Live data from Hacker News

What Science Says to Do If Your Loved One Has an Opioid Addiction

fivethirtyeight.com

271–280 of 302 posts

Re: What Science Says to Do If Your Loved One Has an Opioid Addiction

#271
post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my opinion you can't simply discard the debate as comparing apples to oranges... There are many similarities. It's a drug addiction at the end of the day.

So, we should give alcoholics naloxone? Okay, so now we've established that alcohol and opiates do different things in the brain. So, at this point, I'm going to ask you: "Why should you assume similarity rather than assuming difference?" Just because viruses and bacteria are both harmful does not mean we should use antibiotics for both.

One of the most successful treatments for alcohol addiction is the Sinclair method which uses naltrexone and opioid blocker.

Re: What Science Says to Do If Your Loved One Has an Opioid Addiction

#272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh, well, maybe not a popular answer here, but that is one thing churches are really good at.

With churches, there are a few problems that are intellectually repellent, meaning they won't solve for certain personality types. Namely: 1. artificial social heirarchy 2. magical thinking 3. group think 4. rules without reason Part of religion is often about imposing order on the irrational aspects of experience and reality, but there's a lot of centuries-old cruft and inertia behind the ones that exist. When you t…

> With churches, there are a few problems that are intellectually repellent, meaning they won't solve for certain personality types.

Unitarian Universalist churches are good for community and avoid most of these negatives in my experience.

Re: What Science Says to Do If Your Loved One Has an Opioid Addiction

#273
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like to see a control for the amount of money spent on legal defense. The anecdote in that report itself suggests that it's the skill level of the defense attorney which is most likely a dominant factor. From someone I know with personal experience, after they were charged with possession with intent to distribute due to growing pot, they had 3 choices. Go to jail, spend $X on an attorney who would get them proba…

I'd like to see a control for the amount of money spent on legal defense. So, then, why would black people spend less money on legal defense?

People spend as much money on legal defense as they can possibly afford, obviously. But that doesn't make the system racist.

Re: What Science Says to Do If Your Loved One Has an Opioid Addiction

#274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> __they don't want these things next to where they live__. Which is the precise definition of Not In My Back Yard...

yeah, and good luck convincing anyone , anywhere that building a methadone clinic in their back yard is a good idea. here's another turn of phrase you might find handy: choose your battles.

I know some people complaining about the noise from child care in their neighborhood.

Re: What Science Says to Do If Your Loved One Has an Opioid Addiction

#275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been thinking about similar things in the context of a basic income. If we were to just pass a law and guarantee a significant basic income I think it would have disastrous effects and fail miserably. A guaranteed income is a good goal, but before we do that we need to figure out how to replace meaningful employment with other meaningful activities. People need a purpose. If we can alter our culture and separate…

I think you are way over estimating the amount of meaningful work, as well as how many people with meaningful work would be on basic income. Most of the people on basic income would be people who were previously flipping burgers at McDonald's not directors as 80000 hours.

You have to think longer term. Eventually, there may be very few jobs done by people. Medicine, law, many fields of engineering, agriculture, and even film making and novel writing may be performed by machines at a level as good as or better than the best people.

But yeah, in the next decade it's burger flippers and delivery drivers.

Re: What Science Says to Do If Your Loved One Has an Opioid Addiction

#276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh, well, maybe not a popular answer here, but that is one thing churches are really good at.

With churches, there are a few problems that are intellectually repellent, meaning they won't solve for certain personality types. Namely: 1. artificial social heirarchy 2. magical thinking 3. group think 4. rules without reason Part of religion is often about imposing order on the irrational aspects of experience and reality, but there's a lot of centuries-old cruft and inertia behind the ones that exist. When you t…

Yes, if you think the religion in question is ridiculous on its face and everyone who believes in it is an imbecile, obviously it's not going to work for you.

Re: What Science Says to Do If Your Loved One Has an Opioid Addiction

#277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With churches, there are a few problems that are intellectually repellent, meaning they won't solve for certain personality types. Namely: 1. artificial social heirarchy 2. magical thinking 3. group think 4. rules without reason Part of religion is often about imposing order on the irrational aspects of experience and reality, but there's a lot of centuries-old cruft and inertia behind the ones that exist. When you t…

> With churches, there are a few problems that are intellectually repellent, meaning they won't solve for certain personality types. Unitarian Universalist churches are good for community and avoid most of these negatives in my experience.

Yeah, that seems to be a popular choice for lapsed religious people.

Re: What Science Says to Do If Your Loved One Has an Opioid Addiction

#278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've been thinking about similar things in the context of a basic income. If we were to just pass a law and guarantee a significant basic income I think it would have disastrous effects and fail miserably. A guaranteed income is a good goal, but before we do that we need to figure out how to replace meaningful employment with other meaningful activities. People need a purpose. I don't think so. I think people can f…

> I don't think so. I think people can find a purpose without us imposing one on them. I didn't mean to say a purpose should be imposed. Today it kind of is. A purpose is often closely tied to a job and a job is pretty much required to survive. I was trying to convey that we should look for more ways to help people find a purpose or whatever you want to call some activity that is meaningful and fulfilling to that ind…

Well you said there shouldn't be a universal basic income because people wouldn't have a purpose without the job being imposed on them, which seems to take as its premise that people need to have some kind of purpose imposed on them. The big reason unemployed people feel purposeless is because we live in a society where everyone is supposed to have a job or else is a drain on society/shamefully failing to support their families/whatever else. In a world where there's no need to have a job to support yourself who's to say that's still the case? That's not to say there aren't other potential problems, but I'm not sure "purpose" is the real one.

Re: What Science Says to Do If Your Loved One Has an Opioid Addiction

#279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are way over estimating the amount of meaningful work, as well as how many people with meaningful work would be on basic income. Most of the people on basic income would be people who were previously flipping burgers at McDonald's not directors as 80000 hours.

You have to think longer term. Eventually, there may be very few jobs done by people. Medicine, law, many fields of engineering, agriculture, and even film making and novel writing may be performed by machines at a level as good as or better than the best people. But yeah, in the next decade it's burger flippers and delivery drivers.

To the extent those people have some sort of crisis it sounds more like anxiety over loss of status.

Re: What Science Says to Do If Your Loved One Has an Opioid Addiction

#280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think so. I think people can find a purpose without us imposing one on them. I didn't mean to say a purpose should be imposed. Today it kind of is. A purpose is often closely tied to a job and a job is pretty much required to survive. I was trying to convey that we should look for more ways to help people find a purpose or whatever you want to call some activity that is meaningful and fulfilling to that ind…

Well you said there shouldn't be a universal basic income because people wouldn't have a purpose without the job being imposed on them, which seems to take as its premise that people need to have some kind of purpose imposed on them. The big reason unemployed people feel purposeless is because we live in a society where everyone is supposed to have a job or else is a drain on society/shamefully failing to support the…

> I'm not sure "purpose" is the real one

Purpose might not be the right word. I think people need meaningful lives.

Post reply on HN