The American Opioid Epidemic 20XX: Dropping the H-Bomb

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > The American Opioid Epidemic 20XX: Dropping the H-Bomb

Mooseontheloose: May 13, 2003

You all should watch Heroin Cape Cod when you get a chance
.
I know there have been a few articles about the medical profession basically closing ranks and saying they couldn't of POSSIBLY known about the addiction nature of opiod drugs and taht no one should real blame them. Which seems to me they know a massive class action law suit is coming.

I guess another thing driving this is the super cheap nature of heroin at the moment. Last I heard its 5 dollars a hit in New England.

# ¿ Feb 15, 2016 15:56

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 11:08

Mooseontheloose: May 13, 2003

gently caress you Charlie Baker.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2016 03:01

Mooseontheloose: May 13, 2003

LadyPictureShow posted:

https://buffalonews.com/2016/12/29/wave-opioid-related-deaths-hits-erie-county/

I'm not sure how grave the fentanyl-cutting is across the country, but in the Buffalo area, 75% of opioid deaths have been due to heroin being cut with fentanyl, or being given just straight-up fentanyl in a baggie. From some reports, apparently the OD death rate is higher than the number of people moving to Buffalo. And speaking of fentanyl, there was a report a few years back of three people found dead in Buffalo. The cause? They were taking fentanyl patches, cutting them up, and chewing/affixing them to their gums to get a faster 'high' and they all ODed. There was also a report last year that paramedics had to revive a guy with Narcan three times in a single day (I have no idea if it was a half-life issue between Narcan and what he took, or if the Narcan made him feel 'fine' and he went back to shoot up). Again, I'm not sure if this is a nationwide thing but there's been reports that some dealers were cutting with fentanyl and putting rivals' 'logos' on the baggies to make it look like they got the laced stuff from another source.

It's bad on Cape Cod too

I am by no means an addiction expert or anything but I think people don't realize how cheap heroin is. Last I heard it's 5 dollars for each hit and if you are trying to get high, can't beat the price.

# ¿ Jan 7, 2017 17:02

Mooseontheloose: May 13, 2003

fentanyl deaths in Massachusetts averaged about 5 a day last year.

# ¿ May 21, 2017 04:04

Mooseontheloose: May 13, 2003

pangstrom posted:

Philadelphia may get over opposition and have safe injection sites
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/01/23/us/ap-us-opioid-epidemic-philadelphia.html

Boston is considering safe injection sites but the reaction has been mixed.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2018 14:17

Mooseontheloose: May 13, 2003

For those of you who are doing research/curious about opioids in the greater Boston area:

A video on Methadone Mile in Boston.

Deaths and incidents statewide. 2000 last year.

Mass State senate include SIF money.

Mooseontheloose fucked around with this message at 01:48 on Sep 1, 2018

# ¿ Sep 1, 2018 01:03

Mooseontheloose: May 13, 2003

sea of losers posted:

Swiss
👏
Heroin
👏
Policy
👏

what is it?

# ¿ Dec 2, 2018 14:57

Mooseontheloose: May 13, 2003

Spangly A posted:

cops roaming around to make sure you aren't using dirty needles, giving you clean ones, being sure you know where centres are.

you go to a clinic to get your clean heroin and trained staff moniter your first few doses to acclimatise you to a consistent strength; opiates don't kill people in large numbers if it's within the therapeutic range of your tolerance, and deaths are usually related to inconsistent strength/contamination of your supply.

The findings are that people quickly get back into working life with the proper support, since exactly-dosed opiates at plateau aren't as incapacitating as many other drugs, and then get clean within two years average.

So do that, and then bring the full force of the war on drugs against the Sackler family and Purdue.

Oh like Portugal, the least harm method.

A few cities have talked about opening safe in major cities in the US. Seattle, New York, and Boston I know have talked about this. The only issue I can see is other locations shipping the heroin addicts to these states because they don't want to deal with it.

# ¿ Dec 2, 2018 17:21

Mooseontheloose: May 13, 2003

PT6A posted:

https://globalnews.ca/news/4903800/crime-spike-report-calgary-supervised-consumption-site-resources/

Crime is going up. And it's not necessarily the drug addicts causing the problems -- in many cases, they are the victims, and dealers are taking advantage of them.

As the article points out, it's still a service that needs to exist, but we shouldn't just accept the increase in crime as a natural consequence. We all accept that poverty and addiction have negative externalities, I hope, and anything that serves to concentrate those social ills in one area is going to be harmful.

In the Boston area, they need to open several safe injections sites at once in different parts of the state. The second Boston opens one up, all the other towns around them (and other cities in the Northeast) will pull a Guliani and send their addicts here. Spreading the services out, in theory, would help spread the the concentration.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2019 02:52

Mooseontheloose: May 13, 2003

pangstrom posted:

Thread's been dead for a year, I'm sure convo has moved to another one, but drat the latest fatal OD counts are brutal.

I am up in New England and I think the pandemic sucked all the opioid stories out of the air. What's the number?

# ¿ Nov 18, 2021 22:35

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 11:08

Mooseontheloose: May 13, 2003

Albino Squirrel posted:

Safe supply is part of it, substantial expansion of safe consumption sites is part of it, and I'm personally a big fan of injectable opioid agonist therapy for patients who have tried and failed suboxone and methadone and continue to inject. It's funny, I'm usually trying to convince my chronic pain patients to severely limit their opioid use - because opioids do stop working as you become tolerant, and because opioids in general aren't particularly effective for most types of chronic pain - but the second someone tells me they've been injecting fentanyl my mind shifts and I'm all 'have all the opioids you need, my child.'

Boston has been talking about Safe Injection sties and it has some support but (and somewhat rightly) Boston is concerned with other localities dumping people into Boston to deal with the addicts in their city. If I had my policy druthers I would try to open up a bunch of Safe Sites around the same time in geographically diverse areas with some economic diversity but we face the problem in New England of people saying, we love that idea...

...in a city, not here. Could you imagine if there were addicts in this town?!

# ¿ Nov 20, 2021 15:22

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