[spydersuit]

(02-22-2019 04:27 PM)Captain Gh Wrote:  

(02-21-2019 03:30 PM)spydersuit Wrote:  

1. It is not a crisis

2. Drugs should all be legalized

Well this thread inspired me to search around, and see what the reality is like for people who interact with addicts on a daily basis. I then found this documentary on Youtube... and, im my mind at least, it's irrefutable & crystal clear... that it IS indeed a full fledged Crisis! And before watching, I would've guessed that California or Florida would be the most impacted areas... but no Hold you breath... it's New Hampshire! New Hampshire whut!

All I knew about New Hampshire before searching around was that it's near or somewhere around Boston. Well according to Wikipedia, as of 2008, the median income in the state was $49,467, which was ranked seventh highest in the country back then! That's not lower class numbers folks... and quick pieces on fentanyl most likely won't mention this fact! And here's the Kicker... and I'm not writing this to start any negative conversation or anything... simply to lay out the facts.

The state was 93.9% White occupied as of 2010! This + the Median income is the irrefutable proof that it's a MYTH that this epidemic is mainly affecting the lower classes... it ain't! Men lie... Women lie... but numbers don't! I'm not even an addict... and watching this motivates me to never ever deal with anxiety with anything external other than maybe a cup of coffee! Dead Serious! And oddly enough... a couple of days ago a fitness Youtuber that I fallow off & on named Jerry Ward dropped this video, in which he shared is thoughts about how could this have started... which goes in the same territories some of us have shared about the role big pharma could have played in this mess!

Once again this illustrates how it cannot be mainly the lower classes suffering at they don't primarily hold the jobs which offers Medical Plans covering recurrent prescriptions! I Strongly recommend for anyone to watch these 2 videos to reinforce the idea of dealing with negative emotions ideally with nothing but the mind... or a dirt cheap snack!

How do you define crisis?

And a Crisis, compared to what?

[Swordfish1010]

Part of Agenda 21.

[EndsExpect]

(02-22-2019 07:24 PM)spydersuit Wrote:  

How do you define crisis?
And a Crisis, compared to what?

To my opinion this is a massive crisis. It's a huge driving force in the explosion of homelessness we see in most left wing urban centers, and it has absolutely devastated rural towns and cities!

I've worked in medical sales for years and this is the absolute worst I've ever seen it. I spoke to a C-Suite exec for a 50 hospital chain about this last year. He said this is the WORST it's ever been in the US. He said drug use in the 1960's and 70's was much more widespread and common, however the drugs were low dose and weak. Today the drugs are synthetic and often 10 to 100 times stronger than heroin back then. That is the primary reason people can't get off the drugs and what's killing them especially in combination with other things like antidepressants.

Look, I know a lot of drug reps that were pushing Oxy back in the early 2000's. Going around telling physicians that it was safe an non addictive. They even had a bullshit study to back it up. The dumbass docs bought into it hard, mostly because they read a phony ass study and some 20 year old girl pharma rep had nice tits. So, they started handing out Oxy like candy on halloween and lots of people started getting addicted. People that had never been addicted before. It's mostly rural, working class white guys. A lot of these are folks who were hit hard by the 08 recession.

The Obama administration completely ignored this. Even when it became apparent to the medical community that there was a huge problem.

Also... Chinese Fentanyl is the second part of this issue. Mostly inner city drug dealers started cutting the Heroin with Fentanyl. Fentanyl is 100 times stronger than heroin and it's used for surgery. It's VERY easy to overdose and die on this. The drug dealers don't know shit about how strong they are mixing this... so they fuck up and kill people in big waves!

So, in my opinion we need to pull a Duterte. Start shooting drug dealers in the street. These are scumbag serial killers now. Just fucking shoot them. Then we should publicly execute several pharma execs. Follow that up by seizing all assets of Obama officials to pay for free treatment centers!

[godfather dust]

EndExpect "drug dealer" is a pretty wide ranging description and I can't agree they should all be strung up (for example some guy selling nickle bags of weed to his friends, so what.)

But I agree selling fentanyl, especially as something else, is basically murder and you should be jailed for life or killed.

[Captain Gh]

(02-24-2019 01:06 PM)EndsExpect Wrote:  

(02-22-2019 07:24 PM)spydersuit Wrote:  

How do you define crisis?
And a Crisis, compared to what?

To my opinion this is a massive crisis. It's a huge driving force in the explosion of homelessness we see in most left wing urban centers, and it has absolutely devastated rural towns and cities!

I've worked in medical sales for years and this is the absolute worst I've ever seen it. I spoke to a C-Suite exec for a 50 hospital chain about this last year. He said this is the WORST it's ever been in the US. He said drug use in the 1960's and 70's was much more widespread and common, however the drugs were low dose and weak. Today the drugs are synthetic and often 10 to 100 times stronger than heroin back then. That is the primary reason people can't get off the drugs and what's killing them especially in combination with other things like antidepressants.

Look, I know a lot of drug reps that were pushing Oxy back in the early 2000's. Going around telling physicians that it was safe an non addictive. They even had a bullshit study to back it up. The dumbass docs bought into it hard, mostly because they read a phony ass study and some 20 year old girl pharma rep had nice tits. So, they started handing out Oxy like candy on halloween and lots of people started getting addicted. People that had never been addicted before. It's mostly rural, working class white guys. A lot of these are folks who were hit hard by the 08 recession.

The Obama administration completely ignored this. Even when it became apparent to the medical community that there was a huge problem.

Also... Chinese Fentanyl is the second part of this issue. Mostly inner city drug dealers started cutting the Heroin with Fentanyl. Fentanyl is 100 times stronger than heroin and it's used for surgery. It's VERY easy to overdose and die on this. The drug dealers don't know shit about how strong they are mixing this... so they fuck up and kill people in big waves!

So, in my opinion we need to pull a Duterte. Start shooting drug dealers in the street. These are scumbag serial killers now. Just fucking shoot them. Then we should publicly execute several pharma execs. Follow that up by seizing all assets of Obama officials to pay for free treatment centers!

I was with you up until your ending but hey to each is own! At least your graph + your experience in the medical field clearly illustrates about this being a crisis! I believe my aversion to pills is stemming from my childhood wrestling Heroes commonly dying with some sort of "Pill Addiction". If tough mofos like old school wrestlers were dying like flies... even at 14 no doc could've convinced me that this shit was safe! Hell Nah!

In my book it's better to be proactive & call it a crisis... then to be reactive & watch this shit get worse! I was already like this but now I'll be even more diligent! If it ain't saving my life right now, or it's not an Advil... I ain't taking it period!

[Graft]

I have a unique perspective on this as it has affected my life in a few different ways.

I grew up in the suburbs, a bunch of different races but most of my friends were white. By income it was probably middle class but had a pretty working class feel. Most kids did not finish college and ended up in the cycle of drugs. I've been to a lot of funerals over the years, lost some of my best friends and even family fell victim.

Here's how it went: we're in high school, young, we're all getting laid (even the betas), partying, drinking, smoking, putting some pills and coke up our nose every now and then. We're working a minimum wage job for some extra cash but not much disposable income. We're just trying to graduate and get to the next stage of our lives. Life is pretty carefree and good.

Once high school ends, most kids go to college as it is the "thing to do." A lot of guys didn't have the intelligence or money to get accepted to a better school, so they stay local and live at home, attending class with not much direction. None of us really knew high powered corporate parents giving us direction, so everyone kind of went to school for a general degree without really knowing what to do with it.

Then it starts. Guys start dropping out of school, getting lazy in classes, spending too much time in the neighborhood, not much job prospects or a vision for the future. The structure of high school isn't there, most of the girlfriends dumped us, now everyone is just bored, working a dead end job, no school, no guidance, nothing going for them. The realities of post-high school dead end life starts to hit a few years after graduation and guys keep hanging out with their high school buddies, doing more and more pills to kill the time. We started off with Vicodin and Valium, eventually guys went to Percs and Oxies.

Once it's a few years from high school graduation most of the guys have full blown drug habits. Everyone is robbing and stealing from each other to get their fix. Most of the crew moves to heroin to save money and some guys start dealing to make some extra cash and get that quick fix. A few guys get busted and go to jail, a few guys die, and a ton of guys go in and out of the rehab/halfway house system.

In my mind the biggest cause is never leaving the neighborhood, holing up in their parents basement, with no future, no direction, no hope for a better life. These guys just orbit around their high school friends and eventually take drugs to ease the boredom and pain.

I was lucky enough to go away to school, which gave me purpose and kept me away from some of the bad distractions at home. Still, I understand what it's like to not have any sort of leadership at home, and clear picture for what my future is going to hold.

I never really fucked with the heroin and painkillers but I had my own struggles with drug dependency. When I was about 22 I had a nasty breakup that caused me to have panic attacks. I was a very anxious kid growing up and had bad insomnia. I was prescribed some benzos and they were amazing. My panic attacks stopped, I started sleeping at normal hours, my life was fixed. I went to the doctor, he prescribed them, it was perfect.

I continued these pills for about 5-6 more years, on and off, and developed a dependency towards them. The only problem was, the law started cracking down on them and doctors weren't willing to prescribe. I spent the last two to three years getting them off the darkweb, doctor shopping, and getting them off the street. I had some nasty withdrawals when I couldn't get them. I never had a full blown addiction, as I always took a set amount every night, but I definitely had a dependency. Looking back, this breakup that happened at a young age could have ruined my life as I developed a pretty nasty, but controlled, drug habit.

It was only about six months ago when I completely cut the cord on them. I still take a lot of natural herbs for my insomnia (Kava Kava, Gaba, Valerian Root, otc sleeping pills, melatonin) every night, but I finally kicked the habit.

[BlastbeatCasanova]

It definitely is a crisis. As someone had mentioned above, normal blue-collar folks who would have most likely never been exposed to these drugs developed addictions and died/had their lives ruined due to the purposeful misinformation campaign on the part of the drug companies to boost sales, leading to mass prescription.

As far as a solution goes, I don’t know. The war on drugs is a massive money wasting failure. I for one don’t think a government entity should have power over what I consume/put in my body as an autonomous citizen. If you think about it is absolutely absurd that alcohol, will all the problems and issues it causes people and society is fully legal whereas marijuana and psychedelics are not. There should be should be legit education of course but I’m for legalization and taxation on drugs personally