Can we talk about this heroin epidemic?

[Gus Richlen: Ruffian]

Mar 25, 2017 9:39:30 GMT -5 @dante said:

Mar 25, 2017 9:16:28 GMT -5 edgestar said:

New Haven may still have a heroin epidemic, but I haven't heard many stories about it on the news, lately. Last summer, it was a nightly topic.

I'm sorry for the loss of your friend, and I commend you, for treating your alcoholism

I'm Sorry if this is out of line.

But edgestar, we need an intervention for your Ambroseism.

A light hearted joke to lift the mood a little.

Just as long as you leave my Reignsism alone.

[Deleted]

Mar 25, 2017 10:03:24 GMT -5 Gus Richlen: Ruffian said:

Mar 25, 2017 9:39:30 GMT -5 @dante said:

I'm Sorry if this is out of line.

But edgestar, we need an intervention for your Ambroseism.

A light hearted joke to lift the mood a little.

Just op as long as you leave my Reignsism alone.

That's prescribed, as is my Blissism
Ambroseism isn't tolerated in these parts. edgestar

[Milkman Norm]

Mar 25, 2017 9:59:31 GMT -5 Limity (BLM) said:

Mar 25, 2017 9:44:16 GMT -5 Milkman Norm said:

Yes. It's terrible. We (USA) needs to massively increase funding for treatment, including funding for treatment those incarcerated in the CJS. We need to once and for all view addiction as a medical issue that can lead to dangerous criminal action rather than a criminal action in itself.

Treatment units in prisons are more miss than hit. Wyoming's ITU (Intensive Treatment Unit) is the biggest joke ever. The state got the crappiest, lowest bidding company out there, and forces inmates through the program to get the federal funding. The company doesn't screen their counselors, either. We've walked off every director they've ever had and countless counselors. Having sex with the inmates, bringing them drugs...my favorite was one was wanted by the Texas Rangers for kidnapping a minor she was supposed to be treating.

However even the best treatment program won't help if the person returns to the exact same environment they left from. There's a reason we call our Intake Unit the ITU alumni pod.

On the first point w/o getting to into politics I would say as a policy in this country it easier to get CJS funding for punishment than it is for treatment and education. Even when a CBA shows a long term savings. As for your second point you're absolutely correct. If users who get clean go back to live with user's there is about a 100% chance they will start using again.

[Limity (BLM)]

Mar 25, 2017 10:14:50 GMT -5 Milkman Norm said:

Mar 25, 2017 9:59:31 GMT -5 Limity (BLM) said:

Treatment units in prisons are more miss than hit. Wyoming's ITU (Intensive Treatment Unit) is the biggest joke ever. The state got the crappiest, lowest bidding company out there, and forces inmates through the program to get the federal funding. The company doesn't screen their counselors, either. We've walked off every director they've ever had and countless counselors. Having sex with the inmates, bringing them drugs...my favorite was one was wanted by the Texas Rangers for kidnapping a minor she was supposed to be treating.

However even the best treatment program won't help if the person returns to the exact same environment they left from. There's a reason we call our Intake Unit the ITU alumni pod.

On the first point w/o getting to into politics I would say as a policy in this country it easier to get CJS funding for punishment than it is for treatment and education. Even when a CBA shows a long term savings. As for your second point you're absolutely correct. If users who get clean go back to live with user's there is about a 100% chance they will start using again.

That speaks to a problem that is unique to corrections. Every ten or so years, usually coinciding with economic ups and downs, society changes what it expects prisons to be and do. One decade they're about punishment and warehousing, the next decade they're for reform and rehabilitation, then after that it's back to warehousing...

No other aspect of the criminal justice system has this revolving identity crisis. Wyoming is ten years behind the rest of the country (and about a hundred years behind on race relations), and so the 2008 recession has finally hit last year. With that, the emphasis on a million different treatment programs has gone out the window.

[Dr. T is an alien]

Mar 25, 2017 2:15:24 GMT -5 Display Name said:

I understand getting addicted to something once you've done it...but what makes people take that first step to try these hardcore ass drugs that can kill you? I've never in the least bit been curious and have been deathly afraid to ever touch anything other than pot.

Allow me to walk you through the path I almost took towards this terrible future:

I was born with an extra long ureter. It caused many problems early on that was alleviated somewhat by a surgeon opening me up and rearranging my insides so it did not kink up any more and cause additional kidney damage. In essence, this ureter now starts at my left kidney (which is still severely damaged), meanders to the other side of my torso, and winds back to my left side in order to drain into my bladder. This wandering path eventually started me on the path to opioid addiction.

Basically, I had a severe urinary infection that worked its way into said ureter. This caused it to swell shut, causing urine to back up and inflate that damaged kidney again. The meandering pathway of that ureter meant that a surgery to install a stent to allow the kidney to drain failed. This meant that a more invasive surgery to insert a tube in my back to drain the kidney was required. Walking around for about 6 weeks with a tube in my back royally sucked and, more importantly, hurt. I had a pain killer prescription. I started to get addicted to my prescription opioid.

Fortunately for me, I did realize I was getting addicted. I weaned myself before my prescription was up (that was unpleasant because I still was hurting). Had I not done so, I would have been addicted to opioids without a legal means to satisfy that addiction. Granted, I might have been able to find a local Dr. Feelgood to hook me up with another prescription (actually, I knew of such a doctor), but had I not had that I would have been forced to either go through withdrawals or turn to illegal drugs to deal with my issue. Granted, I did not get to that point but had I not had a legal source and had not weaned myself I would have been faced with such a choice.

[Shai]

After my car accident I got addicted to Oxytocin and stuff like that. When i finally decided I was done trashing my life and went to rehab I was in there with 16 and 17 year olds with meth addictions. This was 9 years ago. It freaked me the f*** out. When I was 16 smoking a damn cigarette was a huge freaking deal. Maybe if you were really nuts you smoked weed but that was about it.

[revolver86]

Mar 25, 2017 7:29:33 GMT -5 thirteen3 said:

Mar 25, 2017 0:41:51 GMT -5 revolver86 said:

They say a half a grain of sand worth of carfentanil will f*** you up, a whole grain will kill you. This whole deal is killing off a huge chunk of the mid west, right now.

There's a reason these drugs are (legally) administered to dying people.

Carfentanil is an elephant tranquilizer.

[thirteen3]

Mar 25, 2017 14:37:22 GMT -5 revolver86 said:

Mar 25, 2017 7:29:33 GMT -5 thirteen3 said:

There's a reason these drugs are (legally) administered to dying people.

Carfentanil is an elephant tranquilizer.

ah.

[lionheart21]

Long Island has seen a large spike in heroin use over the past few years. Its a horrible drug.

[Deleted]

In southern Indiana, its a crisis.

Most of the tiny vales and hamlets around Seymour, Bloomington, & Columbus are the epicenter of this crisis.

Its very saddening & frustrating, which I can't go into because I have to get political.

[OGBoardPoster2005]

I lost two friends last year to it. I hear about it and its terrifying.

[Talent Name]

My sister was a heroin addict, the courts made her go sober. Long Island has a very serious heroin issue

[Sephiroth]

You seen that shit they are doing in Russia that melts people's faces off?

[Wolf Hawkfield no1 NZ poster]

Well these days it seems like all the cool kids are abusing meth these days.

[fuzzywarble, squat cobbler]

Mar 25, 2017 6:55:27 GMT -5 Capt Lunatic said:

I'd rather talk about the mail. Can we talk about the mail, please, revolver86? I've been dying to talk about the mail with you all day, OK?

This name keeps coming up..."Revolver86"...

[Deleted]

Mar 25, 2017 7:51:49 GMT -5 @razzle said:

i keep hearing about fentanyl addiction in BC. What is causing this massive jump in these overdoses. Is it just easier to get a hold of?

It's cheaper and deadlier than heroin. Like it's a hell of lot easier to OD on it because it's more powerful and you get dope sick a lot sooner where you have to take it more. Like I said we pretty much skipped out on heroin and went straight to fentalyn.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

Mar 25, 2017 7:51:49 GMT -5 @razzle said:

i keep hearing about fentanyl addiction in BC. What is causing this massive jump in these overdoses. Is it just easier to get a hold of?

From what I understand, heroin is being cut with harder drugs like fentanyl to increase potency, but fentanyl is so difficult to properly mix that it's causing the OD's. I've heard that the police have to wear special protective gear when dealing with OF cases to avoid getting anything on their skin, it's that potent.

Damn... anyone caught selling this junk should be charged with at least attempted manslaughter.

[Deleted]

Mar 25, 2017 7:30:34 GMT -5 sfvega said:

I'm in the St. Louis area and there's a HUGE problem here with heroin and it affects all ages, but especially kids. Which is the craziest thing to me. How friggin dumb do these kids have to be to do heroin? I don't like to outright, sweepingly insult people, but jfc. I get peer pressure and fitting in and pushing boundaries and doing stuff you're not supposed to and even dabbling in drug use as a HS/early college kid. But injecting one of the highest potency and potentially fatal drugs into your bloodstream is friggin nuts to me. I don't get how adults with drug problems do that drug, but high school kids? I'm appalled. That's craziness. And it's been a problem for probably the last 4 years, with no sign of slowing.

Prescription painkillers like Oxycontin and Vicodin play a big part. That shit is almost just as strong as heroin but people and people either build a tolerance for the medication or go broke or can't get any more prescriptions but are still in pain so they go with cheaper and more powerful heroin.

[Deleted]

Mar 25, 2017 20:08:15 GMT -5 El Pollo Guerrera said:

Mar 25, 2017 7:51:49 GMT -5 @razzle said:

i keep hearing about fentanyl addiction in BC. What is causing this massive jump in these overdoses. Is it just easier to get a hold of?

From what I understand, heroin is being cut with harder drugs like fentanyl to increase potency, but fentanyl is so difficult to properly mix that it's causing the OD's. I've heard that the police have to wear special protective gear when dealing with OF cases to avoid getting anything on their skin, it's that potent.

Damn... anyone caught selling this junk should be charged with at least attempted manslaughter.

I also heard they are having safe injection sites for Fentanyl in BC which is a huge problem. I actually do believe in the effectiveness safe injection sites but Fentanyl is a whole different beast. Plus it would get more heroin users hooked on it with an increase of more Fentanyl.

[mizerable]

The big thing where I'm at is meth. It's such an issue that it's incredibly easy to identify as a manager of the company I work for. The sad thing is, we can't legally do anything without forcing them to take a drug test, and running those at our size is incredibly expensive. Heroin has began to trickle over here from the east too.

Mar 25, 2017 2:15:24 GMT -5 Display Name said:

I understand getting addicted to something once you've done it...but what makes people take that first step to try these hardcore ass drugs that can kill you? I've never in the least bit been curious and have been deathly afraid to ever touch anything other than pot.

And honestly, why did you try pot? I guarantee that if you were like me when I was 8, I would've sworn up and down I'd never touch it. But like a lot of society, the way we are told to look at things is different. The image changes, we're told it's okay, we give in to the message that everyone around us tells us and we do it. And guess what? We live, we see the "benefits" this item brings and we don't see the harm in using it. There is a reason why it's called the gateway drug.

Fast forward a little bit and you feel more mature, like you can handle a little something more even though you aren't seeking it out, it finds you. It can find you because of your social circle, easy access or just something casual that is brought up while you're doing something else. It gives you the kind of high you've been looking for since pot has made it difficult to get to that level on a regular basis. There's a confidence trick to using recreational drugs even after all we've been taught. And you don't realize you've been suckered before it's too late.

And before someone says it, the reason I'm comparing any drug use to pot is because everyone goes through the same method to get to that point. At some time in your life, you said you never would, then you did. Marijuana just happens to be getting a Renaissance in recent years for acceptance. Sixty years ago you couldn't walk into a room and get a cheap pop by mentioning you're 420 friendly like you can now. Only in this case, this isn't an entire country saluting the red, white and green...it's your friends, family and co workers...your closest thing to everyone saying it's acceptable to use meth or heroin. It's a f***ing shame and it's so bizarre to see play out, but that's how people are. No one sets out to be a druggie.