Heroin Overdose Epidemic - what is your perspective?

[scjbash]

Those make for some tough reading. It seems like there's at least an effort being made to improve things, but it also doesn't seem like it can ever be enough until people come to the realization that they're poisoning themselves, and maybe not even then. That estimate that 14% of the people there are addicted is truly frightening. If it truly is one in seven people, it's no surprise that you've lost multiple friends to it. It must be hard not to become numb to it and just start being cold to people as a result.

Since writing the post you quoted I visited with the inlaws and found out that one of their neighbors overdosed today. Second time she's overdosed in a month. The first time someone happened to find her in her front yard. I don't know if she lived through this one or not.

There is an effort to improve things. Along with being the overdose capital of the country we were just ranked the 4th most generous city. There's a lot of really good people here, including a lot of the addicts, so people are trying to help. It is very hard though not to just become cold about the entire thing. Quite frankly it's hard not to stay pissed off at every addict I know.

[olstyn]

It is very hard though not to just become cold about the entire thing. Quite frankly it's hard not to stay pissed off at every addict I know.

An easily understandable reaction. If nothing else, the time all of those cops and EMTs spend reviving people who OD could probably be better spent, and all of that naloxone isn't free, right? The addicts are incurring a big cost to the entire community, and I'm sure it goes far beyond the obvious financial and social issues.

[scjbash]

This morning heroin addiction claimed the life of yet another person I loved. Today is also the anniversary of another loved one's overdose death.

If someone you care about is an addict please let them know you're there for them. Most won't take the help but some people do recover, and a little help or kind word can go a long way for them.

[11B10]

Interesting. The oncologists keep telling me that, once the cancer starts spreading, I'm done... and the MM will just make me feel a bit better until the pain gets too much for it. Well, right now it ISN'T spreading- apparently- so I will wait until that happens before I jump into the MM.

Thanks for the info. Hope your family member is hanging on halfway comfortably.

.

Not spreading is great news, LSP - you were about due for some!

[Nephrology]

This morning heroin addiction claimed the life of yet another person I loved. Today is also the anniversary of another loved one's overdose death.

If someone you care about is an addict please let them know you're there for them. Most won't take the help but some people do recover, and a little help or kind word can go a long way for them.

So sorry to hear that. I can't imagine what it must be like to live where you do. I am not a religious person but I am praying for America's heartland.

[Maple Syrup Actual]

Bleak local update: in my city 9 people fatally overdosed last night alone, 15 in the province.

This YEAR the city has had 11 homicides.

More people this year will have died from fentanyl overdose than all other non-natural causes combined.

Sent from my SM-T217S using Tapatalk

[Totem Polar]

^^^Damn.

[Lex Luthier]

What Sidheshooter said. This sounds worse than watching AIDS mow down the arts community in SF in the late 80s.

[Maple Syrup Actual]

Yeah, it's grim. By the end of the year it looks like in my province, roughly 1 out of every 5500 people will have died from a fentanyl/carfentanyl overdose.

I won't say that I don't have somewhat mixed feelings about the personal responsibility factor but at the same time, my belief is that a very large percentage of opioid addicts here are people who are either mentally ill or dealing with the fallout of very serious abuse issues. We don't have the same kind of prescription painkiller transition to street opioid use issues that some places do; aside from the mentally ill and people coming from deeply disrupted backgrounds (disproportionately often from our native reserves which are very frequently places with serious multigenerational abuse issues going on) most of the deaths have been from tainted recreational drugs. But those are a small percentage of the total. It's mostly chronic users dying.

[Gary1911A1]

It's gotten to be an almost daily occurrence where I live. Portsmouth, OH at one time was the pain clinic capital of the tristate area and now that LE has finally shut the clinics down people are turning to heroin and heroin mixed with fentanyl. A lot of ODs' according to my EMT Friends who say most don't make the news.