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The mention of Fentanyl here is pure clickbait. Fentanyl is pretty well known amongst opiate addicts (and has been for a while). Everyone knows it's dangerous

The mention of Fentanyl here is pure clickbait. Fentanyl is pretty well known amongst opiate addicts (and has been for a while). Everyone knows it's dangerous, including dealers, who like to avoid killing their customers and catching murder charges, believe it or not. Aside from that and a bit of gateway drug BS towards the beginning, this is a solid and somewhat moving, if long, account of the standard Heroin story, and is more or less the same as the ones I hear from fellow recovering addicts all the time. Key features, so you can avoid the longread: * Insurance refusing to pay for treatment * Parents being forced to get their kids arrested to protect them (and the plan failing) * Relapse, relapse, and more relapse despite full knowledge of the consequences and a strong desire not to relapse. * Terror of being dope sick * Doing stuff you don't want to do to avoid being dope sick * Death

hristov 10y ago
Hate to break it to you but your dealer does not give a fuck about your health. It is extremely difficult for the police to find the dealer of a dead person, and then very difficult to prove the elements needed for a murder charge. The police do not even try to find dealers of drug deaths, unless the victim is a celebrity. Furthermore, every heroin dealer knows that each of their clients is likely to go into a downward spiral and become a liability. Thus, they treat their clients as expendable.
- rhizome 10y ago
  While it isn't yet the law everywhere in the US, it's not just celebrities whose dealers get charged with murder for supplying drugs that kill via overdose.[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/her-fiance-gave-her-heroin-she-overdosed-does-that-make-him-a-murderer/2016/05/08/f9a9e79a-f29b-11e5-a2a3-d4e9697917d1_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/her-fiance-gave-her-...
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- brainfire 10y ago
  I don't know where you're from, but my personal experience in my area (Maryland, USA) is that everything in your post is incorrect.
  - dopamean 10y ago
    I'm from New York and now living in Austin, TX. I'll add that from my experience I agree that what he said was incorrect.
    - opiatethrowaway 10y ago
      I can also concur. My dealer cares more about me than anyone except my mom.
- bduerst 10y ago
  Conversely, dealers that have customers who OD will go up in demand, because other addicts will seek them out for their "stronger" drugs.
  - onetwotree 10y ago
    True - although one often prefers the OD not be fatal.
- feklar 10y ago
  There are also plenty of incompetent dealers like the one here who mixed up his crack and fentanyl stash causing 39 ODs http://vancouversun.com/news/crime/36-drug-overdoses-in-one-weekend-prompt-warning-from-surrey-health-officials http://vancouversun.com/news/crime/36-drug-overdoses-in-one-...
- onetwotree 10y ago
  What's interesting about dealers (at least the very low level ones that addicts typically buy directly from) is that they're often selling dope to support their own habits or to get ahead in a world they see as being stacked against them. Thus, many of these people are not ruthless sociopaths, and recognize on some level that what they're doing is wrong. Through a great deal of rationalization, they are often able to convince themselves that it's morally OK. These people would prefer not to have to bring murder into line with their already quite dissonant mental schema. This is my experience talking to current and former dealers, mostly as part of my work with recovering addicts - I've had dealers help me track down relapsed sponsees, for instance, with very little convincing.
PhantomGremlin 10y ago
The mention of Fentanyl here is pure clickbait. Huh? That's the exact drug that killed the person in the story. It's made quite clear: Lucas County chief toxicologist Robert Forney and his staff meticulously screened DJ’s blood for drugs. Forney’s team didn’t find any heroin. What they did discover was a lethal dose of fentanyl.
- MichaelGG 10y ago
  It's not a secret nor hidden. It's well known and something people want to avoid. Users don't intentionally take a dose dozens of times higher than helpful. Blaming it on fentanyl is a red herring. The real issue is mislabeling. If people sold heroin instead of codeine or Tylenol, we'd see the same problem.
chb 10y ago
Couldn't agree more with the characterization of this article as sensationalist. Also, why post this to a forum such as Hacker News? If I wanted to read "news" of this nature, I'd go to Fox or Yahoo!
- onetwotree 10y ago
  When the article is less sensationalist, HN often expresses an interest in stories about drug addiction. I can see a couple of reasons for this. First, there seems to be a prevailing view here is that the war on drugs is an abject failure. Furthermore, I believe addiction gets attention here as a fascinating scientific puzzle, whose questions and answers are deeply involved with philosophical issues such as free will and the nature of desire. This is probably why the article made it as far up as it did on HN.

hristov 10y ago

Hate to break it to you but your dealer does not give a fuck about your health. It is extremely difficult for the police to find the dealer of a dead person, and then very difficult to prove the elements needed for a murder charge. The police do not even try to find dealers of drug deaths, unless the victim is a celebrity. Furthermore, every heroin dealer knows that each of their clients is likely to go into a downward spiral and become a liability. Thus, they treat their clients as expendable.

rhizome 10y ago
While it isn't yet the law everywhere in the US, it's not just celebrities whose dealers get charged with murder for supplying drugs that kill via overdose.[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/her-fiance-gave-her-heroin-she-overdosed-does-that-make-him-a-murderer/2016/05/08/f9a9e79a-f29b-11e5-a2a3-d4e9697917d1_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/her-fiance-gave-her-...
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brainfire 10y ago
I don't know where you're from, but my personal experience in my area (Maryland, USA) is that everything in your post is incorrect.
- dopamean 10y ago
  I'm from New York and now living in Austin, TX. I'll add that from my experience I agree that what he said was incorrect.
  - opiatethrowaway 10y ago
    I can also concur. My dealer cares more about me than anyone except my mom.
bduerst 10y ago
Conversely, dealers that have customers who OD will go up in demand, because other addicts will seek them out for their "stronger" drugs.
- onetwotree 10y ago
  True - although one often prefers the OD not be fatal.
feklar 10y ago
There are also plenty of incompetent dealers like the one here who mixed up his crack and fentanyl stash causing 39 ODs http://vancouversun.com/news/crime/36-drug-overdoses-in-one-weekend-prompt-warning-from-surrey-health-officials http://vancouversun.com/news/crime/36-drug-overdoses-in-one-...
onetwotree 10y ago
What's interesting about dealers (at least the very low level ones that addicts typically buy directly from) is that they're often selling dope to support their own habits or to get ahead in a world they see as being stacked against them. Thus, many of these people are not ruthless sociopaths, and recognize on some level that what they're doing is wrong. Through a great deal of rationalization, they are often able to convince themselves that it's morally OK. These people would prefer not to have to bring murder into line with their already quite dissonant mental schema. This is my experience talking to current and former dealers, mostly as part of my work with recovering addicts - I've had dealers help me track down relapsed sponsees, for instance, with very little convincing.

PhantomGremlin 10y ago

The mention of Fentanyl here is pure clickbait. Huh? That's the exact drug that killed the person in the story. It's made quite clear: Lucas County chief toxicologist Robert Forney and his staff meticulously screened DJ’s blood for drugs. Forney’s team didn’t find any heroin. What they did discover was a lethal dose of fentanyl.

MichaelGG 10y ago
It's not a secret nor hidden. It's well known and something people want to avoid. Users don't intentionally take a dose dozens of times higher than helpful. Blaming it on fentanyl is a red herring. The real issue is mislabeling. If people sold heroin instead of codeine or Tylenol, we'd see the same problem.

chb 10y ago

Couldn't agree more with the characterization of this article as sensationalist. Also, why post this to a forum such as Hacker News? If I wanted to read "news" of this nature, I'd go to Fox or Yahoo!

onetwotree 10y ago
When the article is less sensationalist, HN often expresses an interest in stories about drug addiction. I can see a couple of reasons for this. First, there seems to be a prevailing view here is that the war on drugs is an abject failure. Furthermore, I believe addiction gets attention here as a fascinating scientific puzzle, whose questions and answers are deeply involved with philosophical issues such as free will and the nature of desire. This is probably why the article made it as far up as it did on HN.