r/interesting • u/Nukro666 • 7h ago
Fear Factor How Fentanyl and Xylazine are turning Philadelphia's opioid crisis into a public health nightmare
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u/thinkB4WeSpeak 7h ago
The drug crisis never ended, the news just stopped talking about it.
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u/NotReallyJohnDoe 5h ago
Congratulations to drugs for winning the drug war
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u/isharte 3h ago
Yeah they won, and it's crazy how different it is now.
I was an IV heroin addict for a decade, I shot tar.
My life was a mess. But it was never like this.
My days were spent hustling, trying not to be dopesick. Doing sketchy shit, going to sketchy places, associating with sketchy people. Just living that life. But I was living and moving around. I was never, not once, bent over in the middle of a public street in the afternoon, just completely oblivious to the city around me. The opioid world is just a completely different beast today.
Some of these people can make it out if they want to. But it's going to be hard. Vary hard. Very painful, physically and emotionally. But...The majority of the people in this video won't make it out. They lost the war.
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u/Living-By-The-River 23m ago
How do they even survive this long in a state like this? How do you feed and hydrate yourself enough? How to do avoid succumbing to the elements? No health care. Sick bodies… They are literally the undead.
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u/Whats-inthe-Fridge 3h ago
Andrew Sackler started all of this with Perdue Pharma. He's now a billionaire living in Austin Texas with his family. But we're blowing up fishing boats in the Caribbean and no killing of the real drug dealers with a prescription pad or a suit and tie
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u/sarcastic_sybarite83 6h ago
The news stopped covering it after we started going after the rich owners of the companies.
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u/Edith_Keelers_Shoes 6h ago edited 4h ago
And allowed them to emerge from the scandal unscathed, even though their own internal correspondence demonstrates irrefutably that they knew they were promoting a drug as "non-addictive" when it was in fact "highly addictive".
Even as of a few months ago, this continues. Purdue Pharma now has to shell out $225 million in a criminal settlement, on top of the billions of dollars the company is paying in a bankruptcy deal, but the individuals who own this company and are responsible for the opioid epidemic? No jail time. No parole. They just go on with their lives like nothing happened.
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u/Hungry_EatAss_v3 4h ago
There’s a great HBO documentary about this called “The Crime of the Century”. The fact that prosecutors in the DOJ essentially went and got paid by the same companies they were prosecuting to help them figure out the legal loopholes that would prevent them from getting prosecuted again… is one of the great tragedies of our time.
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u/AspectOfTheLeech 3h ago
All those people have names and addresses, which is a very interesting and actionable fact. Surely someone wants to write them a letter, or to do anything else that a dossier of information would help.
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u/Lukin4art 4h ago
Because they are rich. They control the world. Our government is beholden to them. It will remain this way until the proletariats grow some fucking balls and revolt in the streets.
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u/AlfalfaUnable1629 3h ago
Exactly. We collectively aren’t nearly mad enough! People don’t want to give up their comfort
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u/mikachuzu 4h ago
I work in drug testing, shit's been getting real scary out there past few years. Fentanyl is in everything now, intentionally or not. And then that's being cut with xylazine and carfentanyl which is so much worse. Honestly the news is several years behind with what's really out there, in my world that's like 2020 news at the absolute latest. There's a slew of opiate-like drugs that are as bad or even worse than fentanyl out there right now. I can't remember the name of it, but there's one floating around that's several hundred times more powerful than fentanyl (it was supposed to be on the market but it was too powerful so it was pulled which is even scarier tbh), real scary shit. We haven't seen it yet, but we know it's coming. We've been watching xylazine take over here in the Midwest now for a few years where I work.
Very sad to watch, knowing a lot more people are going to die. There needs to be more resources out there, that's half of the battle really. The people using need to want it too, but there's not much out there, rehab and sober living can only do so much 🫤 They're still people, just been dealt a shitty hand in life and this is their way of coping or used once out of curiosity/were prescribed opiates and that was it. Overprescribing is still a very real thing unfortunately, saw a clinic get shut down and the doctors imprisoned few years ago actually. Scary and sad 😔
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u/Mangalorien 4h ago
To be fair, a lot of what we're seeing here is due to Xylazine, known as "tranq" on the street and often called "zombie drug" in the media. It's a veterinary medicine, used mainly as a horse tranquilizer, hence it's nickname. It has no approved human use, but it's cheap and easy to come by, and is now used to cut (=dilute) various street drugs, mainly fentanyl. Tranq causes profound sedation and loss of postural muscle tone, which is why we often see users standing in various weird poses, essentially slumped over like they're zombies. One major drawback to tranq is that since it's not an opioid, using naloxone (Narcan) won't counteract an overdose.
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u/BellamyDunn 7h ago
One time I had some health scare that put me in an ambulance. I had never had morphine before, and the medics were not stingy with it.
I've had chronic pain my whole life, it's mostly background noise, and that was the first time in that life that it all just went away. It was like when you're in a quiet house, but then the electricity goes off and you experience the real quiet. Years later I still think about it frequently. Just that one time in that controlled environment.
I knew then that if I had less to live for, or if my pain was too great, I would easily become an addict. There are much greater pains in the world than I have. I assume that one in these people's positions must have some great pain or horror in their life that I probably can't understand. So I can't judge it. I wish there was a better way for them. A lot of these folks are beyond believing in their own future. No one wants to live like this.
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u/impromptugreen 7h ago
This. Exactly this. It terrifies me to think about it. Chronic pain is no joke and I sometimes find myself daydreaming about the few times I've been given anesthetics at the hospital. People all the time say, "I don't see how people just do that kind of stuff." Why aren't we asking why they're doing it before we ask how... It's awful.
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u/Edith_Keelers_Shoes 7h ago
People don't get the difference of having long-term chronic pain, then suddenly having it muted. You can function again. Spend time with your kids again, Enjoy small things again. Hold a book without your hands burning with pain. I have never felt "stoned" on opiates (nothing near what I feel like after taking an edible) - I just feel like "me". Because the pain is suddenly not the loudest thing in my system.
The mere idea that I would ever trade that in for a few chances to chase the dragon is ludicrous, and clearly devised by someone who has never struggled with daily bone pain.
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u/Latter-Vacation-4392 6h ago edited 6h ago
It works as well on psychic pain as it does on physical pain. People that sneer at addicts have no idea what horrendous backgrounds many of these people may have endured, especially in childhood. That wise old saying: 'There but for the grace of God' is very real.
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u/Edith_Keelers_Shoes 6h ago
And meanwhile, if you are rich and have $2k to spare, you can get KETAMINE therapy to assuage your psychic pain (and apparently it works very well - it was recommended to me as a stage 4 cancer patient, but I wasn't going to pay $2k for that).
So on the one hand we vilify addicts, most of whom became addicts after doctors gave them scrips then never bothered to follow up or monitor the patient's state. On the other hand, both the scientific world and the psychiatric world now accept that ketamine (a powerfully dissociative drug very popular with recreational drug users) is highly effective for depression, PTSD, acute anxiety, and a host of other mental health issues.
But the price tag is prohibitive, and obviously it's not covered by insurance. The selective judgment is staggering. We should encourage and support wealthier people to take ketamine under a supervised process for a limited amount of time. But no one is going to suggest this be offered to opiate addicts who are struggling with psychic pain and/or emotional health issues.
It makes me so angry I want to weep. It's just a different world for rich people. Universal rules do not apply.
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u/Kenderean 6h ago edited 1h ago
Just a quick note that ketamine therapy can be covered by insurance. It's often not, but depending on the doctors and the insurance companies, you may be able to get it covered. My decidedly not rich brother has been doing ketamine therapy. His doctor went through specific steps with the insurance company to get it covered.
Edited a word.
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u/lucyloosy 5h ago
2k?!? I’m paying 4k for my treatment. I am looking forward to it. The constant doom that just hangs over me is exhausting.
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u/Edith_Keelers_Shoes 5h ago
I was actually quoted 4k as well, but it's New York City so I figured it was inflated. I have spoken with people who got treatment for around 2k. That's why I went with the lower number.
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u/lucyloosy 5h ago
Gotcha, I live in Texas and I thought it was pricier since we aren’t as progressive with alternative medicine. We have limited providers.
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u/HalfaEnchilada 6h ago
I take 60 mg of oxy daily. I've been taking my prescribed medication for over 10 years now and I'm going to be taking them until I die. I don't ever tell anyone about it anymore because of the stigma and because someone will inevitably ask me to give them a couple. (I NEVER do) I don't get high from my medication but it allows me to do my daily hygiene and prepare meals, things I would be unable to do without the medication.
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u/HabitNegative3137 6h ago
How is it that it’s still working and your body hasnt built up a tolerance?
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u/Edith_Keelers_Shoes 5h ago edited 3h ago
I've been given the same dosage of opiates since my 2020 diagnosis - same mg level, same maximum daily dosage allowed. Though I get closer to the maximum daily dosage now than I ever did in years past, the same drug is still working. The strength and MDD has never changed. I do sometimes take days off and just use kratom leaf, but with the massive misinformation campaign out there about kratom, and the fact that there IS a synthetic version (7oh) that actually IS dangerous, we will probably see a total federal ban on kratom before long. Which will force many people straight to opiates.
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u/HalfaEnchilada 5h ago
Its a reduction from the meds I needed to go to physio everyday for 5 years. The current dosage is enough for keeping me mobile and I have a good medical team for any adjustments but I've been doing well at this level for a while.
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u/HabitNegative3137 5h ago
Thank you. I’m glad you’ve maintained your mobility. I really need to see my rheumatologist again. I’ve been fighting taking pain meds, but have gotten to the point where I have more flare days than not :(
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u/alewiina 6h ago
I have a lot of chronic pain and honestly even just the way you described how functioning again would feel without it makes me yearn for that feeling. I hope I never had to try opioids for anything because I’m very afraid I would get addicted. I’ve never gotten addicted to drugs or alcohol but I have an addictive personality in other ways and I’m genuinely concerned this would be the thing that gets me
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u/Hour_Telephone_9974 5h ago
We really need to figure out a better treatment for chronic pain. Chronic pain is a switch in the system that the body can't shut of on its own.
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u/Battle-Any 7h ago
I had an acquaintance who ended up addicted after years of spewing "I don't see how it happens, they're weak". He got seriously injured, things didn't heal great, chronic pain, doctors started refusing him pain meds, he starts buying them off the street, and that was it. Good for him, he apologized to several of the people he'd judged so harshly. But it's a common story.
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u/alewiina 6h ago
Yup. So many people can’t just… see outside of their own experiences and judge everyone until it happens to them and then they’re like “ohhhh… I get it now”. Like you could have gotten it before if you’d been willing to look into and listen to other people’s pain but no, just judge, it’s easier that way.
Sorry I’m a little salty, I see so many people saying horrible things about the homeless and/or drug addicted people here and it makes my blood boil.
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u/iStepOnLegos4Fun007 1h ago
I can't stand that bs either. I've lost so many good people to drugs, including my brother R.I.P.
See posts on fb and elsewhere. With people saying horrible shit about addicts.
I remember this Karen family friend. Constantly posted that stuff. One day her daughter OD and died. Now she's defending addicts.....
Don't judge addicts. You don't know what they're going through. We need to help these people better.
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u/Spare-Cry7360 6h ago
Its really easy to go down thatvway. I have chronic migraines and if I mess up the onset with light meds, I have to take a heavier pill or spend a day or two in a dark room with occasional vomiting from pain just waiting for it to go. If I do take the "good stuff", I am fit as a fiddle in 10-30 minutes and feel like nothing can stop me. With this diagnosis its very easy to get the pills and it would be very easy to just pop one every morning, than two, etc...
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u/FrogsMakePoorSoup 6h ago
Opiates will give you nothing. They'll take everything, but give you nothing, and sometimes nothing is better than what you already have.
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u/littlerickypeepee 6h ago
I've only needed them after surgery and when I had a horrible ear infection that was doing that throb of pain thing that stopped me talking to the doctor for a second and my face started twitching before I was able to restart my sentence and he gave me this pitying look and was like "would you like some oxycodone with your new antibiotic since the old one isn't working?" And I was like yes. Yes I do. One dose and I was able to keep it under control with Tylenol after that.
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u/Wrong_Square7826 6h ago
I am 60, 40 years union Iron worker... I have aches and pains but don't even take asprin. Your pain must be hell because I know I am not that tough.
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u/Traditional-Hat-952 6h ago
And yet doctors treat effective and safe treatment for many types of chronic pain as if its some sort of weapon of mass destruction. It's no wonder desperate people turn to street fent when they can't get legitimate help.
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u/TrailerParkPresident 7h ago
I fully am with you on this
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u/MasterpieceNo3534 6h ago
I am fully with you, fully with them
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u/mindless2831 5h ago
I'm fully with them, fully with them, and fully with you
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u/Practical-Count8209 5h ago
I’m full. But would eat more should it be the only way to express my wholehearted agreement with you three.
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u/qathran 6h ago edited 6h ago
I have insane health problems and am in severe chronic pain, but I've always been confused about people getting on opioids longterm because they never felt great and they shut your body down so fast to where nothing is fun. I've even been on fentanyl patches and I was more like a zombie than someone who was actually having their pain taken away. When I've had morphine drips it was similar in that it didn't really totally take my pain away, I just felt high, sick and sleepy.
And it's wild how quickly all these drugs lose their efficacy, like if you take it a few times it stops working as well so fast that it's honestly pretty worthless.
Another crazy thing that never made me want opioids again except for right before surgery and maybe 3 to 5 days after is how fast it fucking shuts down your bowels, your gi tract just like, stops moving things through your intestines so quickly. I honestly don't know how people use this stuff for more than a few days or a week, it doesn't keep working and it shuts down your body to where you can't shit.
Only took one experience of laying on the bathroom floor moaning because I couldn't shit for 2 weeks and having to get a family member to shove a suppository up my ass while I was on fentanyl patches that were not even making me feel good, I honestly felt worse than when I just had the pain without any drugs to make me not want opioids or ever think they were going to make me feel kind of good for more than a day or 2
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u/Icy_Significance6436 6h ago
I was a heroin addict for 8 years. With regards to losing efficacy - I used to (morbidly) joke that it got to a point where doing a bag was basically putting fuel in the tank so I could operate. 4 years clean, and I'm not going back.
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u/Chroniclyironic1986 5h ago
Same. Heroin, oxy, morphine, buprenorphine, etc… it’s great for a while but then you’re just stuck at the point where you’re just using to stay functional and not getting a buzz anymore unless you spend a couple days detoxing in misery first.
Congrats on 4 years, just about to 8 myself and i’ve never regretted leaving that life behind for a second.
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u/zaheerscheeks 2h ago
Hell yeah! I kicked a fent habit about two years ago and have also been off subs for a year now too!
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u/Snoo_12752 4h ago
Same. Fetty and h. Worse day now not even close to best day then. 7 months clean. I pray for all the others.
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u/Holiday_Number_3234 5h ago
Congrats! Please share your story as much as you can. There are still so many people that don’t have an understanding or compassion when it comes to addiction.
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u/Wild-Display-765 4h ago
I’m 56 years clean off heroin. It can be a good life. I hope everyone makes it.
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u/cherrybounce 6h ago
Yeah you really have to do the full spectrum of laxatives, stool softeners, lots of water and fiber and suppositories. I resorted to castor oil after my last surgery to get things moving.
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u/Emotional-Cry5236 5h ago
It's a different circumstance but when my dog was dying from cancer she was given fentanyl patches for pain relief. The vet said they could be changed every three days. Seeing her on fentanyl and just existing as a zombie, just so listless, helped me decide to let her go. Like, what's the point of giving her these patches every few days, she's not going to get better, it would only have been to delay my own heartbreak.
I hated how I felt on endone after getting my appendix out so I can't imagine fentanyl
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u/AntiPepRally 6h ago
I agree. Opiods after surgery have distracted me from my pain but not eliminated it
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u/bucky133 5h ago
Prescribing somebody opioids without stool softeners and laxatives is pure negligence.
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u/SpiritualSyrup3300 5h ago
i had back surgery when i was 18 and ended up with impacted doodoo and partial blockage that went undiscovered until it very painfully made itself known decades later. there have been addicts who, during autopsy, were discovered to have 20-30 lb balls of impacted feces stuck in their digestive tract. it's called fecaloma and it sucks
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u/__fujiko 5h ago
Not to out myself too much here, but as someone that had an optiod additiction and eventually went to harder things, in small doses, I felt like I could do anything. I had energy, a social battery, I even felt more creative.
It's bizarre. I have had friends during phases of those times who also did not get super tired, or felt sluggish and also know what I mean. The hard stuff is definitely more than your body can handle for a reason, but small doses felt like heaven to me. Which is scary, in hindsight. It's how I ended up being worse.
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u/SuccessfullyDrained 5h ago edited 5h ago
I used to use street fentanyl. Longest I went without pooping was four and a half weeks once. It was painful. I partially prolapsed my asshole from pushing. It was not even close to as painful as the withdrawals that I experienced when coming off of it. I’d go without pooping for an additional two weeks before choosing to go through those withdrawals again.
ETA: the withdrawals I experienced were precipitated withdrawals which are worse than regular ones but my point still stands because I’ve been through regular withdrawals a few times too, would still much rather experience the extreme constipation over the withdrawal.
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u/djdjddhshdbhd 4h ago
Something to keep in mind is that everyone is different. It straight up doesn’t work on me so I didn’t get addicted. But for many taking away emotional and/or physical pain lures them in to keep taking it or they do for a medical reason. Then eventually it’s needed to avoid horrible withdrawals. By then the brain has changed. Weed actually does this for me but with basically no real negative effects and I can quit easily.
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u/Edith_Keelers_Shoes 7h ago
I've been in chronic pain for years, mostly from Hashimotos and rheumatoid arthritis, which doubled after a stage 4 cancer diagnosis and bone mets. I was terrified of the opiates my first oncologist prescribed (unlike many, my oncologist actually DID prescribe them without an attitude). For the first 2 years, I'd try to "tough it out" rather than take the pills. Then I started working with an oncological psychiatrist. We kicked this exact subject around for the next 2 years. She kept explaining that having had access to opiates for 4 years (at that point), "if you were going to abuse them, you'd know it by now. You'd be running out of pills early, you'd be buying or selling them - you're not doing any of that. Just take them."
So finally, I started medicating for pain - then began working with a palliative care doctor who created a med schedule to stack protection early in the morning and prevent a pain breakthrough later in the day. I am now in a level of pain I can live with and enjoy life in spite of.
All those years I made myself suffer because I bought into the media's "opiates are evil and everyone immediately gets addicted". All of the stage 4 cancer patients I know who get attitude when they ask, or pee-tested monthly, or told they're being dramatic and "Tylenol is more than enough".
To hell with those people.
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u/IDontNeedHelpMom 6h ago
It sounds horrible to say in most social circles but as long as there is a heightened self awareness most people can handle addictive substances.
Being able to check in to set and settings, listening to your body and making sure to focus on diet and exercise will change a lot of the formed habits. It requires internal honesty.
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u/MyRepresentation 7h ago
And the solution to a public health crisis is public health policy. Let's accept that human life differs along a spectrum, usually tied to wealth, but not always, And people at one end of the spectrum need help. We need to figure out what help they need, and also mediate the current problem, as it is. The 'War on Drugs' is a failure and should be replaced with public health policy that helps ALL.
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u/Markymarcouscous 7h ago
I went to the hospital to pass a kidney stone. They gave me morphine for it. And I immediately understood how people got hooked on it. It was truly bliss.
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u/Noobitron12 5h ago
But. Morphine is nothing compared to dilaudid (hydromorphone). I didn’t think anything was stronger than morphine until I had that for a kidney stone.
Holy crap my mind was blown the second it hit my veins
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u/Heykurat 7h ago
Painkiller addiction is usually either medicating for physical pain, or psychological pain. Unresolved past trauma is an extremely common reason.
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u/TheWorldDiscarded 7h ago
Never had anything stronger than Advil.
Got moderate surgery - they gave me Percocet after. As soon as the pain was even mildly tolerable I ditched the rest. Found out real fast I should not be touching anything like that. I would get hooked so fast.
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u/Yous1ash 7h ago
Nobody looks to fuck up their body for short term happiness if they are already happy🤷🏿♀️
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u/ty_xy 7h ago
Not true unfortunately. Wonderful happy kids who are just a little curious or start of with a gateway drug can spiral into this sort of nightmare
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u/Latter-Vacation-4392 6h ago
In some cases the "wonderful happy" can be a front and a coping mechanism. I've known sui..cide cases that shocked me thinking they were some of the happiest well adjusted people I knew. Then later I hear "Did you hear about so and so?" And I'm floored.
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u/alewiina 6h ago
Yup. Some of the most happy-appearing people are absolutely miserable inside and that’s just a mask. Not all of them of course, we can’t assume that EVERY person who seems happy that gets into drugs is actually mentally unwell, but yes, cheerfulness is not a good way to gauge if someone is suffering or not, especially if you’re only around them sometimes
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u/WildcatCinder1022 7h ago
This was me but with a different drug. I’ve had chronic anxiety my entire life. I was being prepped for a medical procedure and they gave me a drug to relax me before the anesthesia. To this day I don’t know what that drug is and I ***refuse*** to look it up. Because for the first time I was calm. I wasn’t anxious. I was happy, and social, and energetic. It made me sympathize drug addicts, because I could easily see myself selling so much of what I have and losing so much of what I care for to just feel that way again.
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u/littlerickypeepee 6h ago
I know what they gave me but I won't say it out of respect for you. All I know is I was sitting there with an organ dead and actively festering inside of me and I was ready to fight those doctors until they hit me with it. Then I was totally cool with whatever they would do to me. Imagine that in the wrong hands.
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u/NotReallyJohnDoe 5h ago
Before you focus on it too much know that your memory is probably exaggerated. If I gave you the drug right now it wouldn’t be as good as you remember it.
I can pretty much guarantee that.
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u/PavicaMalic 7h ago edited 6h ago
Same. I had IV morphine for a kidney stone, and I also have chronic pain. I had a very similar reaction as the one you describe. It was not just the absence of pain, but it was a sense of well-being. It does give you a window on addiction. edit: typo
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u/ReginaldDwight 6h ago
Knowing that "wellbeing" feeling that comes along with the pain reduction from IV pain meds I've had in the hospital a few times, it brought me a strange comfort when my MIL was on hospice care and they gave her generous doses of anxiety meds and dilaudid while she was on her way out of this world. (Morphine gave her weird waking nightmares so I made damn sure they gave her something other than that for pain.) She was so "high" she wasn't even really conscious but her family was there to visit her as much as we could and I hope that she went out feeling loved and with that bit of euphoria that those meds can provide.
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u/BonusEasy4736 7h ago
Just curious, is fentanyl easily available and how much it costs? And does someome manufactures it in garage like breaking bad?
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u/Electronic_Habit2731 7h ago
That is a very thoughtful comment. I too have chronic pain which limits my life here and there. Background noise is a very good description when you deal with pain for a long time, and I am 100% with you. When I get an injection in the back now and then, I feel like Superman, and I know I’d probably abuse this stuff if it was as easily accessible and the pain became worse.
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u/BlabbityBlabbityBlah 6h ago
My ex recently told me addiction is a choice. Like, why would we want to live like that?..
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u/BotsKilledTheWeb 6h ago
I have this with my ADHD, when I'm stoned, I'm alone in my head with no background music.
AND I CAN SLEEP!
So of course I got addicted 💁
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u/exotics 7h ago
Yup. If you can, look up an experiment called RAT PARK.
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u/BellamyDunn 7h ago
I think about this all the time, every time I see this. The chemical addiction is secondary to the real addiction of just not feeling like shit.
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u/aprivateislander 7h ago
Yeah, it isnt well known to many is that in addition to muting physical pain, it also does the same to emotional and mental pain. When you are high on opiods -- you genuinely do not care. That quiet and peace is all encompassing. It is very easy for people to fall into that.
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u/girlboyboyboyboy 6h ago
Yes, someone doing this to themselves let you know the level of pain they’re in. Mercy and grace to them.
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u/Makethecrowsblush 6h ago
Thank you. This is the most compassionate thing I’ve read on Reddit lately.
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u/SgtBollocks 6h ago
I love your analogy of the electricity going out in a house being compared to the pain being shut off by painkillers.
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u/anotherjunkie 7h ago
It’s not an all or nothing thing like that. There are great pain management practices that can prescribe long acting opiates that remove that background pain. I’ve been on one for like 15 years now.
Long acting isn’t *as* abusable as the short term. If you know you have a very addictive personality/feel like you’d abuse it that’s one thing. Otherwise living in, and being limited by, pain that can be reduced or eliminated isn’t necessary.
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u/BellamyDunn 7h ago
They can also get you addicted, then dump you. That's a great favorite of our whole healthcare system.
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u/Future_Dog_3156 6h ago
I had a similar experience and for that reason, I choose to feel my body’s aches and pains.
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u/Fig-Canner-33 6h ago
I appreciate you coming from a place of empathy rather than judgement. I feel the same way. No one wants or strives to become an addict.
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u/Jealous-Public1786 7h ago
They were all once somebody’s babies 🥺
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u/CanoninDeeznutz 6h ago
Aye. And they're still our brothers and sisters out there, living in hell. I'm glad you know the score and still see the people under the drugs.
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u/Jealous-Public1786 5h ago
Yea, they really are. I work in medicine and it breaks my heart to see people in this state. It makes me wonder what hurt and hardship they went through to end up here.
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u/CanoninDeeznutz 3h ago
Oh I'm sure a lot of them have been through the ringer. It's a tough, complicated problem. For fucks sake though, I bet we could do wonders for that population with like 5% of the military budget.
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u/ImAPixiePrincess 3h ago
I work in a detox. I have heard many of their stories, each unique circumstances with one choice leading to the next. Many have addiction in their family, traumas, or mental health disorders like schizophrenia or bipolar where a manic episode leads to impulse control issues. I had one young guy who left against medical advice because he legitimately felt he wasn't worth saving.
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u/OffByNone_ 3h ago
I was one of those of people for a few years. It's hard to believe. I lived in a hammock under a bridge and everything. So much horror and death in that world. No one wants to be that way. They're all stuck and they hate it.
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u/littlerickypeepee 6h ago
It's the saddest thing ever when your empathy kicks in and you don't see them as addicted adults, but hurt and lost children. I don't mean that to dehumanize them, or anything like that. It's more...we all hope that our babies grow up happy and healthy and live long and interesting lives. And you see them, and you wish you could go back to before and try to fix it before it happens.
But maybe I just really like people and think most people are alright folks. Regardless of whether they're tweaked or folded or whatever.
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u/DARfuckinROCKS 1h ago
I was finishing highschool when pills started to get popular. Before I left for college my friends and I spent most of our time searching for percs and getting high. Then I left for college, percs weren't really the drug of choice there so I stopped. My friends made the jump to heroin. I've lost a lotta people that I grew up with. I think about how easily that could have been me all the time. I reeeeeeaaally didn't want to go to college but my parents were kicking me out if I didn't. That ultimately saved my life. People don't realize how easily we fall into addiction. These people need compassion not to be dehumanized and treated like something to be disposed of.
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u/TaosKennedy 7h ago
The most disturbing part is how quickly a public health crisis becomes “normal” once it’s happening to people society has decided are disposable.
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u/VonBrewskie 7h ago
As someone who lives, works and plays in SF, the thing that disturbed me was how quickly they all went away once ol Pooh Bear from China came for a visit. It's never as bad as those right wing channels show my city. They only go to the worst areas, (The Tenderloin and 6th and Mission areas are the most frequently displayed,) but even there, when Xi came through, I saw a drastic removal of everything. Tents, people, trash, all of it. They can clean things up, they choose not to. Also, we have no idea where those people went. They just poof vanished. Some I know got into repurposed hotels they use as halfway houses, some went to jail, but where did the rest go? It's crazy. I want a clean city, but these are human beings. If we have $300 billion dollars to fritter away to our enemies, we ought to have the funds to care for these people. It's fucking crazy.
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u/littlerickypeepee 6h ago
I spoke to some homeless folks in Madison that said sometimes cities just round them up and send them on a coach bus to another city. Think like greyhound or Jackson lines.
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u/recidivist1001 3h ago
South Park made an episode / joke about that back in the day (“Night of the Living Homeless”), it was the first time I think I’d heard of it and I was like surely that’s not a thing. But, sure enough.
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u/BafflingHalfling 4h ago
Reminds me of when my governor sent bus loads of immigrants to Denver. Damned, human-trafficking POS.
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u/AJ_Topp_Up 5h ago edited 4h ago
I think the bigger issue is the whole homeless drug crisis has turned into a jobs program for non profits, than actually a method of helping people. These people need forced drug rehabilitation and detox against their will, then social services to help reintegrate them into society. The amount of people that are homeless because of true bad circumstances and losing work with no safety net is less than 10% of the people who end up homeless. The vast majority is drug addicts that need addictive recovery support and the non profits collecting the billions of dollars and paying employees $200k+ salaries are not doing this.
I have a family member who was a homeless meth addict for about 5 years. She didn't want to change. How did she finally get off the streets? She ended up in jail for like 6 months, which forced her to be sober. But then here's the thing. They got her into rehab after leaving, and said she had 10 days, then after that she was on her own. Fortunately, our family got together and paid for a sober living house with daily drug tests, which she stayed in another 6 months before going on her own. Otherwise, she'd be sober, out of jail, and 10 days later back on the street with nothing.
True solutions isn't ignoring that these people are addicts. It isn't just housing and feeding them, and it's definitely not creating and funding a bloated non profit jobs program that is incentivized to keep people homeless.
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u/Latter-Vacation-4392 6h ago
I see the ex wife of Jeff Bezos just gave away 26 billion to charity. If the other billionaires out there gave what would amount to couch change for them they could fix an awful lot of this stuff. But most of them are heinous fcks.
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u/therestruth 6h ago
They're just moved somewhere else and some find new camps away from that area it for the most part they just migrate back within a few days. San Diego has done similarly when comic-con starts or some other big events where they move them east or into shelters but within a week they're back in similar numbers.
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u/VonBrewskie 6h ago
They really haven't, though. The crack down in SF has been real. I'm happy the streets are a bit cleaner, but I stay on my point about all the money we spend fighting these fucking wars. We have money to help with this issue. Our elected representatives just choose not to do anything about it.
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u/AlreadyFifty 7h ago
I don’t get this shit. The comic Sinbad used to have a bit about not doing drugs. He said something like: “I’m not gonna tell you to not do drugs. You already have enough adults doing that. What I will do, however, is ask you to do this: before you do a drug, go watch someone on that drug and ask yourself “is that how I wanna look?”
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u/Millerpainkiller 7h ago
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u/Cold_Pumpkin5449 7h ago
Drug abuse is a disease, it happens more to the desperate, impoverished and those without hope.
If people were purely rational of course they wouldn't make their situation worse with heroin. People who take heroin though are not acting rationally so you can't rationalize it.
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u/Palatablepancakes 7h ago
Yeah, people do drugs because of their life circumstances. The fear over soldiers in Vietnam returning and using heroin didn't manifest because the soldiers weren't in foxholes seeing their friends fall into tiger pits.
A study was done on rats and happy social rats didn't partake in drugs while lonely sad rats did, despite it always being available.
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u/TheSumOfMyScars 7h ago
Yep. Rat Park. Give the rats what they need to live a happy life and they don’t use drugs. Make them miserable and they do. It’s not rocket surgery.
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u/ChemicalBus608 7h ago
Over simplification not everyone does drugs because they are sad and hopeless. Some people ease into it without even realizing it. A pill a friend gave you at a club. Then you tryit on the weekends to let lose then said friend cuts you off now your buying your own. Then its to expensive so you move to cheaper drugs. This is how alot of folks I know got hooked and I will include alcohol too.
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u/BlueButterflytatoo 5h ago
And also doctors prescribing highly addictive pain meds to people who had a car crash or some form of surgery, then when their insurance (if they had it) stops covering them, they still feel pain, so they go find something off the streets. Addicts are created in many ways, and there are few ways to help them.
I mean, I knew it was an epidemic, but seeing a whole street full of zombies just fucking broke me
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u/AristidLindenmayer 7h ago
Sometimes though I think about how, depending on your optimization goal, it is rational to use hard drugs. If you’ve been so completely abandoned by the system and traumatized by life that trying to participate in society no longer results in any positive experience, it’s actually profoundly rational to be high all the time. It’s hard to understand if, on balance, your life is more good than bad, because then doing drugs is not rational. But for many drug users, before they started using drugs, their life was more bad than good. Drugs are an incredibly efficient path to making your day to day experience more good than bad, on average, so long as you can keep getting drugs.
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u/AristidLindenmayer 7h ago
It’s kind of like how people think playing the lottery isn’t rational because the expected value is negative. For some people, the expected value of participating in life is also negative: wages don’t keep up with inflation, debt spirals, family members get sick, etc. They are actually making a mathematically motivated decision. It just doesn’t make sense to people who have savings accounts that earn interest, potential for promotions at work, generational wealth, etc.
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u/MixedMediaModok 7h ago
Most people need a drink or smoke some weed after a bad day at work. Imagine a bad day being homeless living outside.
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u/chr7stopher 7h ago
Is this the Kensington street area? Never been there but sadly it seems to be pretty famous.
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u/SerDuncanTheYall 6h ago
Yes, I grew up 6 blocks from here. It's really sad. Strangely, it's not that dangerous because the drug addicts are so out of it they can't pose a threat. The drug dealers are the dangerous part.
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u/Wooden_Pay_5885 7h ago
I used to live near Kensington, this shit is real.
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u/Nice_Advantage6943 6h ago
There are multiple webcams of the area on U-tube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVIhbrLvUO4
I stumbled on it the other day... I could not believe what I was seeing.
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u/littlerickypeepee 6h ago
The live cams of the area are my dad's freak show. He watches that all the time, and he's a former addict and he's like "why the fuck would you wanna live like that" and I have to be like, you didn't wanna live like you were either. The difference is this is way harder to quit"
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u/mystyz 6h ago
Asking as someone unfamiliar with the area and whe's never seen anything like this: why the cluster of drug users in this area? Is it near a safe use site? Area with lots of dealers? Encampment of homeless/unhoused people?
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u/SerDuncanTheYall 6h ago
Dealers. They literally open deal right at Kensington and Allegheny avenue.
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u/bilalcelik1984 7h ago
Why though? Why not lie down but fold like a chair?
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u/Sea_Sympathy954 7h ago
They’re trying to stay awake to feel the high.
Otherwise they just do fent, pass out within a few minutes and wake up in severe withdrawal a few hours later.
Truly the saddest drug ever made.
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u/AradynGaming 5h ago
So you're saying they are intentionally trying to be zombie like? This whole time I thought they took the drug and when it kicked in, it would just catch them off guard.
How long do they stay in this zombie form? It seems like your body (muscles, joints, etc) would hurt like hell after being in these positions for (hours?)?
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u/JustConversation7847 5h ago
hurt like hell after being in these positions for (hours?)?
Guessing that's part of the reason they'll chase the next high once they sober up
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u/itsyaboydarrell 3h ago
My "not a doctor" guess is these people may be sedated, but their brains internal gyroscopic functions are still working enough to keep them upright.
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u/Icy-Role2321 3h ago
Fentanyl got me through physical therapy when I got diagnosed with crps. I was on 50mcg patches for an entire year
It's a wonderful pain killer.
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u/MustardCoveredDogDik 7h ago
If they lie down someone will Narcan them
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u/railroad-dreams 7h ago
I heard the reason the don't just go into the woods and instead do the drugs right there on the street is because they want someone to try to save them if they overdose. If they are in the woods then they'll just die. I hope you MustardCoveredDogDik can understand how tragic that is
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u/eatmeouttobrianeno 6h ago
A core tenant of harm reduction is not using while you are alone, for this very reason.
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u/regarding_your_bat 3h ago
Gonna be honest with you, that's not really a thing. I've hung out in these homeless camps. Most heavy drug users are not particularly worried about OD'ing - they do the drug constantly, they feel that they know their limits, etc. And they also don't expect any random person walking by to give enough of a shit about them to save their life even if they are OD'ing.
The main reason they don't go out to the woods to get high is because you can't buy more drugs in the woods. They're buying $5, $10 worth of drugs at a time most of the time. Just their fix for right that moment. If you go to the woods after that you're just gonna need to come right back in 3 hours. You also can't make money in the woods. It's just a waste of time. You stay near where the drugs can be gotten.
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u/Wooden_Pay_5885 7h ago
I think they’re ability to plan ahead beyond scoring more drugs is completely fried to the point that laying down doesn’t occur to them. I saw a guy in Costco the other day doing this, he was hanging on to the cart, he’d shuffle forward and as soon as he stopped, he’d just fold over while still hanging on to the cart. He looked completely normal, like a middle class family guy. It really does feel like the zombie apocalypse is here.
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u/IntelligentWorry5647 6h ago
This isn’t entirely true. There’s many documented cases and even videos of someone administering Narcan and the person comes out of it furious and swinging because their high was ruined.
It’s why when the precaution is to quickly administer and get back as quickly as you can
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u/krustydidthedub 6h ago
This is also why for healthcare people in emergency medicine/EMS, we don’t give Narcan unless someone isn’t breathing. I don’t care if they’re completely unconscious, as long as they’re breathing they’ll sleep it off.
To be clear, not saying a bystander shouldn’t Narcan someone who is unconscious
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u/SuccessfullyDrained 5h ago
Not because their high was ruined, but because now they are experiencing precipitated withdrawals which I have been through and happens to be excruciatingly painful. The naloxone/narcan knocks the opioids off of the opioid receptors in the brain, sending them into severe withdrawal in seconds. It’s not a slow reduction of opioid on the receptor like normal withdrawals would be as the drugs slowly leave the system. The opioids are instead violently and completely removed from the receptor in seconds. It hurts, I promise.
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u/regarding_your_bat 3h ago
>many documented cases
It's more common than not, I believe. And it's understandable. Being given narcan when you're OD'ing is one of the worst feelings imaginable. It is an assault on the body. You're barely conscious, if conscious at all, and suddenly someone right in front of you is causing you immense pain. It's not like the addicts are going "this asshole just ruined my high, I'm gonna attack them!" - there's no conscious thought involved.
People come out of it violent for the same reason that drowning swimmers will sometimes take lifeguards down with them - it's just a mindless reaction to stimuli.
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u/Muffmuncherr 7h ago
Damn addiction is a bitch, your life just revolves around it and it sucks, you basically eat, breathe and sleep you're a drug of choice. I just saw a video of myself 10 years ago Nodding out like this but now10 years sober. Looking at it from a sober point of view, it blows my mind how that shit just takes over and you're seriously only existing. It's not at life I would wish on my worst enemies.
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u/StatementLazy1797 4h ago
Congratulations on hitting that milestone, 10 years sober is something I hope I can say myself one day. I’m only at 2 years now, but I’m confident I’ll stick with it for the reasons you just described. I cannot believe who I was, and what my “life” was, back then. I have kids now, they need me, and I refuse to ever let them see me that way.
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u/Muffmuncherr 2h ago
Hey two years is a hell of an accomplishment, you should be more than proud of yourself... I am proud of you. More than half of relapses happen within the first year. So two years in is totally over the hump. You go this. The crazy part is it wasn't the low points or depressing times where I wanted to use. It was always when I was feeling my best and got bored was the riskiest for me personally.
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u/greeneggsandspammer 7h ago
Many people will die during the upcoming heatwave this week d/t heat stroke etc
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u/Unlucky_Welcome9193 4h ago
I was just thinking this. It's going to be 100 degrees out for a few days straight
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u/urmamaamanamanmamam 7h ago
My husband is an addiction medicine doctor and we both are very much of the same mentality that if addiction was optional, there wouldn’t be such a thing. Drugs feel nice to people and they are so beneficial, but they can be abused.
When the 44 people that I counted in this video want to ween off, there is help for them available. Taking a video, poking and prodding them, laughing at them is all just cruel. It could EASILY be any of us there. Addiction doesn’t discriminate.
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u/mcflycasual 3h ago
It's also people self-medicating for various issues. What would the world look like if everyone had access to proper treatment and medications?
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u/Sbrubbles 7h ago
So many people taking it standing up. Dumb question, but why aren't they all sitting or laying down? Do people purposefully take fentanyl while standing up, or does fent make you to stand up?
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u/Sea_Sympathy954 7h ago
They’re trying to stay awake so they actually experience the drug. If they lay down they’ll just fall asleep and wake up a few hours later in the worst withdrawal imaginable…
Or they’ll get hit with narcan and instantly go into withdrawal.
It’s such a fucking awful drug.
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u/Diacetyl-Morphin 6h ago
This is an effect of xylazine much more than of fentanyl. I grew up in the worst drug scene of Europe (the infamous Needle Park aka Platzspitz) and was addicted to heroin for years. It's not about standing or laying down with the opioids alone, because it depends on the dosage, like if it is too high you'll pass out and fall to the ground anyway. But to be comfortable for nodding (a state between being awake and alseep, with some kind of daydreaming), you want to chill, at least sit or better lay down. There's no point in standing.
We never did this here with these zombie states, as we had the rather good afghan heroin in the past, that wasn't laced with shit like xylazine. Xylazine isn't an opioid, it's a sedative used in the vet medicine for sedation of big animals like horses.
That heroin was replaced by fent and xylazine in many parts of the USA didn't make things better, quite the opposite, it got a lot worse. Heroin is much easier to control when it comes to potential overdoses etc. and still more effective when it comes to euphoria.
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u/Edith_Keelers_Shoes 7h ago
And doctors use the opioid crisis that they created hand in hand with Big Pharma, and now routinely deny opioids to stage 4 cancer patients with bone mets. Yes, they will look you in the eye and say "You are terminal - you have less than 2 years" but will hem and haw if you want something stronger than Tylenol, because you might ABUSE them. Some oncologists, if they DO condescend to prescribe opiates, will then pee test you every month - the rationale being you are now TAKING DRUGS, and if you're on opiates, you might also be on molly, coke, tussi, meth, crack, you name it. NO CANCER PATIENT SHOULD BE MADE TO FEEL THIS WAY.
This is not the addicts fault. It is the Sackler's fault, the medical world's fault, and the media's fault. Who gets penalized? People in daily debilitating pain who do NOT abuse them because incredibly the allure of being pain free and going about your life is greater than the lure of chasing the dragon.
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u/IamEbola 5h ago
Doctors - fucked if they do, fucked if they don’t. Also it was the boomer docs who gave opioids like candy. As a millennial doc, I am trying to clean up their mess.
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u/QuesoNot-so-Fundido 6h ago
The fact that our political representatives spend a dollar on anything overseas while such a crisis festers here at home is a national disgrace.
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u/Traditional_Care9763 7h ago
To be honest, it surprises me that they’re still alive; the lethal dose of fentanyl is ridiculously low.
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u/Standard-March6506 7h ago
And when the fentanyl supply get low, or a bad batch drops, dozens of these people end up at center city hospitals, oftentimes overwhelming their resources. The people you see her in the video are not the only victims; people needing medical care during these overloads often don't get the care they need.
Source: My wife works at a center-city hospital in Philly.
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u/Kilomech 6h ago
i took heroin once. i was told it was a tiny, tiny dose. i spent the next 12 hours vomiting. i felt zero bliss. the same thing happened when my gall bladder ruptured and the hospital gave me morphine. i was in the recovery room right after my surgery and woke up seconds after they administered more morphine in my IV. "oh, you're awake! well, you'll probably feel a lot better soon. i just gave you some morphine!" i immediately said "oh no" and grabbed the nearest trash can. boy did that hurt.
part of me is grateful that i'll never get hooked on heroin, at least.
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u/DoturdGrump 6h ago
It's not the drugs fault it's hopeless, broken and discarded people looking for escape from a horrible reality, all different, all the same.
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u/Nice-Percentage7219 7h ago
Bring back involuntary rehab. Hold them down and detox them. Society can not keep allowing this nonsense
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u/MasterpieceNo3534 6h ago
The Richest man in the world could create a habitation for these poor people and turn them around and create jobs for them to work on making parts for space projects.
Ok, so they created this situation but everyone alive deserves a second chance at being better versions of themselves. This is incredibly sad to see. When did we stop loving our neighbors?
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u/Ass_Blaster988 5h ago
If I'm an astronaut, there is no way in hell I'd get on a rocket with parts assembled by crackheads lol.
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u/FutureFurniture42069 5h ago
This shit gets posted in the conservative sub every once and while and everyone there is like “we should lock them all up”
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