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Someone replied to you with an ignorant comment that was deleted. I'm copy/pasting it here anyway because they are spewing common misconceptions that need to b

Someone replied to you with an ignorant comment that was deleted. I'm copy/pasting it here anyway because they are spewing common misconceptions that need to be squashed. > The US has 330 million people. Do we really care if a bunch self-select out of the gene pool? While some people do choose to use drugs with their own free will, this epidemic isn't about that. Many people getting addicted have been initially prescribed the pain killers by a doctor for medical reasons and then got addicted. They didn't use recreationally. It's thanks to these ignorant comments that make them fearful of seeking help with the addiction. The was on drugs and the stigma it brings continues it's devastation... > The only way I would care is if I found out that a foreign power was behind this, i.e. getting people addicted to deadly substances in order to undermine our country. If it's just jackass flunkies doing it because they're jackass flunkies, then I'm just glad they aren't on the highways. It's not a foreign power, it's our own pharmaceutical companies attacking our citizens. From lobbying against medical marijuana as an alternative pain killer to pushing false information on doctors and patients about the addictive nature of their drugs. But pharmaceutical companies don't fit your typical stereotype of a villain and they flood our politics with cash, so they are getting away with murder. Finally, people regurgitating the garbage like "self-select out of the gene pool" are also a major part of the problem. How someone got addicted to drugs shouldn't be important. Whether It was due to recreational use or by a prescription, they need help and should not be ostracized. Our public funds should go to recovery centers, not law enforcement for victimless drug use. There are plenty of laws on the books to arrest someone who harms another, whether on drugs or not. We don't need laws specifically for drug use. Those people need medical help, not jail. edit: typos

verelo 8y ago
Seems their comment is gone too. I’d love to have been given the chance to downvote them. To me this all boils down to what you’re saying, but I’d like to just add mention that i think the bigger disease in the US that enables situations like this is the acceptance of misinformation. As you pointed out, many many many of these cases are started by a medically issued prescription, and it kills multiple times more people than recent wars or terrorist related acts, yet anyone who drives action here is often labeled as “helping junkies that don’t deserve help”. In the very near future when climate change has destroyed our way of life, and one of the few nations that was capable of doing something is finally and certifiably recognized as having sat by and done nothing, i hope the world takes note. These are the kinds of acts of neglect that make Nero famous, and while i don’t want their names remember, i do want the world to move on from the US being seen as the worlds police and freedom fighters. If Kama is real, the US should be concerned, and as someone that is a close neighbour, it terrifying to think how that will flow on to impact the rest of us.
- nonbel 8y ago
  >"In the very near future when climate change has destroyed out planet" Maybe people are killing themselves because they are addicted to the fear porn spread by mainstream/social media regarding "climate change". I don't mean this as a joke, I was addicted to financial/economic fear porn for a bit and it did have a negative effect on my outlook.
  - MichaelApproved 8y ago
    While our media does abuse fear as a way of getting attention, the opioid epidemic has direct lines to pharmaceutical companies. People dying from their addiction aren't killing themselves, they are struggling to survive.
  - andrepd 8y ago
    Climate change is on track to cause catastrophic damage in the next few decades AND there is no indication of anything being seriously done about this. In other words, a train is barrelling and, crucially, there are no signs of anyone intending to stop it. Yeah, I think it's justified to be scared.
    - nonbel 8y ago
      There was just a recent discussion here about this and every time I asked for sources and then checked that is not what was found in the primary sources. The catastrophic outlook is created by a few people and amplified by the media as clickbait, not any sort of scientific consensus or track record of successful predictions. You can go through my recent post history to find it.
      - deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
    - ethbro 8y ago
      I believe the parent's point was not about the veracity of climate change, but rather the impact of constant exposure to fear. Herbert's quip that "Fear is the mind killer" is apt. Research (has hit the HN front page several times) bears out the fact that constant exposure to stress decreases IQ. Ergo, the first step to most effectively combating anything is to accept it, but NOT give in to fear and despair. Climate change is real. We are not doing enough to counteract it. But we can.
siruncledrew 8y ago
I hate pharma companies too, and think they definitely were a part of the gateway to addiction, but you should read more about how the overdoses are occurring. As another user pointed out below: > "Drug-overdose deaths skyrocketed between 2015 and 2017, particularly for adults between ages 25 and 54. The main culprit was fentanyl and other synthetic opioids that became pervasive in illicit drug supplies in the U.S. around that time." > "Deaths from synthetic opioids rose 45% in 2017, while the death rate from heroin, which had risen sharply after 2010, was flat." Also: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/may/10/fentanyl-drug-overdoses-xanax-painkillers https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/may/10/fentanyl-dru... Synthetic opioid overdoses: https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/infographics/fentanyl-other-synthetic-opioids-drug-overdose-deaths https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/i... People end up ingesting shit they don't even know about that's in their drugs (like chinese fentanyl) and then accidentally OD. It's still bad to overprescribe drugs, and this shows more legalization/regulation of drugs would be better to not have supplies randomly cut with whatever products some dealer has laying around.
- MichaelApproved 8y ago
  You're missing the link. Here's the chain of events for this epidemic. 1. Doctors over prescribe opioids and poorly monitor patient addiction. 2. Eventually, doctor cuts off patient. 3. Addicted patients turn to street drugs, like Chinese fentanyl. 4. Street drugs have unreliable dosage and ingredients, making it easy to accidentally overdose.
jancsika 8y ago
> It's thanks to these ignorant comments that make them fearful of seeking help with the addiction. I'm not sure the comments are made out of ignorance as much as desperation. Imagine an audience member telling a DJ: "Hey, I liked your stuff. But I kept hearing a bunch of pops and clicks in the music. Was there something wrong with your system?" And the DJ says, "No, my system was just discarding the samples that self-selected to miss realtime deadlines. Good riddance, I say!" We need a name for this fallacy: perhaps the "Unsampling Fallacy?" That is, morally attacking samples in an attempt to characterize the very system for which you were supposed to analyze those samples to gain insights into it. It's glaring with the DSP example but insidious when it's humans being sampled.

verelo 8y ago

Seems their comment is gone too. I’d love to have been given the chance to downvote them. To me this all boils down to what you’re saying, but I’d like to just add mention that i think the bigger disease in the US that enables situations like this is the acceptance of misinformation. As you pointed out, many many many of these cases are started by a medically issued prescription, and it kills multiple times more people than recent wars or terrorist related acts, yet anyone who drives action here is often labeled as “helping junkies that don’t deserve help”. In the very near future when climate change has destroyed our way of life, and one of the few nations that was capable of doing something is finally and certifiably recognized as having sat by and done nothing, i hope the world takes note. These are the kinds of acts of neglect that make Nero famous, and while i don’t want their names remember, i do want the world to move on from the US being seen as the worlds police and freedom fighters. If Kama is real, the US should be concerned, and as someone that is a close neighbour, it terrifying to think how that will flow on to impact the rest of us.

nonbel 8y ago
>"In the very near future when climate change has destroyed out planet" Maybe people are killing themselves because they are addicted to the fear porn spread by mainstream/social media regarding "climate change". I don't mean this as a joke, I was addicted to financial/economic fear porn for a bit and it did have a negative effect on my outlook.
- MichaelApproved 8y ago
  While our media does abuse fear as a way of getting attention, the opioid epidemic has direct lines to pharmaceutical companies. People dying from their addiction aren't killing themselves, they are struggling to survive.
- andrepd 8y ago
  Climate change is on track to cause catastrophic damage in the next few decades AND there is no indication of anything being seriously done about this. In other words, a train is barrelling and, crucially, there are no signs of anyone intending to stop it. Yeah, I think it's justified to be scared.
  - nonbel 8y ago
    There was just a recent discussion here about this and every time I asked for sources and then checked that is not what was found in the primary sources. The catastrophic outlook is created by a few people and amplified by the media as clickbait, not any sort of scientific consensus or track record of successful predictions. You can go through my recent post history to find it.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
  - ethbro 8y ago
    I believe the parent's point was not about the veracity of climate change, but rather the impact of constant exposure to fear. Herbert's quip that "Fear is the mind killer" is apt. Research (has hit the HN front page several times) bears out the fact that constant exposure to stress decreases IQ. Ergo, the first step to most effectively combating anything is to accept it, but NOT give in to fear and despair. Climate change is real. We are not doing enough to counteract it. But we can.

siruncledrew 8y ago

I hate pharma companies too, and think they definitely were a part of the gateway to addiction, but you should read more about how the overdoses are occurring. As another user pointed out below: > "Drug-overdose deaths skyrocketed between 2015 and 2017, particularly for adults between ages 25 and 54. The main culprit was fentanyl and other synthetic opioids that became pervasive in illicit drug supplies in the U.S. around that time." > "Deaths from synthetic opioids rose 45% in 2017, while the death rate from heroin, which had risen sharply after 2010, was flat." Also: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/may/10/fentanyl-drug-overdoses-xanax-painkillers https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/may/10/fentanyl-dru... Synthetic opioid overdoses: https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/infographics/fentanyl-other-synthetic-opioids-drug-overdose-deaths https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/i... People end up ingesting shit they don't even know about that's in their drugs (like chinese fentanyl) and then accidentally OD. It's still bad to overprescribe drugs, and this shows more legalization/regulation of drugs would be better to not have supplies randomly cut with whatever products some dealer has laying around.

MichaelApproved 8y ago
You're missing the link. Here's the chain of events for this epidemic. 1. Doctors over prescribe opioids and poorly monitor patient addiction. 2. Eventually, doctor cuts off patient. 3. Addicted patients turn to street drugs, like Chinese fentanyl. 4. Street drugs have unreliable dosage and ingredients, making it easy to accidentally overdose.

jancsika 8y ago

> It's thanks to these ignorant comments that make them fearful of seeking help with the addiction. I'm not sure the comments are made out of ignorance as much as desperation. Imagine an audience member telling a DJ: "Hey, I liked your stuff. But I kept hearing a bunch of pops and clicks in the music. Was there something wrong with your system?" And the DJ says, "No, my system was just discarding the samples that self-selected to miss realtime deadlines. Good riddance, I say!" We need a name for this fallacy: perhaps the "Unsampling Fallacy?" That is, morally attacking samples in an attempt to characterize the very system for which you were supposed to analyze those samples to gain insights into it. It's glaring with the DSP example but insidious when it's humans being sampled.