Checking in from Northwestern Poland. Lost my dearest cousin and best friend when he turned 27 (yep that age). I don't have any more tears left. Been crying for a decade.
My experience of losing a friend to heroin (2020)
11–20 of 497 posts
Re: My experience of losing a friend to heroin (2020)
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
This seems a little insensitive given the original is about a friend dying from drug overdose and video games aren't deadly.
I mean, kids occasionally die from video game marathons. (And in places where heroin is legal, addicts rarely die from overdose.) That said, death is not all that can ruin a life.
Comparing the two is a stretch...
Re: My experience of losing a friend to heroin (2020)
#13Would providing free and clean heroin in safe, monitored sites be a solution? Starve the black market of clients, give people support and safety when they need it, as well as the time required to get their life back together enough to take a leap.
Decriminalizing use is the only sane solution; using and/or being addicted to a substance is not a crime, period.
Re: My experience of losing a friend to heroin (2020)
#14Would providing free and clean heroin in safe, monitored sites be a solution? Starve the black market of clients, give people support and safety when they need it, as well as the time required to get their life back together enough to take a leap.
Decriminalizing use is the only sane solution; using and/or being addicted to a substance is not a crime, period.
I used to believe that — before I lived in a city that effectively decriminalized all drugs.
The result has been a disaster. People on meth run around the streets at night causing chaos. Homeless people on heroin leave needles everywhere. People avoid transit and parks now because there is regularly someone losing his or her mind nearby.
Long sentences aren’t the answer of course. But I do think that sending someone to a Nordic-style prison for a few weeks would be better for these folks than just letting them run free.
By the way, free mental healthcare doesn’t actually work because many of these folks don’t want help and won’t seek it willingly. There needs to be a way to forcefully separate them from the addictive substance for a time, stabilize their drug crisis, and then help them find long term care.
Re: My experience of losing a friend to heroin (2020)
#15I remember my own decade-long struggles with "failing to thrive" and I can assure one can turn your life around, but as author correctly noticed: "The puzzle of getting Jack onto his feet could never be solved because there was a missing piece – Jack wanting to get better".
Re: My experience of losing a friend to heroin (2020)
#16Would providing free and clean heroin in safe, monitored sites be a solution? Starve the black market of clients, give people support and safety when they need it, as well as the time required to get their life back together enough to take a leap.
I imagine it would help with the fentanyl issue. I don't think that anyone would buy fentanyl if they had access to known real heroin that wasn't expensive.
Re: My experience of losing a friend to heroin (2020)
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Decriminalizing use is the only sane solution; using and/or being addicted to a substance is not a crime, period.
I used to believe that — before I lived in a city that effectively decriminalized all drugs. The result has been a disaster. People on meth run around the streets at night causing chaos. Homeless people on heroin leave needles everywhere. People avoid transit and parks now because there is regularly someone losing his or her mind nearby. Long sentences aren’t the answer of course. But I do think that sending someone…
I understand that, although it's difficult to say whether that experiment is indicative of what a nationwide relaxation of drug laws would do. Cities which have decriminalized drugs (removed enforcement) are going to attract a disproportionate number of problematic or homeless addicts from other parts of the country. Cities with a more hospitable climate (in the sense of weather) already have this problem, so I imagine for San Francisco it's a double whammy.
Re: My experience of losing a friend to heroin (2020)
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Decriminalizing use is the only sane solution; using and/or being addicted to a substance is not a crime, period.
I used to believe that — before I lived in a city that effectively decriminalized all drugs. The result has been a disaster. People on meth run around the streets at night causing chaos. Homeless people on heroin leave needles everywhere. People avoid transit and parks now because there is regularly someone losing his or her mind nearby. Long sentences aren’t the answer of course. But I do think that sending someone…
I see the same in London, where everything is illegal.
I think it's unrelated to whether drugs are a crime or not - homeless and drug users in general will find a way to get it.
It's a sad reflection on the state of society and our cities.
Personally, after a terrible experience in Paris, I decided I will avoid all big cities.
I think we should do something about it and forcefully throw homeless and drug users out of cities, but it's not a very popular (or easily enforceable, for that matter) point of view.
Re: My experience of losing a friend to heroin (2020)
#19> I wish I had a happier note to end this on, but honestly, my biggest takeaway from the whole experience is that maybe some puzzles just can’t be solved. We can try to attribute Jack’s problems to intrinsic biological/psychological issues (social phobia, migraines, etc.) or to environmental causes (super high rate of heroin use and OD in the community), but both sides seem fundamentally lacking in explanatory power.…
I'm not sure you understand how good heroin feels. Nothing comes close, especially not Tennis or a wonderful community.
I tried heroin once, and I regret it every day, because I am 100% positive that I will never again be as happy as I was that day. If I didn't have what is effectively a dream job I'm sure that I'd be a heroin addict.
Re: My experience of losing a friend to heroin (2020)
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Decriminalizing use is the only sane solution; using and/or being addicted to a substance is not a crime, period.
I used to believe that — before I lived in a city that effectively decriminalized all drugs. The result has been a disaster. People on meth run around the streets at night causing chaos. Homeless people on heroin leave needles everywhere. People avoid transit and parks now because there is regularly someone losing his or her mind nearby. Long sentences aren’t the answer of course. But I do think that sending someone…
What city?