A. Barton Hinkle on the Growing Epidemic of Useless Government

Last week, Virginia’s congressional delegation
wrote a letter to Gov. Terry McAuliffe urging him to set up a task
force to address the “growing heroin epidemic in Virginia.” Many
localities, they note, “are on track to see double the number of
heroin overdose deaths over last year.”

Let’s stipulate that any heroin overdose is horribly tragic and
the ideal number of heroin users would be zero, writes A. Barton
Hinkle. That said, terms like “epidemic” and “double the number”
obscure as much as they clarify. It’s true that heroin deaths in
Virginia have nearly doubled. They have risen from 101 (in 2011) to
197 (in 2013). That’s less than the number who died in 2012, the
most recent year available, from intestinal infections (212);
septicemia, or blood poisoning (1,305); pneumonia (1,275); kidney
failure (1,501); or falling (646). Are these “epidemics” that
require special task forces? If not, does heroin?

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