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

Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 164 posts

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#91

Post by ianleeclark »

kukx wrote: post #88
ianleeclark wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crazy to think someone would prefer unemployment to being coughed on by a jet ski salesman while waiting tables at a cheesecake factory.

I am not sure, if it is agreement or disagreement with my observation. And while I assume some people may genuinely be scared of the infection... It is hard not to notice that while the lockdown started the beaches were flooded with people. And I will not blame someone flipping burgers for preferring free money to their job. Having a low paid, boring job I would definitively prefer the free money and the free time. A…

> But it is nonetheless in the long term very harmful to the society and to the economic perspectives of normal people.

Why is it harmful to the economic prospects of people? Our economy literally relies on consumption. High rates of consumption.

> The free money will be paid for in the years to come and it will be a long lasting burden.

First thing: I reject the notion of "free money." It is money that is borrowed by people at time of crisis. Government works for the people, in theory, so it is the people borrowing the money from their descendants in order to weather a storm today without having a complete collapse.

Secondly literally everything in our economy runs on debt. The idea is you outgrow your debt. If you want to have the whole "abolishing capitalism" conversation, that's a big suggestion to say the least, but the two ideas you're suggesting are either criminal or history defining:

1.) Just let all the poors die

2.) We have nothing to lose but our chains

> But if not, the future looks painful.

Were a sovereign nation we can literally just write it off.

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#92

Post by clairity »

prostoalex wrote: post #22
kukx wrote: post #14

There are more and more reasons to open back the economy. Does it make sense to keep stalling? Most likely some people will avoid the infection this way, but at what cost to others.

From https://www.wsj.com/articles/masks-could-help-stop-coronavir... > Hong Kong, with 7.5 million residents, is one of the most densely populated places on earth, but recorded only six deaths from Covid-19 despite having no lockdown and receiving nearly 350,000,travelers a day from abroad until authorities started reducing cross-border travel on January 30. > The key secret of Hong Kong’s success, Prof. Yuen said, i…

unlike the implication of the wsj title, the real takeaway is that physical distancing is the primary mechanism of prevention, with mask-wearing for when you can't distance (like during rush hour in hong kong). it's not lockdowns, it's not masks all the time, and it's not no masks all the time. it's both more nuanced and simpler than most people, on all sides, want to accept.

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#93

Post by flattone »

perardi wrote: post #55
flattone wrote: post #6

A lot of drug trade has stopped due to border closures. Obviously cannot reveal sources. I guess technically i am the source of info, knowing folks who are nervous to make house payments due to mexico border

A lot of not-that-illegal-but-still-illegal drugs that are manufactured in bulk in China and India are still coming in just fine. Source: my sources.

Whats the confrontational tone for?

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#94

Post by rwnspace »

joshspankit wrote: post #80
ideals wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This time period also seems to be radicalizing people at an accelerated rate. After that USAF military police sergeant murdered a cop and federal security officer I started investigating some of these communities and they're growing. Not just the right-wing "race war" types either. Both sides of the political spectrum are growing their radicalized bases. The communists and the facists types are both radicalizing arou…

Just please watch out: the polarization you see on the internet (no matter where you see it) is rarely a reflection of the face-to-face reality. There is much more kindness and tolerance when people are face to face. Always has been. The danger, the reason I point this out, is that when people see too much of it on the internet they start to lose faith in humanity, and they start projecting that world view on to the…

There are some societal functions, some conversations which cannot be conducted over the Internet. And the rest of them probably ought not to be.

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#95

Post by quickthrowman »

pstrateman wrote: post #86
Tiktaalik wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not this. After all to get CERB you need to show how you've been put out of work due to covid 19. How do you do this when you have no job or fixed address? How do you do this if you're a sex worker selling sex for survival and your occupation is illegal? A side effect of covid19 is that drugs have become more scarce and expensive due to the border shutdown. This may be having an impact.

> A side effect of covid19 is that drugs have become more scarce and expensive due to the border shutdown. This may be having an impact. Wait, less drugs, more overdoses... what?

It’s possible that the limited supply of drugs lowers opiate tolerance enough where the fentanyl causes an overdose. Like when an addict relapses and does the same dose they used to with a much lower tolerance and ends up ODing.

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#96

Post by quickthrowman »

starkd wrote: post #28
ethanbond wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Potentially a factor, but don’t you also think widespread unemployment and general trauma - collective and individual - could play a role?

Drug addiction will cause people to do truly unthinkable things. They get a wad of cash, the only thing they think about is drugs, and to hell with anything else. It's amazing how it re-prioritizes the structure of the brain.

As someone who has experienced it, it’s absolutely unreal just how thoroughly your priorities shift towards the substance. Everything revolves around it, nothing and no one else matters until that need is fulfilled.

I’m glad I’ve escaped that hellacious ride (for now)

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#97

Post by smilewide »

yingw787 wrote: post #8

I remember talking to a technically minded friend about my clinical depression, and I remember how she mentioned building an app to help solve it. I remember thinking at the time how sometimes building an app isn't the solution to a problem. Sometimes the best solutions are the simplest, most straightforward, and the least innovative ones: voting in policymakers who craft empathetic public policy, donating to charity…

This reminds me indirectly of a great metaphor from The Wire. One of the working class guys is buying a bird and asks the handler, "Why don't they fly away?"

"Because their wings are clipped."

Not directly applicable, but thinking you can just provide job training or an app or whatever and solve this problem is incredibly naive.

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#98

Post by jjtheblunt »

Darmody wrote: post #64
jjtheblunt wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar : moved cross country for work, felt for a few days lonely, then somehow thought "not as lonely as pets in shelters", adopted one, total improvement for both!

Good to hear. Pets are amazing.

Especially at least pairs: when the human is tired, they are like "oh well; let's play with one another".

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#99

Post by mattigames »

dkdk8283 wrote: post #90

Despair deaths will be the true toll of this pandemic. I feel very sorry for everyone who is getting screwed by the extreme response to the virus.

The delay on the response in America is the real cause of the current situation including the despair involved, countries such as Japan or New Zealand that quickly took effective measures such as make everyone use face mask[0] or early closing of airports are pretty much back to normal already; America didn't close early, and more troublesome some people took being mask-less a political matter, others believe a conspiracy around it, and others render it useless by taking it off every 5 minutes due being mildly uncomfortable.

[0] https://twitter.com/ericgeller/status/1277693321037611013

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#100

Post by dkdk8283 »

starkd wrote: post #25
WilTimSon wrote: post #4

Hardly a surprise, I'm sure suicide rates and alcohol consumption are going up as well. It's a combination of loneliness, lack of supervision (can't find a better word, I mean someone who could help in case of an overdose), despair about the future. This pandemic is unprecedented for the modern people, many don't have the means to deal with it psychologically.

A doom and gloom from the media isn't helping either. It's one thing to provide information, but the endless speculation about "how bad its going to get" is irresponsible.

The media stopped being about journalism long ago. It’s now infotainment. Our media is destroying the USA.
Post reply on HN