Quote:

---

Overdosing is now the leading cause of accidental death in the United States, accounting for more deaths than traffic fatalities or gun homicides and suicides. Fatal overdoses from opiate medications such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, and methadone have quadrupled since 1999, accounting for an estimated 16,651 deaths in 2010.

---

Quote:

---

KH: News reports about batches of “killer heroin” are typically overblown. But unusually strong doses of a drug are in fact rarely the cause of overdose. Toxicology results after a fatal overdose usually indicate that the victim has consumed either their normal dosage level or a dose slightly lower than their normal level. It’s too late to fix the language, but “poisoning” might be a better term than overdose.
You might ask: Why would an experienced user die from taking their normal dose? Typically overdose occurs because they've had a loss of tolerance. This loss of tolerance often arises because they haven't used for a while. Maybe they had a voluntary period of abstinence. Maybe they were in jail, and their body can no longer handle the same dose.
The other leading cause of loss of tolerance is consumption of other substances. This is particularly true of alcohol, which seems to lower the body's ability to tolerate opiates (so do benzodiazepines). Most of what we call “opiate overdoses” are really polydrug overdoses: alcohol and heroin, alcohol and oxycontin, benzodiazepine, alcohol and Vicodin, combinations like that.

---

Quote:

---

It is pretty amazing. Many people are focusing on the return of heroin and saying, "It's all the fault of criminals." You've got to remember, 4 in 5 of people today who start using heroin began their opioid addiction on prescription opioids. The responsibility doesn't start today with the stereotypical criminal street dealer. We basically created this problem with legally manufactured drugs that were legally prescribed. This really flies in the face of the argument that if we just had a flow of legal drugs, the harms would be minimal.

---

Quote:

---

In the late 1990s, many medical societies became appropriately concerned about poor pain management in the United States. Many patients were not receiving needed pain relief, which was and remains a very serious problem. That worthy concern for improved pain management became fused with the pharmaceutical industry’s profit-seeking goals, which they pursued through aggressively pushing opioids in primary care settings and doing a lot of deceptive marketing.
Purdue Pharma was fined $600 million for deceiving regulators, doctors and patients about the addiction and overdose risks of OxyContin. They told prescribers not to worry, saying that the drug wouldn’t be abused and there was little risk in even very high doses. These claims turned out to be untrue.

---

Quote:

---

I was on a public radio call-in program yesterday and heard multiple stories of people with mild pain being written refillable prescriptions for large numbers of opioid painkillers.. There's a lot of that andit's irresponsible and dangerous. What happens is either the person takes all the medicine, which they shouldn't, and maybe they start then developing a problem. Alternatively, they take two pills and then there's a bunch of Vicodin or OxyContin sitting in the medicine cabinet for someone else to find: a local teenager, a friend of a friend, a guest at a party. Overprescribing and then loose storage fueled the epidemic. It's still true today. When you ask people who abuse prescription opioids, "Where do you get them?" Their usual source is friends and family, not street purchases. It's frightening, we've flooded the whole country with these things and they're everywhere.

---

Quote:

---

Add one other thing; when people lose their health insurance, they may need the opioids to manage their pain. People sometimes end up buying street drugs including heroin to manage their pain because they have lost the insurance that used to cover their pain medication.

---

Quote:

---

This really flies in the face of the argument that if we just had a flow of legal drugs, the harms would be minimal.

---

Quote:

---

Short of ABSOLUTE 100% control over every action every single citizen takes in this country from here to eternity, you're NEVER going to stop that.

[....]

PEOPLE NEED TO STOP WASTING THEIR TIME WORRYING ABOUT SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS SO INFINITELY BEYOND THEIR CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE AND THEY NEED TO DO A GODDAMNED "GRASS ROOTS CAMPAIGN" WITH THE PROBLEMS THEY CAN HAVE AN EFFECT ON

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
Huh. Well done.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Oonjerah:
I repeat, "I'm for Recovery by proven methods."
Recovery does work for people who want it.
Anyone want to discuss what works?

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by FREMDFIRMA:

You can't save people from themselves, and ya shouldn't oughta try.

-F

---

Quote:

---

I also have no idea exactly how the logic here flows from prescription drugs being the primary gateway to addiction and that most of these overdoses are actually a combination of drugs and alcohol into what I can only presume is a "BAN ALL THESE DRUGS" stance.

We did prohibition on alcohol before and it didn't effin' work.

---

Quote:

---

You've got to remember, 4 in 5 of people today who start using heroin began their opioid addiction on prescription opioids.

---

Quote:

---

It's also clear that the black market is flooded with this shit, which it wouldn't be if it was legal, meaning people would be getting correct dosages from pharmacies instead of buying off the street or getting it second hand from friends and family.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by kpo:

Quote:

---

Overdosing is now the leading cause of accidental death in the United States, accounting for more deaths than traffic fatalities or gun homicides and suicides. Fatal overdoses from opiate medications such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, and methadone have quadrupled since 1999, accounting for an estimated 16,651 deaths in 2010.

---

---

Quote:

---

Many people don't realize that overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the U.S.

---

Quote:

---

I'm not sure I'd want to live in a country where half the people were opiate addicts.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by AURaptor:

Darwin was right, it seems.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by whozit:
100 less douchebags per day living on welfare and food stamps, good riddance. The world is better off without them.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by whozit:
100 less douchebags per day living on welfare and food stamps, good riddance. The world is better off without them.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Jongsstraw:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by whozit:
100 less douchebags per day living on welfare and food stamps, good riddance. The world is better off without them.

---

It's not that simple an equation, especially when there are children concerned. Drug addiction and alcoholism are leading causes of spousal abuse and child neglect. Under-funded law enforcement and social welfare efforts are often constrained or obstructed by individuals' rights. But somewhere in that frustrating reality is the solution.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by FREMDFIRMA:

You can't save people from themselves, and ya shouldn't oughta try.

-F

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by kpo:
A long, but fascinating read:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/02/07/100-america
ns-die-of-drug-overdoses-each-day-how-do-we-stop-that/

Some excerpts:

Quote:

---

Overdosing is now the leading cause of accidental death in the United States, accounting for more deaths than traffic fatalities or gun homicides and suicides. Fatal overdoses from opiate medications such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, and methadone have quadrupled since 1999, accounting for an estimated 16,651 deaths in 2010.

---

Quote:

---

KH: News reports about batches of “killer heroin” are typically overblown. But unusually strong doses of a drug are in fact rarely the cause of overdose. Toxicology results after a fatal overdose usually indicate that the victim has consumed either their normal dosage level or a dose slightly lower than their normal level. It’s too late to fix the language, but “poisoning” might be a better term than overdose.
You might ask: Why would an experienced user die from taking their normal dose? Typically overdose occurs because they've had a loss of tolerance. This loss of tolerance often arises because they haven't used for a while. Maybe they had a voluntary period of abstinence. Maybe they were in jail, and their body can no longer handle the same dose.
The other leading cause of loss of tolerance is consumption of other substances. This is particularly true of alcohol, which seems to lower the body's ability to tolerate opiates (so do benzodiazepines). Most of what we call “opiate overdoses” are really polydrug overdoses: alcohol and heroin, alcohol and oxycontin, benzodiazepine, alcohol and Vicodin, combinations like that.

---

Quote:

---

It is pretty amazing. Many people are focusing on the return of heroin and saying, "It's all the fault of criminals." You've got to remember, 4 in 5 of people today who start using heroin began their opioid addiction on prescription opioids. The responsibility doesn't start today with the stereotypical criminal street dealer. We basically created this problem with legally manufactured drugs that were legally prescribed. This really flies in the face of the argument that if we just had a flow of legal drugs, the harms would be minimal.

---

Quote:

---

In the late 1990s, many medical societies became appropriately concerned about poor pain management in the United States. Many patients were not receiving needed pain relief, which was and remains a very serious problem. That worthy concern for improved pain management became fused with the pharmaceutical industry’s profit-seeking goals, which they pursued through aggressively pushing opioids in primary care settings and doing a lot of deceptive marketing.
Purdue Pharma was fined $600 million for deceiving regulators, doctors and patients about the addiction and overdose risks of OxyContin. They told prescribers not to worry, saying that the drug wouldn’t be abused and there was little risk in even very high doses. These claims turned out to be untrue.

---

Quote:

---

I was on a public radio call-in program yesterday and heard multiple stories of people with mild pain being written refillable prescriptions for large numbers of opioid painkillers.. There's a lot of that andit's irresponsible and dangerous. What happens is either the person takes all the medicine, which they shouldn't, and maybe they start then developing a problem. Alternatively, they take two pills and then there's a bunch of Vicodin or OxyContin sitting in the medicine cabinet for someone else to find: a local teenager, a friend of a friend, a guest at a party. Overprescribing and then loose storage fueled the epidemic. It's still true today. When you ask people who abuse prescription opioids, "Where do you get them?" Their usual source is friends and family, not street purchases. It's frightening, we've flooded the whole country with these things and they're everywhere.

---

Quote:

---

Add one other thing; when people lose their health insurance, they may need the opioids to manage their pain. People sometimes end up buying street drugs including heroin to manage their pain because they have lost the insurance that used to cover their pain medication.

---

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by kpo:

Presumably we do somewhere in the middle, between the two extremes of 'ban everything' and 'legalise everything'.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by 1KIKI:
FWIW, I don't blame anybody's 'culture' for the current GLOBAL drug epidemic, and certainly not the Indonesian 'culture', the Afghan 'culture', the Thia 'culture', or the Swiss 'culture'.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Europe, and Canada.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by 1KIKI:




I blame the drugs

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by 1KIKI:

When it comes to the OT "100 Americans die of drug overdoses each day.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by 1KIKI:

methamphetamine users live in Asia, most of them in East and Southeast Asia.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by 1KIKI:

Maybe some people, in some places 'preserve' a small local area from drugs - or at least badly-made drugs that they aren't profiting from.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by JAYNEZTOWN:
Russia ... high levels of violence and incarceration

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by 1KIKI:

Oddly enough Russia's incarceration rate is half that of the US - the US has the highest incarceration rate on the planet; and Russia has roughly 1/10 the violent crime of the US.

---

Quote:

---

terrible addicted gambler types, always around Stocks and Banks and Beting and Bonds

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by JAYNEZTOWN:
I might have to give up on the United States of America, it seems the problems might be too many to be ever solved.

---