As if news on the addiction front here wasn’t bad enough

The news on the local addiction front continues to be grim.

Drug overdoses totaled 199 as of Aug. 31, Nashua Police Chief Andrew Lavoie said last week at a meeting of the Mayor’s Opioid Task Force. That compares to 135 overdoses as of Sept. 1 last year, the chief said. Drug deaths also are on the rise. There have been 23 fatalities as of Aug. 31, a marked increase over the 16 fatalities that occurred as of Sept. 1 last year.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Lavoie also reported that high-quality methamphetamine is also being seen in Nashua with increasing frequency.

"This is high-quality, cartel-level stuff," Lavoie reported.

The one bright spot was that the number of overdose deaths in Nashua between this August and last actually declined from three to two.

We can only hope that represents the start of a trend. Then again, we wouldn’t count on it.

A campaign when standards went right out the window

We give Gary Johnson credit. The former New Mexico governor, who is running for president as a Libertarian candidate, drew a blank when asked on MSNBC about Aleppo.

"What is Aleppo?" Johnson replied when asked a question about the refugee problem facing Syria as a result of that country’s brutal civil war. Aleppo is at the epicenter of that battle.

At least he didn’t try to fudge it and suggest that Aleppo was the fifth Marx brother, but Aleppo is the largest city in Syria and has been in the news lately. For a candidate who wants to preside over U.S. foreign policy to not know Aleppo is inexcusable.

Johnson acknowledged as much in an interview afterward.

"No one is taking this more seriously than me. I feel horrible," Johnson said. "I have to get smarter and that’s just part of the process."

One pundit suggested that Johnson’s gaffe should disqualify him from the presidency, and by the historical standards of most presidential races, it would. But this is the campaign in which standards have been thrown out the window and there appears to be no such thing as a disqualifying moment.

Yes, Johnson bungled the question, but he deserves credit for looking in the mirror afterward and putting the blame right where it belongs. The two major party candidates could take a lesson from that.

The stalemate over Zika is a sign of things to come in DC

If we needed yet another example of how badly broken Washington is, the latest fight over funding to combat the Zika virus provides it.

A bill to provide $1.1 billion to fight the mosquitoborne illness has been stalled for months.

The problem is that some members refuse to allow an up-or-down vote on the issue, instead attaching amendments they know are anathema to those on the other side of the aisle.

Here’s a straight-ahead problem that nobody disputes needs funding. The fact that Republicans and Democrats can’t get together on it doesn’t bode well for the looming debate on whether to raise the debt ceiling.