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He's already graduated from college and is an adult. And we've already done the tough love thing with him. He's on his own now. He can sink or swim on his own.
Without going into detail I'll just say that he's gotten into legal trouble about this (after graduation) and we did not bail him out or pay any legal fees.
And by the way, I'm not saying we did everything right. What I AM saying is that as a middle class family, up to that point we'd had no significant experience with opiate drug use or misuse, or kids taking drugs (other than the occasional suspicion they might have smoked weed). We certainly had no experience with anyone SELLING drugs in our family or using any sort of "hard drugs" or misusing prescription drugs.
We were naive. We had no idea what we were dealing with at the time. We certainly had no idea that these sorts of drugs are a gateway drug to heroin. The only reason I was very careful with where I kept my pain meds was because I had gone to some PTA meeting and they'd talked about how kids steal pain meds sometimes and I didn't want to tempt any visiting teenager. I had the memory in my mind of one of my friends in high school "scoring" a few prescription pills and how it was some big, amazing, scary thing - and she didn't sell them, she took them and it was even bigger and more amazing and scarier. It was an isolated event in other words, as far as I knew, but I didn't want that drama coming out of our house.
We had this idea that heroin was sold in back alleys and that heroin addicts were homeless and scrawny and had needle tracks up and down their arms. We had never known anyone who was a heroin user - not to our knowledge - and I had only known one person who had gotten addicted to pain meds - and he was my very professional, very intelligent older uncle who really did have a very debilitating illness that caused him a lot of pain and which eventually killed him, so we sort of felt like he got a pass on the pain pills stuff.
We were wrong about a lot of those misconceptions.
You and I are very close in age, but I've got a COUPLE of years on you.... and back in our day, that WAS a heroin user..... fast forward to today and it is far LESS expensive and far MORE plentiful...... AND far less stigmatized..... and far more multi-class.....
You and I are very close in age, but I've got a COUPLE of years on you.... and back in our day, that WAS a heroin user..... fast forward to today and it is far LESS expensive and far MORE plentiful...... AND far less stigmatized..... and far more multi-class.....
Right - back in the day it was a back alley, expensive habit. Now it's cheap, plentiful, more potent, and much more common.
The book Dreamland by Sam Quinones has been recommended (by me and others) repeatedly on this thread. Anyone really concerned about this issue should really, really read that book.
Right - and only bad people got sent to concentration camps. And in N. Korea, only bad people get sent to hard labor for 10 years, etc. etc.
Only people that eat cheesesteaks have heart disease.
And on and on....
Heck, they have tested many of these substances on Monkeys and they became quickly addicted (cocaine especially). Are all Monkeys addicts? I would think they are relatively pure "beings" in terms of being natural. It's only when some crazy humans purify a substance and make a game of giving them a little for pressing a lever 1,000 times that it becomes a problems.
Same with society and substances...and even greed (criminal or non-ethical) and MANY other things.
[b][i][u]I've also had them lie & tell me I need completely unnecessary surgeries - thankfully, I wasn't stupid enough to believe them.
I'm not saying that's not true but there is something that needs to be considered. Doctors need to be concerned about being sued. Perhaps some of them are being on the cautious side by recommending a surgery.
Yes, such as dental, such as a leg injury, such as an eye infection where they gave me Tylenol-3. In all cases, I've had left over pain drugs because basically, I don't like being out of control, giving over control to some pill.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jo48
I once told a Dentist No, but he would not take No for answer. No Dental Assistant should follow you to your car when you say no to a pain script. RESPECT a Patient's wishes, especially a Senior who has been there, done that before, and knows their own level of pain.
That's just incredible. I guess the dental assistant was trying to get you to take the prescription as you were walking to your car. I was window shopping motorcycles one day and the salesman followed me to my car when I left, but that's a much different thing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Serious Conversation
Moderator cut: deleted quoted post
Yep, my high school class (2004) has already lost 10% of its members. Most of those were pill related.
I don't think my class (much earlier than yours) lost anywhere near 10% of it's members.
I know someone who had painful back surgery years ago. He was told by his doctor that he would become addicted to his pain meds and they would help him get off them. He weaned himself off due to wanting to return to his previous level of activity.
I don't know why more doctors aren't upfront with their patients about the potential problem of addiction from pain meds.
I have several times been offered narcotics for knee pain which was totally unnecessary for the
amount of pain I was having.
Yes, such as dental, such as a leg injury, such as an eye infection where they gave me Tylenol-3. In all cases, I've had left over pain drugs because basically, I don't like being out of control, giving over control to some pill.
Dental nor a leg injury is even close to major surgery.
Have your chest cracked open & call me when you have left over pain meds.
MOST people do NOT get addicted from simple pain med use.
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