#opioidepidemic — Public Fediverse posts

#5yrsago The billionaire family who profited off the #OpioidEpidemic are finally facing legal reprisals https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/19/sackler-family-members-face-mass-litigation-criminal-investigations-over-opioids-crisis

#5yrsago In a weird way, Donald Trump is the most honest American president in history https://theintercept.com/2018/11/21/thanksgiving-donald-trump-lies-honest-president/

#5yrsago Americans pay some of the highest prices for wireless data in the world, and it’s going to get worse https://research.rewheel.fi/downloads/The_state_of_4G_pricing_DFMonitor_10th_release_2H2018_PUBLIC.pdf

#1yrago Universities secretly sold their students to online casinos https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/21/rah-rah/#sis-boom-bah

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#5yrsago The billionaire family who profited off the #OpioidEpidemic are finally facing legal reprisals https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/19/sackler-family-members-face-mass-litigation-criminal-investigations-over-opioids-crisis

#5yrsago In a weird way, Donald Trump is the most honest American president in history https://theintercept.com/2018/11/21/thanksgiving-donald-trump-lies-honest-president/

#5yrsago Americans pay some of the highest prices for wireless data in the world, and it’s going to get worse https://research.rewheel.fi/downloads/The_state_of_4G_pricing_DFMonitor_10th_release_2H2018_PUBLIC.pdf

#1yrago Universities secretly sold their students to online casinos https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/21/rah-rah/#sis-boom-bah

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A generation later, the family's business company created #Oxycontin, and procured misleading and false research about the drug's safety kickstarting the #OpioidEpidemic, whose American body-count is closing in on a million dead. Armed with inflated claims about opioid safety, the Sacklers' pharma reps bribed, cajoled and tricked doctors into writing millions of prescriptions for oxy.

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A generation later, the family's business company created #Oxycontin, and procured misleading and false research about the drug's safety kickstarting the #OpioidEpidemic, whose American body-count is closing in on a million dead. Armed with inflated claims about opioid safety, the Sacklers' pharma reps bribed, cajoled and tricked doctors into writing millions of prescriptions for oxy.

4/

My pain management doctor today (after about a year of insisting it is impossible) suddenly announced they have quick-acting, short-lasting meds that I can use. And transformed back into the problem-solving, empathetic doctor determined to get rid of the pain until rheumatology gets their butts in gear.

Outraged by how rheumatology has been treating me and refusing to collaborate with her, discussing mechanisms of action for the COVID miracle days, pushing for as many doctors as needed to get me help, focusing on the pain as the problem rather than the meds.

And all I can think is the overwhelming relief from getting the help I need, and getting somebody to take it seriously. The fact that this was always available is basically a nonfactor because I'm getting help again.

#NEISVoid #ChronicPain #ChronicIllness #MentalHealth #OpioidEpidemic

My pain management doctor today (after about a year of insisting it is impossible) suddenly announced they have quick-acting, short-lasting meds that I can use. And transformed back into the problem-solving, empathetic doctor determined to get rid of the pain until rheumatology gets their butts in gear.

Outraged by how rheumatology has been treating me and refusing to collaborate with her, discussing mechanisms of action for the COVID miracle days, pushing for as many doctors as needed to get me help, focusing on the pain as the problem rather than the meds.

And all I can think is the overwhelming relief from getting the help I need, and getting somebody to take it seriously. The fact that this was always available is basically a nonfactor because I'm getting help again.

#NEISVoid #ChronicPain #ChronicIllness #MentalHealth #OpioidEpidemic

I’ve been thinking a lot of heroin/fent/dope and the people who use it for the past, oh, decade or so. And lately I’ve been coming to some conclusions that have been pretty hard for me to accept.

Why do people cut drug users/addicts out of their life? (or “love them from a distance” as the saying goes) Why do mothers stop talking to sons, brothers ignore sisters, lifelong friends behave like strangers? The answer seems simple enough, because being a drug addict is awful and they don’t want to encourage or “enable” drug use. But *why* does being an addict suck?

It certainly isn’t just being dependent on a substance. Ask a cigarette smoker. A persistent cough aside, most ppl who smoke cigarettes live perfectly happy lives. So why then? Well, you could get arrested. That’s not great. But among the drug users I know, easily the worst part about addiction is being separated from the people they care about.

So we get this feedback loop. Addiction sucks because you’re alienated from your loved ones, and your loved ones alienate you because they don’t want you to suffer from addiction. However, the suffering is being caused *because* of the alienation!!

There’s one more thing. Overdose. Using drugs like heroin can kill you, and no one wants to encourage their family to do something that will kill them, right? To bring back the cigarette comparison, cigarettes are also potentially deadly. But most people are able to find the middle ground between “encouraging family members to smoke” and “refusing to speak with a smoker till they quit cigarettes.” Why can’t we do this with hard drugs as well? I know it *seems* like an absurd question, but imo there really is no good answer. If you are willing to have a cigarette smoker in your life, but not a heroin user your issue is not with the potential deadliness of the heroin.

The proliferation of narcan further shows the hypocrisy. If your concern is the addict you love dying, you can mitigate that risk by encouraging them to use in front of you more often than not. If, god forbid, they OD then you can reverse the OD with narcan. If you have any objection whatsoever to this arrangement, then you can’t also pretend that the addict’s well-being is the reason you’re against it.

I fear a lot of this comes down to heroin’s status as an illegal drug. Which, ya know, fine whatever- ppl have a hard time with illegal ≠ immoral. But it breaks my heart that the state’s decision about what we are and aren’t allowed to do with our bodies is more important to the ppl who love me than *my* well being.

Idk, this might have been a bit rambling but I had to put these thoughts down jnto writing. I hope we can build a world than is kinder to people who shoot dope, smoke crack, or whatever else than world we were born into.

If you use drugs, please don’t use alone! If you can’t find someone you trust to use with- there is a hotline called Never Use Alone. All they ask is your name (it can be fake, they just need something to call you) and your current location. You get high while on the phone, and if you stop responding then they will call a paramedic. I know the idea of giving a stranger your location might seem a bit “eh” but I can vouch for this organization. Their number is 1-800-484-3731

#addiction #recovery #heroin #OpioidCrisis #OpioidEpidemic #OverdoseEpidemic

I’ve been thinking a lot of heroin/fent/dope and the people who use it for the past, oh, decade or so. And lately I’ve been coming to some conclusions that have been pretty hard for me to accept.

Why do people cut drug users/addicts out of their life? (or “love them from a distance” as the saying goes) Why do mothers stop talking to sons, brothers ignore sisters, lifelong friends behave like strangers? The answer seems simple enough, because being a drug addict is awful and they don’t want to encourage or “enable” drug use. But *why* does being an addict suck?

It certainly isn’t just being dependent on a substance. Ask a cigarette smoker. A persistent cough aside, most ppl who smoke cigarettes live perfectly happy lives. So why then? Well, you could get arrested. That’s not great. But among the drug users I know, easily the worst part about addiction is being separated from the people they care about.

So we get this feedback loop. Addiction sucks because you’re alienated from your loved ones, and your loved ones alienate you because they don’t want you to suffer from addiction. However, the suffering is being caused *because* of the alienation!!

There’s one more thing. Overdose. Using drugs like heroin can kill you, and no one wants to encourage their family to do something that will kill them, right? To bring back the cigarette comparison, cigarettes are also potentially deadly. But most people are able to find the middle ground between “encouraging family members to smoke” and “refusing to speak with a smoker till they quit cigarettes.” Why can’t we do this with hard drugs as well? I know it *seems* like an absurd question, but imo there really is no good answer. If you are willing to have a cigarette smoker in your life, but not a heroin user your issue is not with the potential deadliness of the heroin.

The proliferation of narcan further shows the hypocrisy. If your concern is the addict you love dying, you can mitigate that risk by encouraging them to use in front of you more often than not. If, god forbid, they OD then you can reverse the OD with narcan. If you have any objection whatsoever to this arrangement, then you can’t also pretend that the addict’s well-being is the reason you’re against it.

I fear a lot of this comes down to heroin’s status as an illegal drug. Which, ya know, fine whatever- ppl have a hard time with illegal ≠ immoral. But it breaks my heart that the state’s decision about what we are and aren’t allowed to do with our bodies is more important to the ppl who love me than *my* well being.

Idk, this might have been a bit rambling but I had to put these thoughts down jnto writing. I hope we can build a world than is kinder to people who shoot dope, smoke crack, or whatever else than world we were born into.

If you use drugs, please don’t use alone! If you can’t find someone you trust to use with- there is a hotline called Never Use Alone. All they ask is your name (it can be fake, they just need something to call you) and your current location. You get high while on the phone, and if you stop responding then they will call a paramedic. I know the idea of giving a stranger your location might seem a bit “eh” but I can vouch for this organization. Their number is 1-800-484-3731

#addiction #recovery #heroin #OpioidCrisis #OpioidEpidemic #OverdoseEpidemic