How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US • Hacker News Board

Re: How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US

#321

Post by rdtsc » Thu, Jul 20, 2017, 4:15 AM UTC

52-6F-62 wrote: post #65

weirdstuff wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And /r/the_donald would say just the opposite. The thing about propaganda – why it works so well – is that it's presented as authentic civil discourse. There's no clear cut demarcation between the two types of speech. One could argue that /r/the_donald uses the banhammer to maintain order (the narrative), and /r/politics uses shill comments+downvoting to do the same.

What you just described sounds to me like an authoritarian court versus a democratic forum. That is, excepting the "shill" name-calling -- it leads me to believe that you are in fact speaking on behalf of r/the_donald. If that's true, then I know why the term was used. If not, what leads you to believe that anybody involved in discussion in r/politics are "shills".

> If not, what leads you to believe that anybody involved in discussion in r/politics are "shills".

Because Hillary had hired people to do exactly that:

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-clinton-digital-trolli...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/hillary-pac-spends-dollar1-mill...

Remember someone leaked a private Slack chat of Reddit admins where one was boasting of receiving their CTR check.

Re: How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US

#322

Post by VonGuard » Thu, Jul 20, 2017, 4:16 AM UTC

I am almost ashamed to admit I have read these forums for years as a sort of exercise in voyeuristic schadenfreude. I just love reading about drug culture, watching drug movies, etc. Just like I love gangster movies. I can't explain it. A few things I have learned:

/r/glassine is probably the most interesting. They rate heroin bags in the Pittsburg area. It's supposed to be for everywhere, but it's mostly Pennsylvania

/r/opiates is a place where addicts confide in each other and practice harm reduction. They do not source. They tell hilarious, sad, amazing stories. Lots of personal confessions and "whole life of an addict" style narratives. Overall, a good community for addicts to find a safe space, instead of a place that hounds them for not being in recovery.

/r/stims is where the meth heads hang out. Occasionally you get these great "I'm on meth and here's everything in my mind right now" text barfs, but mostly I feel like this is an empty sub

/r/researchchemicals is where people discuss Shulgin chemicals and beyond.

/r/drugnerds is amazing. Papers. Lots of them.

/r/drugporn is where people post photos of their drugs, and then a week later the picture is taken down because Missoula Police saw it and arrested them through the GPS sig in the photo.

/r/noids is where people discuss synthetic cannabinoids, which are horrible. Never use these.

The rabbit hole goes very, very deep. Check /r/DarkNetMarkets/

Re: How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US

#323

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 20, 2017, 4:32 AM UTC

VonGuard wrote: post #322

I am almost ashamed to admit I have read these forums for years as a sort of exercise in voyeuristic schadenfreude. I just love reading about drug culture, watching drug movies, etc. Just like I love gangster movies. I can't explain it. A few things I have learned: /r/glassine is probably the most interesting. They rate heroin bags in the Pittsburg area. It's supposed to be for everywhere, but it's mostly Pennsylvani…

[deleted]

Re: How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US

#324

Post by Spooky23 » Thu, Jul 20, 2017, 4:39 AM UTC

fapjacks wrote: post #283

solatic wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm curious whether the disproportionate concern has more to do with the perception of drug addicts as weak and deserving of their fate This. The AIDS epidemic in the 1980's was the same. Tens of thousands of people dying every year, with more than forty thousand per year at jts peak, and more than 600,000 dead to date. Because of homophobia, the public at large didn't care about the victims - most people, if they…

This is dead on, no pun intended. And it's made worse by the fact that even people who are personally affected by the overdose epidemic usually are culturally conditioned to shun the addicts (e.g. friends or family), and so instead of coming out and saying in public, "Yes, I have been personally affected by this horrible thing, we need to do something about it," you find that people keep this kind of thing quiet, bec…

I fortunately don't have a ton of direct experience in this area. But spent alot of time with a recovering addict/alcoholic and drug counselor.

Maybe his point of view was out of date, but I recall that he saw kicking any of these problems was something that came from within. You had to want out strongly. My friends moment was when his kids didn't want to see him.

People shun addicts to survive, not out of cultural conditioning. The addiction comes first, and the addict will hurt anyone to get it.

Re: How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US

#325

Post by weberc2 » Thu, Jul 20, 2017, 4:52 AM UTC

pavel_lishin wrote: post #281

weberc2 wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your mistake is believing that people invest in self-driving cars as a sort of charity or social service in the same way as drug clinics. Even if that were the case, I think there's a reasonable case to be made that solving self-driving cars would be a better lives-saved/$ investment than opioids. Even if it was a comparable investment, it wouldn't make addicts as socially-productive a group as crash victims--this wo…

> while overdose victims largely make an informed choice to roll the dice Don't most people develop an opioid addiction after being prescribed insufficient pain medication by their doctor? After that, sure, once they realize that getting more opioids - much more than they ought to, medically or legally - is literally the only way to stop the daily pain?

I don't think it's most people, but I understand some do. Hence my wording. That said, I don't have any data to back that up.

Re: How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US

#326

Post by bluthru » Thu, Jul 20, 2017, 4:59 AM UTC

unionjack22 wrote: post #211

I can't recall a similar degree of concern and push for treatment during the crack/cocaine epidemic in the 80-90's and the meth epidemic of the 00's. What is it about the opioid/heroin epidemic that differentiates it from those prior?

It's a war backed by pharmaceutical companies. They influence how doctors treat pain.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/31/530929307/...

Here's something... curious. Poppy production was virtually wiped out in Afghanistan: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/20/world/taliban-s-ban-on-pop...

Then we invaded. Now it's high: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Afghanis...

Re: How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US

#327

Post by nextlevelwizard » Thu, Jul 20, 2017, 5:02 AM UTC

pcnix wrote: post #30

zeep wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

/r/politics is similar to /r/the_donald but it is the exact opposite (it could have been called /r/the_hillary)

/r/politics does not outright run itself as a safe space for a particular group though, unlike /r/the_donald. Any criticism on /r/the_donald gets you a ban, whereas any criticism on /r/politics just gets you downvotes, which are entirely consistent with how the sub should be run.

There are dozes of anti trump subreddits which will ban you for not conforming. It's same with most if not all ideologically driven subreddits. They always have not pinned "go to r/Debate if you are not conforming" type thing. To me every one of these echo chamber subreddits should be prevented from appearing on r/all (which is how people get exposed to these subreddits most often)

Re: How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US

#328

Post by nextlevelwizard » Thu, Jul 20, 2017, 5:08 AM UTC

vinhboy wrote: post #47

danlindley wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit has been demonstrated time and time again that it is subject to, and vulnerable to, blatant manipulation and propganda. Whether it's a celebrity endoresement masquerading as an interview, threads defending corporations and/or their actions, the manufacturing of consent, the anti-democractic activities of shill accounts, or being subject to blanket disinformation, Reddit is a net-negative to society in my opini…

You know, even the military monitors reddit to keep on top of new trends and ideas. It has really become a social force, and that's why I agree with you, it is ripe for manipulation. > Reddit is a net-negative to society in my opinion. I did not agree with this before, but after /r/the_donald, I am re-considering my position.

I do not get this opinion at all.

Just because there exists a thing you do not agree with does not mean it should not exist. It seems like many people on HN are for free speech as long as it's speech they agree with. There will always be people who do not think like you and do not believe in same things as you, but you are not helping any situation by no platforming them. Join the debate and use your words, like adult human beings, don't use force (even if it's virtual and not physical)

Re: How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US

#329

Post by spectrum1234 » Thu, Jul 20, 2017, 5:15 AM UTC

averagewall wrote: post #317

In the HN-popular utopian future where automation has made most people unemployed and living on UBI, we're supposed to be able to pursue our dreams without the pressure to feed ourselves. But in reality, many people don't have dreams or the motivation to pursue them and end up as drug addicts/alcoholics/gangsters which is just easier. I used to laugh at the idea that people need jobs to feel fulfilled. I thought thos…

Exactly!

Re: How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US

#330

Post by stordoff » Thu, Jul 20, 2017, 5:20 AM UTC

nullc wrote: post #181

aesclepius wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would kindly ask you to review how most opiate addicts in this current wave are created. Unfortunately, opiate medication is really the only 'easy' solution we have for many patients who have chronic, debilitating pain. I speak of patients suffering from malignancies, chronic back pain, post-traumatic injuries like motor vehicle collisions or workplace-related injuries. While there are novel attempts at cognitive b…

From your description of tolerance buildup it sounds like you are describing a drug which is functionally ineffective for chronic pain (eventually tolerance will overtake the maximum does you can safely administer) except where the patient wont live long enough for the tolerance. It sounds like a drug family that would be mostly useful for non-chronic pain, where the patient can be weaned off before the dosages becom…

AFAIK, it's because, whilst opiates aren't a great choice for chronic pain, they're just aren't many options that are useful for many forms of chronic, severe pain.