I Don't Think We Can Solve The Heroin Problem

[UKMustangFan]

I get your point.

 

Different life experience might change your perspective though.

 

Maybe, maybe not. Hard for me to have much sympathy for someone who willingly injects a lethal substance into their bodies, and I certainly don't think we should be wasting time and resources trying to resuscitate them.

[Bluegrasscard]

Heroin replaced meth. Meth replaced Oxy. Oxy replaced...something.

 

Meth and Oxy may not be great but do not recall a 22% mortality rate.

 

The Legislature at the encouragement of the AG who is on the ballot today passed HB1, tightened up OTC rules to where you have jump through hoops to get cold medicine, have wanted to get a centralized database of all our medical records....and now people are dying more and more from hot heroin doses.

 

Seems all the 'protect us from ourselves' laws have only made the situation worse.

[SportsGuy41017]

The first thing that can be done is the punishment for the seller. Many dealers come from Cincy into Kentucky for a reason.

 

If you sell heroin even once, no matter how little, you should do many years of hard time. I'll try to find it, but about a month ago there was an article about the route that the drugs take to get to all over the US. From the cartel in Mexico to gangs all over the US. Also find ways to put any gang members in prison as well. Possibly get them on some type of racketeering, something.

[HammerTime]

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 was just going to say this. Quit saving them. Sounds harsh, but I agree.

[B-Ball-fan]

Poppy is not grown in the U.S. so a good place to start in eradicating the epidemic would be to not let it get into the country...

 

...oh but if it were only that easy...

 

Our local dealers take the heat for selling it (which they should), but follow the money trail to who is really raking in the big bucks.

 

Our own country is enabling this problem while fat cats are despicably and unapologetically lining their pockets.

 

Local communities continue to campaign to find solutions, and you can hardly blame them, but their efforts are, and inevitably will be futile.

 

If your roof is leaking, a bucket may catch a few drops, but fixing the roof is the ultimate solution. Stop the drips from where they are getting in and the problem is solved, and then the bucket will become unnecessary.

 

We first have to be willing to admit where the root of the problem is before we ever begin to solve it.

 

You hear all the time on the news about the epidemic and local efforts to stop it, but how often does the mainstream media discuss the real root of the problem.

 

If we stay blinded and in denial, the problem will continue.

 

Harsh language alert, but it settles down about a minute into the video.

 

[All In]

There was a report out there somewhere where you could go into 1 out of every 5 houses in Anywhere,USA and somebody was doing drugs(oxy,viactin,marijuana,heroin,etc.)

[JDEaston]

Heroin replaced meth. Meth replaced Oxy. Oxy replaced...something.

 

Meth and Oxy may not be great but do not recall a 22% mortality rate.

 

The Legislature at the encouragement of the AG who is on the ballot today passed HB1, tightened up OTC rules to where you have jump through hoops to get cold medicine, have wanted to get a centralized database of all our medical records....and now people are dying more and more from hot heroin doses.

 

Seems all the 'protect us from ourselves' laws have only made the situation worse.

 

You are 100% correct. Shamefully, I'll admit I have experimented with pretty much every "popular" drug known to man. In my younger years of course, I only drink an adult beverage or two now.

 

I can tell you with no doubt in my mind that heroin is the worst drug of them all, speaking from a perspective of addictiveness and lethality. Pain pills would be second on my list in terms of addiction, but they are no where near as dangerous and lethal as heroin is.

 

To me the "speed" type drugs have a low addiction rate and are less lethal. Getting away from cocaine, etc is more of a mental deal. As opposed to the physical addiction people aquire from opioids.

 

Long story short, I'm sure there were good intentions by shutting down the pill mills. But the end result is that now it has allowed a much more lethal version of pain pills to take over. Not to mention it will be much harder to stop heroin from coming into the country than it was to stop doctors from over prescribing pain pills.

[John Anthony]

I agree. If we stop treating the idiots who OD on the stuff' date=' usage will eventually go down IMO.[/quote']

 

So drug addicts are wise now?

[doubledeuce]

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?

 

What will help is when the military gets out of the Middle East. The last time heroin was a big problem was when we were in Vietnam. In between those two periods, the military was focused in Central and South America,crack and cocaine was the main problem.

[JDEaston]

What will help is when the military gets out of the Middle East. The last time heroin was a big problem was when we were in Vietnam. In between those two periods, the military was focused in Central and South America,crack and cocaine was the main problem.

 

I seriously doubt that's the answer.

[halfback20]

Heroin replaced meth. Meth replaced Oxy. Oxy replaced...something.

 

Meth and Oxy may not be great but do not recall a 22% mortality rate.

 

The Legislature at the encouragement of the AG who is on the ballot today passed HB1, tightened up OTC rules to where you have jump through hoops to get cold medicine, have wanted to get a centralized database of all our medical records....and now people are dying more and more from hot heroin doses.

 

Seems all the 'protect us from ourselves' laws have only made the situation worse.

 

Meth is far from being replaced in some parts of the state. Still going strong.

[sportsfan41]

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.

 

I agree with a lot of what you're saying. Certainly a lot that goes into the Heroin addiction that it's just the dependency on the drug. I heard a statistic a week ago from someone that works with addicts and people suffering from mental illness. They stated that they believe approximately 80% of Heroin addicts are suffering from mental illness which is often times undiagnosed.

 

I've had a chance to speak to former addicts that said they self medicated and often came from families where that was common. Many of those former addicts that I spoke with did believe their mental illness(bi-polar, major depression, etc) was a large part of their drug addiction. The problem was that many of them didn't seek help or want it until they "hit rock bottom", this included one person who said he didn't want to get off of Heroin until he basically started hating the drug. That hate stemmed from his brother dying from an overdose.

 

It's just a very complex problem we are dealing with unfortunately.

[Beechwoodfan]

I agree with a lot of what you're saying. Certainly a lot that goes into the Heroin addiction that it's just the dependency on the drug. I heard a statistic a week ago from someone that works with addicts and people suffering from mental illness. They stated that they believe approximately 80% of Heroin addicts are suffering from mental illness which is often times undiagnosed.

 

I've had a chance to speak to former addicts that said they self medicated and often came from families where that was common. Many of those former addicts that I spoke with did believe their mental illness(bi-polar, major depression, etc) was a large part of their drug addiction. The problem was that many of them didn't seek help or want it until they "hit rock bottom", this included one person who said he didn't want to get off of Heroin until he basically started hating the drug. That hate stemmed from his brother dying from an overdose.

 

It's just a very complex problem we are dealing with unfortunately.

 

I work in this same field, and I would disagree with your friend's statistic. We do drug tests on every patient who comes in the door. Cocaine, alcohol, and MJ are the drugs we find most common to the self-medicating mentally ill person. Those previously undiagnosed are almost always MJ and alcohol users. Heroin, less so. What we are seeing is the boy/girl next door with no risk factors as our largest growing group of heroin addicts. This, to me, makes heroin far more dangerous.

[SportsGuy41017]

This thread is a good example of what we need to do, you can't just talked it from one direction, it will take different people with different ideas and come from all directions.

 

But, we cannot just let these people die, any Heath care worker who thinks they need to just let these people die should have their license ripped away, they are there to save lives, not pick and choose who lives and who dies, they took an oath.

[mexitucky]

The only way to solve the problem, really, is to "quarantine" users. What I mean is, prevent first time users, b/c once you get that first high, the VAST majority are hooked. Ideally, you let the users die out and concentrate your efforts on preventing first time users. It will never happen, b/c I don't think that there will ever be a socially acceptable vehicle to thin the herd.

 

Additionally, as soon as the true crack down on heroine happens, and supply goes down, people will find cheaper alternatives. Human Beings are creatures susceptible to injuring themselves. There will always be people with lack of self-control who are looking for the 1st high and then the next high.