321–330 of 378 posts
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> Some people seek it out. who's seeking it out? The article doesn't mention it, and the parent poster explicitly say that people are NOT seeking it out.
People that are already addicted may seek out the lowest cost opiate.
Heroin will barely make some feel well.
Fent burns the Mu-opioid receptors, once normalized, H will barely get you high.
and, of course, you literally must have it - especially, to sleep.
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I think quite a lot of people ended up addicted to opioids against their will, by starting with being over prescribed highly addictive pain medication which then ended up making them addicted to opioids, and then later on ended up trying to feed that habit from the streets once the easy access to pain meds dried up. https://www.doj.nh.gov/news/2022/20220303-settlement-purdue-... Personally I've been avoiding oxyconti…
Yep I've seen similar in various countries with a parent. They were prescribed large doses of some opioid pain killers and despite them being aware of the risk of addiction and thus being very careful about dosing (often skipping doses if the pain was tolerable and asking doctors to minimize the dose), in the end they still had a difficult time coming off them. They didn't end up trying to feed that habit from elsewh…
One of the things I recall that made oxycontin so problematic was Purdue's insistence to prescribe it as a 12-hour dose. There was an article I recall reading on the topic:
https://www.latimes.com/projects/oxycontin-part1/
> Experts said that when there are gaps in the effect of a narcotic like OxyContin, patients can suffer body aches, nausea, anxiety and other symptoms of withdrawal. When the agony is relieved by the next dose, it creates a cycle of pain and euphoria that fosters addiction, they said.
> Peter Przekop, a neuroscientist and physician who oversees the treatment of painkiller addicts at the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, said that repeated episodes of withdrawal from OxyContin “absolutely” raise the risk that patients will abuse the medication
To me skipping doses is likely to create those repeated episodes of withdrawal which even when minor can end up screwing with the brain's addiction centers. This is why I'd rather take other options that maybe only work for 5-6 hours instead of 12, but don't build this vicious cycle of addiction like oxy does.
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They’re adding Fentanyl to everything now. I have Burning Man-adjacent friends who take ecstasy once a year at festivals, and they’re terrified of getting a tainted dose. This affects many more people than just those addicted to opiates.
It’s not always added intentionally. I think a huge number of those deaths are complete accidents
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A likely explanation is that China is using the cartels to wage a 21st century opium war. (The obvious link to China being that China produces most of the chemical precursors to fentanyl, and until recently produced most of the fentanyl itself.) The average American drug user isn’t the customer; he, or rather his eventual death or disability, is the product.
More parsimonious explanation is that the PRC bureaucracy isn't going to waste resources cracking down on precursor producers for legal medicine ingredients when it doesn't cause domestic issues, or issues in the majority of countries, including other eight nation alliance members that have exploited China far more than the US. Like why wage 21st century opium war against only 1/8 of historic grudges. The primary inc…
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I have known quite a few friends from earlier in my life who became serious addicts and ruined their lives or ended their lives by it. I would not describe a single one as having started using because they were mad at society, sad, or lonesome. It was always some strange kind of strange, arrogant fetishization of drug-life and crime-life. There is an almost "drug life is THE life, and everyone else is lame" attitude…
Were they bored, did they not have exciting career or family prospects, was it ennui? Low-grade emotions can lead to addictive behaviors, not only high intensity trauma. The decision to subscribe to a malignant anti-authority lifestyle still shows that something is wrong, if it becomes so attractive an alternative to forsake one's life for.
"anyone using [opioids]...wants to die, just a little, i think"
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I feel like your first paragraph and your second one contradict each other. They start for various reasons, like your example of "seeking recreation" and having a certain person nearby. They don't stop because they cannot stop due to a physical addiction. I do not think personal responsibility is the right topic for that once it has gotten to that point. They've entered a state of physical dependence in which the rea…
> They don't stop because they cannot stop due to a physical addiction. What you wrote here is actually the issue I was trying to communicate: The notion that addicts are helpless and that the drug and/or society has already determined their outcome is the problem. This sets up a defeatist attitude where people feel like they shouldn't even try to overcome addiction because their contribution to the equation is 0%. D…
> trying to comfort people by blaming their problems on purely exterior sources
These are not the same thing.
The former is literal truth. The latter hints at intention, blame, denial.
It's not their fault, but they can get through it. You can hold these two simultaneously.
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Were they bored, did they not have exciting career or family prospects, was it ennui? Low-grade emotions can lead to addictive behaviors, not only high intensity trauma. The decision to subscribe to a malignant anti-authority lifestyle still shows that something is wrong, if it becomes so attractive an alternative to forsake one's life for.
Reading HN, I get the strong suspicion many people didn’t grow up around drugs. People don’t always think they are throwing away their lives. They think “this makes me cool” and “it’s no big deal” and “anyone who’s anyone does it”. Often there’s the confident assertion “this ruins other peoples lives but I’m too good/special for that”. And often they don’t even realize it’s a problem, even when they’ve hit rock botto…
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Not really. There are people for whom Fentanyl is the only real choice for use _during_ surgery. I'm one of them, and I don't want doctors mucking about inside my chest without ample pain relief.
Interesting, can you explain why fentanyl is the only real choice, instead of alternatives, please?
I find the idea of a vaccine that makes therapeutic drugs fail to work quite scary personally.
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What about twilight anesthesia? With my cardiac problem, I can't have general anesthetics, but I can have Fentanyl/Midazolam to sedate and numb up a bit. Saying "it's specific to fentanyl" doesn't help those for whom fentanyl is a life saving drug. The reply above that the real issue is WHY Americans like fentanyl so much is on the money in my opinion.
Well the idea is not for everyone to get OUD vaccines. They would be targeted to people with OUD. If you did have OUD, this treatment would unfortunately probably not work for you due to your cardiac problem. However, depending on the severity of OUD and how effective this vaccine turns out to be, it might be worth forgoing the possibility of surgery.
One catch is that if you're undiagnosed with some problem like mine (Brugada Syndrome) you might get the vaccine before you know that's a bad idea. I have, in the past, been dependent on opioids thanks to my broken body, and yeah, getting off them has challenges. But I think the key is WHY some people like them so much. There's something a bit off when the aim is to take so much you vomit but don't die, which I'm given to believe is the "ideal" recreational dose.
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I'm homeless and living in the Tenderloin in San Francisco. People here want you to - Be in a gang (or a prostitute, thief, ex-con and so forth) - Be on drugs (or in rehab for drugs) - Have a mental illness (so you can go to therapy) - Be disabled - Find religion There isn't a position for "I ran out of money and my family wouldn't support me, and at some point finding web development work became too hard as the tech…
I'm sorry for your situation, but you also have to realize, things are partly your fault. You mention you could be a bouncer at a bar, but you would have to go to the gym to develop enough muscle. And possibly start using chemicals to alter your bone density and muscle mass. In your situation, I'd say you have to go "all in" on something, whatever it is. If you just half ass it and complain that the world is against…
` If you just half ass it and complain that the world is against you, you will not go anywhere` This man is homeless what are you talking about?