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Treatment usually isn't very successful for opiate addicts.
Treatment for alcoholics, smokers and other addictions are successful if done properly and the person wants to stop. Nothing in this world is black and white
I'd argue the opposite. Everyone I knew who got screwed up on painkillers was in large part due to their pain. If they quit, the pain was back. I don't really know of any who got addicted from boredom.
I think the best way to combat the painkiller abuse epidemic is find a better cure for chronic pain, like botox or something. Until then, opiates are the go to for pain, and how on earth are you not going to face tolerance and withdrawal symptoms from taking them every day for pain? Sure cannabis make work for some, but it doesn't seem to be a cure all.
If we take out the addictions that come about from pain management, many other addicts seem to have other issues with severe depression or mental health issues or their life is such a dump they tell themselves addiction is better than being sober and living their crappy life. But people turn to other drugs, mainly alcohol, in these situations too.
All in all, I think the rate of people turning to opiates to escape life isn't really different from other drugs like alcohol. The problems are addiction and really crappy lives, not the drug itself.
This is where some people are able to stop and others continue the abuse. I was able to stop because I did not take the medication to get high or run away from my problems. I never got high just pain relief. My life sucks but I deal with it and not drown my sorrows so to say. IMO it all in the mind.
Lots of people want to outlaw everything they think is bad. But often, that produces the opposite of their intended results. Here is a clear article on one way to fight the proliferation of heroin.
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A heroin epidemic has been spreading across the United States, expanding enormously for the last several years. With it, the number of people dying has also increased dramatically. While politicians offer failed solutions like “securing the borders,” the real solution is to legalize drugs.
The number of drug overdoses in the US is approaching 50,000 per year. Of that number nearly 20,000 are attributed to legal pain killers, such as Oxycontin. More than 10,000 die of heroin overdoses. I believe these figures vastly underestimate the number of deaths that are related to prescription drug use.
The “face” of the heroin epidemic has changed since the 1960s when it was largely contained to urban “junkies” and Vietnam veterans. In recent years the epidemic spread to suburbia as heroin became a low-cost substitute for other drugs. In more recent times, the epidemic has spread to rural areas such as fishing villages in Maine and coal mining towns in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
The problem of the epidemic rests with two causes. The first is the War on Drugs which creates profit incentives in the black market for the distribution of the most dangerous drugs. The second is the pharmaceutical-medical-FDA complex, or Big Pharma, which profits from treating pain with dangerous pharmaceutical drugs.
Agreed. If legalized, the content could be controlled and consistency established, which would likely cut down on fatal overdoses. Also, legalization would take the profits away from drug cartels, another benefit.
I'd like to see a program where addicts could get a low-cost dosage at easily accessed points, but would have to enroll in a detox program to qualify. To me, the end goal of legalization should be to minimize demand.
I'd argue the opposite. Everyone I knew who got screwed up on painkillers was in large part due to their pain. If they quit, the pain was back. I don't really know of any who got addicted from boredom.
I think the best way to combat the painkiller abuse epidemic is find a better cure for chronic pain, like botox or something. Until then, opiates are the go to for pain, and how on earth are you not going to face tolerance and withdrawal symptoms from taking them every day for pain? Sure cannabis make work for some, but it doesn't seem to be a cure all.
If we take out the addictions that come about from pain management, many other addicts seem to have other issues with severe depression or mental health issues or their life is such a dump they tell themselves addiction is better than being sober and living their crappy life. But people turn to other drugs, mainly alcohol, in these situations too.
All in all, I think the rate of people turning to opiates to escape life isn't really different from other drugs like alcohol. The problems are addiction and really crappy lives, not the drug itself.
I was a long time volunteer at a hospital detox/ treatment center, mostly young suburban adults who never met a recreational substance they did not like although heroin was, for the most part, their drug of choice. The " professional" typically probed for trauma in group sessions. As their stories unfolded, most did not have particularity crappy lives before the drugs , although their own perceptions differed. Many simply preferred to live their lives buzzed and damn the consequences.
Many claimed no prior usage of prescription meds- lack of availability and costs. All began their journey with weed, the gateway substances for them.
Those that used pills recreationally tended to crush and snort.
The " it's not so bad" ideology was common.
Most people who drink alcohol are not alcoholics.
Most who smoke weed are probably not " stoners"
Yet, most who try heroin ( usually smoking it) are quickly addicted. The needle/ rush thing is often a separate addiction.
Heroin, and many other mind altering drugs should be illegal and dealers/smugglers/producers who are caught should be sent to work camps (or executed) for the rest of their lives. Drug users should be sent to rehabilitation centers and released into a different environment, ie. a different state or part of the country.
Agreed. If legalized, the content could be controlled and consistency established, which would likely cut down on fatal overdoses. Also, legalization would take the profits away from drug cartels, another benefit.
I'd like to see a program where addicts could get a low-cost dosage at easily accessed points, but would have to enroll in a detox program to qualify. To me, the end goal of legalization should be to minimize demand.
There are a variety of approaches used throughout Europe ranging from common Harm Reduction injection sites to heroin treatment which has been around for almost 100 years in the UK. Then there's Portugal, often glorified, in the US. This country switched from viewing drug addiction as a legal to a healthcare issue. At the same time, a Minimum Income was introduced. Treatment vans are dispatched daily and offer Methadone and Suboxone. In some areas, there's home delivery. Those on maintenance progr tend to rely on other substances.
At some point, Germany and France, overwhelmed with their own refugee challenges, will decline to prop up the Portugese economy. Then what?
Legit private residential dual diagnosis treatment programs in the US can and do run $15-20,000 ( 2005 rates) for a 21 day stay, a drop in the bucket in terms of recovery. Faith- based, non- medical, programs, tend to be more affordable. AA/NA " 12 Steps works when one works the steps". Heck, Scientogy works for some. For the most part though,relapse is almost certain.
I do not have hands on experience with mature users of pain pills for legit physical pain. State databases have put a serious dent in Doctor shopping.
Heroin, and many other mind altering drugs should be illegal and dealers/smugglers/producers who are caught should be sent to work camps (or executed) for the rest of their lives. Drug users should be sent to rehabilitation centers and released into a different environment, ie. a different state or part of the country.
Those countries that impose severe consequences to dealers/ smugglers/ producers tend to have substantially fewer issues with addiction within their populations.
Change of geography does not prevent relapse. Any addict worth their salt can score, anywhere, anytime.
What did people do for pain prior to the late 90's when Perdue Pharmaceuticals started pushing their new Oxycontin, that made their owners billionaires? How did people survive before then?
Again, depressed kids in 1992 turned to a drink or some pot.
Kids post 1998 or so increasingly had painkillers, and then cheap heroin, that basically wasn't there before. They are much more addictive and much more dangerous than beer and pot..and they are there because pharma companies sold the BS that opiates were a good answer to chronic pain and made a fortune off of it, and the market got flooded with highly addictive drugs.
I guess they just lived with the pain. I don't know which is worse, addiction to painkillers or living with the pain... That's another debate though.
As far as depressed kids, I don't know that alcohol really has many benefits health wise over opiates.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tamajane
Lots of these addicts have caring families, children they love, and decent futures if they want it. The drug is better.
Legal or not, treatment or not, counseling, interventions, family, children, security, whatever - once Madame H gets her hooks into an addict, there is little chance of escape.
There's people that come from awful families rampant with addiction and come out clean too. I think there's just a certain percentage of people that are going to turn to drugs to escape, and the percentages don't change THAT much from drug to drug. No drug will force it's user to redose. Now certain ones are worse to be addicted to than others though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TruthBTold2U
This is where some people are able to stop and others continue the abuse. I was able to stop because I did not take the medication to get high or run away from my problems. I never got high just pain relief. My life sucks but I deal with it and not drown my sorrows so to say. IMO it all in the mind.
It's so much this. It's the same thing with money or eating, why can some people just not control their spending or eating habits even though they know better?
I've used painkillers recreationally for like 2 years, taking a small dose once every two weeks or so. I liked it to relax after a mentally exhausting day, curl up, read a book, and go to bed for 10 hours then wake up refreshed. However, when I finished college and am now looking for jobs, I have a lot more lack of excitement than mental exhaustion, and I found that they really don't add anything so I quit using. I still have them, but don't have a desire to use them...
I've used painkillers recreationally for like 2 years, taking a small dose once every two weeks or so. I liked it to relax after a mentally exhausting day, curl up, read a book, and go to bed for 10 hours then wake up refreshed. However, when I finished college and am now looking for jobs, I have a lot more lack of excitement than mental exhaustion, and I found that they really don't add anything so I quit using. I still have them, but don't have a desire to use them...
If you only use just about anything once every 2 weeks, you will probably not get addicted.
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