being killed,” Obama explained.
According the The White House’s official website whitehouse.gov, in 2014 nearly 21,000 deaths in the United States involved prescription opioids, and more than 10,500 involved heroin.