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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

#81
post #78

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. Sounded like a laugh 2. 23 to 25 3. $8 for a packet of paracetamol/codiene plus a few dollars for coffee filters, $10 for 10 tramadols 4. Pharmacy for the codiene, friend gets the tramadol online from India 5. I didn't really get what the whole fuss is about, it wasn't that fun, and I know anything harder than those is a dark dark path that I have no interest in travelling down.

> I didn't really get what the whole fuss is about

Having taken Tramadols and Oxy for pain (back and separate knee surgery), I can't imagine taking it for fun. The pain stops because they put me to sleep and then I feel like an idiot for 12 hours. At least with the Tramadols I can still sort of function, but I fight the doctor if they want to give me Oxy.

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

#82
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I can see how people move to something like heroin after being on pain meds and getting addicted, but who really just 'tries' heroin? At this point, the mix danger and addiction danger is well known and publicized. I'm asking, because I cannot mentally put it together, particularly if someone has life going in the right direction.

Alcohol is the biggest gateway drug and it's not really close.

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

#83

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…

> 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.

Drugs have always been cut. Historically it was just cut with OTCs or detritus, which was a problem that could be solved in most cases by simply doing more.

The problem as of late has become when they lace it with things like fentanyl, which is a cheap filler that actually improves the high (thus encouraging repeat business) but can be lethal in large doses.

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

#84
post #22
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you say that? It's trivial to get opioids on the streets and it's common to be introduced to them as a recreational drug, as I know first hand. In fact, I don't know anyone who got addicted to opioids due to overprescription, but I know several people who didn't get prescribed opioids they needed because of the fears of overprescription, and thus were left in terrible pain. I don't know how you draw the li…

People generally say that over-prescription leads to harder opioid usage because it does. I have had co-workers familiar with the neurological effects of the drugs they've been given balk at it. I've also known community members who had injuries slide into the obscurity of addiction. A very real factor of this crisis is the pain aversion, people working in dentistry have higher rates of depression and suicide due to…

It's important to note that the epidemic that people refer to is the overdose epidemic, often labelled the opiate epidemic for whatever reason.

I haven't seen any evidence that actual rates of heroin abuse increasing year over year. Just wealthier people dying from poorly cut drugs at a more alarming rate.

This was the most recent report I could find: https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/NSDUH-FRR1-2...

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

#85
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I can see how people move to something like heroin after being on pain meds and getting addicted, but who really just 'tries' heroin? At this point, the mix danger and addiction danger is well known and publicized. I'm asking, because I cannot mentally put it together, particularly if someone has life going in the right direction.

As someone posted below on his usage, his misunderstanding was thinking Heroin fell into same category of drugs "ok to try" .. but, it isn't just one trip. It's a shift chemically unless I'm mistaken.

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

#86
post #9

Just the other morning I got off of bart in downtown Oakland, 12th street and there was a guy just laid out, unresponsive right on the steps outside the station. He had smoked something out of a can. I stuck with the guy while the paramedics came, but the most tragic part was that he had a plastic "No Allergies" bracelet on. When the paramedics took off his shirt he still had adhesive on his skin from the EKG straps…

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

[deleted]

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

#87
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I can see how people move to something like heroin after being on pain meds and getting addicted, but who really just 'tries' heroin? At this point, the mix danger and addiction danger is well known and publicized. I'm asking, because I cannot mentally put it together, particularly if someone has life going in the right direction.

This is just a specific model of how people act you just conjured up in your head. People in many situations try heroin all the time, whether or not it seems coherent.

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

#88
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Ah yeah, I wasn't really responding to your whole thing...

Honestly I wish you hadn't removed your post cause now there isn't any context for understanding all these replies. I'm curious about how close your hypothesis is to mine:

I think the fact that young, white men are finding "solace" in opiods, neo-nazi and other fringe groups (including incels) may share a root cause in being brought up with unrealistic expectations of the world (sense of entitlement) and feelings of failure/disappointment with their current position in a post-recession reality.

I also have no evidence, just an intuition born of reading various things and seeing some people close to me grow up and end up in rehab... no one close to me has died, thankfully.

Anyways, the same intuition leads me to believe you probably made your comment in good faith and if that's true, I hope this community response doesn't discourage you from speaking your mind in the future.

Unpopular speech made in good faith is far better than popular speech in bad faith.

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

#89
There are many places around the world called Richmond, and even if we assume it's in the US there are still 16 places called Richmond[1].

I wish people were more specific, particularly when reaching an international audience without an innate understanding of places in the US.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond

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

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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. Drugs have always be…

Unfortunately "larger doses" in terms of Fentanyl is not that much: https://www.statnews.com/2016/09/29/fentanyl-heroin-photo-fa...
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