Drug Deaths

[candrew]

I definitely needed some opioids when I had kidney stones.

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I had two kidney stone attacks in my life - the first one lasted 9 days.

The pain is indescribable - my doctor prescribed something called dilaudid, which is 14X more powerful than morphine and it did absolutely nothing.

After the second one I gave up caffeine and I haven't had one since (almost 4 years). Though believe it or not it's genetic - I'm not sure if anything will do any good long term.

 

[Rubashov]

I gave up caffeine

NEVER!!!!!!

 

[Rubashov]

Controls on opioids were increased here I reckon 10 to 12 years ago, codeine can no longer be purchased without prescription. We had a significant heroin problem in this country in the late 80's through the 90's but it has largely been displaced by meth addiction amongst the addicts that I work with daily. The typical heroin addict that i see at work is 40+, generally fairly well acquainted with her majesty's prison service and generally well on the margins of society. Most IV drug users under that age that I come in contact with are injecting Meth, there has over the last couple of years been an increase in opioid and benzo use by this cohort of younger addicts in order to sleep or 'come down' but meth is still by a distance the drug of choice for young Australians.

 

[Deleted member 365]

This issue is three tiered:

1. Political
2. Financial
3. Racial

1. Politicians, prosecutors, and law enforcement won’t want to be seen as “going easy” on drug offenders. It’s much more politically advantageous to throw the book at those addicted to drugs than to offer treatment. Attitudes are changing but very slowly.

2. Health care and law enforcement are some of the biggest money makers in the nation. Health care should be one of the most regulated industries out there. Unfortunately, we have an incredibly unregulated health care system comparatively. As a result, big pharm pays doctors big time money to prescribe their most expensive (and addicting) drugs. Big pharm has fought for years to keep marijuana illegal (and still are. Look at how complicated things have gotten in utah). So tackling big pharm to stop trying to exploit doctors and desperate patients is going to take some real political reform in our country. Advancing a single payer system would go a long way to resolving this. But we’re years away from that.

3. Racially, no one of importance gave a **** for decades over these addicting drugs rampaging through African American communities in the 70s and 80s. In fact, it was more lucrative to ignore the problem and lock them up. Now suddenly, now that Joe Sixpack in Ohio is addicted to this ****, are people finally starting to pay attention? So attitudes regarding race are going to have to change if we are to truly tackle this problem and get communities devastated by this epidemic the help they need.

 

[candrew]

NEVER!!!!!!

LOL - it wasn't easy. Serious withdrawals. Did a lot of running - not sure if it helped any.

 

[fishonjazz]

I had two kidney stone attacks in my life - the first one lasted 9 days.

The pain is indescribable - my doctor prescribed something called dilaudid, which is 14X more powerful than morphine and it did absolutely nothing.

After the second one I gave up caffeine and I haven't had one since (almost 4 years). Though believe it or not it's genetic - I'm not sure if anything will do any good long term.

I thought I was dying. It was a 10 millimeter son of a bitch. Morphine didn't even have an effect at all. Pain pills didn't do anything. Only thing that worked for me was toradol (I think that's what it was called but my brain wasnt working well due to the pain.) but I only had that at the hospital. Had to wait like 5 days before I could get surgery on the stone. Those 5 days were pretty bad.

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[Harambe]

I really like how they're putting access to treatment and recovery services out there.

I feel like we might be over-correcting with how we attack prevention. As others have outlined, there are times where it's absolutely justified(Surgeries, Cancer, etc). More and more I see and hear stories of doctors refusing to write out a script, yet not getting their patient to a pain management professional for assessment. This leaves the patient disenfranchised with their doctor, looking for relief on the street.

 

[Scat]

Anyone here ever try kratom?

 

[fishonjazz]

Anyone here ever try kratom?

Never heard of it.


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[Scat]

Never heard of it.


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It's a tree that grows in SE Asia. The leaves have properties similar to opium but supposedly without the adverse effects.

 

[Harambe]

It's a tree that grows in SE Asia. The leaves have properties similar to opium but supposedly without the adverse effects.

You can get it at a lot of smoke shops around. It does something, but I can't really explain what. I was only taking the standard dose(two capsules). I know a guy that takes eight at once, and he once told me it's like weed without the paranoia and hallucinations.

I see Kratom in the news a lot recently, seemingly trying to make a connection between kratom and adverse drug deaths. But in every single case I've seen, not a one of them listed kratom as a cause. Merely that it's there.

 

[checkbookdoc]

1) I sometimes feel like a lot of the discussion minimizes/understates the responsibility of the drug user. People are asking for trouble and taking a risk every time they use these products. Sometimes use can't be avoided or is the best course of action, but if you are responsible it is very rare that it turns into an addiction. The opioid problem is serious enough that everyone can get a fair share of blame (doctors, big pharma, dealers, law makers, families, etc.) while also recognizing nearly all of the addicts could have avoided the situation.
2) I think most of the solution could be obtained through greater/better education (children, legitimate users, illegal users, family, doctors, law makers).
3) Treatment should be provided, but should not reduce the responsibility of actions taken while under the influence (e.g., should not be used to reduce legal sentence).
4) Legalization with regulation seems like the best course of action as it would bring the people out of the shadows and make it easier to allocate more of the treatment cost to distributors/manufacturers/users.