The Opioid Crisis - What's going to happen with the opioid problem? Is it more prevelant or are we more aware?

[Secret Asshole]

People love to get high. The problem is without any legal form, you have people turning to stupid shit like drinking massive amounts of water or huffing computer dust cleaner (which is insanely dangerous).

But you can basically become addicted to anything that makes you feel good. People become addicted to cutting because of the pain relievers the body releases. That's why when people criticize something for being addictive I go 'And?'

The only controversy to worry about is physiological addiction where you go through withdrawal and shit like that. Any pleasurable activity is psychologically addicting. There are some guys that are 24/7 poker players, but they aren't addicted because they can lead stable lives, are financially stable and happy. Its the gambler selling his mother's china or his daughter's shit for that 'one big card game' that's the addict, because his life is in the toilet and it ruins his life because he's addicted to it.

(Sex addiction is still pure fucking bullshit. We're biologically programmed to be addicted to sex. You're just a whore at that point or you have a mental condition)

 

[Dysnomia]

Doctors handed too many opioids out like candy. Now they have a problem on their hands. My mom was on way too many pain pills and became addicted. She had awful withdraw but was afraid to get help because she was afraid she'd lose the pain medication that she actually needed. She started chewing on fentanyl patches even after I told her it was killing people. She died last year. There was no reason for her to ever get that bad. Insurance stopped paying for some of her lesser medications. But they sure as hell paid for the fentanyl. The copay was really high. But it was only a fraction of what it would cost uninsured. Had they paid for less heavy medication and had she gone to the proper therapies for her RSD she'd be alive today. I also suspect she may have had ovarian or uterine cancer that she let go untreated due to fear.

I wish fentanyl never existed. Drug dealers are lacing everything with it now too.

I've seen too many people screwed up on opioids. I've been lied to repeatedly by people who think I'm dumb enough to believe they aren't on anything and want to borrow money for cigarettes and groceries and the like when I just overheard them on the phone saying they were buying something else. I went broke giving money to people because they would repeatedly harass me and shame me and call me a horrible person if I didn't. Phone calls all day and night begging and begging. I was being followed to the store by relatives (not my mom) who would then beg me to take money out of the ATM and cause a huge scene in public if I didn't. Then I'd have to wait forever until I got my money back. Addicts are manipulative fucks who don't give a damn about you. All they care about is getting high. They don't care if you can't even afford a crust of bread because you loaned them your grocery money and they swore they'd pay you back in a couple of days. Cut these people off and tell them to fuck off. Of course it's harder when they are your relatives and they know just how to make you feel like garbage for not helping them.

I could go deeper but it would be powerleveling to the extreme.

the opioid crisis is a bad problem no doubt. And it's lead doctors into being scared to give pain medication to people who actually need it. I have tramadol for joint and stomach pain and rarely take it. I hate the way it makes me feel. I hate the way any sort of opioid makes me feel. I don't get the draw at all. Why would you want to walk around like that? Plus it dries your mouth out something awful.

Pain management centers have problems with junkies trying to get opioids for a little pain in their back or a little twinge in their leg. It just became too easy to get them for any old pain. Now people are addicted. I hope that like the crack epidemic it eventually gets a lot better. But this is a bit different than crack. Doctors weren't handing crack out like candy until it spun out of control.

 

[ADN_VIII]

I've watched the progression from pain relief to dependency at a very close level. Happened to me when one of my teeth broke and exposed the nerve to the outside which resulted in excruciating pain that I couldn't control. I told my doctor and he prescribed Vicodin. Took my exact dose: two in the morning and two in the afternoon, then ended up dependant. The times I would go somewhere and forget them were awful because I would go through withdrawal. Eventually I got sick of getting sick and destroyed the supply to go cold turkey. It sucked, but what choice did I have?

On top of that, my dad has had back problems stemming from his time in the 82nd. Was given opiates to manage the pain in the run up to his surgery and I remember him commenting on the irony of an active DEA agent using opiates. Didn't take long for him to get hooked, and eventually quit cold when a fellow agent said he was acting like a pill abuser.

 

[Medicated]

A lot of people taking opioids aren't in pain, at least not physically. Their pain is the hopelessness and despair brought on by deindustralization. If you look at the places where opioids are the biggest issue, it's the parts of the US that have always been on the precipice of crippling poverty and have finally fallen off the cliff into a spiral of death.

The only thing that will stop the opioid epidemic is a painkiller that isn't addictive and is as effective as opiates. Until that happens, this will continue. This has been an issue since civil war vets started robbing pharmacies for morphine.

So basically the opioid crisis is just a societal symptom? And no one is interested in addressing or even mentioning what might be the source? They will just legislate it until the populace finds something else to cope with, or kill themselves.

 

[Garfieldchu]

Opium as a tool of oppression and destruction goes back centuries. Remember the Opium Wars? The opiate crisis is just the current incarnation.

 

[Slap47]

Opium as a tool of oppression and destruction goes back centuries. Remember the Opium Wars? The opiate crisis is just the current incarnation.

The British just wanted to make money out of the shithole that was northern India. It was just a nice coincidence that opium addiction contributed to weakening China.

So basically the opioid crisis is just a societal symptom? And no one is interested in addressing or even mentioning what might be the source? They will just legislate it until the populace finds something else to cope with, or kill themselves.

It's both.

One side is people being in pain and getting prescribed drugs they can't handle. There is a huge population of boomers with declining health, the health of younger people has deteriorated due to poor lifestyle and older people having kids has wreaked havoc on several generations genetically. This side is irresponsible pharma and government and an issue of chemical reactions and biology.

The other side is huge swathes of the country being depressed hellholes and the issue of the blanket of apathy and boredom that has always loomed over north-american society. America and Canada to a lesser extent are different from other countries. In America people are told to aspire to things and the entire society perpetuates that as a value, completely ignoring the means available to most people. Countries like Japan and Germany push people to succeed but the overall culture is to get a normal job and be content with where you are, although that is changing.

 

[GS 281]

It sorta amazes me that we can recognize the dangers which come along with the use of opiates and even advocate for government intervention and regulation of use of these medicines because they make people feel so good when taking them that they get hooked. Sure, the chemical withdrawal is the anchor that keeps many in place, but the hook is that smooth high you get from popping a few Vicodin.

I've taken Vicodin in the past for more than a couple different reasons, and I understand the pull. You feel pretty good and there is this low-grade euphoria you get from it that can make you feel fulfilled when things are shitty. One thing though, you can tell when things are going too far. When you crave the pills constantly, when you feel you need them to be happy, these are things that should tip off people that something that should be an aspirin is bending their will into a pretzel.

This really jogs your noggin when it comes to the concept of personal responsibility and the extent to which people must manage their own health, though. Even as a controlled substance where access is pretty much limited to prescriptions (its easier to find comparable or even better street drugs and for cheaper), this is still a problem where people believe that the government must play a role in regulation, even as we have observed the failure of the government to control all other drugs.

So like, which is it? Should the government continue the futile battle against people taking pills that make them have good fee-fees, a battle which makes them no better than a street criminal in the eyes of the law, or should we be more libertarian, concede that people will continue to take these medicines even when they are unnecessary? Perhaps a third road where suboxone is applied along with counseling and social work is the most appropriate response?

I have no clue, but I feel that this problem is only perceived as different because the addicts are generally faces that look like this...

 

[Crunchy Leaf]

So basically the opioid crisis is just a societal symptom? And no one is interested in addressing or even mentioning what might be the source? They will just legislate it until the populace finds something else to cope with, or kill themselves.

I think everyone knows what the source is. But fixing the problem is really, really hard, because that would mean fixing our entire broken economy.

It sorta amazes me that we can recognize the dangers which come along with the use of opiates and even advocate for government intervention and regulation of use of these medicines because they make people feel so good when taking them that they get hooked. Sure, the chemical withdrawal is the anchor that keeps many in place, but the hook is that smooth high you get from popping a few Vicodin.

I've taken Vicodin in the past for more than a couple different reasons, and I understand the pull. You feel pretty good and there is this low-grade euphoria you get from it that can make you feel fulfilled when things are shitty. One thing though, you can tell when things are going too far. When you crave the pills constantly, when you feel you need them to be happy, these are things that should tip off people that something that should be an aspirin is bending their will into a pretzel.

This really jogs your noggin when it comes to the concept of personal responsibility and the extent to which people must manage their own health, though. Even as a controlled substance where access is pretty much limited to prescriptions (its easier to find comparable or even better street drugs and for cheaper), this is still a problem where people believe that the government must play a role in regulation, even as we have observed the failure of the government to control all other drugs.

So like, which is it? Should the government continue the futile battle against people taking pills that make them have good fee-fees, a battle which makes them no better than a street criminal in the eyes of the law, or should we be more libertarian, concede that people will continue to take these medicines even when they are unnecessary? Perhaps a third road where suboxone is applied along with counseling and social work is the most appropriate response?

I have no clue, but I feel that this problem is only perceived as different because the addicts are generally faces that look like this...

View attachment 450091

Personally I don't have a problem with the government telling doctors and dentists to not massively overprescribe--that's where a lot of the problem started with young people, them getting lots and lots of drugs for their sports injury or root canal.
And I also don't have a problem with the government cracking down on or penalizing the pharmaceutical companies that heavily promoted drugs like OxyContin to doctors or shipped 20 million pills to a town with 2900 people.

 

[Medicated]

've taken Vicodin in the past for more than a couple different reasons, and I understand the pull. You feel pretty good and there is this low-grade euphoria you get from it that can make you feel fulfilled when things are shitty. One thing though, you can tell when things are going too far. When you crave the pills constantly, when you feel you need them to be happy, these are things that should tip off people that something that should be an aspirin is bending their will into a pretzel.

This really jogs your noggin when it comes to the concept of personal responsibility and the extent to which people must manage their own health, though. Even as a controlled substance where access is pretty much limited to prescriptions (its easier to find comparable or even better street drugs and for cheaper), this is still a problem where people believe that the government must play a role in regulation, even as we have observed the failure of the government to control all other drugs.

I'm going to powerlevel a bit to give my perspective. I had an injury a few years ago, pretty serious. The doctor prescribed me low grade painkillers to handle the pain from doing basic menial work. A few years later the opioid crisis hit. Then everyone around me was telling me I had now had a problem. Even though I still took below the recommended dosage all the years I'd be taking them. Even the drug store clerk suddenly gave me a flyer about the dangers of opioid addiction, how i was about to become a drug crazed criminal breaking into houses to get pills or something.

Since everyone was bothering me, even hiding my pills because they were worried. I gave them up. Now I take a shot or two of vodka in the morning and few shots of vodka in the evening. No one says a word.

 

[Hui]

How about we just legalize opiods and let people die/live. Same goes for all the other drugs. It's not like people aren't on 20 different meds to stabilize their re wired brains at this point. :shrug:

 

[GS 281]

@Medicated i went through something similar. I had a wisdom tooth turn sideways in my gums and lay on one nerve while laying on another. It then broke open and fractured and exposed my nerve. The pain was hell. They gave me 5 codeine and I had to wait 10 days for extraction. I asked for more and the dentist told me to take ibuprofen. I did the same thing you did but with rum. I would just slam a shot every 20 minutes. It became a habit and tbh I think downing 3/4 of a fifth every day did more than a few Vic’s would have.

 

[XYZpdq]

A doctor I work with has for his one of his two cents that opioids became more of an issue for normies is because people started seeking help with long-term pain management with expectation of no pain at all ever, rather than some pain in various amounts and trying to keep those amounts low.

 

[Slap47]

How about we just legalize opiods and let people die/live. Same goes for all the other drugs. It's not like people aren't on 20 different meds to stabilize their re wired brains at this point. :shrug:

Because they go crazy and kill people because of the drugs or go around stealing things when they can't afford their fix.

People you know dying and suckin dick like CwC also kinda sucks

 

[Hui]

Put em all together in giant stadium then.