Let's Talk About The Opioid Problem

[SumJongGuy]

Spans decades and getting worse. Everyone knows someone (several people really) who have died or might be better off dead.

What are some things we can try to save lives and fight this addiction nightmare?

What about making free Narcan available to each household just like they did with COVID tests?

What suggestions do you have.. No blaming certain politicians, only policies.

[Touring_Sedan]

Spans decades and getting worse. Everyone knows someone (several people really) who have died or might be better off dead.

What are some things we can try to save lives and fight this addiction nightmare?

What about making free Narcan available to each household just like they did with COVID tests?

What suggestions do you have.. No blaming certain politicians, only policies.

I keep Naloxone kit in the glove box of each car and one in the kitchen.

[Brownski]

I keep Naloxone kit in the glove box of each car and one in the kitchen.

It is my understanding that They’re sensitive to temperature changes. The ones in your cars are probably pretty degraded if they’ve been there a long time.

[jmedslc]

Man Ive had a weird couple days. Attended a very explicit drug abuse/diversion presentation at work yesterday and got somewhat triggered into some wild thought patterns. Then at 5am I was having coffee and came upon and dove deep into an old thread on Reddit from 12 years ago.

Dude decided to try heroin on a whim and went on a year long bender and went full blown addict….by accident.

My mind’s been blown all day and only after dosing myself w some psilo and skiing some pow did I come off the urge to get out on a bender of my own. Phew what a weird day.

The high potency fentanyl situation is real and the fact that it’s being pressed into fake pills is gonna kill a lot more people. To answer the original premise posed above, one thing we can do is to not buy pills off the street because you cannot be certain of the makeup despite familiar shape and markings.

[Touring_Sedan]

It is my understanding that They’re sensitive to temperature changes. The ones in your cars are probably pretty degraded if they’ve been there a long time.

"Conclusions
Naloxone hydrochloride remains chemically stable following exposure to heat or freeze-thaw cycles after 28 days. If THN kits are stored in non-standard conditions (for up to 28 days) the active naloxone is likely to remain stable. Despite this, pharmacists should continue to emphasize the importance of appropriate storage of THN kits to ensure optimal efficacy should naloxone administration be required in an emergency situation."

[riser4]

I keep Naloxone kit in the glove box of each car and one in the kitchen.

So you or someone in your family is a user?

[riser4]

Spans decades and getting worse. Everyone knows someone (several people really) who have died or might be better off dead.

What are some things we can try to save lives and fight this addiction nightmare?

What about making free Narcan available to each household just like they did with COVID tests?

What suggestions do you have.. No blaming certain politicians, only policies.

I don't have enough fingers to count the people Ive known personally that have OD'ed.

[Touring_Sedan]

So you or someone in your family is a user?

My brother has been clean for a number of years, but it caused quite a schism in our family. I didn't speak to him for almost 15 years.

I'm a photojournalist. I've spent the last 15 years telling the stories of addicts and their families. I've sat in the living room of a mother as they've told us about their child's last moments. I've interviewed everyone from first responders to governor's about their efforts to quell the problem. I've laughed and cried with addicts and those in recovery.

I'd like to think some of our reporting is the reason Naloxone is available at every library and most public facilities in the state of Utah and the administration of it is covered under a good Samaritan law. I hope some of our recent reporting is the reason SB86 will shortly be signed into law decriminalizing the possession and use of fentanyl test strips.

Yeah, it's pretty personal for me.

[BCMtnHound]

My little sis is a mental health support worker in Victoria. The stories she tells me are heart wrenching.

Came out of university and moved to a small town in the Kootenays. This was during the time when the Canuck weed scene was at its black market heyday. I kept away from the biz but being young and active in a small town you knew most everyone young and old. It took a couple of years, but after a bit I was amazed at the number of folk I knew that were addicted to the smack. Many are no longer with us. And this was well before the fentanyl scene. Removed from it now in both time and space, but my wife is leaving the emerg/acute care position and transitioning into the homesupport health world. Already some of the stories are bringing me back to the old days in that other small town. The self abuse is so widespread.

Despite the politics of addiction, the supply has to change. Prohibition doesn’t work and now the supply is tainted. And you have to be a complete recluse not to know someone at risk.

And kill the pusher man. It’s a tired phrase but Fuck that asshole.

[evdog]

It's fucking outrageous that the Sacklers have been allowed to escape meaningful punishment and move most of their money offshore considering the incalculable amount of damage they have caused to society and millions of lives.

[sb]

Chinese opioids and fentanyl helping people to kill themselves.

Government complicity in this.

You could not do it?

Drug cartels win.

[riser4]

It's fucking outrageous that the Sacklers have been allowed to escape meaningful punishment and move most of their money offshore considering the incalculable amount of damage they have caused to society and millions of lives.

Exactly. Fucking parasites.

[MakersTeleMark]

When in doubt of knocking your guests out with your cooking, keep some F in the everything drawer.

If you see a fender bender in the TJ parking lot, thank god you've got some narcan in the glovebox in case the perp came unglued.

Jesus Christ.

[chicken feathers]

Thought’s I’ve had on the topic.

Overpopulation and overdevelopment. I played outside a lot as an adolescent. It kept my friends and myself out of serious trouble. It led to skiing, biking, camping, etc. When I visit my home town most of my old haunts have become sterile suburban hell. The areas that remain are reduced to tiny lots full of invasive plants and trash. I don’t see kids or adults outside there like I do where I live now. People aren’t that active these days. They are sad and they hurt.

Stigmas around marijuana, psychedelics and the normalization of pharmaceuticals. I wanted to get high when I was a teen. Weed was always our first choice but it was kinda hard to come by. Sure seemed like most homes had oxycodone or similar in the medicine cabinet.

[kootenayskier]

The parameters of a humane and effective drug policy (decriminalization, safe supply, treatment, housing, compassion) are pretty well understood, but in competitive political systems, where most people have a poor understanding but strong feelings about the issue, it’s obviously very difficult to properly resource and implement. Without trustworthy and trusted authority, public policy tends to map the quirks of our collective irrationality. This is an interesting comparison.

https://globaldrugpolicyindex.

[SumJongGuy]

It wasn't JUST a BigPharm and their lobby money grab. This was just as much driven by the healthcare insurance companies like Cigna and Blue Cross as an effort to lower their costs and increase profits. Before this the established practice in high level pain management was to keep people hospitalized under supervision when administering opioids. It's way cheaper for them to send you home with a bottle of morphine pills.

This is the same philosophy as dismantling our system of public mental health hospitals and instead trying to manage the mentally ill at home (parent's basement) with pills instead of full time professional care. Similar tragic results..

[MagnificentUnicorn]

It’s not an opioid problem, it’s a cultural problem here in the USA. The issue is deeply rooted in all aspects of our culture. It might be too overwhelming for a fix here.


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[chicken feathers]

^ yeah that’s what I was trying to get at w/ my post. It’s a symptom of larger issues.

[SumJongGuy]

It’s not an opioid problem, it’s a cultural problem here in the USA. The issue is deeply rooted in all aspects of our culture. It might be too overwhelming for a fix here.


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Like that money matters more than people do?

[XXX-er]

Its rampant everywhere, a psychologist told me the figures for the NE ( big construction projects ) BC are the same as skid row in Vancover, very recently possession of small amounts of hard drugs no longer get prosecuted in BC

MJ is very legal, 3 yrs after legalization nothing has happened

Also free birth control as of last week

[Bunion 2020]

It’s not an opioid problem, it’s a cultural problem here in the USA. The issue is deeply rooted in all aspects of our culture. It might be too overwhelming for a fix here.


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Interesting point you raise.

Is this kind of addiction as rampant in so called shithole countries where the struggle to eat and stay alive are more pressing than the next buzz? Is pursuit of that next high because we are bored? Hopeless?

[old goat]

It wasn't JUST a BigPharm and their lobby money grab. This was just as much driven by the healthcare insurance companies like Cigna and Blue Cross as an effort to lower their costs and increase profits. Before this the established practice in high level pain management was to keep people hospitalized under supervision when administering opioids. It's way cheaper for them to send you home with a bottle of morphine pills.

This is the same philosophy as dismantling our system of public mental health hospitals and instead trying to manage the mentally ill at home (parent's basement) with pills instead of full time professional care. Similar tragic results..

This is utter bullshit. It has never been "estabished practice" to hospitalize people for opioid management. People have been treated with outpatient narcotics for well over 100 years. It is possible for outpatient opioids to be prescribed and used safely with proper medical supervision and patient education, something that is often lacking. The CURES registry makes it possible to see if someone is doctor shopping for drugs. If there is fault in the medical field blame it on docs who prescribe carelessly, not to mention the pill mils. I have never seen a role for insurance companies in this. Yes, people are discharged from hospitals much sooner than they used to be but that predates the current opioid epidemic by decades.

In the last 5-10 years there has been a drastic change in the education of doctors re opioids, a dramatic decrease in the frequency and quantity of opioid prescriptions, but the ilicit use of opioids keeps going up. IMO opioid addiction, like alcohol abuse and abuse of other drugs is caused by a general breakdown of our society--increasing social isolation, increasing wealth gaps, loss of economic opportunity for non-college educated people--we all know the factors. The way to stop the ODs is to offer addicts safe drugs. which will never happen. The way to stop addiction--fix America.

When in doubt find a corporation to blame.

It’s not an opioid problem, it’s a cultural problem here in the USA. The issue is deeply rooted in all aspects of our culture. It might be too overwhelming for a fix here.


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Yep

And BTW, re the Sacklers--without downplaying their role in the epidemic, any doctor who believed the marketing that oxycontin wasn't addictive was an idiot. The key to developing physical dependency on opioids is maintaining a constant blood level, which is what extended release opioids like oxycontin are designed to do.

[ötzi]

Honestly, here in my little bubble, I had thought the wave had crested, and that we were on the way down. Looking at the numbers through 2021 (the most recent I saw n a quick search) that is not the case at all.

[SumJongGuy]

This is utter bullshit. It has never been "estabished practice" to hospitalize people for opioid management. People have been treated with outpatient narcotics for well over 100 years. It is possible for outpatient opioids to be prescribed and used safely with proper medical supervision and patient education, something that is often lacking. The CURES registry makes it possible to see if someone is doctor shopping for drugs. If there is fault in the medical field blame it on docs who prescribe carelessly, not to mention the pill mils. I have never seen a role for insurance companies in this. Yes, people are discharged from hospitals much sooner than they used to be but that predates the current opioid epidemic by decades.

Thanks. I actually meant to tag you with that post I was including hospice type situations (in my head) as "hospitalized". If you have someone checking in on you daily rather than sending you home with a two week supply that makes a huge difference but is alsy WAY more expensive..

Point is these should only be used under close supervision, COST BE DAMNED.

[MagnificentUnicorn]

Honestly, here in my little bubble, I had thought the wave had crested, and that we were on the way down. Looking at the numbers through 2021 (the most recent I saw n a quick search) that is not the case at all.

It’s because it’s no longer a headline and people don’t care about the dirty junkies. It’s never going away because of our righteousness and piety when it comes to social ills. We’re sick and I don’t see a cure for this country


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