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Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
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Quote:
Originally Posted by goldenage1
We saw the CNN version at 8PM Sunday, and I found the show riveting. I know Greenfield and Turner's Falls from my youth, and was shocked by the amount of drug use.
People on this forum have been slamming Greenfield for years as full of drug users. I think Bourdain was doing a service by documenting the problem for a wider audience. I don't mind that he deviated from his usual concentration on food to explore the drug problem.
Yeah, wrongly so, IMO. There are drugs everywhere. VT is always complaining about the drugs, when I go back to WI they complain about how everyone is on meth or opiates, when I return to Northern Cal everyone complains about how everyone is on meth. Here in Boston I'm seeing a dozen people a day obviously using.
This is everywhere. Not just the Pioneer Valley, or the Cape, or the City, or whatever. It is across the entire country. Painting it any differently is doing a huge disservice.
People on this forum have been slamming Greenfield for years as full of drug users. I think Bourdain was doing a service by documenting the problem for a wider audience.
Wait - people on this forum have been slamming Greenfield for years as full of drug users, so Bourdain did them a favor by showing half a million viewers that Greenfield is full of drug users?
Way to go Tony! I imagine confirming every negative stereotype about the city in the national media will do wonders for it in the same way 'High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell' did wonders for Lowell's image.
Saw the show too. It's really nothing new. Every story about heroin pretty much has the same narrative and visual backdrop.
The show placed quite a bit of blame on big pharma, but I don't see it that way. I think it's more about our nearly complete offshoring of our manufacturing and textile industries. There's no reason for a lot of people in that town to be there anymore. They were there when the mills were employing thousands. Now are they are still there after the mills have shut down. The only thing interesting left to do is getting high in the woods. Back before the 20th century when farms and mining became unproductive, people would abandon whole towns because there were no government support (much of New England's current woods are just new growth forests from abandoned towns and farms). You got to eat after all. But now we basically just let people drift along on food stamps and subsidence support even when the job sources and opportunities that got their families there are no longer there.
Whites are now more affected because the small isolated towns with the one company employer are all dying. There are only so many Rt 128 tech towns and Silicon Valleys we need in this country and these jobs are not really available for the average intellect. The collar suburbs that used to be industrial areas but didn't get on the tech bandwagon (like Weymouth, Brockton, etc) are also struggling.
Democrats and Republicans both just beat around the bush. Neither party is committed to bringing manufacturing back to the US. More government transfer to help people in these towns is really just treating the symptoms and prolonging the dysfunction. And cutting more corporate taxes doesn't really bring manufacturing back, they just build more Walmarts in your town.
Saw the show too. It's really nothing new. Every story about heroin pretty much has the same narrative and visual backdrop.
The show placed quite a bit of blame on big pharma, but I don't see it that way. I think it's more about our nearly complete offshoring of our manufacturing and textile industries. There's no reason for a lot of people in that town to be there anymore. They were there when the mills were employing thousands. Now are they are still there after the mills have shut down. The only thing interesting left to do is getting high in the woods. Back before the 20th century when farms and mining became unproductive, people would abandon whole towns because there were no government support (much of New England's current woods are just new growth forests from abandoned towns and farms). You got to eat after all. But now we basically just let people drift along on food stamps and subsidence support even when the job sources and opportunities that got their families there are no longer there.
Whites are now more affected because the small isolated towns with the one company employer are all dying. There are only so many Rt 128 tech towns and Silicon Valleys we need in this country and these jobs are not really available for the average intellect. The collar suburbs that used to be industrial areas but didn't get on the tech bandwagon (like Weymouth, Brockton, etc) are also struggling.
Democrats and Republicans both just beat around the bush. Neither party is committed to bringing manufacturing back to the US. More government transfer to help people in these towns is really just treating the symptoms and prolonging the dysfunction. And cutting more corporate taxes doesn't really bring manufacturing back, they just build more Walmarts in your town.
Well it isn't so much offshoring. Manufacturing still exists it is thriving. But manufacturing does not exactly equal low end work for some general population. These days a manufacturing plant requires some certification or degree.
Not much is really handmade these days. Robotic arms have been used in automobile production since the mid 1960's.
Keep in mind there are jobs that frankly will be next to impossible to bring back. My grandfather read a morning and evening newspaper. Today that is websites. So the paperboys and distributors are nearly gone. Book stores, music stores, video stores much of that is gone. How many people today actually develop photographs? Rochester NY is where Kodak was, Polaroid was located in Norwood I think.
The other aspect is frankly how much stuff do people want to consume anyway? When I was a kid I bought things all the time because I did not have much. Now things just tend to last. A jacket might last me ten or so years, my personal library has books from the 1950's that show no age and I already have a car and smartphone and so forth. That is why services still come into play. People still need a doctor maybe a lawyer, car insurance an education etc.
There is a drug treatment center in Foxborogh which is pretty suburban. MA needs more drug rehabs and service EVERYWHERE, not just in western MA.
I'm not sure why the show focused on Western MA as opposed to "MA" in general. The epidemic is in all regions of MA. I didnt see the show but i would bet they did not cover the following subjects (because hardly anyone ever does):
-- DETOX on an overnight hospital or residential unit is not MEDICALLY NECESSARY. (i.e., you can self detox from opiates and this does not increase risk of bodily harm. Inpatient/overnight "detox" just makes it more comfortable because you are getting titrated replacement drugs.)
-- Most users are NOT motivated to come off drugs. When pushed into it by family and friends, said fam and friends may feel all warm and fuzzy but if the user does not initiate it, s/he often relapses.
-- The greatest risk to OD and die is WHEN A USER RELAPSES such as after a detox or other long period of sobriety. Most people who i have known both personally and professionally who have died from an overdose, died after first use coming off a long period of sobriety. We need better education about this to users.
-- In MA, if someone close to you abuses opiates, you should be able to obtain a prescription for Naloxone which may help in an overdose. And you should.
Let's get real. You can uncover heroin and meth anywhere you think to look. My Hagerstown, MD sister smugly called to tell me about this "report." I looked up "heroin in Hagerstown" and guess what, it's out of control there. Journalists must find stories, and they like to think they're going behind the scenes to find something "new." He should stick to food.
let's get real. You can uncover heroin and meth anywhere you think to look. My hagerstown, md sister smugly called to tell me about this "report." i looked up "heroin in hagerstown" and guess what, it's out of control there. Journalists must find stories, and they like to think they're going behind the scenes to find something "new." he should stick to food.
Next get one in N Worcester County, because while they have public transit to Boston, you actually can't take a bus to Worcester from Gardner, Fitchburg, Leominster... 100,000+ more underserved population.
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