Social Issue. Opioids Kill..

U.S. deaths from opioid overdoses are mounting with breathtaking speed. These powerful drugs — including heroin, morphine and fentanyl — can relieve pain and evoke intense feelings of pleasure. But the same drugs, whether prescribed by a doctor or bought on the street, can quickly turn deadly by simultaneously messing with crucial systems in the body.

Interesting Presentation..

Here’s how an overdose shuts down your body. BY LAURA SANDERS

www.sciencenews.org...

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Every day, more than 115 Americans die after overdosing on opioids.1 The misuse of and addiction to opioids—including prescription pain relievers, heroin, and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl—is a serious national crisis that affects public health as well as social and economic welfare. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the total "economic burden" of prescription opioid misuse alone in the United States is $78.5 billion a year, including the costs of healthcare, lost productivity, addiction treatment, and criminal justice involvement.2

www.drugabuse.gov...

Fentanyl is the worst killer of the bunch by far. Dose delivery can vary so widely is the deadly variable. Cheap to make and easy to smuggle.
Addiction is the problem we should address instead of looking for dealers to execute. We have a population both in physical and spiritual pain and the demand for these drugs will only increase.

Well the politicians look at it this way.
1. Less on SSID
2. More profits for the private prison industry to lock up users, which in my opinion is worse then the drugs itself.

im waiting for the declaration of war on opioid and meth...

originally posted by: odzeandennz
im waiting for the declaration of war on opioid and meth...

Don't hold your breath. Big pharma has too much of a stake in TPTB. And oxycontin was only recently approved for elementary school aged kids.

originally posted by: AgarthaSeed

originally posted by: odzeandennz
im waiting for the declaration of war on opioid and meth...

Don't hold your breath. Big pharma has too much of a stake in TPTB. And oxycontin was only recently approved for elementary school aged kids.

Doesn't this drug alter the brain?

originally posted by: musicismagic

originally posted by: AgarthaSeed

originally posted by: odzeandennz
im waiting for the declaration of war on opioid and meth...

Don't hold your breath. Big pharma has too much of a stake in TPTB. And oxycontin was only recently approved for elementary school aged kids.

Doesn't this drug alter the brain?

It's not a mood altering drug but could easily change your mindstate. It's an incredibly strong and addictive opiate though. Having small children develop an opiate dependency is of zero concern to big pharma.

Legalize, regulate, educate, tax.

The majority of the social problems in this country could be solved in 5 years if people tried a common sense approach to drug policy. Including overdoses.

But first we need people running this country who aren't old as dirt and think the 1950's attitudes towards drug use are the way things should be. I give it about 10-20 years before national legalization of drugs is something people are ready to talk about.

originally posted by: NarcolepticBuddha
a reply to: underwerks

Hey. Don't try to ban gun just yet. I may need one when the day comes for a junkie utopia.

That was the day the music died.

Actually, that would be the day you would be safer.

Imagine it. All the drug gangs that terrorize neighborhoods with violence and killing would be out of business, out of money, and out of power. Now everyone would have to get real jobs.

Overdoses would drop and eventually level off lower than they have ever been because "junkies" now have access to a standardized dose and aren't playing Russian roulette every time they stick a needle in their arm.

The money made in taxes would be enough to provide treatment several times over for the people wanting to quit, and would fund drug education to keep new users from using, or at the very least educate them enough so they don't hurt themselves or others. Not to mention the financial windfall it would be to other areas in society that are sorely in need of money.

The horror.

originally posted by: NarcolepticBuddha
a reply to: underwerks

"junkies" now have access to a standardized dose and aren't playing Russian roulette every time they stick a needle in their arm.

No, this is the way it should be. Didi mao!


I already live in a crackhouse utopia. It's the most disgusting filth. They're not even human beings and should be treated as such. Let them die, Spock.

originally posted by: AgarthaSeed

originally posted by: odzeandennz
im waiting for the declaration of war on opioid and meth...

Don't hold your breath. Big pharma has too much of a stake in TPTB. And oxycontin was only recently approved for elementary school aged kids.

You are the first to bring up Big Pharma. You deserve more stars! IMO, the current heroin/fentanyl usage spike (and subsequent deaths) grew out of the sale of Pharma's magic new pain pills (oxycontin, etc) which were originally peddled to doctors as 'perfectly safe, non-habit-forming.' (yeah, right)

Prescriptions left and right, then a crack down, leading to addicted people seeking pills on the street, OR the cheaper option... heroin. Oh wait, somebody cut it with fent to make it stronger. But if you don't do that in a lab, Joe Dealer's best efforts leave hot-spots of fent, and bye-bye junkies.

But here's a question, pills on the street STILL account for more deaths than heroin/fent. Meaning, Big Pharma is (and has been) over-producing based on legitimate prescriptions. There has been a crack down on doctors prescribing. How is this over abundance of pain pills still being fed to the street dealers?

I think Big Pharma head honchos should be busted for malpractice, and the whole damn industry needs to have Congress yanked from their back pockets or they can join them in jail.

Patrol Base Sledgehammer Four

a reply to: skywatcher44

This actually hits pretty close to home. In the past 6 months I know 2 guys that died from opiod overdoses. I don't know all the circumstances surrounding them, but one was a coworker's brother in law and the other was a coworker.

I'm more angry than sad though. To me it's just wasted lives. Young guys...in their 20's and 30's killing themselves slowly with Heroin...and then accelerating it with poorly cut heroin that probably has Fentynyl or whatever in it. Addiction sucks but it can be worked out and addicts can come clean to an extent.