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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)

#461

Post by goatsi »

damontal wrote: post #394
refurb wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it scary? Heroin isn’t unique in this aspect. I had a friend tell me “when I had the first drink ever my first thought was ‘I want to feel like this the rest of my life’”. He was sucked in right away and struggled for years to break that hold. Plenty of people feel that way and practically kill themselves with alcohol, opioids, cocaine and even food. And plenty of people take opioids equivalent to heroin and s…

Say you use heroin or have used it in the past. Now you have to go in for some kind of surgery. Guess what? The opiate pain meds won't work for you! I've seen it first hand. It's awful. Hospitals are only allowed to give so much and if you're a user or were a user, the amount they give you won't touch your pain. Guy who used heroin shattered his hand in a fall off a roof. Had pins put in. When he came around after su…

Opioid tolerance will absolutely decline if you stop using. it's actually a significant cause of death. People will quit (or go without due to jail, etc) and then relapse with the same dose they has used before and have a fatal overdose.

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

#462

Post by legutierr »

Ansil849 wrote: post #181
legutierr wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jaywalking was instituted as a crime after lobbying by car companies in order to shift the legal liability and moral culpability for pedestrian accidents away from drivers and onto the ordinary people going about their business who were being killed by cars. Your viewpoint with regards to jaywalking is the successful outcome of a propaganda campaign first instituted by people who have probably been dead now for nearl…

So, I take it that you have never ridden in a car? And if you have, you've explicitly assumed responsibility for or complicity with, the potential taking of a life of a pedestrian? Is that what you are saying?

As far as I know, jaywalking is not a crime or a violation where I live. At least, no laws against it are ever enforced. It has never been a problem. Everyone just has to be observant and careful.

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

#463

Post by qaq »

diordiderot wrote: post #454
qaq wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also most likely support Trump and not left leaning policies.

The mitochondria is the power house of the cell. An equally related fact

The people you gave as an example who would benefit from EU style policies but are not in a position to move are people who are actively against implementing that style of policies. Which is much more relevant fact than a random factoid. E.G. their pref is trade barriers and on-shoring of jobs not socialism.

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

#464

Post by musicale »

nwienert wrote: post #47
dustintrex wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He was first prescribed opiates for an injury.

Just to throw in my 2c, I’ve had dilaudid a few times for an injury and other opiates for various reasons, and while they feel great, they really never cross my mind much and I don’t hold them close to many sober experiences. Not even as good as other drugs, of which I could list 3-4 I’d consider as or more enjoyable. The above comment feels like a really dramatic description of opiates. I don’t think most anyone wit…

As I understand it, even mild pain medications like ibuprofen (for women though apparently not for men) and acetominophen can relieve emotional pain as well as physical pain.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180206090700.h...

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-courage-our-conn...

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

#465

Post by killtimeatwork »

rsj_hn wrote: post #289
killtimeatwork wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure about that. Norway or Sweden are infinitely more progressive than the US and yet people there are neither in poverty nor in Gulags. Are you saying it's only a matter of time until they end up there? What's your estimated timeframe for that?

In what sense is Sweden infinitely more progressive? Is it the privatized retirement accounts, for-profit privatized schooling, privatized police forces, privatized public transit, privatized welfare, or having the most billionaires per capita? Sweden is a social democracy that has generous welfare benefits, which are funded primarily via sales taxes (VAT) of 25%[2] and "high, but flat" income taxes[3] that are much…

State-funded university-level studies. State-funded health care. Brutal control over the flat rental market (at least in Stockholm).

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

#466

Post by barbs »

asdff wrote: post #451
barbs wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that it's criminalized causes those sorts of marginalized camps and cartels to form in the first place. Even if they were cleared out, they would simply move elsewhere.

What I'm saying is that its de facto decriminalized and this is the result. If it were criminalized you wouldn't be able to live like this unhindered and unchecked on any particular piece of public land you can find. If it were decriminalized nominally, nothing would change, because people aren't being criminalized for meth use currently.

I'm not sure what you mean, drug possession is still criminalized? Has been for years, and drug use still happens, it just creates conditions which increase crime and unsafe use.

Unless, do you mean that the laws aren't enforced enough, hence the drug use outside law enforcement? I would argue that increased enforcement still doesn't help the problem, and crime and drug harm increase. Not to mention the public costs of enforcing these laws and imprisoning people on small drug charges with mandatory minimum sentences.

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

#468

Post by thatcat »

TimTheTinker wrote: post #42
wespiser_2018 wrote: post #24

Good write up. The US is really grappling with diseases of despair, and heroin/fentanyl addition is on of the biggest ones impacting the wellbeing of our society. A massive slice of talent and raw human resource is just dying every year, but the solutions that have worked in other countries are just impossible to implement here due because the the methods that are known to work are politically dead on arrival. I'm a…

> we seem to have this huge moral hang up in the US about giving addicts drugs For many people, what you're describing all comes down to the law of love. It is not loving to give a person more of the thing that is destroying them. Perhaps free methadone would be a better option? EDIT: care to comment? I'd like to know why people disagree.

Its not loving to control another person with draconian measures that further harm them with criminal sanctions that cause economic stress and stigmatize the person socially. Love would be creating a social environment that is capable of providing safer options, therapy, and letting people make their own choice about their health instead of treating them like criminals.

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

#469

Post by thatcat »

vintermann wrote: post #300
standardUser wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More often than not, lives are in greater threat of being "destroyed" by the consequences of drug prohibition than the drugs themselves. Addiction is a serious health problem, but impure drugs that lead to overdose deaths, spreading disease through needle use, avoiding medical care for fear of legal consequences, going to jail and having a criminal record, and becoming involved in black market violence are all vastly…

I disagree. Alcohol, being legal, has very few of these problems, and it still causes immense damage to its users - more so than illegal drugs, by many measures. Which is not to say there aren't humane reasons to fix these problems, especially if they aren't effective at reducing drug use anyway. But yeah, drugs actually are a huge problem and would be even if they were legal and free for all.

Alcohol is legal bc fermentation is easy so restrictions fail, not bc its harmless. Weed is by comparison harmless but easy and lucrative to enforce laws against. The reason for legalization isnt bc drugs are good, its abt the emerging economic dynamic with drug dealers and drug enforcement. drugs have become a profit center for the state and it has created perverse incentives that do not benefit the end user or society.

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

#470

Post by MisterMower »

zer0tonin wrote: post #326
MisterMower wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every user made a choice to use at some point. We need to find ways to make that choice more costly. Punish users. Make examples out of people. Give them long prison sentences. Have the Ad Council run anti-drug ads. If users are in prison, they can’t buy street drugs. If you destroy demand, you’ll crush the cartel’s bottom line. But that would end the nice gig the DEA, cartels, and drug addicted in this country have…

Your whole comment is so naive about the economics of drug trafficking but I think: > If users are in prison, they can’t buy street drugs. is really the ultimate cherry on top. Do you really think prison contraband is extinct?

Just to make sure I understand, you're saying it's just as easy to obtain drugs in prison as it is on the streets?
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