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My experience of losing a friend to heroin (2020)

mattlakeman.org

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Re: My experience of losing a friend to heroin (2020)

#31

Post by dustintrex »

costcopizza wrote: post #27
colinmhayes wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think he’s implying if he had that outlet, maybe heroin would have never been encountered.

He was first prescribed opiates for an injury.

Re: My experience of losing a friend to heroin (2020)

#33

Post by SkittyDog »

aeze wrote: post #12
hh3k0 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Tell that to the family of a gambling addict, or an alcoholic. They're vanishingly unlikely to kill themselves, but they leave a similar wake of misery in the lives of everyone around them.

Re: My experience of losing a friend to heroin (2020)

#34

Post by dminor »

> There are people and places who specialize in these things. You find them through Google and you use them.

> Maybe a Slate Star Codex/Less Wrong reader would start diving into the efficacy rates of different treatment options and crawl through peer-review studies...

The best evidence based treatment for opioid addiction is Buprenorphine. Sadly you will not hear that from all treatment/rehab providers.

Re: My experience of losing a friend to heroin (2020)

#35

Post by drran »

yulaow wrote: post #23
nostromo wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Of course you shouldn't only decriminalized, you must in parallel fund social services and clinics to help drug abusers. Else it's just useless

> it's just useless

Why? Cannabis market thrive is US. More and more people use cannabis every day, making profits for sellers. Some people will switch to hard drugs and die, of course, but car incidents are not stopping car sales.

Re: My experience of losing a friend to heroin (2020)

#36

Post by s5300 »

jokethrowaway wrote: post #18
nostromo wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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.

Do you also think that we should forcefully push the Sacklers & all of their paid off politicians out of the nation for what they've done?

Re: My experience of losing a friend to heroin (2020)

#37

Post by swearwolf »

nostromo wrote: post #14
codr7 wrote: post #13

Earlier 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 feel the same way. I was so excited to see a decriminalization measure on the ballot. A year after it took effect, our drug problems are worse than ever. It turns out that for the Portugal model to work correctly, there needs to be carrot and stick, but Portland only opted to implement the carrot, and the quality of life here has gotten much, much worse in a very short amount of time.

Re: My experience of losing a friend to heroin (2020)

#38

Post by ioseph »

colinmhayes wrote: post #19
aazaa wrote: post #4

> 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.

That was certainly not my experience, it was an intense physical pleasure but ultimately devoid of mental depth. Having tried most drugs I really think the whole addicted after one dose is bullshit and it's far more about your social economic circumstances.

It's much more tempting to seek out another hit if you have nothing better to do that day.

Re: My experience of losing a friend to heroin (2020)

#39

Post by hpoe »

jokethrowaway wrote: post #18
nostromo wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

If you don't mind me asking what incident let to you to taking to such a hardline stance? I don't necessarily disagree or agree I just would love to hear that kind of perspective?

Re: My experience of losing a friend to heroin (2020)

#40

Post by yholio »

8bitsrule wrote: post #29

My condolences to anyone who's lost a friend or relative to addiction - thanks to the human vultures who reap the rewards. It's possible that by vigorously pursuing and prosecuting the people who can afford to purchase and disseminate hard narcotics - instead of the users and a pusher or two - most of the problem would dry up. I'm not optimistic about that happening. The little guys are easier to catch, and caps are…

Or maybe you could move the other way: treat addiction as a disease and provide free, pharmaceutical grade product or methadone substitutes to all that request it, if they suffer from addiction. It costs essentially nothing.

This will not only kill the bulk of market and force dealers out in the open to find new, high risk recreational customers as opposed to cash cow addicts; but will also give a livable life to the addicts by preventing the financial and personal ruin brought by addiction to a substance that is made artificially scarce and expensive.

Most of the problems with addiction stem from this scarcity, not addiction itself: addicts take up a criminal activities to finance their consumption, lose all property and social capital, the product has high variability in potency and adulterants and is very risky to consume, they have to deal with criminals on a daily basis to get it etc.

https://time.com/6108812/drug-deaths-safe-supply-opioids/

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