only one remark. how is it that people who are homeless, penniless, can buy drugs? and if they have a little money why not buy food?
35 years ago I had that culture shock as a baby Police Officer.
Why take drugs? The answer from numerous bad guys, arrestees, hypes, junkies, etc. is...
"Why not?" Or "I have nothing to lose." Or, or, or. Pick a reason. Drug use is running from one's problems and having no support structure or coping skills. People take drugs because the drug works and they don't know any better and don't care. Some users know exactly what the drug will do and one dose is not enough and ten is not to many. Most are poly drug users, as in multiple drugs as often as needed, with cannabis being ever present.
First I have to make the distinction between junkies, accidental ingestion of opiates and using laced versions of other drugs. Been to all three incidents.
Junkies are intentional users. They will use any and all means to get drugs and are the most consummate liars on Earth, exceeding the abilities of politicians in most cases. This rant will focus mostly on intentional users. Mostly.
Accidental ingestion is Grandma takes the wrong dosage in error, accidental exposures and med interactions. These are (almost) wholly innocent.
Laced versions of other drugs. Less empathy for this crowd. Much empathy for parents as they are all blind sided by this one. Don't do drugs.
Been to the autopsies. Done the follow ups. Interviewed more people than I can count surrounding overdoses (accidental and otherwise). Cried with the families and restrained angry male kin from doing something irrevocable and truly stupid. Kept more than one partner from doing a roadside execution for an accidental needle stick. Dragged more people into an ambulance and to rehab than I can remember. Fought with the hypes after they get jumpstarted (Narcaned) and the first thing they all say, "Is you ruined my high". You were dead mother fu!@#$. And you are bitching about us saving your life?! Again. As an aside the record for jumpstarts, locally anyway, is four in a 24 hour period.
I get it. So use of hype, junkie, etc., is not done in a vacuum. I am calling them what they are as intentional users of opiates and other drugs. I am not unempathetic. Far from it. Fentanyl and opiates have broken a huge part of American society and will continue to do so until the supply is shut down and the higher ups get arrested, tried, imprisoned and executed. Wherever those responsible may be located.
The easy access to Naxalone (Narcan) has pretty much only made things worse. When first issued Narcan I was less than happy as it put the burden on responding LE to jump start the hypes. The amount of Narcan needed to jumpstart has increased every year. Used to be one hit, maybe two. Now four or more. LE generally keeps Narcan on hand to treat one's partner or little kids or Grandma.
A test would help. A massive education campaign would help more. Robust enforcement, FULL jail sentences for users and dealers alike would be even better. You charge users criminally to create a mechanism to get them into rehab. I have had family members beg me to arrest their junkie kids to keep them away from the drugs. Grown men begging is a sorry sight.
Hypes generally don't practice good hygiene or use good practices in ingesting drugs. Users will get high within 5 minutes or 1 mile of obtaining drugs. A few have Narcan on hand and if there are several hypes using together, one of them is supposed to stay sober and administer Narcan if someone OD's. Sometimes that plan works. The drug culture is not what most of you are used to and is not even close to "normal". Parents and other enablers are not helping. Society and legalizing cannabis (and in some states hard drugs) is certainly not helping.
A test would be awesome if you could get them to use it and then not take the drugs they just bought.
Darn good comment. Amazing just how quickly this happened. Was a research tech 10 yrs before going to grad school so a 10 yr window there with most peers. A girl from a well to do area of houston absolutely refused to believe my hi sch. had no drug problem, much less Okla City in '60s. So what happened in that 10 yrs? The Nam war? We sent men into war without a drug epidemic before but in Nam we were sending over kids, many having never had the word no applied to their behavior. They were undisciplined, undereducated and way unready for what awaited them in a cesspool seething with available narcotics. That?
Thanks for this, Mark! Good to hear the realist view from someone on the ground; we often hear politicized theories from those who have neither "been there" nor "done that", and never will. Empathy is important, but i find that a typical bleeding heart offers self-motivated lip service; perhaps inappropriate and ineffective. These are real crises and intervention is the effective action.
Ingrid Durden commented below:
only one remark. how is it that people who are homeless, penniless, can buy drugs? and if they have a little money why not buy food?
35 years ago I had that culture shock as a baby Police Officer.
Why take drugs? The answer from numerous bad guys, arrestees, hypes, junkies, etc. is...
"Why not?" Or "I have nothing to lose." Or, or, or. Pick a reason. Drug use is running from one's problems and having no support structure or coping skills. People take drugs because the drug works and they don't know any better and don't care. Some users know exactly what the drug will do and one dose is not enough and ten is not to many. Most are poly drug users, as in multiple drugs as often as needed, with cannabis being ever present.
First I have to make the distinction between junkies, accidental ingestion of opiates and using laced versions of other drugs. Been to all three incidents.
Junkies are intentional users. They will use any and all means to get drugs and are the most consummate liars on Earth, exceeding the abilities of politicians in most cases. This rant will focus mostly on intentional users. Mostly.
Accidental ingestion is Grandma takes the wrong dosage in error, accidental exposures and med interactions. These are (almost) wholly innocent.
Laced versions of other drugs. Less empathy for this crowd. Much empathy for parents as they are all blind sided by this one. Don't do drugs.
Been to the autopsies. Done the follow ups. Interviewed more people than I can count surrounding overdoses (accidental and otherwise). Cried with the families and restrained angry male kin from doing something irrevocable and truly stupid. Kept more than one partner from doing a roadside execution for an accidental needle stick. Dragged more people into an ambulance and to rehab than I can remember. Fought with the hypes after they get jumpstarted (Narcaned) and the first thing they all say, "Is you ruined my high". You were dead mother fu!@#$. And you are bitching about us saving your life?! Again. As an aside the record for jumpstarts, locally anyway, is four in a 24 hour period.
I get it. So use of hype, junkie, etc., is not done in a vacuum. I am calling them what they are as intentional users of opiates and other drugs. I am not unempathetic. Far from it. Fentanyl and opiates have broken a huge part of American society and will continue to do so until the supply is shut down and the higher ups get arrested, tried, imprisoned and executed. Wherever those responsible may be located.
The easy access to Naxalone (Narcan) has pretty much only made things worse. When first issued Narcan I was less than happy as it put the burden on responding LE to jump start the hypes. The amount of Narcan needed to jumpstart has increased every year. Used to be one hit, maybe two. Now four or more. LE generally keeps Narcan on hand to treat one's partner or little kids or Grandma.
A test would help. A massive education campaign would help more. Robust enforcement, FULL jail sentences for users and dealers alike would be even better. You charge users criminally to create a mechanism to get them into rehab. I have had family members beg me to arrest their junkie kids to keep them away from the drugs. Grown men begging is a sorry sight.
Hypes generally don't practice good hygiene or use good practices in ingesting drugs. Users will get high within 5 minutes or 1 mile of obtaining drugs. A few have Narcan on hand and if there are several hypes using together, one of them is supposed to stay sober and administer Narcan if someone OD's. Sometimes that plan works. The drug culture is not what most of you are used to and is not even close to "normal". Parents and other enablers are not helping. Society and legalizing cannabis (and in some states hard drugs) is certainly not helping.
A test would be awesome if you could get them to use it and then not take the drugs they just bought.
Darn good comment. Amazing just how quickly this happened. Was a research tech 10 yrs before going to grad school so a 10 yr window there with most peers. A girl from a well to do area of houston absolutely refused to believe my hi sch. had no drug problem, much less Okla City in '60s. So what happened in that 10 yrs? The Nam war? We sent men into war without a drug epidemic before but in Nam we were sending over kids, many having never had the word no applied to their behavior. They were undisciplined, undereducated and way unready for what awaited them in a cesspool seething with available narcotics. That?
Thanks for this, Mark! Good to hear the realist view from someone on the ground; we often hear politicized theories from those who have neither "been there" nor "done that", and never will. Empathy is important, but i find that a typical bleeding heart offers self-motivated lip service; perhaps inappropriate and ineffective. These are real crises and intervention is the effective action.