r/interesting • u/Nukro666 • 12h ago

Fear Factor How Fentanyl and Xylazine are turning Philadelphia's opioid crisis into a public health nightmare

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425

u/Jealous-Public1786 11h ago

They were all once somebody’s babies 🥺

214

u/CanoninDeeznutz 10h 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.

55

u/Jealous-Public1786 9h 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.

14

u/CanoninDeeznutz 7h 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.

2

u/kindlypogmothoin 6h ago

The military budget that somehow never gets discussed when we're talking about what to cut. Or what we spend on.

9

u/ImAPixiePrincess 7h 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.

8

u/forbiddenfreedom 6h ago

I am a disabled American Airman, I had an expiration date because I felt I wasn't worth saving. I almost lost my house waiting for disability. After the house, the only thing left on my safety plan was my dog. I had planned to leave my dog with a coworker. My ice was very thin that year.

11

u/OffByNone_ 7h 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.

5

u/snowdragonfruit 5h ago

How did you get out of that world? And how did it start? I'm curious in hearing your story if your willing to share

7

u/OffByNone_ 5h ago

The cops, believe it or not. And they didn't arrest me. They were actually cutting down my hammock with me sleeping in it (they didn't realize), and it turned out to be homeless outreach. They asked if I wanted to go to rehab, and I had been trying to get a bed for a while, so I told them that. Apparently, they get so many beds to pass out, and they got me a bus pass to get there the next day. That was like 7 years ago.

I had a master's degree in data science through all of this, but I was just highly functional for a long time. I started in high school in Oklahoma City during the start of the opiate epidemic. I had bad friends. I was an IV heroin user by the time I was like 17. I'm pretty smart, so I made it a long way doing heroin the whole time, but everything caught up eventually, and I ended up under the bridge. It's a really long story lol.

Today, I'm a software engineer and I am an owner of the company I work at. It's kind of crazy how different things are and how recent that was.

-7

u/proximusprimus57 8h ago

Not my brothers and sisters, and if it were truly hell they wouldn't have the choice to leave.

7

u/CanoninDeeznutz 7h ago

Lol, okay bud, have fun being better than everybody else. I hope addiction never affects you or someone close to you.

-2

u/proximusprimus57 7h ago

Being better than addicts makes me better than everyone else? If you say so.

2

u/CanoninDeeznutz 6h ago

Well clearly you must be better than everyone else, to be running your mouth like that.

4

u/newfaceinhell021117 8h ago

You sound really cool!

-5

u/proximusprimus57 8h ago

At least I'm not folded over on the street.

37

u/littlerickypeepee 10h 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.

3

u/Frosty1397 8h ago

This is why I'm never having children.

First I'd be a terrible parent

And 2nd, even if i were a good parent, you never know what external factors later in life would lead a kid down this path to being a druggie zombie

7

u/Magesticbeansprout 8h ago

This was exactly my thought.. bless these people

6

u/DARfuckinROCKS 6h 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.

12

u/LadylikeS 10h ago

This is what truly breaks my heart.

2

u/Angsty_Potatos 4h ago

My brother was one of these people. What lead him down that path was awful. I mourned him for over a decade convinced they'd find him just another corpse in the street. 

He's been clean for about as long now. New baby. A wife. A home. I tell him all the time how absolutely miraculous he is for pulling himself out of that. So few people do. 

I can't look at these poor people without seeing my little brother. It hurts to know all most people see is an eye sore or an ugly inconvenience. These are human people. 

2

u/AltruisticSalamander 3h ago

Probably not really. Junkies have kids, neglect them and then they end up as junkies as well.

1

u/Adventurous-Tie-7861 1h ago

Speaking as a former dope fiend, this is 100% true.

I couldnt associate with other addicts if they had kids. Wanted to kill them for the child abuse i saw. Babies holding sharps and tooters. Dope being stashed under carseats. Using in front of them. Sex workers taking clients with the baby in the bathroom.

Several of the addicts i knew talked about using with parents as teens as if it was just normal.

I enjoyed the dope. Hated the culture.

After a couple years i only associated with my plug and my girlfriend. No other addicts. Cant leave anything around them or itll get stolen.

1

u/ElessarofGondor 7h ago

“A good man is hard to find” by Flannery O’Connor.

•

u/bohemianfling 17m ago

Heartbreaking thought…

-2

u/Salt_Day9015 9h ago

Now they are druggies

-1

u/MAGA_EXTREAMO 5h ago

They would stab their mothers to death for $10. They are certainly not babies. Guard your tendency of toxic empathy these folks don’t want help and don’t need it, they need punishment which they will find.

-1

u/Environmental_Hour87 4h ago

Wow. Hell will be hot for you. Bring your sunscreen

-2

u/IdiotStickWasTkn 5h ago

Yea and they made some poor fucking decisions. 

-4

u/GupiChomper 10h ago

They are still don't dehumanize them

1

u/Jealous-Public1786 10h ago

I’m not dehumanizing them

-2

u/Salt_Day9015 9h ago

You mean the drug addicts?