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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)

#91

Post by suzzer99 »

beebmam wrote: post #45
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…

It's not popular here on Hacker News due to its libertarian bent, but I'm of the opinion that we should even more brutal to illegal drug production, trafficking, and selling than what we currently are. I've lost 2 friends to fentanyl poisoning in the last 3 years, and I lost my brother 10 years ago to chronic meth use. I'm so utterly sick of this.

Sure would be nice if the Sacklers faced any consequences.

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

#93

Post by mythrwy »

headgasket wrote: post #78

It’s probably a bad forum for this opinion, but I have a relative struggling with addiction and resulting mental issues ( resulting form substance abuse; he was highly functional and threw it all away), and because of this I made a 180 and think some form of prohibition for hard stuff is the only action that would help us. How to put that cat in the bag is anyone’s guess.

Invent better (less harmful, more desirable) drugs?

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

#94

Post by standardUser »

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…

The US has waged a war on drug for several generations with virtually unlimited funding and has made no progress on that goal whatsoever. What makes you think it could ever work, despite the mountains and decades of evidence that it has failed?

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

#95

Post by oaktrout »

I know someone just like Jack (some of the similarities were shocking). They have a home to go to, a loving family, a large and supportive friend group, opportunities for work. They are not dead yet, but having been through prison, buprenorphine, and multiple expensive rehabs, I begin to wonder what the solution for them is. If there is anyone here who has beat this addiction perhaps it would be insightful for them to post what worked for them.

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

#96

Post by standardUser »

beebmam wrote: post #45
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…

It's not popular here on Hacker News due to its libertarian bent, but I'm of the opinion that we should even more brutal to illegal drug production, trafficking, and selling than what we currently are. I've lost 2 friends to fentanyl poisoning in the last 3 years, and I lost my brother 10 years ago to chronic meth use. I'm so utterly sick of this.

It's not popular because it's illogical in the face of all evidence. The highest incarceration rate in the world over several decades and seemingly endless funding for anti-drug efforts failed in every respect (but ruined countless lives in the process).

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

#97

Post by ipnon »

headgasket wrote: post #78

It’s probably a bad forum for this opinion, but I have a relative struggling with addiction and resulting mental issues ( resulting form substance abuse; he was highly functional and threw it all away), and because of this I made a 180 and think some form of prohibition for hard stuff is the only action that would help us. How to put that cat in the bag is anyone’s guess.

I sympathize, but these drugs are already as prohibited as they're going to get. Possession, manufacture and distribution are punished by years and years of prison time. It doesn't make a difference.

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

#99

Post by quickthrowman »

rkk3 wrote: post #86
yholio wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Giving free, safe drugs will depress demand for illegal drugs: most dealers are users, and are pushed to a high risk criminal activity - drug dealing - in order to finance their expensive habit. They take extraordinary risk for this, including actively seeking out new clients. If you give out free product, you not only kill the primary demand, but most dealers themselves don't have a reason to continue taking risks -…

> most dealers are users, and are pushed to a high risk criminal activity - drug dealing - in order to finance their expensive habit Source?

The smaller the transaction amount, the larger chance that the dealer is going to have an addiction of their own. It’s easier for one wholesaler to sell to an addict (or several) that distributes small amounts to a bunch of other addicts, vs taking on all the volume yourself. Addicts usually know other addicts and have a strong incentive to sell, they need cash every single day.

I doubt you’ll find a source, but the number of users distributing small amounts is probably larger than the amount of people pushing weight (who usually don’t use)

This is based of my experience buying heroin in a mid-sized US metro area, fortunately far in my past. One without an open-air drug market, so deals were done in cars or alleys.

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

#100

Post by Retric »

standardUser wrote: post #87
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…

"Anyone that is addicted to drugs can get the drugs they want, they just have to already be addicted first" All that does is create a perfect window for new users to use tainted black market drugs and die. It's also essentially a government endorsement of the black market and the violence that comes with it. I think we need to move past those cowardly policies and craft laws that respect the reality that drug use wil…

It seriously harms the black market for these drugs. Opioids are an escalating addiction so new users are simply less profitable. Eventually illegal opioids can consume an almost unlimited budget, but shift heavy users to government supply and suddenly it’s a much less profitable business.

The Swiss are roughly 1/10th as likely to use opioids as Americans and of their users ~85% are in rehab. Relatively speaking it’s a tiny illegal drug market.

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