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Yea, they try to keep it civil. They are creating Junkies! Heroin addicts!
They're better off using heroin.
Remedicalize or even legalize it all then get Big Pharma out of the equation.
Let the users have all they want and at a price that can be afforded.
The problems with it's use (and especially abuse) are far more about the costs
of supply and the OTHER acts that addicts will engage in to have the money needed.
Yea, they try to keep it civil. They are creating Junkies! Heroin addicts!
In many cases, sadly true. Heroin is a cheap, readily available and more often than not deadly replacement for a legal Rx. It's happening more and more. Often with people who are in legitimate need of pain relief. And they have no clue what heroin is capable of. How potent it is and what dealers use to step on it.
I watched a program on History recently that showed a whole new subset of the drug culture. Testers. They volunteer to use new batches of drugs that come in, and get free fixes plus get paid for their risk. It's pretty simple. If they die the dope is no good. Wow.
Personally I would seek medical help before even considering looking to the street. However for many people the wait to get such help precludes this. Whilst I have little sympathy for recreational abusers of drugs, there are a lot of people who aren't getting caught up in the stampede to damn anyone who uses Rx pain meds as being thus. Answers? IDK.
Family friend. Many years ago. Worked in health care. Stole the meds from patients. Lost his job and his marriage. Went to rehab and slowly re-built his life. Doing okay now.
He was 13 and his brother 12 when they got offered drugs. Curiosity kills the cat ...
His brother said no. He said yes. Has been hooked ever since. On and off. Heroin. Jail. Out. Off for a few years. Back on. A little. A little more. Badly. Off again. On. Off. Dealing with heroin. Got caught. Off. On. Probation.
He is 43 now. Looks surprisingly good and has no health consequences from it other than having lots of fake teeth which you can hardly see. Luckily built muscular so even though he is thin, he looks like he works out. He is a very nice guy, comes from a nice family. Has a forgiving employer who keeps taking him back even after he is in and out of jail/prison.
I am sad for him. Several women have tried to "rescue" him, but it never lasts more than a few years.
I return the false. Withdrawal from opiates can and will kill as surely as benzos and alcohol. The physical symptoms are just as severe as with alcohol and benzos and require medical supervision to get through safely. The body's autonomic functions become dependent upon the substance just as with the others you mentioned. My doctors are very cognizant of this fact. With less potent medications such as codiene, hydrocodone and even oxycodone if the dosage has been kept reasonable withdrawal can be managed much more easily, but with drugs Ike morphine, fentanyl, heroin and such not so much.
I've experienced this myself, when an insurance issue caused me to lose my pain doctor and the referral to a new one was 90 days out. After only about three days I was in serious trouble. Renal failure as I described. The symptoms were very akin to severe dysentery. Which is known quite well to be fatal if left untreated. None of the doctors who treated me or any I have seen since hold with the dismissive attitude that is widely held for opiate withdrawal. It depends greatly on the drugs involved and the dosage being taken. In addition to renal failure tachycardia, delerium, seizure a d such are also serious concerns.
Sorry, that's just not true. If there is an underlying medical disorder then maybe. But this is why opiate users can do "outpatient detox." That cannot be done for those on alcohol or benzos.
I do not doubt that happened to you but it is not the norm and it sounds like there was underlying medical issues. Any of those things can happen at any time, but they are not caused by opiate detox although they may be exacerbated. Has nothing to do with the specific drug or dosage of opiates.
I obviously dont know anything about your specific case but im glad that you are okay now and that you got the help you needed.
You generally hear all the "bad" stories and I definitely know of a few from back in the daze. If it bleeds, it leads.
You are not going to hear a lot of stories here (or in the news) that "Jane was in horrible pain and could not live a normal life but now her addiction to opiate pain pills is keeping her happy and living pain-free".
About a decade ago I had a large addition put onto the house. I wanted to do a lot of the work myself, but I hired a crew to frame it (12/12 roof pitch, etc.).
The General Contractor who did the job was talking to me one day and somehow his meds came up. He stated flatly that without his opiates (legal) he simply could not go to work in the morning. In other words, they were allowing him to fully function. A lot of people in construction suffer strains and accidents that would leave them jobless if not for such pills.
So there you go. Tens of millions of Americans are taking opiates today.
Tens of millions are taking NSAIDS. A bunch of those OTC NSAID takers will be showing up at ER's today along with the opiate OD's.
Lots of ambien and benzo users will be showing up also after the mix booze with them.
Note - I also have friends that died when I was a teen. In terms of harm reduction it is important, IMHO, for people to know at least two things:
1. Don't use needles
2. Don't mix drugs
One could go further and talk about legal opiates being better because at least you know the dose. A BIG problem is that many chemists have learned how to make the substances 10 and 100X stronger than opium. Strangely enough, some of these substances are not illegal. In other words, you can buy pounds of them from China India and maybe even the USA.
Dangerous - and this is one of the reasons why countries that decrim everything seem to do better. When everything is a black market, people figure out ways around the forbidden fruit...often they are dangerous.
Now back to your normal scheduled program of why opiates are bad bad bad.
Withdrawal can be far more than just uncomfortable. It also causes deadly physical problems. Severe dehydration from the vviolent vomiting and diarreha causing renal failure is common. Crash , cold turkey is thus not a method in medical use anymore. Withdrawal will kill as surely as an OD.
Have you ever read about withdraw from the benzos that tens of millions of Americans take daily?
How about withdraw from the SSRIs?
Actually, you rarely read about either because very few EVER stop taking them. SSRI's were studied and were only slightly more effective than placebo (sugar pills - something like 5% more effective). They were OKed for short term use. Yet people take them for decades.
I knew a guy who use ambien regularly (sleeping pills). He said every night he would take two or three and then start drinking...and pretty much pass out. All of these people are legal.
If we are going to talk about Dope and Dope Pushers, we have to mention:
1. The American Medical System - of course, being capitalistic (save money and time), so drugs are usually the first resort rather than the last.
2. The Forbidden Fruit - always in motion
3. People - as a whole. Those who think they are "better than that" are probably not.
We now give meth to our kids (I don't - just saying Americans do) by the millions. That's what adderall and ritalin are. They become completely addicted...no way around it.
My daughter is a heroin addict. She is 23 and just started the downward spiral. Was found the other night by police passed out in her car in a rough neighborhood surrounded by needles and dope. She was given the choice jail or rehab and reluctantly chose rehab. I am not too optimistic as she wasn't ready to go and must not have hit her bottom yet. Over the last few months, she lost her job, custody of her daughter, her apartment, has been in and out of detox/rehab etc. We are all at our wits end. Heroin is truly the drug from hell. Just 2 years ago she had graduated college, started a well-paid career and was doing really well for herself. Now she is pretty much a junkie. I am not quite sure why she tried it other than she started dating a loser guy who turned out to be a heroin addict.
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