I've been fortunate enough that no one close to me has become an addict that I know of. One of my dad's colleague's son apparently is an addict.
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America's Opioid Crisis
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My friend has a history of depression and alcohol abuse. I was shocked that doctors prescribed her painkillers after her C-section. She did not pick them up, knowing it may be a problem for her and just dealt with the pain.
OP
OP
I'm near Cumberland, MD and we're seeing similar issues up here, although not as bad...yet.
My dad died from health complication related to heroin abuse. My brother has been in and out of jail for almost 10 years and is currently in a rehab program. That shit is the worst.
I was only 27 when my dad died. I hadn't talked to him in a number of years when I got a phone call out of the blue from his doctor basically saying that my dad didn't have the metal capacity to make essential medical decisions on his own behalf. He had broken his leg and didn't seek treatment and it got infected with gangrene. The leg had to be removed. He had stage 4 bladder cancer which required treatment but he obviously had to heel from the removal of his leg and kick his heroin addiction before he could receive treatment. The doctor explained all of this to me and asked me how I think he should proceed. I made the decision to put him in hospice care. I think about that day all the time.
I was only 27 when my dad died. I hadn't talked to him in a number of years when I got a phone call out of the blue from his doctor basically saying that my dad didn't have the metal capacity to make essential medical decisions on his own behalf. He had broken his leg and didn't seek treatment and it got infected with gangrene. The leg had to be removed. He had stage 4 bladder cancer which required treatment but he obviously had to heel from the removal of his leg and kick his heroin addiction before he could receive treatment. The doctor explained all of this to me and asked me how I think he should proceed. I made the decision to put him in hospice care. I think about that day all the time.
Not USA, but BC Canada is been in a really bad opiod crisis for the last two years.
Weird thing is its not even being grown here rather its being smuggled in from China last time i checked.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/new...tting-through-canadas-border/article29547443/
Weve created a new ministry of mental health to help solve this its gotten so bad. I havent lost anyone thankfully but am scared for a lotta my friends who are into the rave scene especially those who will take random drugs from people
Weird thing is its not even being grown here rather its being smuggled in from China last time i checked.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/new...tting-through-canadas-border/article29547443/
Weve created a new ministry of mental health to help solve this its gotten so bad. I havent lost anyone thankfully but am scared for a lotta my friends who are into the rave scene especially those who will take random drugs from people
We all know the answer to this, compassion now that it affects white people.
Because majority of the sufferers are white. And you don't want a huge white population to die from drugs in such a short span.
Really the only reason this has gotten such much attention in media. You think it was another minority crisis they would have state/federal emergencies, solutions at every level, awareness campaigns, and humanizing stories?
Most politicians are doing a song and dance because they don't want to bite the hand that feeds them on both sides (big pharma and their constituents)
Indeed. While I do my best to keep my 'cynicism' in check you are absolutely correct.
I'll never forget the reaction of our community [mostly white suburban farming town] when someone found syringes on a dirt road. It was depressing how quickly it became a thing because it could be affecting people in town.
I'm just happy this is finally getting attention as a health crisis. 10 years ago when my friends and I we're using it was just straight to jail. All of my friends who used have felonies on their records. I've lost 3 people over the past 10 years to heroin. All of them started with legit oxy/morph scripts.
Now that enough middle-class white folks have died I guess it's turning into a crisis...I guess I'm a little bitter about my lost friends but the sooner we all get on the same page the better.
Now that enough middle-class white folks have died I guess it's turning into a crisis...I guess I'm a little bitter about my lost friends but the sooner we all get on the same page the better.
Yup, it actually makes me angry. Entire black communities were destroyed because of the War on Drugs. But, now that it's hit surburbia it's a crisis requiring compassion and treatment.
I live in one of the state with the most opiate deaths. Of course it is real. The thing is, so are a bunch of other addictions. This one just became a hot topic for whatever reason. It's selective outrage.
Alcohol kills more people every year and no one cares. There's no outrage about the alcohol crisis. Or food addiction crisis.
I feel the concern and outrage is mostly disingenuous due to this reason.
Lets take everyone off of their prescription opoids/opiates due to this fake outrage so that they can graduate to heroin. Great idea. Even though heroin easier to die on because you have no clue what substance or milligram you are taking.
Lets take people in real debilitating pain off their prescriptions due to this fake selective outrage. Great idea. Making people suicidal is awesome.
Let's shit on big pharma, until you sustain some type of injury or illness that makes you beg for their opoids. But make it so complicated that a Dr. is too afraid to prescribe them to you. Great idea.
People are dying in large numbers. Dead people aren't profitable.
So now that white people are dropping like flies every one suddenly has compassion for drug addicts? Fucking wow.
So far in the last 10 years I've personally known one person who committed suicide because they were addicted to heroin, one person who almost killed their dog because they got high and left their heroin out both professionals, both had money and people to help them get clean. I can't imagine any form of government aid that will prevent this. I personally know a doctor who is an addiction medicine specialist, he's talked to me years and years ago about how insidious Heroin addiction is. He talks about how the brain responds to opiates the same way it responds to the feeling of being safe and loved. For many people when they use opiates it's the first time they've felt that since they were children if ever. The more we get entrenched in our technological isolation and let our desires for real human contact around which we build loving relationships with other people go unfulfilled, the more we will see the opiate problem dig in it's heels. Nearly every person will be exposed to opiates at some point in the US through dental work, injury or surgery and that's a fucking wide net.
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And even then, it's basically just enough compassion to bait them into votes before forgetting about them again.
Well what else do you expect? America really doesn't like black people.
Sadly nothing will be done because America has been conditioned to believe that drug addicts deserve nothing but death and misery, and that they're an "other" (see the crack epidemic for the formation of this belief). This conditioning wasn't going to magically change/go away because it's happening to white Americans now. Vast majority of politicians still don't give a fuck and profit off it all.
Pretty much
Pretty much
Several years ago, doctors were told to treat pain as one of the vital signs (others are like pulse, blood pressure, etc.). The problem is that pain is subjective and relies on the patient being honest. Doctors could get in legal trouble for not treating pain effectively and then people get hooked on pain killers easily. Now some doctors are finally pushing back. I broke my leg this spring and it was the worst pain of my life. I asked about something to help and was told to take Tylenol.
What always gets me about this is how it is so obvious. If it deals with minorities or even poor white people this isn't a big deal. But have it climb to the middle class white people and it becomes a problem. Shows that even to this day not only does America have issues with race but also class.
You think everybody has compassion for addicts now? The tough on drugs people are still tough on drugs.
During the 1980s, there were people that cared for drug addicts and people that wanted them in prison because they were "a lost cause". This hasn't really changed all that much. The compassionate group has gotten bigger because of education and survivors telling their stories but there is still two groups.
I also can't say that I agree with your race narrative. White addicts have always been treated like garbage.
Anyway, I think your narrative is wrong. I think
It's annoying how people lump all white people together, as though the unemployed West-Virginian coal miner, LA Suburbanite and New York banker have formed some kind of coalition.
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I am not sure if you did this on purpose but you quoted me and presented a strawman arguement. Do you personally feel under attack? Did I offend your sensibilities?
When talking about the crisis, I quoted other posters. More specifically this....
Not ALL white people are in a position of power, nor do they have control of the media. If so I wouldn't have mentioned class alongside race. Lower class citizenry of the US is multicultural and predominantly white so if you are going to try to paint my post as a label for all white people I would suggest rereading it while avoiding projecting some victim fantasy on to my post. But the thing is, what we are pointing out is not something new or hidden. It doesn't take brain surgeons to go over numbers and see the disproportionate response of the government and media.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/03/upshot/opioid-drug-overdose-epidemic.html
I could link to articles, videos, historical speeches and more to show how blatant and obvious the disparity and reaction of the nation is. While not all white people may behave the same nor believe the same things, there are certain trends we can see about the country as a whole. And last time I checked, this nation doesn't think as one coalition no matter what race or ideology is the prevalent guiding rhetoric of the nation.
I had a cousin who died of an overdose. Seems like everyone knows someone or knows someone who knows someone these days. I'm a kidney stone former so I've had to be prescribed opioids multiple times in my life and have luckily never developed anything close to an addiction. I've noticed the crackdown beginning to happen in my neck of the woods as your prescriptions get smaller and smaller and it gets harder and harder to get them in the first place. I wish I had a better solution for tackling addiction that didn't lead to so much unneeded pain but I'm at a loss.