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Much more effective to go after the addicts than the dealers.....
No, I don't agree....I will argue that treating drug abuse primarily as a health issue rather than a criminal offense is more effective. The solution is guaranteeing that addicts receive a safe supply.
I agree, people doing/buying drugs know they could be buying a pill with fentanyl in it. It's been in the news for how many years now?
Prince died from fentanyl laced pills April 21, 2016, which was almost eight years ago. One article says Tom Petty's COD was the same, except he was wearing a fentanyl patch that was prescribed by a doctor which he filled the prescription at a pharmacy.
I'm tired of reading articles about people being addicted to "drugs" that they were prescribed by doctors. I've dealt with a bad back for almost 25 years. It is up to me as a patient to take the meds as prescribed, not more then that. I've known since I was a teenager in the early 80's that I could be addicted to a medication and things like alcohol. I knew people who were addicted, some died from buying pain pills and others who died from bad health such as a bad liver after drinking alcohol. For the last 20 years, kids have had programs like DARE being taught in school about the consequences, yet some had turned to drugs like heroine. I can't count the number of classmates my daughter has lost to heroine over dose.
The article below blames pain medications, specifically Oxycontin which they say has been hard to get prescribed since 2007 which is not accurate for people I know who were on it. It has been very hard to get prescribed in the last two to three years. Everyone I know that has been prescribed Oxycontin has been cut off from being prescribed it. Some have also been cut off from oxycodone / Percocet, especially if it is over 10MG.
It is horrible living with chronic pain, especially now that doctors are afraid to prescribe pain medications. It is forcing people to buy illegally. I feel this is a large reason why people are buying pain meds illegally.
Many people were prescribed oxycontin and followed the doctor's prescribing instructions. However, Purdue lied about how long the pills would be effective, claiming 12 hours when the effects did not last nearly that long for many people. That led to withdrawal symptoms and intense cravings for the drug, which is typical of strong opioids.
In addition, doctors prescribed oxycontin for pain that was net effectively suppressed by the drug. There was an HBO show I saw where one of the addicts had been prescribed oxycontin for chronic kidney stones. Opioids do almost nothing for kidney stones. The addict in the show took the pills as directed by her doctor and ended up addicted.
There is a fair amount of evidence that the DARE program was not very effective.
On a lighter note, very young people are frequently anti-drug- they've lived enough to see the toll addiction has taken on older relatives or siblings.
I don't think this is the most effective way to address the issue. Anti-drug education does help people avoid getting into hard opiate addicion.
Many people were prescribed oxycontin and followed the doctor's prescribing instructions. However, Purdue lied about how long the pills would be effective, claiming 12 hours when the effects did not last nearly that long for many people. That led to withdrawal symptoms and intense cravings for the drug, which is typical of strong opioids.
In addition, doctors prescribed oxycontin for pain that was net effectively suppressed by the drug. There was an HBO show I saw where one of the addicts had been prescribed oxycontin for chronic kidney stones. Opioids do almost nothing for kidney stones. The addict in the show took the pills as directed by her doctor and ended up addicted.
There is a fair amount of evidence that the DARE program was not very effective.
I haven't seen the HBO show you mentioned. It's crazy that they were given oxycontin for kidney stones.
For people with chronic pain, I don't know anyone who was prescribed oxycontin first. They had to do various injections and other kinds of treatments such as physical therapy. They then tried a number of different mild pain killers, and when one stopped working, or if their insurance didn't cover it, they were prescribed something else. They were eventually prescribed oxycontin, they take two per day, then they are also prescribed something like percocet or oxycodone to take between the doses of oxycontin for what called break through pain.
Some of the other pain meds that were tried before a patient got oxycontin are various forms of morphine, also methadone and fentanyl patches.
Out of the people I know who were on oxycontin for pain issues, none suffered from withdrawal symptoms or had cravings for it. None get a high from it either.
This is from a legit pain management doctor, not by a GP or other doctor such as orthopedic. In my area of NJ, it has been this way since about 2003.
In the last two or three years, people can not get any narcotics or certain controlled medications such as Xanax from a GP. They were told to find a new doctor to prescribe the medication.
I think this is a direct result of cutting off prescription opiods like they did.
SO which is worse? Having an opiod crisis or people dying from one dose of fentynal? Yes I know people die from opiods as well, but I believe it takes much less to OD on Fentynal.
I think this is a direct result of cutting off prescription opiods like they did.
SO which is worse? Having an opiod crisis or people dying from one dose of fentynal? Yes I know people die from opiods as well, but I believe it takes much less to OD on Fentynal.
I'm in 100% agreement with you that a good bulk of it is due to the people not able to get pain meds who are suffering with chronic pain. I think that's why Prince bought something off the streets.
I don't know if the dealers know they are selling tainted pills. It makes no sense for them to kill their customers who would be repeat buyers...
On one hand the dealer is the direct link to the drug customer or the other if they didn't manufacture perhaps how would they know .
But just like the junkie they know they are in a culture where it's common that a person can and will be killed without compunction for anything. This is a criminal culture all the way around. Everyone is knowingly breaking the law and more importantly taking huge and dangerous risks.
I don't know if the dealers know they are selling tainted pills. It makes no sense for them to kill their customers who would be repeat buyers...
I also wonder if the dealers know about the tainted pills. I agree that it makes no sense for them to kill people that buy from them. At the bottom link, it says that these pills are sold in Mexican pharmacies to Americans.
At one time I looked up the tainted pills, wish I could find the page I saw. At the DEA link below, they look almost exactly like the real ones except they may be a different color, or the markings will be one number off such as an adderall pill numbered 973, will be marked 974. There are photos of Oxycodone (percocet without Tylenol, not Oxycontin), Xanax and Adderall real next to fake pills. Look on the DEA link below right under the football.
In 2023, DEA seized more than 78.4 million fentanyl-laced fake pills and nearly 12,000 pounds of fentanyl powder. The 2023 seizures are equivalent to more than 388.8 million lethal doses of fentanyl.
The 2024 fentanyl seizures represent over 41.1 million deadly doses. *
A UCLA-led study provides the first scientific evidence that brick and mortar pharmacies in Northern Mexican tourist towns are selling counterfeit pills containing fentanyl, heroin, and methamphetamine. These pills are sold mainly to US tourists, and are often passed off as controlled substances such as Oxycodone, Percocet, and Adderall.
The pills are available without a prescription – potentially adding to the already high number of overdose deaths stemming from use of those potent drugs in Mexico and the US.
“These counterfeit pills represent a serious overdose risk to buyers who think they are getting a known quantity of a weaker drug,” said senior author Chelsea Shover, assistant professor-in-residence of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and health services research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
Counterfeit pills containing fentanyl, heroin, and/or methamphetamine were sold at 11 pharmacies. Of 45 pill samples, nine sold as Adderall contained methamphetamine, eight sold as Oxycodone had fentanyl, and three sold as Oxycodone contained heroin.
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