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.
It details a press conference that was held after police revived a heroin addict who had overdosed with Narcan, the nasal spray that reverses opiate overdose which more and more NJ police officers now carry. A life was saved, and that's great and all, but it doesn't take much searching through news stories to find how many hundreds if not thousands of times this has been done since heroin and other opiate abuse has taken hold in New Jersey. Then there's this article:
“I don’t think we should be bragging about it,” Gotto said. .. If we have to deploy Narcan it’s a failure, it’s not a success and I was offended that it was viewed as a success."
Howell Police Lieutenant Thomas Rizzo:
Quote:
“For somebody’s own choice and volition to do this, ok no problem we will give you all the resources we have to save you, but then there’s got to be a levy,” he said. “It can’t be ‘hey I’ll do this again tomorrow night and here comes the stampede of people to help me.’”
More than a dozen times in the past six months, Rizzo said he’s discovered heroin loaded in a syringe next to naloxone.
Finally:
Quote:
In 2013, before law enforcement began carrying the opioid antidote, Howell Detective Sgt. Eileen Dodd said a woman in the township was given naloxone three times in one week by paramedics.
I don't know about the rest of you, but when I was in school, we had D.A.R.E. Chuckle about it if you will, but I remember the officer telling us that he grew up in Newark in the 1970s where heroin use was prevalent. He was very straight with us and told us that once you start using heroin you become a dead man walking. It may not kill you today, tomorrow, or in five years, but rest assured, it will kill you, and from the time you start to the time you're six feet under, you're not really alive anyway. Recovery, he told us, is a fairy tale. That stuck with me because it was the God's honest truth-no sugar coating, no over the top scare tactics, just cold, hard, facts.
Fast forward to today, and we're essentially telling people, "Yes, heroin is bad, it's an epidemic, we need to stop it," out of one side of our mouths, but out of the other we're saying "Don't worry! The police will save you with Narcan, you won't go to jail (and neither will your buddy who calls once you OD), and you'll be back out on the street in no time-just call 911 when you need us." Yes, I know these people are someone's, brother, father, sister, mother, but where does this all end?
The police and medical staff are just arming themselves with a tool to save lives. The treatment and prevention of heroin use, that's another area. I happen to work in this field. The prevention part is what needs lot of attention.
Half the people who we use a defibrillator are go on to have complications from the original heart failure, stroke, whatever, and live out the rest of their lives in a manner I would not like to. Should we take them out of ambulances? All medical devices exist to prolong human life, to say this one is worth it and that one is not? That's pretty much out of humanity's pay grade.
It ends when they do, through their own choices. Heroin users are still likely to die, but let's face it, even if one person a year decides to back away from their choices, forty bucks per dose seems like a hell of a good deal.
The police and medical staff are just arming themselves with a tool to save lives. The treatment and prevention of heroin use, that's another area. I happen to work in this field. The prevention part is what needs lot of attention.
Bingo, because once heroin grabs it's hold on you it's a very very difficult addiction to over come.
A friend of ours has been going through this for years with his son. In and out of numerous rehabs, in and out of jail, kid can only stay clean for a short period and he's back at it.
Yeah I was told back in HS many decades ago and always stayed away from those kinds of "real drugs". I was dismayed later when decades later it was still prevalent even in suburban and rural areas. Recently I heard that 4 out of 5 people who get into that stuff wind up dead.
All in all, and I have even lost people close to me, you just don't start with any of that. It makes you a bum, thief and a dead person sooner than later.
You'd think people playing with H would get hold of Narcan.
no problem with EMTs/cops with lifesaving drugs. If you use H, it cannot be assumed the cops will show up on time or ever show up, especially if you have to rely on your druggie buds who don't want to get involved and rather see you dead than them implicated in illegal activity.
Close firend's son died of H at home after years of rehab, 22 yrs old, only son. Death to dealers!
Now if we could get mayors of nice towns to admit a drug problem exists.
We need to have a 'dash gauge' logging deaths from H in prominent places, not on some website, perhaps at town borders, so everyone can see theat and know the problem exists and that is your backyard.
It's almost a last resort to someone OD'ing, right? If the cops or medics don't get there in time to administer it, the heroin user can easily stop breathing.
The cops shouldn't whine about people abusing it. You have little old ladies calling the cops every time they hear a noise in their yard. Just part of the job.
If you use H, it cannot be assumed the cops will show up on time or ever show up, especially if you have to rely on your druggie buds who don't want to get involved and rather see you dead than them implicated in illegal activity.
Except Christie gave them amnesty-now they can call and report an OD as a "Good Samaritan." I'm just concerned that we're creating a "heroin safety net" that makes the drug seem less risky to those who might be dissuaded otherwise. I had plenty of other reasons not to do drugs, but the message of "You're as good as dead if you try it once" was a powerful one. We should be stressing to kids that heroin is a drug where your first time can easily be your last and that there are plenty of examples of that. Instead we're creating a perverse incentive to experiment with it.
Are we approaching this heroin thing all wrong? What's right? I don't have an answer. My neighbor's son is clean after years of struggle--though he'll always be an addict. Now he drinks too much and is an obsessive online gamer. He just traded addictions.
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.
