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60 journalists all spend one week covering Cincinnati's battle with heroin

cincinnati.com

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Re: 60 journalists all spend one week covering Cincinnati's battle with heroin

#81

Post by Retric »

jdietrich wrote: post #59
frozenport wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can because some poorer countries don't have an opiod epedimic. For example, opiod use is higher in West Virginia than Mexico. Certainly true that comparative poverty plays a role but we need to first hold accountable those directly responsible. http://geocurrents.info/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Per-Capit...

Overprescribing is undoubtedly a key part of the problem, but so is poverty. The opioid epidemic is having a vastly disproportionate effect on poor communities, in large part because poor people are vastly disproportionately likely to suffer from chronic pain. Doctors didn't cause the crack epidemic in the 80s. We can't isolate any single factor, but must consider the problem in a holistic manner. Fixing the problem…

There are several issues around that association that have little direct connections to poverty rather than more US specific issues. First lack of medical care to fix or prevent the underlying causes of much chronic pain.

The second is a tendency to prescribe opiods to poor populations rather than focusing on less addictive medications. Further, non chronic pain can transform into chronic pain as Opiod uses/addiction increases pain sensitivity.

Combine the above and poor healthcare more directly links to Opiod addiction than you're suggesting.

EX: Mildly Injured > no medical care > working while Injured due to lack of sick leave > more significant problem > prescribed Opiod's vs surgery > addiction.

Re: 60 journalists all spend one week covering Cincinnati's battle with heroin

#82

Post by girvo »

baldfat wrote: post #4

Let's not forget who to blame for this. Pharmaceutical companies and Doctors. West Virgina is the most effected - http://www.pulitzer.org/winners/eric-eyre These articles shouldn't make you sad but MAD. "In six years, drug wholesalers showered the state with 780 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills, while 1,728 West Virginians fatally overdosed on those two painkillers" That's 433 pills for every man, woman and ch…

Two doses of Narcan in the USA is $75.

Three doses of it here in Brisbane are $5. You're right to blame the pharmaceutical industry.

Re: 60 journalists all spend one week covering Cincinnati's battle with heroin

#83

Post by girvo »

KGIII wrote: post #67
ahakki wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for posting this.

You're most welcome. I am not 'clean' in that I maintain with Suboxone. For me, it is about harm reduction. I'm in a position where I was fortunate. I can say these things with my moniker and not have to worry about my reputation or future employment opportunities. Most of the addicts that I know wear suits to work. They don't have the luxury to admit these sorts of things.

Hey man. I've got 5 years on Suboxone after 6 years of addiction. Frankly I consider myself clean (and I'm down to 1.6mg this week from 32mg at the start) -- my DOC was always heroin and I've not touched it since beginning treatment.

Anyway thanks for your post. There's quite a few of us in the tech community who battle the same demons, a lot have reached out to me to talk about it when I comment on my experience.

Re: 60 journalists all spend one week covering Cincinnati's battle with heroin

#84

Post by tryckbarpingvin »

nnfy wrote: post #66

For anyone who may be struggling with chronic pain and/or opioid addiction, I implore you to research kratom. As far as anyone can tell, it is safe, minimally addictive, and in my experience it is good for head pain, stomach pain, anxiety, minor depression, not to mention potentiation of all kinds of other drugs. Of course, use at your own risk. It may interact dangerously with many compounds, because it inhibits the…

Kratom saved my wife's life. She has suffered chronic pain* for the past few years. Literally near suicide from it, but doctors wouldn't prescribe anything, because they couldn't find anything wrong. We are still looking into the reason she's in such pain, but at least she has something that allows her to live not confined to the bed all day put of agony. She's finally moving around again, doing the dishes, etc.

*edit

Re: 60 journalists all spend one week covering Cincinnati's battle with heroin

#85

Post by KGIII »

girvo wrote: post #83
KGIII wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're most welcome. I am not 'clean' in that I maintain with Suboxone. For me, it is about harm reduction. I'm in a position where I was fortunate. I can say these things with my moniker and not have to worry about my reputation or future employment opportunities. Most of the addicts that I know wear suits to work. They don't have the luxury to admit these sorts of things.

Hey man. I've got 5 years on Suboxone after 6 years of addiction. Frankly I consider myself clean (and I'm down to 1.6mg this week from 32mg at the start) -- my DOC was always heroin and I've not touched it since beginning treatment. Anyway thanks for your post. There's quite a few of us in the tech community who battle the same demons, a lot have reached out to me to talk about it when I comment on my experience.

Well, find a way to make it on-topic and post it. ;-)

I expect to be on the Subs for the rest of my life. I'm okay with that.

Tangentially related: It is damned difficult to find a provider who will treat your addiction as well as my doctor. They are just fine with me staying on the Subs and are very much happy with the idea of harm reduction.

It's absurdly expensive, but worth it. They usually do my appointments right in my house. He ensures I can have a ready supply for when I travel. He lets me change my dosage, if I want. Well, within reason. I am under no pressure to taper.

Curiously, I've never had them take even a second look when I roll through customs with a stack of Suboxone. I've never even been asked about it. I leave the country, probably an average of two times per month. I used to just bring fentanyl patches with me. Imagine trying that with a finger of H?

Re: 60 journalists all spend one week covering Cincinnati's battle with heroin

#86

Post by csense »

When I went to school they made sure that Drugs Are Bad, Just Say No was a message that was hammered into every single child. Think about how our culture views drug addicts -- if you hear an acquaintance or a friend of a friend is doing drugs, especially heroin, do you think "Man, that person's got it together! I really want to be like them!" No, you think about how they're a shitty person living a shitty life and you want to stay far, far away from them, because you know they'll lie and steal from you to get their fix.

So I don't really have sympathy for addicts. It's not like drug addiction is a thing that happens to you, unlike losing your home to a hurricane, or getting cancer. If you choose to shove a needle of heroin in your arm of your own free will, that's a choice you've made -- and the consequences of that choice are also things that you've chosen for yourself.

It's not like that people don't know that drugs ruin lives. It's not like it's a secret that drugs are illegal and you'll get sent to jail.

The area I grew up in is a Rust Belt town in similar circumstances -- maybe with even more drugs and less hope than Cincinnati. So I share my understanding and dismay of the economic situation that community's in. But drugs aren't the answer, and anyone who turns to them is clearly lacking in moral character and common sense.

Re: 60 journalists all spend one week covering Cincinnati's battle with heroin

#87

Post by ZenoArrow »

csense wrote: post #86

When I went to school they made sure that Drugs Are Bad, Just Say No was a message that was hammered into every single child. Think about how our culture views drug addicts -- if you hear an acquaintance or a friend of a friend is doing drugs, especially heroin, do you think "Man, that person's got it together! I really want to be like them!" No, you think about how they're a shitty person living a shitty life and yo…

> "It's not like drug addiction is a thing that happens to you"

A common route that leads people to taking heroin is...

1. Go to the doctor, get prescribed pain medication.

2. Become addicted to pain medication during treatment.

3. After supply of pain medication dries up, turn to illegal alternatives (which includes heroin).

So it really could happen to anyone, as it's possible to become an addict without any prior intention to take illegal substances.

Re: 60 journalists all spend one week covering Cincinnati's battle with heroin

#88

Post by leggomylibro »

>Heroin is big business, but not for the Mexican immigrant Reagan is tailing today. He’s just a suspected courier who might make $500 or so. The real money flows to the gangs that control distribution, and to the drug cartels back in Mexico.

>When they finally pull him over, police rip up the floor boards and dig through the driver’s back pack. They check the bumpers and the trunk and look for secret compartments in the doors.

>Nothing.

>Reagan is frustrated. There have to be drugs in that car, he thinks.

Wait, they pulled someone over and destroyed their car over nothing? I hope they had some really solid evidence, but the article didn't say.

>The agents don’t have time to dwell on what went wrong. About 7,000 kilograms of heroin are seized in the United States every year, three times as much as a decade ago. They will be hunting someone new tomorrow.

Oh, okay then. They don't have time to dwell on what went wrong.

Re: 60 journalists all spend one week covering Cincinnati's battle with heroin

#89

Post by chipperyman573 »

mbgaxyz wrote: post #46

Moderators: This is a duplicate of an earlier post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15224794 Which has the exact same URL: http://www.cincinnati.com/pages/interactives/seven-days-of-h... Is there a bug in the submission system?

If a page was recently submitted and didn't get many comments people can repost it.

Re: 60 journalists all spend one week covering Cincinnati's battle with heroin

#90

Post by amigoingtodie »

replicatorblog wrote: post #70
humbleMouse wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Holy crap that's insane. That's 72 pills per year for each man woman and child.

I've seen this stat repeated quite a bit, but a person with chronic pain might take 2-4 pills a day right? Assuming 28 pills a week, that figure doesn't seem as crazy. Perhaps this is an insane quantity, but it feels like a stat that could be made to sound scarier than it is by using proper vocal intonation.

If that were really true, the drug distributors would not be settling with the state.
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