What Science Says to Do If Your Loved One Has an Opioid Addiction
fivethirtyeight.com
What Science Says to Do If Your Loved One Has an Opioid Addiction
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Re: What Science Says to Do If Your Loved One Has an Opioid Addiction
#2Now that the opioid crisis is a problem for white people, science makes an appearance in the policy discussion.
Contrast to the crack epidemic in the 80s: fuck'em, throw them all in prison.
Edit to add: I wish the best of luck to those who have been caught up in this crisis: I'm rooting for you, and I hope every last one of you find the treatment you need. For those of us who aren't affected, it's time for some deep introspection about what we allow our politicians and (yes) our neighbors to get away with.
Re: What Science Says to Do If Your Loved One Has an Opioid Addiction
#3Interesting question: The replacing opioid addiction with maintenance drugs... I could understand that drug being an okay interim solution, but in the end the person still needs to go through withdrawal, the drug just replaces withdrawal with another drug.
Withdrawal is hard. Yes. But at least the person is in the right mindset to go through it once they are off the compulsory addiction, even if it takes a year to get to that point.
As kchoudhu points out and many have pointed out to me before this article, certainly once a bunch of white kids have this problem, suddenly they are "victims" not "criminals". Yet we have destroyed so many lives between the 80s and now, especially with the mandatory minimums and such.
Re: What Science Says to Do If Your Loved One Has an Opioid Addiction
#4Interesting question: The replacing opioid addiction with maintenance drugs... I could understand that drug being an okay interim solution, but in the end the person still needs to go through withdrawal, the drug just replaces withdrawal with another drug. Withdrawal is hard. Yes. But at least the person is in the right mindset to go through it once they are off the compulsory addiction, even if it takes a year to ge…
Why? The problems with addiction - specifically opioid addiction - is that it causes negative, destructive behavior. This isn't a consequence of having a physical dependence we are all physically dependent on things after all.
Re: What Science Says to Do If Your Loved One Has an Opioid Addiction
#5Now that the opioid crisis is a problem for white people, science makes an appearance in the policy discussion. Contrast to the crack epidemic in the 80s: fuck'em, throw them all in prison. Edit to add: I wish the best of luck to those who have been caught up in this crisis: I'm rooting for you, and I hope every last one of you find the treatment you need. For those of us who aren't affected, it's time for some deep…
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Re: What Science Says to Do If Your Loved One Has an Opioid Addiction
#6Interesting question: The replacing opioid addiction with maintenance drugs... I could understand that drug being an okay interim solution, but in the end the person still needs to go through withdrawal, the drug just replaces withdrawal with another drug. Withdrawal is hard. Yes. But at least the person is in the right mindset to go through it once they are off the compulsory addiction, even if it takes a year to ge…
I'm not sure it is a race issue. Times were different. People are now accepting that drug consumption doesn't make you a criminal.
At some point Britain thought that wealthy highly-educated people were incapable of being criminals, until time proved them wrong. Science is always evolving.
Re: What Science Says to Do If Your Loved One Has an Opioid Addiction
#7Now that the opioid crisis is a problem for white people, science makes an appearance in the policy discussion. Contrast to the crack epidemic in the 80s: fuck'em, throw them all in prison. Edit to add: I wish the best of luck to those who have been caught up in this crisis: I'm rooting for you, and I hope every last one of you find the treatment you need. For those of us who aren't affected, it's time for some deep…
I would say on the one side that there is still little science in our current policies around drugs and on the other side I would say that many dedicated individuals and organizations like the Drug Policy Alliance have spent immense amounts of energy and money on attempting to get drug policy to reflect science.
Re: What Science Says to Do If Your Loved One Has an Opioid Addiction
#8Now that the opioid crisis is a problem for white people, science makes an appearance in the policy discussion. Contrast to the crack epidemic in the 80s: fuck'em, throw them all in prison. Edit to add: I wish the best of luck to those who have been caught up in this crisis: I'm rooting for you, and I hope every last one of you find the treatment you need. For those of us who aren't affected, it's time for some deep…
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Re: What Science Says to Do If Your Loved One Has an Opioid Addiction
#9Now that the opioid crisis is a problem for white people, science makes an appearance in the policy discussion. Contrast to the crack epidemic in the 80s: fuck'em, throw them all in prison. Edit to add: I wish the best of luck to those who have been caught up in this crisis: I'm rooting for you, and I hope every last one of you find the treatment you need. For those of us who aren't affected, it's time for some deep…
to be fair when meth was ravaging poor/rural white people nobody really seemed to care much either. in fact it was something of a joke i.e. the "not even once" memes etc.
i think the real issue is opiates seem to be heavily affecting affluent suburban and urban people, who are predominantly white, and make up a huge amount of the tax base.
Re: What Science Says to Do If Your Loved One Has an Opioid Addiction
#10Now that the opioid crisis is a problem for white people, science makes an appearance in the policy discussion. Contrast to the crack epidemic in the 80s: fuck'em, throw them all in prison. Edit to add: I wish the best of luck to those who have been caught up in this crisis: I'm rooting for you, and I hope every last one of you find the treatment you need. For those of us who aren't affected, it's time for some deep…
Not to argue that there wasn't and still is racial inequality when it comes to drug enforcement, but how advanced was our understanding on how to treat opiate abuse even by the 1980s? To make things clear, I'm curious about the history of treatment methods involved with addiction. Not about excusing bad policy.
I don't know much about the subject but when I try to do a bunch of cursory searches, most of what I find are histories on alcoholism and the variety of treatment methods. As far as I know, before the crack cocaine epidemic, I don't think people really understood just how pernicious the problem of opiate addiction was. Doesn't excuse mass incarceration of black people, but I'm not sure people had any idea on how to actually approach the problem back then. I'm not sure we have a good approach even now.
It's also worth noting how small the problem with cocaine and other opiates was in the past. The crack cocaine epidemic was probably the first time the nation as a whole had to learn what this stuff actually was.