Comments

2
The opioid epidemic really hits two types of people: those who like to get really high, and those with poor health and bad healthcare. America doesn't give a shit about either of those groups, so, meh.

Thoughts and prayers.
4
Well, it's not that much of an emergency, comparatively, I mean. 59,000 dead in one year is barely above the average 40,000/year traffic deaths in America, and few are shouting from the rooftops about that massive killing field. And 59,000 is still only 0.019 percent of the population. Acceptable losses for FREEDOM?
5
We always said DARE was Drug Abuse and Resisting Education.
6
Drugs Are Real Expensive. Still true!
8
I'm not trying to be snarky but hasn't there been a crisis going on for a while? It seems to me I remember a heroin epidemic in the earl 90's; maybe it was just an east coast thing but heroin seemed to be plentiful back then.
9
States that legalized MJ have noticed a reduced per capita incidence of opioid addiction.

Pain meds don’t have to be addicting.
10
@8 - Good Question! We all know about cocaine coming up from central & south America on 'narco-subs'. But opium/heroin has to come over from Afghanistan... where poppy cultivation exploded after the US invaded. How is it all getting here? Inquiring minds want to CIA-- know!, we want to know.
11
the idea is to look like you give a shit for at least one news cycle, but don't actually do anything that costs money. when the crisis ebbs on its own (it will), declare it was due to your brilliance.

12
If only someone had tried a catchier slogan like "Just Say No" or "This Is Your Brain On Drugs."

Those words would be so comforting spouting outta Tdumbp's face-asshole.
13
@4 -- The problem is that it is increasing very rapidly, unlike traffic accidents (or just about any other type of death). If this was happening to black people, they would try to throw everyone in prison. But since this is hurting white people -- some of them well to do, suburban types! -- folks are actually treating it like a health problem, not a legal one. Or at least, people are trying to treat it like a health problem, but once again, the fucking Republicans are not spending adequate money trying to fix it, because they want to give rich people a big tax break. In that regard it is like 1986, except the biggest health problem then wasn't drugs, it was AIDS.
14
Why oh why did i watch that video? I feel like i need something to help with that pain every time that fuckhead talks. Gack.
15
If only we had education and outreach,
then we could make this terrible problem go away.
17
@16. You beat me too it.

The Mexican cartels are growing poppies and processing now. China has a huge amount of fentynal with a lot less regulation and oversight which is where some believe that source is coming from. It's basically coming from everywhere now @10.
18
It’s coming from fucking pharmacies you morons.
20
@18. Opioids doesn't refer exclusively prescription pills dipshit. That's HOW some people get hooked, but as soon as they start getting sick and have to get well on a budget... hello heroin.

Probably never talked to a junkie in your life you know it all dickbag.
22
@20 haha. No, I certainly defer to you on junkies, clearly being one yourself, and with about the same ability to reason and formulate cogent thought.

No, shit for brains, the singular problem is Pharma. The secondary problem is street heroin.

Prescription opiates create the addits.

Your shit for brains right wing healthcare policies (or lack there of) in this country is what makes them desperate.

And your shit for brains drug war is what turns into criminals.

And you and your fellow traveling shit for brains right wingers are the ones who have created this problem and are only making it worse with your president shit for brains.
23
@22That's a lot of leaps from big pharma all the way down to us poor little junkies, Doc.

Prescription opioids create SOME addicts and that's the new narrative that supposedly includes everyone now. Everyone is just an innocent victim of big pharma. It's just not even close to 50% true though, kid. Heroin is a secondary problem? If you think people are ODing on percs and oxy's you're as dumb as you sound when you say that right wing healthcare policies are making people desperate. Last i checked ACA is still the law of the land and has been for 7 years.

Are you assholes looking for victims to further your "business is evil" narrative? Junkies are not good victims, lil buddy. You can't take advantage of junkies because they are too busy looking to fuck you over to pay attention to what you want from them. They are rarely sympathetic because they rarely want to stop taking the god damn drugs even when given consequence free chances.

And last, if you knew anything about drugs, (and you don't, so please stop embarrassing yourself) you'd know that opiates don't affect your cognitive abilities.

You're an elitist snob, you don't know shit except that there's victims to be saved and exploited, and you and people like you will do more harm than good if allowed to guide policy on these issues.

24
Opioid crisis fueled by drug industry and Congress
25
from the NIH

Science Spotlight
September 26, 2017

New research reveals that marijuana users are two and a half times more likely than nonusers to misuse prescription opioids and develop prescription opioid use disorder. The study was conducted by researchers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health, and Columbia University.
The current study focuses on individual marijuana users vs. nonusers and their trajectories with regard to opioid misuse and disorders. These findings are in-line with previous research demonstrating that people who use marijuana are more likely than non-users to use other drugs and develop problems with drug use.
26
@18 opioids are only a class of drugs both prescriptions and non-prescriptions. They act on the opioid receptors on the brain.
27
The biggest problem with this new war on drugs is that it starts with the same a lie, a huge one, that drugs are bad. Nope, I've done a lot of drugs, opioids, cocaine, pot, ecstasy, drugs, meth (the only one I really hated) are fucking awesome, anyone that tells you they aren't is a fucking liar or has not fucking idea what they are talking about.

I was fortunate enough never to develop an addiction or get into criminal trouble and my drug days are well past me but when you tell kids that drugs are bad they eventually try them and think the whole thing is a lie because you started with a huge lie, that drugs aren't great.

Drug addiction is bad, it's awful, I know many people that have recovered from drug addiction, unfortunately some that have fatally overdosed including one fairly recently, it's awful, if you take drugs you are playing with fire and I don't recommend that that any person try them but don't lie, drugs are great at least for the moment.

And one thing to mention on the opioids that is often ignored, that is the one drug that I think I could have gotten addicted to in different circumstances. The feeling, the best way I can describe it is being hugged with warmth and happiness and that everything in the world is perfect at that moment. I'm lucky, I have a great life and I did when I was playing with opioids but imagine if your life was complete shit, can you imagine what that must feel like? How badly you want to chase that if your alternative was misery?
28
When you are in pain...pain that is subjectively bad enough to disrupt your ability to perform your ADLs, your job, to take care of your family, you will gladly accept the offer of a pain killer that "won't get you addicted because, ya know, you have REAL pain." (Paraphrase of what the sales reps for the company [i.e., Big Pharma] that made OxyContin told MDs and also released in their press releases.) Patients and MDs bought into this malarkey, especially since uncontrolled Pain was viewed as an avoidable anathema by the medical profession.

Yes, there are plenty of nonaddicted temporary opioid users. Yes, there are opioid addicts who started taking them without a scrip, purchasing them on the street. Yes, there is a growing number of people using heroin, some former opioid users and some not.

We haven't even discussed the the long established theory that humans' brains are pedisposed to euphoria-producing drug use. Opioid addiction is a national/public health AND national economic emergency. However, as long as those who are addicted to any drug are viewed as "less" and "other," real and successful work to combat it won't happen. Pain management is difficult. What makes exacerbates that difficulty is the fact that employers don't distinguish between the use of prescribed pain management meds and non-prescribed med use.

RE: The NIH research referenced by @25: the research results describe a portion of all the users included in the existing data. The data analyzed were from years prior to the legalization of medical marijuana in most states. Therefore, might not the analysis that this study represents be skewed because the cohort included people who were willing to break the law to obtain pain relief?
29
Sorry I was all over the place with my comment
30
While I do think we should try and discourage young people from starting hard-core drugs... opioid addictions (from what I understand) often develop in older people who are taking them for pain after an operation or after some kind of physical trauma.Tell the kids no all you want to, that isn't going to stop their parents who are getting opioids from their doctor.
31
@28 good comment about the NIH study. As I read @25's comment I thought "huh... my husband uses pot for pain because he doesn't want to use opioids...." But of course we can do it legally. It's possible he would be doing opioids if we lived in a state without legal pot.

And, of course, he's just one person; not statistically significant. But he is a pot user who has not yet (and I don't think ever will) go on to harder drugs.
32
@16,17 - Hey thanks. I did not know that.
@13 - Please understand the tone of sarcasm I was attempting to use. I agree with you & I think the problem is big & growing. The USA's 'crime' approach vs. a more sane 'medical intervention' approach (like Portugal is doing, successfully) is itself criminal and major part of the problem.

Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.