Ohio's heroin epidemic is a fucking problem, and it will be featured on tonight's show. In the last three weeks we have had two people OD and basically die in my hometown. Both of them were brought back to life with narcan.
Have they trained the cops to use narcan? One smart thing Madison did was to train police to use it, saving time in OD cases when they're the first responders.
I think some of them are trained. I believe one of the OD cases had the EMTs using it and then the cop did it in the other.
I feel like using that stuff to save their lives may actually be increasing the demand for heroin. Like the users think they're invincible or something.
Ehh, you could also make the opposite point. Often times it takes rock bottom for addicts to get clean. Having your life saved by narcan is as rock bottom as it gets.
The girl back home who was practically brought back from the dead has already been arrested again for using. Not sure about the guy from a few weeks ago. I can see some cases where maybe it's some big wake-up call and others where it doesn't change things at all and they go right back to using.
I know next to nothing about heroin. All I really know is that it's relatively cheap and there are people using who I never in a million years would have expected.
A friend of mine tried heroin for the first time this summer and died. They found him in his room a day later. Had a bad reaction. Really good guy. It's terrifying
Yep one of my best friends had open heart surgery in like 2010. Then got hooked on pain pills and next thing we knew we were driving him to some detox program or whatever. He died in November of 2011 (will be four years on Tuesday). Scary stuff.
Had a friend (The one Pelican referred to) and a cousin who both died of heroin overdoses. This is a problem in Ohio that needs to be fixed.
Vice has some really good stuff on Heroin addiction and treatment. This is just a glimpse... http://www.vice.com/video/kicking-heroin-with-an-ibogaine-ceremony I'm a big believer in being open to trying options like this to help people.
I've heard someone's first experience described as 'jumping in a pool full of puppy ears,' so I think it's the drug itself that's makes people feel invincible. but ya, that someone might take a bigger hit because there is a drug that might bail them out is disconcerting
Kind of? I think the prevalence in heroin addiction and OD falls more closely in line with overall opioids usage. One of the bigger problems in ODing is getting a really fucked up product. Also, with overall level of addiction I don't think many of them are thinking "well maybe my OD will be offset by a first responder" I guess I'm more of the thought process that addiction is addiction. I do t think they push the boundaries more because of narcan
Do you think first-time users may be more likely to use because they know (maybe through friends that use, or whoever) there is something available that can save them if they overdo it?
Not really....only thing that would make me think that way is if a sober person had that narcan on their body and were sitting there while I did it.
the level of depravity I feel like a person is at that doesn't have a pre-existing opioid addiction has me thinking that that specific thought process is not really entertained
No, they basically just said that every county in America is dealing with it. They chose Ohio because it is the quintessential "Middle America".
The vast majority of more serious crime (and I mean vast - like 95%+) is committed by people addicted to heroin, other opiates, meth, or something else. Ever been burglarized, had your car stolen, been robbed etc? If you have you can thank heroin or meth. The strain they put on society - speaking nothing of the health crisis that comes with them - is profound and wide-ranging. Legalizing heroin or meth would fuel the problem not help fix it.
I'm not an advocate of legalizing meth/heroin but I actually think it would have the opposite effect of what you're saying.
ya it doesn't pass the smell test. the number I've heard is 100$/day in property crime per heroin addict. A habit is a habit and the price of a fix going down would result in less theft. It's pretty simple
No source but have read upwards of a thousand presentence reports of felony offenders... 95% of those being sentenced for theft/fraud/embezzlement property crimes or violent crime had problems with hard drugs - not weed, not coke, not even crack typically ... Meth and opiates dominate.
You assume that legalizing heroin would result in a price drop - so far this generally isn't the case with weed (I'm in favor of outright legalizing weed). You also assume that legalizing heroin would result in no increased usage. I know dozens of criminal defense attorneys - most of whom rail against injustice and want structural change to the criminal justice system... Few, if any, of them are in favor of outright legalization of hard drugs because their caseloads are a revolving door of heroin/meth addicts that have destroyed their lives. You don't cure this through legalization much like you don't cure it through sending them to prison - you help addicts get their lives back in order through treatment and other recovery options.
you assume that I assume a lot of things weed is about a quarter to a third of the price on the grey market in Colorado as it is in the black market in many other places where it is outright illegal. they're taxing the shit out of it and require a ton of hoops to be jumped through with expensive licensing for the 'legal' end. Both of witch I would say aren't exactly analogous with true legalization. What's the hangup with a cure? There could be plenty of functioning heroin users who hold down jobs and pay their bills if they didn't have the psychological barrier of not knowing if their next fix was there. As well as being able to manage it better by knowing exactly what it was that they were putting into their bodies with a clean/consistent supply, not increasing their tolerance with a purer batch or OD'ing etc
I say this in virtually every drug thread: shut the fuck up until you have read "Chasing the Scream". It is a fantastic book that completely changed my opinion on addiction.