The OPIOID EPIDEMIC -- Seeking Your Thoughts.

June 29, 2017

Maybe it's due to the current push to reform America's Medical Insurance system, but I'm hearing more and more on the news about an OPIOID addiction problem in America. In fact, some media and politicians are calling it an Opioid EPIDEMIC and even a CRISIS.

Out of curiosity, I Googled to see what Opioids are. Here's what I found at the Government Drug Abuse website: www.drugabuse.gov...

""Every day, more than 90 Americans die after overdosing on opioids. The misuse of, and addiction to opioids—including prescription pain relievers, heroin, and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl—is a serious national crisis that affects public health as well as social and economic welfare.""

It must be really bad in some states, because Congress is preparing to add an additional $45 Billion...yes, BILLION dollars to the revised GOP healthcare bill for fighting this epidemic: nypost.com...

SEEKING YOUR THOUGHTS...

1. It appears that this isn't an addiction that affects only the poor, or only inner-city people.

2. When a Senator, like Susan Collins (R-Maine), says that she needs hundreds of millions of dollars to "fight" this epidemic in her state, what would she use the money for? How do you fight something that's comprised of both legal and illegal drugs?

3. Should we feel sympathy for ADULTS who are addicted? I have a hard time being empathetic for adults who hurt themselves, by smoking, being too fat, taking too many legal drugs, drinking too much, etc.. (fyi..I'm a smoker. The addiction, and potential cancer, are 100% my fault.)

4. Is this particular "mass addiction" to Opioids simply part of the natural decline and deterioration of humankind in general, and America specifically? ("End times" religious verses speak of this deterioration.)

-CareWeMust

a reply to: carewemust

Disclaimer: I'll say a few things that might be controversial here.

In response to

When a Senator, like Susan Collins (R-Maine), says that she needs hundreds of millions of dollars to "fight" this epidemic in her state, what would she use the money for?

Overdoses and emergency expenses add up fast, especially when emergency responders are trying to save 4-5 people ODing a day. The medicine they use "Nacan", costs around $30 per dose - depending on the strength/amount of opioids, the individual might need multiple doses.

Take Middleton, Ohio for example. The budget for ALL emergency services is $90 million annually, but they've already spend that much and it's only a few months into the fiscal year. What happens when they run out of money and not only can ODs not be saved, but other emergencies are also not able to be responded to.

Here's a link about Middleton Ohio and steps they may take to help with this specific issue:

www.whec.com...

Now, to add to that, I have very personal experience with opioid addiction. I hope I am not judged for this but I'm going to be perfectly honest and I think it's important for people to hear from someone who's been there. Not only was I, myself addicted for several years (as bad as you can imagine, yes, even injecting it), but my best friend overdosed and died in 2013 and my cousin also OD'd and died at age 21, a few more years ago.

I personally know over 20 people (people from high school, ex co-workers, etc.) who have died from it. It is easy to get sucked into when you are in a dark, depressing place and find something powerful that can take you away from it, but then your life falls apart even more and you are chasing the "dragon" just to feel like you're keeping your head above water.

Long story short, the death of my best friend was a wake up call for me and I stopped cold turkey, went through painful withdrawals and started going to the gym.. I turned it around and was one of the lucky people who escaped from this madness. 3+ years solid now.


One more controversial point... opium production in Afghanistan, and elsewhere, places where US forces or allies are in control. Something to keep in mind... www.theguardian.com...
I have 2 friends who are Marines. Both of them have told me personal accounts of their tours in the Middle East, which confirmed for me we are not always over there just "hunting terrorists". I'll leave it at that and let you connect those dots.

a reply to: carewemust
Florid passed laws to crack down on the pill mills that were flooding the nation with cheap pain killers. As a result, physicians have been sent to prison and facilities have been shut down. No more 100 person lines down the block for easy scripts from corrupt doctors.

Its made a difference since is peak in the early - mid 2000's . Still is a problem nonetheless, but Florida got its act together as far as regulation and prosecution. How is it going elsewhere? I read that it was a resurgence in heroin use here in Florida after they cracked down on the pill mills. I didn't think that was true until I moved to were I am now two years ago. There are like 3 houses in one block down from me where a handful of people umm... do what they do. Damn shame.

a reply to: carewemust

I don't think that addiction is a disease. It fits the disease model as much as a broken arm does.

Half the problem is enabling the junkies, telling them they have some kind of disease afflicting them, instead of telling them that sure, withdrawls gonna suck for about a week, but toughen up and you'll be over it in no time.

It's a lack of self control, no different than people who become alcoholics. It's not the substance itself thats to blame, it's the person who abuses the substance. No amount of treatment centers are going to help someone until they themselves want to stop the addiction. You make a good point with the ciggies. Do you think a four week stay in a treatment center would help you for that, or rather just a desire to quit, and the will to follow thru on that desire.

Throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at the situation won't help. Maybe some advertising on tv but other than that I'm not in favor of tax dollars being wasted on this.

Here's a good video of the style that could be used from a European country to do with alcohol.

From what I've seen, the problem is real.

Here, addicts get what they can on the street. Beg borrow and steal for the drug, depend on welfare handouts for food and shelter.
If they get successful an OD, they get free "health care", where they get free hospital shelter, free hospital food, and get free chemically pure versions of the drug they can't quit- all charged at a thousand percent to the tax payers.

Once their dose is low enough and their bodies are stable, they are released back into the streets, where they immediately pawn anything they stole from the hospital to aquire more street drugs.

To answer op,
1, no. Doctors get people started. Pain killers aren't hard to get when you're upper lower class. It goes downhill from there.

2, I live in Maine. Susan Collins is an idiot. She uses the money to fund brigades of do-gooders who ride bicycles around the city handing out free needles so they can inject heroin without getting infected from their fellow junkies.
No joke, you can look that up yourself.

3, no. # 'em.
For the record, I don't smoke- but I do drink too much. My brother does both. I wish neither existed, but wouldn't advocate banning either.

4, don't know. I can say that and population addicted to this # wouldn't live long, lack of strong breeding would lead to a dead society.
That means these addictions are connected to a society that refuses to cut loose dead weight. Can't speak for the rest of the world, but that strongly implicates high population segments of America.

I've heard quite a few cities and areas are taking measures to crack down. Sadly, the addicted(left untreated) are said to be moving onto heroin in place of the opioids because the illegal drug market is strong and growing all the time.

"Everett sues OxyContin maker for allowing opioid to flood black market"

So Everett is suing Purdue Pharma, maker of the opioid pain medication OxyContin, in an unusual case that alleges the drugmaker knowingly allowed pills to be funneled into the black market and the city of about 108,000. Everett alleges the drugmaker did nothing to stop it and must pay for damages caused to the community.

Everett's lawsuit, now in federal court in Seattle, accuses Purdue Pharma of gross negligence and nuisance. The city seeks to hold the company accountable, the lawsuit alleges, for "supplying OxyContin to obviously suspicious pharmacies and physicians and enabling the illegal diversion of OxyContin into the black market" and into Everett, despite a company program to track suspicious flows.

Source-OregonLive
This just one suite from a city/mayor. How many more cases of this?

a reply to: dreamingawake

"Everett sues OxyContin maker for allowing opioid to flood black market"

Big pharma making a killing at this. This is where the war on drugs needs to focus.

a reply to: FamCore

Thank-you for relating your experience, FamCore. It's good that you were wise enough to see what happened to your friend, and vow never to let Opioids kill you too. You are to be commended. Thanks again for sharing.

a reply to: FamCore

hope I am not judged for this but I'm going to be perfectly honest and I think it's important people to hear from someone who's been there.

Proud of you man. I'll judge you in a positive light!

a reply to: worldstarcountry

What are the external symptoms of Opioid addiction that others can see? How do they act, or look?

So here are my thoughts for what its worth:

1) We should have NARCAN injectors much like an EPI Pen in easy to access areas much like AED's

2) Be you a liberal or a conservative we need to help these people. If you cannot care about the plight of some random junkie then put into perspective. They are clogging the already taxed health care system which is literally patched together
and has zero surge capacity to dealt with much that it already is.

This cannot be fought with NARCAN alone and we need to actually invest some money into helping these people which like anything is the only way to fight this epidemic everything else is a bandaid

Big Pharma pushed docs to perscribe oxy..claiming it was not as addictive as morphine..well that was a truckload of bullsh$t.
Docs perscribed it without due dilligence and created alot of addicts..then cut them off to languish and find street sources. Enter street Oxy, Heroin and fake Oxy pills made from Fentanyl..in my area there are 4 or 5 deaths a week for years now, as many as 11 one day, most Fent is coming from our friends the Chinese..almost no heroin anymore as Fentanyl is around 100 fold the strength of Heroin, so logistically it's easier to smuggle in. But because it is so toxic it is very easy to OD or the scum mixing it into Heroin cannot get the ratio's correct.
Here as of late the powers that be are concentrating on safe injection sites..it has slowed the epidemic down some.
In talking about British Columbia, same situation as far as the problem goes stateside, not familliar with what is happening stateside as far as correcting the issue.

originally posted by: ThirdBlindMouse
a reply to: dreamingawake

"Everett sues OxyContin maker for allowing opioid to flood black market"

Big pharma making a killing at this. This is where the war on drugs needs to focus.

Yup and am sure it will be a challenge someone is probably paid off somewhere to keep quite as the money pours in.

a reply to: carewemust

t must be really bad in some states, because Congress is preparing to add an additional $45 Billion...yes, BILLION dollars to the revised GOP healthcare bill for fighting this epidemic: nypost.com...

Why is the answer to every problem to throw money at it as if that is going to fix things. We don't need more money we need to hold the people prescribing these drugs unnecessarily to people accountable.

a reply to: FamCore

One more controversial point... opium production in Afghanistan, and elsewhere, places where US forces or allies are in control. Something to keep in mind... www.theguardian.com... I have 2 friends who are ex-Marines. Both of them have told me personal accounts of their tours in the Middle East, which confirmed for me we are not always over there just "hunting terrorists". I'll leave it at that and let you connect those dots.

THIS - the coalition isn't in Afghanistan for oil!!!

a reply to: FamCore

Good on you for sharing you shouldn't be judged, people need to talk a about this. I've known many over the years who have fallen into this addiction. In one case someone I used to know and had heard later on that they were so high on opioids, that they left a nursing home patient to scold to death in hot water in a bathtub. The kicker is her sister was a meth addict and she felt good for not using that but prescription meds were okay to abuse.

Start with watching all four (2hour) docs/History Channel

The war on drugs, seriously???



Please watch the series
Please share it too!

originally posted by: FredT
So here are my thoughts for what its worth:

1) We should have NARCAN injectors much like an EPI Pen in easy to access areas much like AED's

2) Be you a liberal or a conservative we need to help these people. If you cannot care about the plight of some random junkie then put into perspective. They are clogging the already taxed health care system which is literally patched together
and has zero surge capacity to dealt with much that it already is.

This cannot be fought with NARCAN alone and we need to actually invest some money into helping these people which like anything is the only way to fight this epidemic everything else is a bandaid

All of your points are very well said.

I've seen articles discussing that injectors will be available even in libraries because it's becoming such an epidemic. These need to be available in even more places until the whole thing is curbed.

Exactly this goes beyond partisan lines, it affects beyond partisan lines.

I was an addict for about 3 years, been over 10 years since then..it can be beaten but a person has to have hope for better.

originally posted by: ThirdBlindMouse
a reply to: carewemust

I don't think that addiction is a disease. It fits the disease model as much as a broken arm does.

Half the problem is enabling the junkies, telling them they have some kind of disease afflicting them, instead of telling them that sure, withdrawls gonna suck for about a week, but toughen up and you'll be over it in no time.

It's a lack of self control, no different than people who become alcoholics. It's not the substance itself thats to blame, it's the person who abuses the substance. No amount of treatment centers are going to help someone until they themselves want to stop the addiction. You make a good point with the ciggies. Do you think a four week stay in a treatment center would help you for that, or rather just a desire to quit, and the will to follow thru on that desire.

Throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at the situation won't help. Maybe some advertising on tv but other than that I'm not in favor of tax dollars being wasted on this.

Thanks for your input, ThirdBlindMouse. I agree with you on the Illegal Opioids. But from what I hear, doctors aren't being responsible with the legal opioids. And we know how people respect their doctors to the point of not even questioning them. "Take 200 pills a day and you'll be fine Mr. Davis. Geee... Thanks Doc!"

As for my own Smoking addiction, it's something that I tried to quit back in my 30's, using some kind of nicotine patch prescribed by Dr. Garb. Just did it to make my wife happy. Lasted about 4 days, LOL. To be honest, I enjoy smoking, and cleaning out the lungs every day by doing 4 miles of running, and steep-incline walking on the treadmill at the YMCA while watching TV.