Heroin Epidemic Increasingly Seeps Into Public View

2016-03-20 18:09:06

#1

SuperJail Warden: Gone Forever; +635|3717

With heroin cheap and widely available on city streets throughout the country, users are making their buys and shooting up as soon as they can, often in public places. Police officers are routinely finding drug users — unconscious or dead — in cars, in the bathrooms of fast-food restaurants, on mass transit and in parks, hospitals and libraries.

The visibility of drug users may be partly attributed to the nature of the epidemic, which has grown largely out of dependence on legal opioid painkillers and has spread to white, urban, suburban and rural areas.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/07/us/he … -view.html

Heroin use is out of control in this country. Especially in the suburbs where higher income allows teens and young adults to consume more of the drug. I've lost two friends to heroin overdose. It is a mess here in NJ.

Does anyone here have any ideas as to how to combat heroin addiction and the spread of the drug in the U.S.? A wall on the border would help stop the flow of drugs into the U.S. But it won't help people already on the drugs. Expanding funding and access to drug rehabilitation services would be a great step also. Unfortunately many people are opposed to more funding for drug users to get help.

What do you think?

2016-03-20 18:24:31

#2

Jay: Bork! Bork! Bork!; +2,006|5356|London, England

Trying to stop the drugs from entering the country is pointless. A wall won't help. More border patrol won't help. If there's a market, people will smuggle in the goods.

Heroin was popular in the 70s and the 90s, then it went away, and now it's back again. Every generation has to re-learn that the stuff is deadly. The "epidemic" will go away on its own. Until then, treatment is the answer. I'd rather see all the money currently poured into the war on drugs go to paying for rehab and education instead.

This should be the model: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/25/us/ma … .html?_r=0

"Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough."
-Frederick Bastiat

2016-03-20 18:25:34

#3

Cybargs: Moderated; +2,285|6714

SuperJail Warden wrote:
With heroin cheap and widely available on city streets throughout the country, users are making their buys and shooting up as soon as they can, often in public places. Police officers are routinely finding drug users — unconscious or dead — in cars, in the bathrooms of fast-food restaurants, on mass transit and in parks, hospitals and libraries.

The visibility of drug users may be partly attributed to the nature of the epidemic, which has grown largely out of dependence on legal opioid painkillers and has spread to white, urban, suburban and rural areas.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/07/us/he … -view.html

Heroin use is out of control in this country. Especially in the suburbs where higher income allows teens and young adults to consume more of the drug. I've lost two friends to heroin overdose. It is a mess here in NJ.

Does anyone here have any ideas as to how to combat heroin addiction and the spread of the drug in the U.S.? A wall on the border would help stop the flow of drugs into the U.S. But it won't help people already on the drugs. Expanding funding and access to drug rehabilitation services would be a great step also. Unfortunately many people are opposed to more funding for drug users to get help.

What do you think?

who the fuck does heroin anymore lol wtf.

https://cache.www.gametracker.com/server_info/203.46.105.23:21300/b_350_20_692108_381007_FFFFFF_000000.png

2016-03-20 18:35:47

#4

SuperJail Warden: Gone Forever; +635|3717

Jay wrote:
Heroin was popular in the 70s and the 90s, then it went away, and now it's back again. Every generation has to re-learn that the stuff is deadly. The "epidemic" will go away on its own.

Did you really have to be so predictable?

2016-03-20 18:38:19

#5

Jay: Bork! Bork! Bork!; +2,006|5356|London, England

SuperJail Warden wrote:
Jay wrote:
Heroin was popular in the 70s and the 90s, then it went away, and now it's back again. Every generation has to re-learn that the stuff is deadly. The "epidemic" will go away on its own.
Did you really have to be so predictable?

We spend billions of dollars a year fighting a "war on drugs" , we have the highest incarceration rate in the world, and we have more drug users now than before the "war" started. Clearly, prohibition is working great.

"Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough."
-Frederick Bastiat

2016-03-20 18:49:24

#6

SuperJail Warden: Gone Forever; +635|3717

A simple yes would have sufficed.

2016-03-21 00:09:37

#7

Dilbert_X: The X stands for; +1,810|6103|eXtreme to the maX

Jay wrote:
Trying to stop the drugs from entering the country is pointless. A wall won't help. More border patrol won't help. If there's a market, people will smuggle in the goods.

Heroin was popular in the 70s and the 90s, then it went away, and now it's back again. Every generation has to re-learn that the stuff is deadly. The "epidemic" will go away on its own. Until then, treatment is the answer. I'd rather see all the money currently poured into the war on drugs go to paying for rehab and education instead.

This should be the model: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/25/us/ma … .html?_r=0

Keep it illegal, treat users as sick instead of criminal, give people something worthwhile and tiring to do - some form of workfare which needn't involve the military.

We spend billions of dollars a year fighting a "war on drugs" , we have the highest incarceration rate in the world, and we have more drug users now than before the "war" started. Clearly, prohibition is working great.

Firearms aren't prohibited, yet they kill many more people than heroin, your argument is redundant.

Last edited by Dilbert_X (2016-03-21 00:11:10)

Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!

2016-03-21 01:30:48

#8

DesertFox-: The very model of a modern major general; +794|6682|United States of America

There was a Frontline episode a few weeks ago I saw that was on the subject about how Seattle, I think it was, started taking a more public-health approach to their heroin problem and the results they've seen thus far with reducing recidivism. One of the ladies they followed around just made it so easy to dislike her because she wasn't really trying to quit, avoiding her counselor, selling H as well as using it, and just had a general lackadaisical attitude toward quitting. By the end, she had some respiratory infection and a resulting ER visit that seemed to precipitate a change.

Found the trailer:

2016-03-21 01:40:10

#9

Dilbert_X: The X stands for; +1,810|6103|eXtreme to the maX

Yes, we can't wait until these idiots become reservoirs for TB. Coercive treatment is sometimes needed.

From what I've seen many people on drugs don't have real problems to deal with, they're narcissistic thrill-seekers with time on their hands.

Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!

2016-03-21 01:45:55

#10

uziq: Member; +492|3450

"from what I've seen" is always a great basis for a sweeping generalisation about a massive and complex issue.

I'm sure you spend a lot of time in half-way houses dilbert and handing out soup and bread down at your local food bank.

2016-03-21 01:48:45

#11

Dilbert_X: The X stands for; +1,810|6103|eXtreme to the maX

From my perspective its as good a starting point as any.

Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!

2016-03-21 01:51:41

#12

uziq: Member; +492|3450

you live at home in the suburbs after a nice middle-class upbringing. i don't really think you can cast aspersions or judge weakness in people who become drug addicts.

2016-03-21 03:10:24

#13

Dilbert_X: The X stands for; +1,810|6103|eXtreme to the maX

Based on all the people I've known personally, and from general knowledge - reading, TV etc, people don't take drugs due to life problems or because they're sucked in by 'the drugs culture', they go running after drugs like greyhounds after a rabbit because they want a quick and easy selfish thrill and don't care about they next day let alone the long-term consequences for themselves or anyone else.

Its this sick mindset which needs to be educated out of people.

Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!

2016-03-21 03:28:43

#14

Jay: Bork! Bork! Bork!; +2,006|5356|London, England

You think education is the answer to something that takes decades of experience to understand? People generally do dumb stuff in their teens and twenties and wise up around 30 after they've been burned. Thrillseeking is part of youth. Maybe not your youth, but most people's.

"Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough."
-Frederick Bastiat

2016-03-21 04:21:22

#15

unnamednewbie13: Moderator; +2,053|6769|PNW

A wall on the border would help stop the flow of drugs

Just like the Great Wall of China stopped the barbarians.

2016-03-21 04:34:44

#16

DrunkFace: Germans did 911; +427|6679|Disaster Free Zone

Dilbert_X wrote:
Based on all the people I've known personally, and from general knowledge - reading, TV etc, people don't take drugs due to life problems or because they're sucked in by 'the drugs culture', they go running after drugs like greyhounds after a rabbit because they want a quick and easy selfish thrill and don't care about they next day let alone the long-term consequences for themselves or anyone else.

Its this sick mindset which needs to be educated out of people.

A lot of the people get addicted to legal prescription pain killers, lose their prescription or turn to something harder to get the same high. A big proportion of the problem could have been avoided with proper regulation of prescriptions, doctors and the drug companies pushing profits over proper treatment.

2016-03-21 05:05:33

#17

Dilbert_X: The X stands for; +1,810|6103|eXtreme to the maX

Jay wrote:
You think education is the answer to something that takes decades of experience to understand? People generally do dumb stuff in their teens and twenties and wise up around 30 after they've been burned. Thrillseeking is part of youth. Maybe not your youth, but most people's.

Proper education would go a long way.

Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!

2016-03-21 05:27:50

#18

SuperJail Warden: Gone Forever; +635|3717

Dilbert_X wrote:
Jay wrote:
You think education is the answer to something that takes decades of experience to understand? People generally do dumb stuff in their teens and twenties and wise up around 30 after they've been burned. Thrillseeking is part of youth. Maybe not your youth, but most people's.
Proper education would go a long way.

It definitely would and I am not sure why this point is being argued other than Jay being stupid. Better educated people have better life outcomes in general. It has been statistically proven so in regards to health. I can't think of any university educated friends of mine who got involved with heroin or prescription drugs. My barely finished high school friends were the ones who tried, use, and used. Unfortunately school programs and guest speakers won't be enough to do it. There needs to be a general reformation of how we socialize people and the values we instill. That ranges from Hollywood to Hallmark.

@Newbie.

You don't think it would help at all? Especially if guarded on both sides of the border.

2016-03-21 06:27:51

#19

uziq: Member; +492|3450

Dilbert_X wrote:
Based on all the people I've known personally, and from general knowledge - reading, TV etc, people don't take drugs due to life problems or because they're sucked in by 'the drugs culture', they go running after drugs like greyhounds after a rabbit because they want a quick and easy selfish thrill and don't care about they next day let alone the long-term consequences for themselves or anyone else.

Its this sick mindset which needs to be educated out of people.

no one seeks out heroin. it's not the rock n roll era anymore. there is no glamour or sense of rebellion. I'm willing to bet that a huge number of heroin addicts in the US are at the bottom of a very slippery slope beginning with prescription opiates (which are over prescribed and freely given out by official looking men with MDs. educate some poor person out of that dynamic, derp)

2016-03-21 06:36:55

#20

Jay: Bork! Bork! Bork!; +2,006|5356|London, England

SuperJail Warden wrote:
Dilbert_X wrote:
Jay wrote:
You think education is the answer to something that takes decades of experience to understand? People generally do dumb stuff in their teens and twenties and wise up around 30 after they've been burned. Thrillseeking is part of youth. Maybe not your youth, but most people's.
Proper education would go a long way.
It definitely would and I am not sure why this point is being argued other than Jay being stupid. Better educated people have better life outcomes in general. It has been statistically proven so in regards to health. I can't think of any university educated friends of mine who got involved with heroin or prescription drugs. My barely finished high school friends were the ones who tried, use, and used. Unfortunately school programs and guest speakers won't be enough to do it. There needs to be a general reformation of how we socialize people and the values we instill. That ranges from Hollywood to Hallmark.

@Newbie.

You don't think it would help at all? Especially if guarded on both sides of the border.

Education is useless without context. I can tell you how to ride a motorcycle but I can't give you the experience that is required not to crash it.

Everyone is told from kindergarten that drugs are harmful. Does it prevent the cool kids from experimenting when they get older? No. They know better, they just don't care or understand their own mortality. It takes life experience to know better, and unfortunately by the time some people gain that experience it's too late. It took me crashing a motorcycle at high speed when I was 28 to finally scare me straight and calm me down.

"Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough."
-Frederick Bastiat

2016-03-21 09:00:43

#21

SuperJail Warden: Gone Forever; +635|3717

I don't care about your hard headed experience riding motorcycles.

There is already plenty of context regarding the heroin epidemic. Notice we are talking about a heroin crisis and not a meth or crack one. Both are greatly stigmatized as poor people drugs and people have that idea reinforced by media depictions of it as such. There needs to be more awareness of the dangers of prescription medication.

2016-03-21 10:25:23

#22

Jay: Bork! Bork! Bork!; +2,006|5356|London, England

Play this clip to middle schoolers:

"Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough."
-Frederick Bastiat

2016-03-21 10:39:04

#23

uziq: Member; +492|3450

I love that dilbert actually thinks people go out and hit heroin to be cool and have a good time. like its some reckless flight of irresponsibility that selfish college hipsters get into whilst partying and sleeping around. I love that dilbert thinks opiates actually work this way and have this social dynamic.

I imagine hanging out with opiate takers to be perhaps one of the most depressing milieus conceivable on the face of the earth. I'd rather go to a BBQ with a bunch of salafists.

2016-03-21 10:52:22

#24

unnamednewbie13: Moderator; +2,053|6769|PNW

SuperJail Warden wrote:
@Newbie.

You don't think it would help at all? Especially if guarded on both sides of the border.

I don't, for reasons that should be so mind-bogglingly obvious that I'd be kind of embarrassed to have to state them for you.

2016-03-21 11:01:29

#25

SuperJail Warden: Gone Forever; +635|3717

Most heroin comes from Mexico. You build a wall and commit more police, and technology to defending it, it would slow down the cross border flow of guns and drugs. There are a dozen reasons to not to build it but it not being defendable isn't one of them.

BF2S Forums Heroin Epidemic Increasingly Seeps Into Public View

SuperJail Warden wrote:

Jay wrote:

SuperJail Warden wrote:

Jay wrote:

Jay wrote:

Dilbert_X wrote:

Jay wrote:

Dilbert_X wrote:

Jay wrote:

Dilbert_X wrote:

SuperJail Warden wrote:

Dilbert_X wrote:

Jay wrote:

SuperJail Warden wrote:

Board footer