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[1] https://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Scream-First-Last-Drugs/dp/16...
If you haven't, I highly suggest you read Don Winslow's two books about this: The Power of the Dog and The Cartel. Both are fantastic.
For example, Adán Barrera—the main antagonist in The Cartel—is based on one of the Arellano Felix brothers in The Power of the Dog, but then takes on Chapo Guzman's persona in The Cartel.
But when you realize that a lot of what Winslow describes actually happened in real life it puts a lot of things into perspective—especially the US's involvement on both sides of the coin.
Of the people I've known who died due to heroin, all of them got started off on narcotic pain killers prescribed by unscrupulous doctors. One of my friends in university got hooked on pills his doctor prescribed for his back pain. The guy was 300+lbs, maybe that had something to do with the pain? Who cares, pump him full of pills! A year later he was on heroin. Three years later he was dead. Nobody but a complete deg…
If anyone wants to read a really great book about this topic i suggest "Chasing the Scream"[1]. This book made me think about drug addiction in a completely different way and also change my mind about legalization -- of all drugs, including heroin. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Scream-First-Last-Drugs/dp/16...
The war on drugs really are the crowning achievement of anti-scientific public policy. Decades of ignoring the results and continuing to try the same thing.
The west isn't the only one with this problem. The DEA has been exporting this failed strategy to other countries for decades. The Philippines has taken the American style war to the extreme: http://www.wsj.com/articles/in-philippines-war-on-drugs-deal...
They've demonstrated that the only way to actually win it like a war is via death squads and the total destruction of human rights. Otherwise governments have to face reality and accept it doesn't work.
So with people here talking about opioids from docs leading to heroin, a question came to mind: If you have been given opioids for pain, did they work? I ask because for me they don’t. I get buzzed, euphoric, but they don’t do squat for pain for me. Same with marijuana. No effect on my pain at all. In fact, for me, marijuana makes me even more accutely aware of physical discomfort. Am I just an oddball?
That seems like an unfair potshot. Why not emphasize: "An increasing number of Americans were addicted to prescription opioids such as Oxycontin."
If anyone wants to read a really great book about this topic i suggest "Chasing the Scream"[1]. This book made me think about drug addiction in a completely different way and also change my mind about legalization -- of all drugs, including heroin. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Scream-First-Last-Drugs/dp/16...
> If you wonder why America is in the grips of a heroin epidemic that kills two hundred people a week, take a hard look at the legalization of pot, which destroyed the profits of the Mexican cartels. How did they respond to a major loss in revenue? Like any company, they created an irresistible new product and flooded the market. That seems like an unfair potshot. Why not emphasize: "An increasing number of Americans…
So with people here talking about opioids from docs leading to heroin, a question came to mind: If you have been given opioids for pain, did they work? I ask because for me they don’t. I get buzzed, euphoric, but they don’t do squat for pain for me. Same with marijuana. No effect on my pain at all. In fact, for me, marijuana makes me even more accutely aware of physical discomfort. Am I just an oddball?
They make a huge difference to my current near-constant headaches (cause unknown). Non-opioids (high dose ibuprofen, naproxen, amitriptyline etc.) make little to no difference, but fairly weak opioids (codeine, tramadol) make a noticeable difference. I generally react well to them - low doses have a pronounced analgesic effect without side-effects (euphoria [obviously it is noticed at higher doses, but I don't need that for adequate pain relief] etc.), and they don't cause dependence (stopped the tramadol cold turkey after ~1 years use, and was completely fine other than the headaches returning).
As with pretty much any drug, the individual effects are fairly variable. I tried zopiclone for insomnia, and it produced unpleasant side-effects (rooms looked to be filled with yellow light, even during the night, and memory issues - being in one room then suddenly finding yourself in another with no memory of the intervening minutes is extremely unnerving).