4 ms·

Overdosing isnt an unfortunate sideffect, its people making an error while dosing. An error that is easily preventable with a bit of care. The airback equivalen

by cf498 7y ago

Overdosing isnt an unfortunate sideffect, its people making an error while dosing. An error that is easily preventable with a bit of care. The airback equivalent is very much fitting, its an emergency aid for once you made a mistake. If you are overdosing regularly, you are majorly screwing up making unnecessary mistakes.

CydeWeys 7y ago
I doubt it's easily preventable, or there wouldn't be so much of it. My understanding is that drugs are cut to varying strengths, and sometimes are laced with stuff like fentanyl or other compounds that you weren't expecting and that are highly active at lower doses. Preventing ODs is easy if you have a pure product of an exact known strength and an accurate scale, but these conditions aren't often true in the real world.
- cf498 7y ago
  Its largely preventable if you act with a reasonable level of care. Test the water with a new batch before you use it, even if its just administering a fraction of what you cooked up first. You are unlikely to have such potent stuff that a hundredth of an active dose is giving you an OD. That is unless someone is actively trying to kill you. The equivalent of an allergy test is nothing specific to injecting hard drugs. Addicts often dont do it since the test dosage is wasted and its extra injection. It becomes especially problematic when money is tight and you buy individual bubbles. But that is the inherent risk you take with street drugs and the care and effort you have to invest to not OD. Its like never sharing anything that goes into your veins. Neither an OD nor catching HIV or Hep-C are cases of just bad luck, they are the result of being reckless and skipping an important and necessary step.
  - CydeWeys 7y ago
    Given the psychology of addiction, is it reasonable to expect an addict who's seriously jonesing for a hit to be this cautious and delay the satisfaction of getting high?
    - cf498 7y ago
      I dont see how there is a difference to not sharing needles. The addiction argument is the same there and even people at the end of their line managed to follow that rule during the periods in history where the war on drugs included syringes as drug paraphernalia. Its simply not an option to break that rule. No ifs or buts.
mikeash 7y ago
Overdosing pretty clearly is an unfortunate side effect of addiction to a substance that can be overdosed with, especially one that has to be obtained on the black market.
- cf498 7y ago
  The equivalent of an allergy test is not optional if you consume street drugs of an unknown composition. Its like never sharing anything that goes into your veins. Getting HIV or Hep-C isnt an unfortunate side effect either, its people making a stupid mistake despite knowing better. You dont have to get HIV or even HEP-C as an addict just as you dont have to OD. Make the effort and follow the appropriate precautions or you are playing Russian roulette. As unfortunate as it is, but normally people who OD are those that no longer care if they do. There are freak exceptions of course, like tainted or mixed up batches where even a allergy test can kill you, but those arent happening regularly to individual users. People are just risking it, and its a very human thing to do. You can see the same behavior with the failure to use protection during sex. People should know better, but some people still risk it and are then faced with the unfortunate consequences. edit: Dont get me wrong this isnt about victim blaming, but not promoting the myth that these things are just out of peoples control like the weather. You can be a heroin addict without catching HIV or Hep-C and with a reasonable level of care you are not going to end up needing Narcan regularly. You already fucked up by becoming an addict, there is no reason to also OD or catch something. Telling people that these are just inherent side effects to being an addict just makes it easier on people to excuse themselves for forgoing basic safety precautions. ODing regularly is not something normal, even for an addict. Its the result of being reckless.
  - mikeash 7y ago
    Eating healthy food and exercising regularly isn’t optional in this sense either, and yet people avoid it. Sunscreen isn’t optional if you’re light skinned and go out in the sun, but people often skip it. More examples abound. You can talk about what people should do all you want, it doesn’t change anything. My main point is that, as a health problem, drug addiction doesn’t look that much different from a lot of other health problems. Personal choices greatly influence your chances of acquiring it, your ability to beat it, and your odds of dying from it. This applies to many other medical conditions as well, but attitudes toward addicts are vastly different.

by cf498 7y ago

CydeWeys 7y ago

I doubt it's easily preventable, or there wouldn't be so much of it. My understanding is that drugs are cut to varying strengths, and sometimes are laced with stuff like fentanyl or other compounds that you weren't expecting and that are highly active at lower doses. Preventing ODs is easy if you have a pure product of an exact known strength and an accurate scale, but these conditions aren't often true in the real world.

cf498 7y ago
Its largely preventable if you act with a reasonable level of care. Test the water with a new batch before you use it, even if its just administering a fraction of what you cooked up first. You are unlikely to have such potent stuff that a hundredth of an active dose is giving you an OD. That is unless someone is actively trying to kill you. The equivalent of an allergy test is nothing specific to injecting hard drugs. Addicts often dont do it since the test dosage is wasted and its extra injection. It becomes especially problematic when money is tight and you buy individual bubbles. But that is the inherent risk you take with street drugs and the care and effort you have to invest to not OD. Its like never sharing anything that goes into your veins. Neither an OD nor catching HIV or Hep-C are cases of just bad luck, they are the result of being reckless and skipping an important and necessary step.
- CydeWeys 7y ago
  Given the psychology of addiction, is it reasonable to expect an addict who's seriously jonesing for a hit to be this cautious and delay the satisfaction of getting high?
  - cf498 7y ago
    I dont see how there is a difference to not sharing needles. The addiction argument is the same there and even people at the end of their line managed to follow that rule during the periods in history where the war on drugs included syringes as drug paraphernalia. Its simply not an option to break that rule. No ifs or buts.

mikeash 7y ago

Overdosing pretty clearly is an unfortunate side effect of addiction to a substance that can be overdosed with, especially one that has to be obtained on the black market.

cf498 7y ago
The equivalent of an allergy test is not optional if you consume street drugs of an unknown composition. Its like never sharing anything that goes into your veins. Getting HIV or Hep-C isnt an unfortunate side effect either, its people making a stupid mistake despite knowing better. You dont have to get HIV or even HEP-C as an addict just as you dont have to OD. Make the effort and follow the appropriate precautions or you are playing Russian roulette. As unfortunate as it is, but normally people who OD are those that no longer care if they do. There are freak exceptions of course, like tainted or mixed up batches where even a allergy test can kill you, but those arent happening regularly to individual users. People are just risking it, and its a very human thing to do. You can see the same behavior with the failure to use protection during sex. People should know better, but some people still risk it and are then faced with the unfortunate consequences. edit: Dont get me wrong this isnt about victim blaming, but not promoting the myth that these things are just out of peoples control like the weather. You can be a heroin addict without catching HIV or Hep-C and with a reasonable level of care you are not going to end up needing Narcan regularly. You already fucked up by becoming an addict, there is no reason to also OD or catch something. Telling people that these are just inherent side effects to being an addict just makes it easier on people to excuse themselves for forgoing basic safety precautions. ODing regularly is not something normal, even for an addict. Its the result of being reckless.
- mikeash 7y ago
  Eating healthy food and exercising regularly isn’t optional in this sense either, and yet people avoid it. Sunscreen isn’t optional if you’re light skinned and go out in the sun, but people often skip it. More examples abound. You can talk about what people should do all you want, it doesn’t change anything. My main point is that, as a health problem, drug addiction doesn’t look that much different from a lot of other health problems. Personal choices greatly influence your chances of acquiring it, your ability to beat it, and your odds of dying from it. This applies to many other medical conditions as well, but attitudes toward addicts are vastly different.