Heroin Overdose Epidemic - what is your perspective?

[5pins]

This is interesting but sounds a little good to be true.

Many ex-opioid addicts credit 'ibogaine' with cure, but it's illegal in US

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2017/1...gal-in-us.html

America’s worsening opioid epidemic is prompting calls for a serious look at a form of therapy some people say helped them overcome their addiction when all else failed.The treatment revolves around ibogaine, a plant-derived substance that long has been used in African shamanistic rituals but which is not recognized as bona fide medicine in most of the world.
With ibogaine illegal in the U.S., a number of Americans with opioid addictions travel to other countries, often Canada or Mexico, where it is legal and unregulated, for ibogaine.

Many who have received ibogaine treatment say they stopped feeling a desire for opioids and, in some cases, even drinking or smoking.

[Nephrology]

This is interesting but sounds a little good to be true.

Many ex-opioid addicts credit 'ibogaine' with cure, but it's illegal in US

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2017/1...gal-in-us.html

People have used psychedelic drugs for this purpose (and to accomplish other major life changes) for ages. Ibogaine isn't really a 'cure' for opiate addiction any more than LSD or ayahuasca or mescaline or psilocybin mushrooms could be a "cure;" it's founded entirely on the individuals' desire to quit and whether or not their trip helps them to accomplish that goal. Psychedelics can be incredibly powerful drugs and can absolutely catalyze huge change... or, not. totally depends on the mindset and setting.

Ibogaine and ayahuasca probably aren't readily available in the US, but I am pretty certain everything else I listed is... at least as of when I was in college

[45dotACP]

Just had the pleasure of dealing with an IV drug user today...bout the same age as the one that coded and died on me a year ago...which is to say...early 20s.

And also pregnant. And also homeless...and also being physically abused by the only person in her life, a paranoid schizophrenic baby daddy who refuses to take meds and carries a knife...whom I kicked out of the hospital and told to never return.


The. Fuck.

People making and selling this shit have got a special place in hell.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

[Nephrology]

Just had the pleasure of dealing with an IV drug user today...bout the same age as the one that coded and died on me a year ago...which is to say...early 20s.

And also pregnant. And also homeless...and also being physically abused by the only person in her life, a paranoid schizophrenic baby daddy who refuses to take meds and carries a knife...whom I kicked out of the hospital and told to never return.


The. Fuck.

People making and selling this shit have got a special place in hell.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

There might be a black hole connecting the revolving doors of your hospital and my county hospital...

[KPD]

I never imagined that I would have to carry naloxone with me as a part of my IFAK.
I carry a .4mg autoinjector of naloxone all the time on duty.

[voodoo_man]

Guy at hospital for an unrelated (non drug crime) was narcan'd several times at the hospital and then put on a narcan drip while there, breathing was very laboured.

Another guy today was narcan'd twice and refused to go to hospital, citing "just a bad batch this time around..."

[LittleLebowski]

Fascinating article and well done.

https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/h...8c8a1b804.html

The trail of painkillers leads to West Virginia's southern coalfields, to places like Kermit, population 392. There, out-of-state drug companies shipped nearly 9 million highly addictive — and potentially lethal — hydrocodone pills over two years to a single pharmacy in the Mingo County town.

[scjbash]

Fascinating article and well done.

https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/h...8c8a1b804.html

As a whole the Gazette is about as fucked up, incompetent, and dishonest as a media outlet can be, but I'll give them credit for that being a great article.


Another good read.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graph...=.b4ebfc9c7eac

A handful of members of Congress, allied with the nation’s major drug distributors, prevailed upon the DEA and the Justice Department to agree to a more industry-friendly law, undermining efforts to stanch the flow of pain pills, according to an investigation by The Washington Post and “60 Minutes.” The DEA had opposed the effort for years.

Political action committees representing the industry contributed at least $1.5 million to the 23 lawmakers who sponsored or co-sponsored four versions of the bill, including nearly $100,000 to Marino and $177,000 to Hatch. Overall, the drug industry spent $102 million lobbying Congress on the bill and other legislation between 2014 and 2016, according to lobbying reports.

[willie]

Before addicted persons can get this stuff, doctors must first write prescriptions for the drugs so why is not the doctor part of the pipeline the place to start for controlling the flow of dope from manufacturer to distributor to pharmacy to addicted persons?

[scjbash]

Before addicted persons can get this stuff, doctors must first write prescriptions for the drugs so why is not the doctor part of the pipeline the place to start for controlling the flow of dope from manufacturer to distributor to pharmacy to addicted persons?

I think there are a lot of doctors who deserve to have their licenses pulled but I don't see it ever happening. The suits against the pharmaceutical companies is part of the daily news here but nothing is ever publicly said about the doctors who wrote the prescriptions. On a local and state level the doctors who hand out pills like Halloween candy run in the same circles as the politicians, lawyers, judges, etc so it's not really surprising.