Overdoses Now Leading Cause of Death For Those Under 50 (1 Viewer)

[Dedfin]

this has gone beyond that...I live in a very affluent town and heroin in the high school is a huge issue. 

But this is why it's finally getting attention.  It wasn't before because it was poor people (from all places and of all races)

 

[Dedfin]

These are some of the regulations the current administration should be looking into...It seems like sometimes we can't get out of our own way when it comes to drug regulations...Hell we have been doing informal clinical testing of marijuana for decades.

Aren't you a Trumpkin?  Look, I applaud your stance on this, but I don't know why you are acting like you care.  Legalizing pot or medical pot is a boutique issue and not a genuine one  many conservatives/Trumpkins have because it's too low on their issue priority list to make it happen.  Have you informed your representatives?  Donated money to these causes?  Anything?  Probably not.  This dance is annoying to read after a while.  Sorry Ditka Butkus, it's not all directed to you here.

 

[Beef Ravioli]

Nobody is intentionally taking it.

Dealers are spiking batches to increase potency. Also a death or two from a hot shot gets buzz on the Street and causes a huge spike in sales of that brand...

...sadly not kidding. 

Huh, you would think that would scare people from taking the "hot shot"!

 

[OrtonToOlsen]

Huh, you would think that would scare people from taking the "hot shot"!

No kidding. Drug addicts should just be like "whoa, this stuff is bad for me!" and then quit taking drugs.  

 

[Tau837]

I've always been more concerned with people who are in constant pain who can't get the medication they need because of the fear of overprescribing. This has happened to me on numerous occasions, and I see under prescribing as just as big of a problem, though I am certainly apparently in the minority on this.  

Amen, brother.  

 

[Tau837]

I sure do apologize for being a jag off in this post

Any time you are tempted to write an apology for acting like an #######, the solution is to just stop acting like an #######. HTH

 

[Tau837]

Prescription opioids are much more tightly monitored than they used to be.  The current rapid rise in deaths has a lot to do with imported opioids that are much stronger (like Fentanyl).

 

 

[Zigg]

The tolerance of greed in America is incredible to me.  A billion dollar company adds a few more billion, investors portfolios increase, everyone else gets #### on.  Big pharma, insurance companies, banks, etc. etc.  Not only is greed tolerated, it is encouraged, and cheered.  I sucks that people are suffering because they were over-prescribed drugs so doctors could get kick backs, just like it sucked for seniors who had their pensions decimated by bonus seeking bankers.  

Everyone who invests in predatory companies are part of the problem.  The only solution to 99% of America's problems is to stop seeking every single penny.  America's decline started when profit wasn't enough, and it was decided that the only thing that mattered was to get that stock price higher by any means necessary.  As long as Americans are ok with destroying other Americans to maximize their 401Ks, nothing will change.

 

[massraider]

Any time you are tempted to write an apology for acting like an #######, the solution is to just stop acting like an #######. HTH

Thanks for the help. My challenge remains.

Any proof that the problem of under-prescription is as big a problem sure would be appreciated.

 

[Steve Tasker]

Nobody is intentionally taking it.

Dealers are spiking batches to increase potency. Also a death or two from a hot shot gets buzz on the Street and causes a huge spike in sales of that brand...

...sadly not kidding. 

The dealer picks the worst customer, spikes their batch, they OD or die, word gets out and everyone wants what he had.  Truth.

 

[Rick James]

I've lost a cousin to this. 

 

[Sabertooth]

The dealer picks the worst customer, spikes their batch, they OD or die, word gets out and everyone wants what he had.  Truth.

That's ####ed up.  

 

[Sand]

The tolerance of greed in America is incredible to me.  A billion dollar company adds a few more billion, investors portfolios increase, everyone else gets #### on.  Big pharma, insurance companies, banks, etc. etc.  Not only is greed tolerated, it is encouraged, and cheered.  I sucks that people are suffering because they were over-prescribed drugs so doctors could get kick backs, just like it sucked for seniors who had their pensions decimated by bonus seeking bankers.  

Everyone who invests in predatory companies are part of the problem.  The only solution to 99% of America's problems is to stop seeking every single penny.  America's decline started when profit wasn't enough, and it was decided that the only thing that mattered was to get that stock price higher by any means necessary.  As long as Americans are ok with destroying other Americans to maximize their 401Ks, nothing will change.

Lots of reasons for this issue at present and you managed to deliver a great (though rather incoherent, which adds to the allure) rant that touched on none of them.  

 

[Rushmore]

Seems like a simple solution then....Prescribe more weed and less oxy..

And not schedule/demonize Kratom (some of the stories in the press are ridiculously misleading attempts to demonize it, and Pharma companies absolutely want it banned so that they can push Suboxone  and other opiates).   

If anyone is interested in finding the origins of how this "epidemic" spread like wildfire, there is an excellent book called Dreamland that I would highly recommend.    In a nutshell, the pharmaceutical companies found a sentence out of an old medical journal from many years back, manipulated and spun it to be interpreted that opiate pain medication is not very addictive, manufactured OxyContin and hired an army of a salesforce to push it  to doctors across the country.  They actually marketed it as being non-addictive!    Doctors, being encouraged to prescribe it for every kind of pain, started doing so, which flooded the market and streets with it.   Once middle and even upper class white kids started getting hooked and even killed from it, noise began to be made about the gigantic problem that all of this caused.   Eventually, doctors (especially those in pain clinics) started going to jail and regulations started getting extremely stringent regarding the prescribing of opiate pain medications.   Unfortunately, the fire was already too large to put out that way, and those already opiate addicted people still needed to get well and feed the monster.   With heroin being cheaper, it was the natural transition.   Mexican cartels - many originating out of Jalisico- realized there was TONS of money to be made from Heroin, started targeting areas where Oxy was most popular and their trafficking "cells" started popping up all over the country.   Many times, if a dealer would be caught by police, they would deport them and the offender would just come back and start up again.   I could go on, but this is a paraphrasing of what happened (flooding the country with pills, getting tons of people addicted, then taking the pills away which lead to a huge rise in heroin use and demand).  

 

[culdeus]

Another dumb question. How do drug companies profit off illegal dealers?  Is there a back channel they sell into that is not reported?  

 

[The Gator]

Another dumb question. How do drug companies profit off illegal dealers?  Is there a back channel they sell into that is not reported?  

It's how the user gets started that is the problem. They get hooked on the opioid by prescription drugs, then that become too expensive so they move on to the cheaper illegal stuff. 

 

[Slapdash]

I've always been more concerned with people who are in constant pain who can't get the medication they need because of the fear of overprescribing. This has happened to me on numerous occasions, and I see under prescribing as just as big of a problem, though I am certainly apparently in the minority on this.  

I had a friend that was just in constant pain from muscular issues as well as celiac's.  He had serious addiction issues and OD'd at least once that I'm aware of before I had to block his number.  He would go through his monthly supply of oxy within 2 weeks and start ordering whatever he can from the internet.  His pain was not being treated well and the treatment for his addiction made his issues with pain worse. Hopefully he turned it around.

When people cannot get the help they need through a doctor, they will turn to the more dangerous things like heroin and fentanyl.

 

[Slapdash]

Didn't know it got quite that bad. Jesus. 

How does one get fentanly? that #### took down 3 kids near me recently. Is this stuff like meth and people cook it. How do the dealers get it? Makes no sense. 

Heroin I understand. 

I've seen it free-based off of tinfoil before.  One of the creepiest things I have seen.  That person wasn't even addicted to pain killers, just an alcoholic in a self-destructive phase.  Stuff like that can kill you so easily if it is bad.