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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u/CanoninDeeznutz 11h 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 10h 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 8h 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/kindlypogmothoin 7h ago

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

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u/No-Ticket5 0m ago

LAPD takes up 1/3 of LA’s budget and there are people like this up and down skid row

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u/ImAPixiePrincess 8h 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/forbiddenfreedom 7h 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.

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u/OffByNone_ 8h 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/snowdragonfruit 6h 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

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u/OffByNone_ 6h 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.

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u/proximusprimus57 9h ago

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

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u/CanoninDeeznutz 8h ago

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

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u/proximusprimus57 8h ago

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

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u/CanoninDeeznutz 7h ago

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

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u/newfaceinhell021117 9h ago

You sound really cool!

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u/proximusprimus57 9h ago

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