I never understood how people get into drugs like this, I also never judge because we often get to where we are on paths we did not set out on or hope to take. watching this video and seeing in just one city in a several hour span what is happening around the entire country is so sad. and of course the paramedics giving the medicine saves those peoples lives but does not “fix” them I imagine most of these people and all the 100x thousands(million?) around the country who have hit rock bottom and are addicted to these drugs will wind up losing their life to these drugs.
http://www.local10.com/news/local-10-investigates/heroin-fentanyl-overdose-calls-overwhelm-miami-first-responders
It’s really bad here in Ohio. Has everyone seen the photo of the passed out grandmother and boyfriend in the car?
http://myfox8.com/2016/09/15/grandmother-in-viral-ohio-overdose-picture-to-appear-in-court-thursday/
An interesting article on the compound Ibogaine. I believe the answer to addiction can be found here but it is not profitable for large pharma. Someone should be able to figure out how this drug impacts the brain.
If I had a loved one addicted to heroin I would take them out of the US and get them treated today.
…"Undeterred, Mash took matters into her own hands and opened a private clinical research center on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts in 1996, where she treated more than 300 patients with ibogaine and collected data for almost a decade.
“The thing we learned straight away was that the ibogaine detox was 98 percent effective for opiate withdrawals,” Mash said of its short-term detoxification rate. “I couldn’t believe it.”
The patients reported back no cravings for drugs, no desire to run out and get high and, perhaps most impressively, none of the usual painful withdrawals.
About half of her patients were still clean and sober for at least a year after treatment."…
In this case a lot of it starts with prescription painkillers. Over the past 15 years S, D, H, and myself have ALL been prescribed controlled substances at one time or another for pain. We’ve all been at risk of becoming a statistic.
Prescribing potentially addictive drugs has been taken way too lightly in recent years, IMHO. Now we are seeing where that can lead, an no one is immune. Many in the public are still not waking up to this and continue to see it as something that happens to the weak-willed, or the inner city, or whatever, so it is likely to get worse before it gets better. Hopefully, medical doctors are beginning to rethink their free-wheeling dispensing of the most powerful substances we are entrusting them with.
Heroin is epidemic in my state. Seems like a lot of meth users are cycling to heroin. Several area police departments, plus the state police, have trained and given their officers Narcan in the last 2-3 months. It’s unbelievable (to me), how often they are needing to use it.
It is sad. I’m not sure all or most of it started with painkillers. I try not to judge, although I get frustrated Narcan is free and children dying from allergies can’t buy an Epipen. It’s more difficult for me not to get judgmental when people are using or cooking with kids in the car or house.
I watched a special on HBO about the heroin epidemic on Cape Cod. It was eye-opening.
A friends’s daughter died of a heroin overdose. She was able to successfully detox but the waiting list for longer-term treatment was such that she couldn’t immediately get the treatment she desperately needed. She accidentally overdosed in her bedroom a couple of weeks away from entering a residential program.
From what I understand this is common-the abuser is able to initially get off heroin but without the long-term therapy and support needed to change their larger patterns at some point they go back to the drug, and because their body is no longer used to the high dosages they could handle after building up their tolerance, what used to be their normal dose kills them.
At the funeral the mom, a wonderful, caring teacher who did all she could for her daughter, begged her daughter’s friends to come back to the house after the service so she could talk with them about their options. It was incredibly painful to see the devastation the addiction of their only child wrought on this family.
It’s all the pill popping. People especially teenagers take pills like oxi thinking it’s a harmless recreational drug. They end up getting hook and when the pills get too expensive they turn to heroin.
" I watched a special on HBO about the heroin epidemic on Cape Cod. It was eye-opening. "
I also watched this because it was filmed where I grew up. One of the mothers from the support group was a former classmate of mine.
I have old friends both there and where I live that have either lost their children to over doses or deal with the addiction of their loved ones.
I agree that a lot of it starts with pain killers being overly prescribed.
If there is one thing I have learned, no one is immune from this. It is terrifying to me
Heroine use and deaths are absolutely rampant around here. It seems that I lose a friend of a friend every 3 months like clockwork. But it has been this way for several years. It started when my best friend’s little brother was a senior so that would have been 10-11.
I’m not actually sure if deaths and use are rising (legitimately not sure- haven’t looked at statistics) or if it’s rising in certain, more visible, communities.
Two of my best friends from childhood have been battling drug abuse since our early teens. One has had her kids taken away from her and the other is constantly in and out of prison. One comes from a slum and another from a solidly upper middle class neighborhood. There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of rhyme or reason .
ETA: Predictably, this just appeared in my newfeed. He (the one with the bat) is a friend’s cousin. http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2016/09/22/Jury-convicts-man-who-beat-wifes-drug-dealer.html
About pills, a colleague had minor/moderate dental work and was prescribed a dozen oxycontin pills. He said he didn’t want them. Apparently dentists are partly to blame for all the opiods out there.
^Alll the vicodin in my house comes from dentists. Doctors don’t prescribe anything stronger than tylenol with codeine.
^D was prescribed oxycodone for a bout of e-coli. Not from a dentist. Codeine is also an opiate and is also addictive.
My son was given Oxy for his wisdom teeth removal. He only took one and never needed/wanted any more pain pills or even Advil after the first day.
I had a profound back injury 30+ years ago and was given lots of pain killers. I’m thankful a coworker told me early on not to take everything I was given. Apparently some of these addicts get their start from legal prescriptions.
My state has just made it legal for anyone to administer Narcain to those who overdose. I wonder if EMT’s are now required to give it? No good can come from reviving someone like that grandmother. I suppose they have to.
I’ve had more dental procedures than I can count (complicated wisdom teeth surgery, root canal, etc) and have never been prescribed oxy or similar by a dentist. And I’ve been to several different dentists. I almost wonder if this differs by area. Like I said above, we’ve had this probably for (what seems like) a much longer time than most other areas of the country. Maybe this made our area dentists more conservative.
I’m lucky in that I don’t have an addictive personality. I’ve been on opiate pain meds several times for post-surgery pain and have never had a difficult time getting off of it. I say lucky because there are several people in my family who are addicts, including my uncle who passed away several years ago from drug and alcohol abuse.
Yet, my doctors and I are still keeping that option as a very last resort for my current pain. No need to tempt fate unless absolutely necessary.
That ibogaine sounds like the new laetrile.
A good book is Romancing Opiates by Theodore Dalrymple.
There is always a flavor of the day among drug addicts and always a next generation willing to take it.
Opiate addicts can have their own narcan, sort of like an EpiPen, to administer to themselves (or “friends”).
I heard a public defender on PBS the other day ask the following question- why did the police and courts deal with the crack epidemic in the way they did and are dealing with the heroin epidemic completely differently.
tom1944 the 1980’s was very different than 2016! there is no mood in the country for a hard core “war” on drugs and as you know marijuana is legalized in many places and many more are coming on board.(that is a major change in itself) it may shift(if the culture shifts) but america is moving toward a different overall position on drugs. just like gay marriage…etc…unthinkable in say 1986.
I take care of their babies in the NICU 
Of course they have to.