Heroin Overdose Epidemic - what is your perspective?

[HCM]

[Joe in PNG]

Reminds me of the paramedic who said he could use just the word "Narcan" to get junkies to comply.

[hufnagel]

I wrote a rant from hell and just deleted it.

Momma said, if you don't have anything nice to say, then don't speak. In this case I'll extend that to typing, and take a page from the southern playbook: Bless their Hearts.

[txdpd]

Figured it was some form of cover. Was trying to be funny.

The sad thing is as long as we didn't mess with their high, they wouldn't care what we stuck them with. As long as it enables them to get high they don't care what they get stuck with or where it gets stuck.

The distinction between the first time user and a junkie living in a gutter is merely one of time and luck. Some people have it, some people don't.

I'll agree with the first part, but I disagree with this second. About 15 years ago big pharma got in the business of developing long term opiate customers, and a lot "doctors" played along. Anyone one of us could fall down the rabbit hole, but a lot of what's going on right now has to do with people getting shoved down that hole by legalized drug pushers.

[Caballoflaco]

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cYZMA_3TKs0

This guy has an interesting take on it that I haven't heard before. He's a bit of a character but learning did occur when I watched, ebene if it is a bit long.

[scjbash]

Here's a good article about the interim report released by the president's commission on the opioid addiction crisis.

"According to the report, released after the commission's second meeting, the annual death rate from drug overdose in the United States has now exceeded the number of casualties from gun homicides and car accidents combined."

http://wchstv.com/news/nation-world/...e-of-emergency

CDC map and table for overdose mortality rates by state. It's depressing to see WV with 41.5/100K when only one other state is above 30/100K.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/s..._poisoning.htm

[willie]

In one of my careers as a health inspector I got many surprises. Because bars have food licenses, I inspected those in my area, the inner city. I was shocked to learn that when walking around the perimeters of bars, I would always see discarded needles. Other inspectors in different areas reported the same. Sadly when my wife and I visit the cemetery where her family rests, we see discarded needles there. These experiences have hardened me in the sense that I no longer grieve for those who OD. Instead, I have sympathy for their families. Under our system of law I say that there is no solution for this problem. Eventually addiction, which now is a diagnosis, will by itself become a disability.

[Nephrology]

I'll agree with the first part, but I disagree with this second. About 15 years ago big pharma got in the business of developing long term opiate customers, and a lot "doctors" played along. Anyone one of us could fall down the rabbit hole, but a lot of what's going on right now has to do with people getting shoved down that hole by legalized drug pushers.

This is well covered by Dreamland, but briefly restated you are correct to a point - the 90s and early 2000s were an era in which relief from suffering took center stage in many aspects of patient care, and opiates are and continue to be the best medication for acute pain. However, their addictive potential was sadly underestimated and their newfound popularity exploited by morally bankrupt physicians and their pill mills.

However, the DEA has cracked down pretty hard on opiate narcotic prescriptions, and there has been a tide change in the discussion on opiate painkillers in the medical community. We are currently taught in medical school that opiates are reserved for either acute traumatic, procedural, or peri-operative pain, or chronic pain associated with a terminal illness like metastatic cancer. Opiates are still prescribed at substantially higher rates than before the beginning of this crisis, but have dropped by 41% since 2010.

The second issue here was what has since filled the vacuum - cheap heroin, marketed towards middle class Americans by dealers who take a "friendly" approach that has broadened the appeal and availability of a drug that has traditionally been extremely taboo in middle class America.

[QED]

These experiences have hardened me in the sense that I no longer grieve for those who OD. Instead, I have sympathy for their families.

It could happen to almost anyone, young or old, rich or poor, highly educated or illiterate. It's a very slippery slope that leads to OD.

[willie]

I agree that few, once trapped, can escape, and I understand that good people can be victims too.