Live data from Hacker News

Down Here, They Sometimes Call It 'Boy'

realclearbooks.com

1–10 of 63 posts

Re: Down Here, They Sometimes Call It 'Boy'

#3
“Nobody cares, because of who is affected”

My respect to the author for this careful and courageous article. Writing about the problems affecting working class white men in today's climate might warrant censure in some circles.

To the matter at hand, one of my concerns is that the Sackler family will enjoy long, peaceful lives. I hope justice intervenes.

Re: Down Here, They Sometimes Call It 'Boy'

#4
I was on heroin for a few years and I live in the UK. I had managed to keep it hidden for maybe 18 months but eventually it become obvious and my mother started organising help.

Within a week we had some people from the local drugs outreach charity turn up at the house with free Naloxone IM kits and they trained us how to use them. A couple of weeks after that I was assigned a counsellor whom I would meet regularly and talk to over the phone.

A few months after that I finally got into an NHS programme (which was mostly useless, it was all just preaching which doesn't work for me).

In the UK we can pick up injection kits in chemists for free. They include: needles; sterile water vials; cooking spoons; micron filters; a sharps disposal box; and packets of citric acid (the heroin we get in the UK needs an acid to dissolve in the water).

Heroin addiction is a public health problem, and the healthier the public is, the better off everyone else is. The fact that you have to pay for treatment in parts of the US is unbelievable to me.

Having access to naloxone and injection kits for free surely saved me from getting a blood-borne infection, and the counselling from the charity really helped.

On a global level we need to stop treating addiction as a crime but as a health problem. No one wakes up first thing and thinks "Hmm, I think I'll try shooting heroin today". There are almost always deep-rooted issues that the addiction hides, because being addicted to heroin is essentially a full-time job. You just don't have time to address what is causing you to need to feel numb.

Re: Down Here, They Sometimes Call It 'Boy'

#7
"what’s killing what used to be the white working class isn’t diabetes or heart disease or the consumption of fatty foods and Big Gulps that so terrifies Michael Bloomberg, but alcohol-induced liver failure"

I never drank much, only 1-2 a month at parties. But man, I'm so glad I quit drinking due to the pandemic...

I come from a working class family and many of my grandparents generation died from that.

Re: Down Here, They Sometimes Call It 'Boy'

#8

“Nobody cares, because of who is affected” My respect to the author for this careful and courageous article. Writing about the problems affecting working class white men in today's climate might warrant censure in some circles. To the matter at hand, one of my concerns is that the Sackler family will enjoy long, peaceful lives. I hope justice intervenes.

[deleted]

Re: Down Here, They Sometimes Call It 'Boy'

#9
post #6

Ironically as I started to read this I was holding my Oxycodone vial and contemplating taking one. And now I am. At least my impulse is because of post-surgical pain, and hopefully will fade with the pain.

FWIW about eight years ago I was involved with a local group that was drawing focus to the young people in our small rural/suburban community that were addicted to heroin. Through the course of a year we had eight of these young adults come and essentially give their addiction testimony.

To a person the story was this:

- high school sports injury

- prescription for oxycodone

- oxycodone dependency develops

- physician cuts off supply

- kids start buying pills in school

- one of their sources introduces them to heroin

Every single one of them. The exact same story. It was unbelievable.

I only say that to say that placing some controls around how you approach the oxy isn't a bad idea. Good luck and I hope you get feeling better soon.

Re: Down Here, They Sometimes Call It 'Boy'

#10
Do we keep getting this wrong because of perverse incentives, malice, or just plain stupidity? Was it not expected that clamping down on legal opioids would cause an illegal market to flourish? We've been doing this sort of thing for decades now. We know what's going to happen. No need to do research. There's a mountain of empirical data.

What alternatives were considered? There has to be a better approach.

Post reply on HN