Page 56 of 63 FirstFirst ... 6465455565758 ... LastLast
Results 551 to 560 of 625

Thread: Heroin Overdose Epidemic - what is your perspective?

  1. #551
    THE THIRST MUTILATOR Nephrology's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
    Location
    West
    Quote Originally Posted by txdpd View Post
    Now we are getting meth mixed with fentanyl. Once a reversal is given to treat the apparent opioid overdose, it's all out meth madness. It can also cause insanity that last for days. Good times, good times.

    Woooooooow. Please keep that shit down south.

    Quote Originally Posted by scjbash View Post
    Meth has exploded here this year. It's cheap, it's the new thing, Bubba can make it in his trailer and not have to worry about getting shot by Detroit dealers, etc.
    Out here it seems less likely to be rurally produced, more likely to come from mexico, but that's a total wild guess.
    Last edited by Nephrology; 06-18-2018 at 10:06 PM.

  2. #552
    Site Supporter
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    West Virginia
    Quote Originally Posted by Nephrology View Post
    Woooooooow. Please keep that shit down south.



    Out here it seems less likely to be rurally produced, more likely to come from mexico, but that's a total wild guess.
    I'm guessing most of it here is from Mexico as well, or at least until you get farther out in the sticks and then who knows.

  3. #553
    Site Supporter Lon's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    Dayton, Ohio
    Over the last month or 6 weeks we’ve seen a resurgence of heroin ODs. Several deaths. 3 in 36 hours a few weeks ago. Out of a population of 30k.
    Formerly known as xpd54.
    The opinions expressed in this post are my own and do not reflect the opinions or policies of my employer.
    www.gunsnobbery.wordpress.com

  4. #554
    Site Supporter
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Texas
    Quote Originally Posted by Sherman A. House DDS View Post
    Heroin, pills, subutex film, meth, fentanyl. We got it all here. Being on an interstate highway means that we end up inadvertently stopping both supply lines and professional users.



    I carry Narcan in my vest. Not for OD’s so much but as self-aid or buddy aid if one of us gets a lungful of aerosolized fentanyl.
    Needles scare the hell out of me. Nasty nasty

  5. #555
    Site Supporter
    Join Date
    Apr 2015
    Location
    PA
    Pulled 53 uncapped spikes out of a car last week. Nasty indeed.

  6. #556
    Site Supporter rob_s's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    SE FL
    So the "popular culture" story seems to go that the "opioid epidemic" is caused by people being (over?) prescribed pain killers for actual injuries or illnesses, they become addicted, the doctor stops the prescription when the original medical issue is resolved, leaving the now-addicted patient to fend for themselves, often turning to heroin or other street drugs?

  7. #557
    Quote Originally Posted by rob_s View Post
    So the "popular culture" story seems to go that the "opioid epidemic" is caused by people being (over?) prescribed pain killers for actual injuries or illnesses, they become addicted, the doctor stops the prescription when the original medical issue is resolved, leaving the now-addicted patient to fend for themselves, often turning to heroin or other street drugs?
    Pretty much.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  8. #558
    Site Supporter rob_s's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Location
    SE FL
    This is an interesting graphic re: age of overdose (assuming accurate)
    https://www.projectknow.com/discover...e-of-overdose/


  9. #559
    Quote Originally Posted by rob_s View Post
    So the "popular culture" story seems to go that the "opioid epidemic" is caused by people being (over?) prescribed pain killers for actual injuries or illnesses, they become addicted, the doctor stops the prescription when the original medical issue is resolved, leaving the now-addicted patient to fend for themselves, often turning to heroin or other street drugs?
    Several years ago, “pill mills” were a major source for oxycodone and a big problem. Eventually, legislation caught up and shut a lot of pill mills down in problem states, like Florida. This caused supply to go down, and prices to go up.

    Years ago, we could pay a dollar per milligram for oxy. We’ve gone from paying $30 for an oxy 30 to $50+ for the same pill. Heroin is cheaper and gives a similar high. That’s why people are turning to it.

    As far as meth...For years, my state was #1 in the country for meth labs. Now, we’ve not even worked one in 2-3 years. In early 2015, we saw an explosion in crystal meth (I had never even seen crystal in person prior to that), and it hasn’t stopped. It’s everywhere now. EVen the guys that traditionally sold crack have moved to ice. It comes from Mexico, to Atlanta, to here.
    Last edited by TC215; 06-19-2018 at 08:54 AM.

  10. #560
    THE THIRST MUTILATOR Nephrology's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
    Location
    West
    Quote Originally Posted by rob_s View Post
    So the "popular culture" story seems to go that the "opioid epidemic" is caused by people being (over?) prescribed pain killers for actual injuries or illnesses, they become addicted, the doctor stops the prescription when the original medical issue is resolved, leaving the now-addicted patient to fend for themselves, often turning to heroin or other street drugs?
    That can describe a lot of people but certainly not all people who are joining the national heroin problem.

    It's true that in the 90s-'00s there was a general push from the medical community - particularly the emerging subspecialty of palliative care - to liberalize the use of narcotics to treat pain. This was based on a study done in the 60s-70s that showed that inpatients treated with opiate pain meds at a Boston area hospital did not develop opiate dependency problems at a rate higher than the gen. pop. average. Also, historically speaking, we were probably way under-treating pain to a degree that was unnecessary and unkind. Simultaneously, Oxycontin was also aggressively marked by Purdue at the time as a less-addictive PO opiate med because of its time release formulation that made it "less addictive." This is also around the same time that Janssen released the fentanyl patches and lollipops for cancer patients...

    Unfortunately the pendulum swung too hard in this direction, and an over-liberal culture of prescribing narcotics emerged, in addition to a rise in "pill-mill" style pain clinics that took explicit advantage of this tide change in order to make a profit. This produced a big surge in the abuse of Rx narcotics. As the medical community realized its error in judgment, opiate prescribing practices were reeled in (with no small encouragement from the DEA) and state-level controlled Rx databases began to emerge to simultaneously hold physicians accountable for their prescribing practices and to help them identify potential drug-seeking behavior in their patients.

    The enormous void left by this shift in medical thinking has been filled by illicit heroin that has been aggressively marketed to American suburbia by Mexican cartels who recognized the growing demand for the drug. Per "Dreamland," the predominant actors in the early expansion of America's heroin supply were the Xalisco boys, who used innovative distribution strategies (aggressive marketing to suburbia; friendly, "white kid" safe street-level dealer tactics; avoidance of guns/violence to not attract LE attention; etc) to almost single-handedly change the demographics of heroin use in the US. Heroin is substantially cheaper than even legitimately prescribed illicit narcotics so the economics were there. Keep in mind, too, this is all unraveling in the shadow of the '08 housing crisis, and as desperation mounts in economically ravaged America, the appeal of a drug like heroin begins to swell.

    So, in short, it's not likely that most of those who try heroin in the last few years have done so because Big Pharma was mean to them. From where I'm sitting, it seems like the medical community and pharmaceutical industry launched a well intended but deeply misguided push to expand the prescription of narcotics that tapped into a deep thirst for opiate drugs somewhere in the American psyche. While the medical community has since tried to reel in their mistake, the illicit market rushed in to meet the demand, which does not seem to have ceased to expand.

    The above is all my perspective and certainly is not the only one out there, I'm sure other people have things to add/dispute/etc.

User Tag List

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •