Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Last night on HBO there was a documentary called "Heroin Cape Cod". The show followed several young people living on Cape Cod that for one reason or another were hooked on heroin. Some of them cited they started as young teens drinking and smoking weed and eventually moved to heroin. Others stated that they were in accidents and given pain pills like Oxy then they moved to heroin.
It was really sad to see these kids do anything to get that fix and injecting their necks, arms and hands. It was equally tragic for the parents who were trying to help their kids to no avail.
One 23 year old woman had over dosed 2 times woke up in the Hospital was released and got high again in the parking lot. She later died as did another young woman the show was following.
Most of the young people interviewed had been in and out of programs that did nothing for them.
There was one scene where the film crew followed a ambulance to a over dose victim and the work and the personal and the money that it took to keep that kid alive to get him to the hospital. We never did see what happened to him but if he was like the rest he probably lived to over dose again.
Heroin is a epidemic in the Northeast according to the show. The drugs are coming in from Mexico, more reason to build the TRUMP wall... The cartels have switched over from marijuana to heroin due to several states that have made weed legal.
The HBO documentary offered little hope for those who are hooked on heroin and left me wondering if these addicts would be better off dead.
It was also clear that the addiction strikes anyone who tries it from bad kids born on the wrong side of the tracks to honour roll athletes. The message was don't try it in the first place. I did wonder why these kids chose to use, was it boredom? a need to feel good all the time? Was it a failure of the parents not teaching them that there are ups and downs in life and how to deal with the down time?
What can be done about the heroin addiction which is everywhere not just Cape Cod?
Should we let the addicts die?
We had a case where IIRC a young woman was narcaned I think 9 times total. The 10th time she shot up she was driving, ended up rolling the vehicle and dieing. The addicts know narcan is out there to save them if they're found in time, so why stop shooting up. Many aren't happy that their tax dollars are being used to continually respond and revive addicts that are just going to OD again and again, just delaying the inevitable fatal OD.
It's helpful to see these stories and that they seem like they were normal kids until they used opiates.
They started using at young ages when people often make dumb decisions, so there is no going back. The ones needing prescriptions after surgery, just bad luck that they had to be exposed to it.
They did try, doing rehab, living in sober houses. But it grabs them in the end.
One of them said how boring it was to be sober, living a normal life. That is how I think a lot of them feel. I experienced this with the addict I was close to, who thought the life of non-addicts was too boring.
They don't want to be desperate addicts but they don't want a regular life of routine and responsibility either. They just want to feel like they do when they are high, no one gets that without paying a huge price.
...
Heroin is a epidemic in the Northeast according to the show. The drugs are coming in from Mexico, more reason to build the TRUMP wall... The cartels have switched over from marijuana to heroin due to several states that have made weed legal.
If you think that the majority of drugs come over via the unwalled desert, I have a bridge that's for sale. The wall might stop some immigration, but it won't stop drugs. Drugs come over via boat, plane, sometimes through tunnels, and, for high-value drugs like heroin, carried internally by individual human mules. A wall doesn't stop any of those things.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cape Cod Todd
The HBO documentary offered little hope for those who are hooked on heroin and left me wondering if these addicts would be better off dead.
The physical toll of being addicted to heroin is primarily due to adulterants and scarcity making it hard to predict the potency of any given batch of heroin. Someone could be on medical-grade heroin and have very few health issues as a result. There are a few, relatively uncommon health issues that pure heroin can create, but they're relatively minor compared to the health impact of unclean street heroin and the lack of predictability in potency.
When Switzerland started their medical heroin programs for addicts, a program that is used as a treatment of last resort for hard-core addicts, where the government provides clean, correctly-dosed heroin to the addict 1-3 times per day along with clean needles and a safe place to shoot up, they not only saw a reduction in overdoses, they saw a reduction in secondary medical issues, and, surprising to some, a reduction in the number of new heroin users. Why? Because the when the state gave addicts heroin, dealers no longer had a customer base so it was only in Switzerland's largest cities that dealers could make a living and so the supply got much tighter. Plus, seeing it treated as a medical issue made potential new customers see it more as a pathetic situation to end up in instead of some sort of social rebellion. And, finally, because the addicts had a steady supply they no longer needed to make money by selling drugs to support their habit, further restricting the supply and sales channels for the drugs.
The two paragraphs above are why I strongly support moving to that sort of program here in the U.S. Methadone provides some of those benefits, however it also has drawbacks - because of its long half-life, for the people who want to try to kick it, it is harder than heroin to kick. The long half-life also makes overdoses harder to treat, and because of the slow onset of effect from the oral administration, addicts often still crave the rush of IV drugs and they end up using on top of it. For an addict the rush may never be like the first time, but IV'ing heroin is still more of a rush than drinking methadone.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cape Cod Todd
It was also clear that the addiction strikes anyone who tries it from bad kids born on the wrong side of the tracks to honour roll athletes. The message was don't try it in the first place. I did wonder why these kids chose to use, was it boredom? a need to feel good all the time? Was it a failure of the parents not teaching them that there are ups and downs in life and how to deal with the down time?
All of the above, plus mental illness, abuse and unlucky genetics. All play a factor. You can't tell why any one addict became a junkie just by looking at them. Abuse statistics are bigger than many people realize, and childhood abuse can be insidious in how it rewires the brain. Even minor mental illness can tip the scales between having the strength to avoid temptation and thinking, "Why not?"
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cape Cod Todd
...
Should we let the addicts die?
I don't think so, but plenty are left asking that same question. Part of the reason I don't think so is that we have only really tried the hammer approach to solving the problem. As places like Switzerland and Portugal have discovered, other methods can yield more sustainable results if the goal is health and integration into society and not merely abstinence.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tamajane
It's helpful to see these stories and that they seem like they were normal kids until they used opiates.
...
Many probably were. Most people in any large group were "normal kids" at one time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tamajane
They did try, doing rehab, living in sober houses. But it grabs them in the end.
One of them said how boring it was to be sober, living a normal life. That is how I think a lot of them feel. I experienced this with the addict I was close to, who thought the life of non-addicts was too boring.
They don't want to be desperate addicts but they don't want a regular life of routine and responsibility either. They just want to feel like they do when they are high, no one gets that without paying a huge price.
Strong opiates can make you feel super-human - that's why the Germans named diamorphine with the German word for hero: heroin. For people who feel like failures most of the time, it's hard to give up moments of feeling like anything is possible. For people who have inner demons taunting them, heroin can shut them up for a few hours of rest without the kinds of side-effects anti-psychosis or anti-depression meds carry. If you don't have a genetically strong brain and/or didn't come from parents who always made you feel 100% safe and secure and/or suffered from trauma while a young person, the draw of feeling better is huge. I have strong genetics and come from a family whose love I never doubted, not for a minute, and while I was never the most popular kid in school and had my share of teasing, I was never traumatically rejected by my peers, never abused in any real sense of the word. People like me could probably mostly use heroin occasionally for fun. But we also tend to have lives we find satisfying and that have enough natural peaks to them that we don't want to risk normal life for high-risk artificial highs. But unfortunately not everyone arrives at adulthood with such balance in their emotional makeup.
Last night on HBO there was a documentary called "Heroin Cape Cod". The show followed several young people living on Cape Cod that for one reason or another were hooked on heroin. Some of them cited they started as young teens drinking and smoking weed and eventually moved to heroin. Others stated that they were in accidents and given pain pills like Oxy then they moved to heroin.
It was really sad to see these kids do anything to get that fix and injecting their necks, arms and hands. It was equally tragic for the parents who were trying to help their kids to no avail.
One 23 year old woman had over dosed 2 times woke up in the Hospital was released and got high again in the parking lot. She later died as did another young woman the show was following.
Most of the young people interviewed had been in and out of programs that did nothing for them.
There was one scene where the film crew followed a ambulance to a over dose victim and the work and the personal and the money that it took to keep that kid alive to get him to the hospital. We never did see what happened to him but if he was like the rest he probably lived to over dose again.
Heroin is a epidemic in the Northeast according to the show. The drugs are coming in from Mexico, more reason to build the TRUMP wall... The cartels have switched over from marijuana to heroin due to several states that have made weed legal.
The HBO documentary offered little hope for those who are hooked on heroin and left me wondering if these addicts would be better off dead.
It was also clear that the addiction strikes anyone who tries it from bad kids born on the wrong side of the tracks to honour roll athletes. The message was don't try it in the first place. I did wonder why these kids chose to use, was it boredom? a need to feel good all the time? Was it a failure of the parents not teaching them that there are ups and downs in life and how to deal with the down time?
What can be done about the heroin addiction which is everywhere not just Cape Cod?
Should we let the addicts die?
The "Trump wall" is a just a silly talking point and won't fix anything. The cartel already have massive tunnels dug underground, they could also switch to private or cargo boats and many move over the border legally through checkpoints, so a wall won't stop them.
Heroine was a problem before the legalization of weed (which isn't legal everywhere yet), but if the claim is legalizing weed stopped the cartel from selling it, then in theory legalizing all drugs would stop them from coming over here as we have taken their market away. It also takes the taboo away from illegal drugs if I can just get it from my local opiates shop rather than having to find it on the streets and take them in secret.
Education is the key to solving a lot of our problems. If we can give young people a strong education and the hope of a bright future, they will be less likely to turn to drugs or try them because they won't want to mess up their future.
Yes, I was going to say there are tunnels, too. The wall is the stupidest idea put forth by any politician this century. I also think pain management and health care in general needs to be re-examined. Many people are starting out on doctor-prescribed opiates. Our health care system is too reliant on drugs and doesn't reimburse enough for natural things such as acupuncture, massage and hypnosis. Drugs should be the last resort, not the first. Kids also see what we do, and as adults we are a drug-using country, whether sugar, nicotine, alcohol, Ambien, Xanax or Prozac. Yet we expect kids to "do as I say, not as I do".
There are many reasons why a kid tries drugs and part of it may be peer pressure or perhaps because they are there at a party so why not. We see drinking, drugs, sex on TV and in movies all the time and often without any negative side effects so the kids are eager to try these things as soon as they get a chance.
Do American kids have it too easy? are they bored with school that doesn't challenge them, are hey bored with a life of hanging out playing video games so they take some drugs to shake things up? Who knows?
We do know that the "war on drugs" isn't working. Should we legalize drugs and get them off the streets but then the Gov. would be in charge and we all know how they overly burden and screw things up.
I still think better security at the border would slow the drug flow down.
Throw the dealers in prison and get the addicts into a program that is locked down like a jail. Don't revive the OD's
If we didn't have this drug problem think of all the resources that would be saved.
I am an old man now. As I have aged I have noted that every 8 to 10 years this same issue rises up. And each time it's done so as if to say, 'this is new'. No it isn't. It's decades and even centuries old. And the same questions and answers are given each time. And every so often a new program (of sorts) to combat it comes up ("Just Say NO To Drugs", "The War On Drugs"...). If the left brings these things up the right ridicules them. If the right brings them up the left ridicules them. But the programs are always the same.
And so on and so on.
This may sound trite, but I have reached the conclusion that people are going to do what people are going to do. The same amount have additive behavior. The same amount reach a drug like heroin in their own way- be it intentionally or accidentally. The same social questions come up. The same treatment options arise. The same options to try and stop drugs arise. One side of the political spectrum wants to legalize drugs and the other wants to destroy them. " There is nothing new under the sun".
So where do we go? Do we ignore it? Do we encourage it? Do we try and help?
At the end of the day, I think it is always important to fight the good fight. To try and reach those we can. To try and prevent what we can. To try and heal those that we can. It's just the right thing to do.
Last edited by BLAZER PROPHET; 12-30-2015 at 09:18 AM..
There are many reasons why a kid tries drugs and part of it may be peer pressure or perhaps because they are there at a party so why not. We see drinking, drugs, sex on TV and in movies all the time and often without any negative side effects so the kids are eager to try these things as soon as they get a chance.
Do American kids have it too easy? are they bored with school that doesn't challenge them, are hey bored with a life of hanging out playing video games so they take some drugs to shake things up? Who knows?
We do know that the "war on drugs" isn't working. Should we legalize drugs and get them off the streets but then the Gov. would be in charge and we all know how they overly burden and screw things up.
I still think better security at the border would slow the drug flow down.
Throw the dealers in prison and get the addicts into a program that is locked down like a jail. Don't revive the OD's
If we didn't have this drug problem think of all the resources that would be saved.
If you read some of the stories out there, you realize some of these kids never had a chance. I recently read a story and this woman's mother basically started pimping out her kid who wasn't even ten yet for drugs and then shot this same kid up with heroin when she was only thirteen. A miracle would be this kid turning out somewhat normal and not addicted to things, but that's usually not the reality.
The US uses their resources on this drug problem because that's what they want to do. They've continued to increase funding this failed venture and I'm sure it's lining the pockets of certain people out there, because big government spending always is.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BLAZER PROPHET
I am an old man now. As I have aged I have noted that every 8 to 10 years this same issue rises up. And each time it's done so as if to say, 'this is new'. No it isn't. It's decades and even centuries old. And the same questions and answers are given each time. And every so often a new program (of sorts) to combat it comes up ("Just Say NO To Drugs", "The War On Drugs"...). If the left brings these things up the right ridicules them. If the right brings them up the left ridicules them. But the programs are always the same.
And so on and so on.
This may sound trite, but I have reached the conclusion that people are going to do what people are going to do. The same amount have additive behavior. The same amount reach a drug like heroin in their own way- be it intentionally or accidentally. The same social questions come up. The same treatment options arise. The same options to try and stop drugs arise. One side of the political spectrum wants to legalize drugs and the other wants to destroy them. " There is nothing new under the sun".
So where do we go?
At the end of the day, I think it is always important to fight the good fight. To try and reach those we can. To try and prevent what we can. To try and heal those that we can. It's just the right thing to do.
Reminds me of a documentary I watched on Netflix once---can't remember the name of it ATM---but basically the guy was saying that every decade, something is the "new" big, bad thing. You get your "epidemic" and your new, scary drug. Nothing changes and it has always been this way, regardless of what is said otherwise.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
