Seing this video made me want to understand the topic better. So who is getting addicted to opioids? Is it mainly people now who were on pain meds who are fuiling this crisis? How many end up buying illegal drugs from the streets? How is it affecting incarcerations? My ex gf was on pain meds and was pregnant. Does it mean she harmed the baby and it is addicted? I have so many questions, so I create this thread. Is South Florida one of the worst hit places?

I want to gather as much information as possible and link them here itt. What can be done about and what do you do if you are addicted?



This is how you can become addicted (when you were put on pain meds)



These vids could be good for a later discussion and as you can see YouTube is full of these. They might contain useful information to understand whats going on. I havent seen any of these yet but thought I might as well link them for now.

I think, in the majority of cases, addiction is a symptom, rather than a result. I'm sure for many folks, pain was a catalyst, but it's likely underlying stress and other mental health issues were present. That's not to downplay the role big pharma had, but the circumstances around opioid addiction isn't that different from any other addiction.

It seems that any point in time since the war on drugs started, 10% of the population has an addiction problem.

Edit- I should have mentioned it in the op.
Fenthanyl is 70× stronger than heroin. And opoiods synthetic or not are the same thing as heroin. That's why so many patients end up with illegal dealers and homelessness.

@ ithotinvegas, do you remember the movie the last boyscouts? I just remembered it, there was this ex pro athlete football player who became a junkie through pain meds. He was injecting if I recall right. I have seen real life stories or athletes that became heroin addicted though injuries and pain meds too. But I think you might be right also with your points.

You might be underestimating this, these are numbers from 10 years ago and it has gotten much worse. Pharmas were sued because of the oxicontin scandal remember? That was opioids.


"Pooling data from 2002 to 2012, the incidence of heroin initiation was 19 times higher among those who reported prior nonmedical pain reliever use than among those who did not "

"A study of young, urban injection drug users interviewed in 2008 and 2009 found that 86 percent had used opioid pain relievers nonmedically prior to using heroin, and their initiation into nonmedical use was characterized by three main sources of opioids: family, friends, or personal prescriptions"


https://www.drugabuse.gov/publicatio...tor-heroin-use

Surely there's a more effective way of learning about this than watching 7 hours of youtubes?

I tried searching YouTube myself but it's just videos. This is the only way.

I never understood why Drug dealers would sell a product that kills but its such a huge market

Yet the Country that supplies it subsidizes the companies that produce the chemicals
The GOP supports the weapons that cross the borders to the gangs that distribute it
The Dems support the banks that launder the cash
Neither party will fully prosecute the drug companies that got the folks addicted

Oh and lets not forget the root cause of the border crisis

Probably most dealers don't test their products, and most drugs take a good while to do the damage. I'd assume it's more like you get the batch that someone else further up the chain has cut or badly produced, and that's just luck of the draw. Heroin and fentanyl are used in hospitals so it's quite safe until you're hooked on it or using unknown doses. Your death as an opiate user is more likely to be a long drawn out process.

Xenophobia?

I guess most of you really didn't know. I didn't know either. But yes this is what happened. The doctors were giving patients pain meds which were opioids, in this case oxicontin. What they didn't do is tell them what they are taking will make them addicts. They were sued for billions. So this is no secret. It amazes me though so few people know about this.

"The Sackler dynasty’s ruthless marketing of painkillers has generated billions of dollars—and millions of addicts."

"An addiction specialist said that the Sacklers’ firm, Purdue Pharma, bears the “lion’s share” of the blame for the opioid crisis."


http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...re-of-pain/amp

People dying/od'ing amounts to advertising. Nothing's more sure to have the addicts flocking to buy than hearing about dope that's killing people lol Just kind of a perverse part of the reality of the whole thing. Fentanyl's kind of a whole new reality--and I wonder how much of it is just bad/lazy/accidental mixing with superpotent substances these days but in the old heroin world it was kind of a thing for street level dope shops to have some pills in the mix(pretty much meant to make some people od) to generate that buzz on the street and it was just kind of a lottery who was going to get them.

Obviously, addiction affects all demographics, but addiction isn't indiscriminate, IMO.

I might be but I saw several different sources that estimated percentage of the population that was addicted to substances. They varied in dates. I looked at ones from 2012, 2017, 2018 and 2019, and one from back in like the eighties. It ranged between 9 and 10%.

Generally speaking, when one drug goes out of favor, another is there to take it's place. One of the devious things about opioids is, it likely creates more addicts than otherwise would have been created, because there might be folks whose is predisposed to addiction but who would never pick up a drug due to other intervention mechanisms, namely education and life experiences gained as a youth.

Maybe opioids is creating a higher percentage of addicts, but it's killing people quicker, and is much harder to come by than it used to be.

Drug War and past administrations policies and CIA

Tons of addicts first experiences with opiates are in a medical context to start. Far fewer people just one day say I think I'll try heroin for the hell of it lol

Addicts tend to be the ones who abuse them. Are you saying addiction isn't discriminatory? It's just dumb luck whether a person prescribed opiates becomes an addict?

Little bit of both. Some part of it is genetic and some part of it is environment/behavior etc whatever you wanna call that side of things. How much work either side of those things is putting in is probably somewhat variable as well. But as far as first exposures and clicking that switch the first time goes is where the genetic side is most prevalent. And almost by definition you won't know if that switch will click for you until after it already has When that turns into actual addiction down the line--I think is where some of the other things come more into play. Things are always more complex than any of us are usually going to be covering in a post.

This guy just died and I think it was due to OD on something laced w fentanyl

There are various former athletes who note painkillers and pills get tossed around like candy from training staff/medical personnel

But that's a sort of tangential subject. Athletes mangle their bodies and minds for lots of money and pay the price post career

What's scary is the average person seeks help from a doctor and that doctor is prescribing something that ultimately leads to their death. I don't know how much big pharma is to blame in that, but it is disturbing to me how medication is now "take this if the benefits outweigh the side effects" to the point that we're paying for **** that essentially trades in one problem for another, and the profit model does not care if that kills people to maximize gains

The US destroyed Central America

There is a reason why they have insane murder rates and now flee their countries, trek through Mexico, and attempt to drag their way into the US with zero care for whatever policy the current administration decides it wants to follow

It's our fault

A shining example of how arrogant and out of touch Americans are, they have no understanding of the desperation of others. They truly think a draconian policy would stop people from trying to get here? Uh, no? If your choice is death by gang/cartel/life in abject poverty or gtfo and be treated inhumanely by rich *******s who can't stand you didn't instantly learn English, the choice is obvious

/rant

Everyone forgets how central America was all rainbows and unicorns until the US messed with it.

Well, we certainly didn't create an environment for them to progress into one, now did we? Meddling has a cost. We didn't pay the brunt of it

Even worse, the NIMBY crowd thinks El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras are 3 countries from the continent of Mexico?

I read that in my Ron Burgundy voice