Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

El Chapo and the History of the Heroin Crisis

esquire.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 74 posts

Re: El Chapo and the History of the Heroin Crisis

#41

Post by nobleach »

The opener really frustrates me. It's basically saying that if these folks have no choice but to engage in illegal activity. If their product somehow becomes legal, well.... we shouldn't have done that... because now they have to sell something worse.

OR, OR, they could stop manufacturing poison and perhaps get a legitimate job and stop making money off of people with serious problems.

Weed doesn't kill.... heroin does nothing but kill. I guess I can't lay the blame totally on the manufacturers, but my god.... quit acting like their careers somehow deserve to exist one way or another and it's the USA's fault.

Re: El Chapo and the History of the Heroin Crisis

#42

Post by triplesec »

joering2 wrote: post #3

I stopped reading after the lead: > If you wonder why America is in the grips of a heroin epidemic that kills two hundred people a week About 3,000 people died today and about 60,000 got seriously injured in car accidents TODAY, according to ASIRT. I think the word "grips" is a bit of stretch here, no? > take a hard look at the legalization of pot, which destroyed the profits of the Mexican cartels. How is that legal…

I forget he name of the fallacy you are committing but it is some kind of a decoy or red herring one, whereby you are attempting to deny the problem is real because of another problem you hold is more important.

Re: El Chapo and the History of the Heroin Crisis

#43

Post by _asummers »

cmdrfred wrote: post #34
Crito wrote: post #9

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…

With my friend it was Xanax that got him started. He was 14, at 19 he was dead from heroin. Nicest guy in the world. Never touched the stuff beacuse of his example. Thanks Russell.

Apologies if any of the following questions seem inappropriate, and if you don't feel like answering for whatever reason don't feel at all compelled to satisfy my curiosity. Sorry to hear about your friend.

Did you know when he made the transition to heroin? Did he ever try to stop at any point? Did you even know that he was on it before it was too late? Were his doctors aware that the Xanax that was being prescribed was being abused? Did they cut that off at any point, potentially leading him to fill the gap with other substances? Did this guy have a good support system in general?

Re: El Chapo and the History of the Heroin Crisis

#45

Post by pm90 »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #23
DigitalJack wrote: post #21

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?

>> "In fact, for me, marijuana makes me even more accutely aware of physical discomfort. Am I just an oddball?" Nope. It's the same for me. What I eventually worked out (I'm not 100% sure of this but I'm pretty certain) is that the strain of marijuana is important. Unfortunately I don't get to choose in my country :) But if it's a strain that gives a body high I become more aware of the pain, if it's not I become les…

Here is another reason for the decriminalization of Marijuana: I'm pretty sure there would be a lot more research into genuine medical benefits of marijuana if it wasn't dissociated with breaking the law.

I'm curios if Federal research grants can be allowed to study the medical benefits of Marijuana? I know states have made medical marijuana legal but most funding in research comes from Federal agencies.

Re: El Chapo and the History of the Heroin Crisis

#46

Post by [deleted] »

nobleach wrote: post #41

The opener really frustrates me. It's basically saying that if these folks have no choice but to engage in illegal activity. If their product somehow becomes legal, well.... we shouldn't have done that... because now they have to sell something worse. OR, OR, they could stop manufacturing poison and perhaps get a legitimate job and stop making money off of people with serious problems. Weed doesn't kill.... heroin do…

[deleted]

Re: El Chapo and the History of the Heroin Crisis

#47

Post by rjsw »

graycat wrote: post #29
jjulius wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're using a browser version from January 2015 (it's currently at 48.0 as of 8/2/16), and your OS has not had support from Microsoft since 4/8/14. Your system is in desperate need of an upgrade, which could help prevent viruses. The longer you operate an outdated system, the likelier you are to encounter a virus.

Deleted.

One reason to upgrade from XP to something newer is to be able to use WiFi, my one remaining XP laptop won't do WPA.

Re: El Chapo and the History of the Heroin Crisis

#48

Post by MichaelGG »

rcarrigan87 wrote: post #39
mattnewton wrote: post #37

> 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…

Agreed, the cartels are just reacting to an increase in demand for heroin.

And it's the strict scheduling, the intimation tactics with doctors, that causes people to resort to buying street opiates instead of certified, regulated, opiates like OxyContin (or cheaper alternatives).

Re: El Chapo and the History of the Heroin Crisis

#49

Post by MichaelGG »

bluedino wrote: post #44

Heroin is cheap. Really, really cheap. It's really, really addicting. It's easy to overdose on. And people mix it with shit like fentanyl which makes it even easier to kill yourself with. It's a really terrible drug.

Heroin can be a useful medication. Street opiates are bad because there's no regulation. It's not inherent in the medication. Take _anything_ and vary the strength/purity by 50x and see how many people die. A 50x dose of Tylenol will kill you just as well (more painful, actually).

Re: El Chapo and the History of the Heroin Crisis

#50

Post by hackaflocka »

dmix wrote: post #35
misiti3780 wrote: post #31

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...

I'm curious if there are any other analogies in history of societal problems that was so widely misunderstood yet spent ungodly amounts of human time, money, and jail time was spent trying to stop in all the wrong ways. 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 probl…

Marijuana has been consumed in India forever. It was smoked just like tobacco is today. By a lot of people in society (including high and low status women).

Never was a problem. Probably led to some of the spirituality and mathematics of ancient India.

However, it was the natural variety. Not the genetically optimized powder keg stuff available today.

Post reply on HN