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Nineteen people a week overdose in Richmond, dozens are dying, hundreds revived

richmond.com

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Re: Nineteen people a week overdose in Richmond, dozens are dying, hundreds revived

#61

Post by refurb »

PatientTrades wrote: post #7

Most of this stems from the overprescription of opioids. I remember when I had surgery for a broken leg the amount of drugs I received after the surgery was astounding. It was almost as if the hospital wanted me to become hooked. I didn't need or ask for the opioids, they were just prescribed for pain killing. A regular Tylenol or Advil would have done the job. Not saying hospitals want people on drugs, but at some p…

If you've been around long enough you'd realize we're come full circle. Prior to the 1990's pain meds were very rarely handed out.

Then a few things happened: (1) more data was collected that suggested when used for severe pain, the addiction potential was low, (2) adequately controlled pain leads to quicker recovery times and (3) there was a lot of untreated pain at the time.

As a result, opioid use when way up. One could argue it went to far with very strong opioids being given for mild or moderate pain.

The sad thing is that we're already seeing doctors get more stingy with opioids. My guess is we'll swing too far in the other direction and in a decade we'll have people with severe, incurable cancer pain being told "you don't need opioids".

Re: Nineteen people a week overdose in Richmond, dozens are dying, hundreds revived

#62

Post by Alex3917 »

TaylorGood wrote: post #51
nathancahill wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. My uncle died from an OD earlier this year. Drugs cut with fentanyl. It's truly a terrible epidemic.

Sorry to hear. Partaking in heavy drugs to any degree invites those dark unknowns. The number of hands these drugs pass through to reach the end-user is more than a couple. I recall on average it's 8 different turnovers. Each time, likely being cut down. They operate a margin business without concern for where it ends up. It's likely safe to say that a vast majority of drugs are cut these days. A friend I grew up wit…

> Each time, potentially being cut down.

Drug potency follows something like an S-curve. As enforcement increases a drug will get increasingly stepped on, until the purity is low enough that the drug gets replaced with a more potent analog. Consumer Reports wrote about this in their guide to drugs from the 70s.

Re: Nineteen people a week overdose in Richmond, dozens are dying, hundreds revived

#63

Post by Cryptid »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #58
mschuster91 wrote: post #3

> Local jails have been overrun with people locked up and in need of treatment Why. Do. People. End. Up. In. Jail. Seriously this one is beyond my comprehension - they need treatment, not jails filled with hardened criminals, rapists and probably more (and nastier) drugs than on the street.

Like that one guy weef or weev, the iPad exploits guy, who went to jail and came back as a white supremecist. Was quite surprised to read that, worse thing is he wasn't in prison like 10 hard years or anything extreme, he was in there a minute though. Oddest thing I ever read. On the other hand... Norway has some of the nicest prisons in the world. Worth checking out prisons in Norway if you never heard of how nice t…

He was already a scumbag before prison: https://www.quora.com/Did-Andrew-weev-Aurenheimer-contribute...

Re: Nineteen people a week overdose in Richmond, dozens are dying, hundreds revived

#64

Post by refurb »

adfm wrote: post #49
PatientTrades wrote: post #7

Most of this stems from the overprescription of opioids. I remember when I had surgery for a broken leg the amount of drugs I received after the surgery was astounding. It was almost as if the hospital wanted me to become hooked. I didn't need or ask for the opioids, they were just prescribed for pain killing. A regular Tylenol or Advil would have done the job. Not saying hospitals want people on drugs, but at some p…

For more background on why we've got a dope problem, check out this LA Times piece on Oxycontin's 12-hour Problem: http://www.latimes.com/projects/oxycontin-part1/

That article was written by someone not that familiar with the pharma market.

It would be illegal for Purdue to promote on any other than 12 hours. It's called off-label promotion and companies pay multi-billion dollar fines for it.

Re: Nineteen people a week overdose in Richmond, dozens are dying, hundreds revived

#65

Post by chiefalchemist »

dragontamer wrote: post #37
ransom1538 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like my uncle says, a cop, "what would we do then". Drug & alcohol related arrests are 99% of their work.

Its not a cop's job. Its a social worker's job. I do recognize that cops are just "trying to help", and that no one cares about social workers. Cops are in an advantaged position in the USA because they are relatively well respected by most mainstream members of the population. So the fact that they want to help is good. But Cops aren't given the right training to deal with medical problems or other problems (ie: Fir…

As we have it now law enforcement is just that. And they are also the frontline to anything downstream (e.g., social worker). We're not really set up to respond to this in a way other than a legal one.

We should have figured this out years ago. This won't be the last article we see like this.

Re: Nineteen people a week overdose in Richmond, dozens are dying, hundreds revived

#66

Post by gooseus »

daxorid wrote: post #39
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, I'm trying to have a nuanced conversation on a sensitive topic with an open mind. I get the feeling this is one of the things that no one wants to discuss, or at least it's a bad idea to try to discuss it. Note how violent and immediate the reaction was, right when I tried to point to a segment of people who are the most likely to be in the target segment of the original article. I don't feel like martyring…

When the status gap is large enough, high status people don't see low status people as human. Very few people on HN will care about incels killing themselves. Suicide hotlines and rehab clinics are for their status peers fallen on hard times, not the filthy incel underclass who dare act above their station.

I invite you to post the best example of this incel subculture.

These are the guys who were elevating Elliot Roger (UCSB killer) to hero status, no?

Re: Nineteen people a week overdose in Richmond, dozens are dying, hundreds revived

#67

Post by incadenza »

iambateman wrote: post #33

Serious questions...if you’ve used an opioid more than once for recreational purposes, I’d like to hear (1) what prompted you to try it (2) how old you were (3) cost (4) where did you get them (5) why did you stop Treat me like an idiot, I don’t understand this stuff and I’d like to know more. * obviously feel free to use a burner account if you’d rather not speak publicly.

I can only speak to Heroin, not prescription painkillers.

1) I had tried just about every other drug, and I felt at that point like they had been unfairly demonized. A high school friend was doing heroin, and so I wrongfully assumed Heroin would fall into the same category. I was pretty young.

2) 14

3) My usual habit for the ten years of my addiction was around 100-150 a day. I simply couldn't find a way to reliably get more money than that.

4) Drug dealers that I knew or in downtown areas. (West Coast)

5) Life was untenable. I was thrown into a detox for one last time and then six months of rehab. It stuck this time, it's difficult to say why.

I was not, as seems to be the common case these days, drawn to opiates after a major surgery or chronic pain. Nor was Fentanyl / overdose rates nearly as bad as they are today.

Hope this helps?

Re: Nineteen people a week overdose in Richmond, dozens are dying, hundreds revived

#68

Post by alsetmusic »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #41
spaceseaman wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're implying the opioid epidemic is in part due to Reddit banning subreddits filled with hateful speech?* Or what? You're also making some odd as hell "both sides"-ish argument somewhere in there that I can't even parse. I'm sorry, but we don't have to give spaces for people to be hateful - Reddit banning those assholes was the highlight of my week. I'm not trying to claim that these people should just be ignored,…

I'd appreciate it if you'd remove your comment since I tried to back out immediately from that line of conversation. Would you mind agreeing? If so, edit your comment to [removed] and I'll delete this one. Otherwise, I can try to explain my original motives, and what I observed. But it's a tricky conversation to have, and there's a high chance people's tendency to instantly turn to hatred will focus on me. I'd rather…

> I'd appreciate it if you'd remove your comment since I tried to back out immediately from that line of conversation. Would you mind agreeing?

Two days ago, I saw you post something asinine and I tried to respond. You deleted your comment before I could hit the reply button, and I lost the opportunity to quote and refute you.

If this is a recurring problem (that you change your mind about statements on a public forum), think a bit more before posting.

Re: Nineteen people a week overdose in Richmond, dozens are dying, hundreds revived

#69

Post by sillysaurus3 »

gooseus wrote: post #66
daxorid wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the status gap is large enough, high status people don't see low status people as human. Very few people on HN will care about incels killing themselves. Suicide hotlines and rehab clinics are for their status peers fallen on hard times, not the filthy incel underclass who dare act above their station.

I invite you to post the best example of this incel subculture. These are the guys who were elevating Elliot Roger (UCSB killer) to hero status, no?

The subthread wasn't about that, though. It was about the fact that they might turn to drugs because their group is now banned.

That's a weak hypothesis not supported by evidence, so it was stupid to bring it up. But given their situation, it didn't seem too far from the truth.

Re: Nineteen people a week overdose in Richmond, dozens are dying, hundreds revived

#70

Post by burner0123456 »

iambateman wrote: post #33

Serious questions...if you’ve used an opioid more than once for recreational purposes, I’d like to hear (1) what prompted you to try it (2) how old you were (3) cost (4) where did you get them (5) why did you stop Treat me like an idiot, I don’t understand this stuff and I’d like to know more. * obviously feel free to use a burner account if you’d rather not speak publicly.

1. novelty, why not?

2. early 20s

3. de minimis. $12-20 total for dozens of doses of kratom, shipped usps.

4. internet sellers.

5. define "stop?" i continue to use them irregularly. opioids have a very nasty side effect of bad constipation (silver lining: it's a strong encouragement to eat lots of vegetables), so it's not really something you can just use every day. at least for me, that kind of makes use self-limiting.

also, opioids just aren't that great. they're very effective at killing pain, but if you aren't in pain, you don't notice that. beyond that, the high is imo really subtle and easy to forget about. in contrast, with weed, alcohol, lsd, shrooms, mdma, adderall, whatever, you know you're high during the experience.

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