I Don't Think We Can Solve The Heroin Problem

[Clyde]

Dinner table discussion last night with my wife and 22 yr old son.

 

Wife disagrees. Son and I are think that there's really nothing we as a society can do to solve the problem. Education hasn't worked. Punishment hasn't worked. Even if you change punishment to life in prison it won't make much of an impact (see : murder ).

 

Agree or disagree?

[Beechwoodfan]

Great question. I have even asked people who are current and "recovered" users what the answer is. They can't give me an answer. I know a couple of parents who are happy when their addicted kids are in jail because they know they are safe.

 

I do believe it is a brain chemistry thing, and we don't know enough about the brain to figure it out. I do think there will be an answer, but we haven't found it yet.

 

I wonder what would happen if, instead of 30 day programs, addicts could be in longer rehab programs, say 6months to a year. A good quality program might be favorable in the long run than short programs that fail. That takes money though, and Lord knows, Washington doesn't seem to care.

[doomer]

I don't think we have invested enough in education about drugs. Also, I believe there is too much tolerance for even the lighter duty drugs including pot. Seriously compare how many ads one sees in the course of an evening talking about what body part a person lost or whatever disease a person contracted from smoking cigarettes then compare to the number of ads one sees education people on the danger of drugs. Not even in the same universe. Cigarette smoking is declining while drug use is increasing. Go figure.

[Clyde]

I don't think we have invested enough in education about drugs. Also, I believe there is too much tolerance for even the lighter duty drugs including pot. Seriously compare how many ads one sees in the course of an evening talking about what body part a person lost or whatever disease a person contracted from smoking cigarettes then compare to the number of ads one sees education people on the danger of drugs. Not even in the same universe. Cigarette smoking is declining while drug use is increasing. Go figure.

 

Do you think that the vast majority of people who try heroin are unaware of it being highly addictive?

[doomer]

Do you think that the vast majority of people who try heroin are unaware of it being highly addictive?

 

Similar to cigarettes, so why do people start to smoke? It is early education about the danger of drugs and information causing drug use to gain the same social stigma that has been successful with cigarette smoking that will be successful.

 

Once the first hit is taken, we can only hope to save the person's life.

 

We just lost a young man that was as close to our family as a person could be for many years to heroin. His mom, has always talked about writing a book entitled "It's Just Pot" going back to his early days of hanging out with his skateboarding buddies and then later at Lexington Catholic with the lacrosse guys who had bountiful supplies of pot. This is what he would say as his troubles mounted and his life tumbled out of control. His funeral was in August.

[Habib]

If we keep doing what we've been doing, then no.

 

There's a lot more that goes into drug addiction than a chemical dependence. Not only addiction but trying hard drugs relates to certain social conditions, which is in part why criminalization hasn't been producing results; what's jail to you if you're already detached from society? Similarly, we know cocaine is both addictive and widely used, especially amongst wealthier groups (colleges, Hollywood, Wall St., etc.), but while certainly bad for your health, addiction issues seem much less prevalent. Charlie Sheen is an outlier. Why is that the case for cocaine, but not crack/heroin/meth?

 

So, a more effective solution would be to focus on the underlying causes of addiction. I don't have all the answers, but I think that would come much closer to ending the "epidemic" than continuing on with failed policies.

[Habib]

I think doomer has a good point re: cigarettes. I would argue cigarette usage is declining due to a combination of education and the social stigma it produces. I'm willing to bet a goodly number of people who would have otherwise smoked cigarettes don't do it because it's now perceived to be unattractive and undesirable, which is undergirded by the knowledge that it is associated with cancer.

 

The problem with heroin/meth isn't that there needs to be a stronger social stigma against it (there already is), but the people who are trying it out and using it are unaffected by it. That's where the problem is.

[Beechwoodfan]

Do you think that the vast majority of people who try heroin are unaware of it being highly addictive?

 

Young people always think they are invincible, and never think bad things can happen to them. Lots of education around, but it doesn't apply to them. Unfortunately, with heroin, it only takes once.

[JDEaston]

IMO, there is no realistic solution. Drug epedimics seem to run in cycles though. IMO what brought heroin back to being a popular drug was the government cracking down on pain pills. It seemed like a great idea at the time, but I saw the writing on the wall as soon as they started to make a dent in pain pill abuse. The problem is heroin is much more addictive and dangerous than pain pills. It's also going to be nearly impossible to stop it from being sold. Unless they find a way to stop it from coming into the country I don't see a solution.

[Clyde]

Similar to cigarettes, so why do people start to smoke? I.

 

I'd argue they're not the same.

 

People KNOW of stories of young kids/adults dying from heroin. They don't stories of those same people dying from cigarettes. They also see a LOT of long-time smokers not dying.

[doomer]

I'd argue they're not the same.

 

People KNOW of stories of young kids/adults dying from heroin. They don't stories of those same people dying from cigarettes. They also see a LOT of long-time smokers not dying.

 

I should have been more clear...the addictive capabilities of nicotine and heroin are similar. Of course the outcome is very different.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

One of my brothers is a respiratory therapist and spends a significant amount of time in the ER. He swears that with Narcan as readily available as a safety-net of sorts for users, it's only making things worse by removing from of the concern of death from the equation. He says we need to cut back severely on administering Narcan, id est, let more overdose patients die.

[UKMustangFan]

One of my brothers is a respiratory therapist and spends a significant amount of time in the ER. He swears that with Narcan as readily available as a safety-net of sorts for users, it's only making things worse by removing from of the concern of death from the equation. He says we need to cut back severely on administering Narcan, id est, let more overdose patients die.

 

I agree. If we stop treating the idiots who OD on the stuff, usage will eventually go down IMO.

[Guest]

I didn't get involved in any of these addictive behaviors (including alcohol) because of common sense. Plus peer pressure meant nothing to me. You can't teach common sense and not enough people are born with it.

[Clyde]

I should have been more clear...the addictive capabilities of nicotine and heroin are similar. Of course the outcome is very different.

 

I got that. I'm saying that people already know YET they still do it despite knowing it can kill them , unlike cigarettes, NOW.