4 ms·

It's not the first time the NYT insists in this idea. Ok, it's good advertisement to our tourism but this is just fake news. I grew up in one of the "drug town

It's not the first time the NYT insists in this idea. Ok, it's good advertisement to our tourism but this is just fake news. I grew up in one of the "drug towns" of the late 80's/early 90's in Portugal. It was bad, really bad. There wasn't any extended family without a drug problem. That generation, bornt after the 1974 revolution, now in the mid 40's, was almost erased from there. Some died and those remaining, after a life of petty crime and prison, eventually escaped. Completely agree with your comment. I would just add another relevant factor to the roll: decriminalization gave even more visibility to the addiction problem and newer generations didn't like what they saw. It wasn't cool to use drugs anymore.

f-securus 6y ago
Personally, growing up in Appalachia in the 90s it was more likely my extended family was abusing drugs than not. Cracking down on pill mills and making Oxy less abusable has pushed more and more to heroin/meth/synthetics. The drug problem is still rampant in the area. People need help and the barrier to receiving help in this country is too high. I had a friend begging for help with treatment and the only in patient place at the time for substance abuse in the area had an 8 week waiting list... and you had to pay your way so unless you had a family/friend with extra resources you were on your own. We wonder why the drug problem still exists in this country where we punish those struggling instead of help them.
- tonyarkles 6y ago
  Your description of the in-patient problem sadly reflects the state of affairs up in Canada too, where most, but not all, healthcare is free (eyes and teeth are strange exceptions). I’ve got an older friend who did a lot of drugs back in the day, but got his life mostly figured out until a few years ago when he had to get shoulder surgery. Prescribed Oxy for recovery, even after telling the surgeon about his past addiction struggles. As expected, they become less effective over time, he likes getting high, so he starts taking larger doses. Gets to the end of his prescription and can’t get a refill. Did he make bad choices here? Definitely. But then the health care system screws up: “I want to detox and get clean again.” “Sorry, you’ve never overdosed, so you can’t detox in the hospital. Maybe you can get on a waiting list for a private (out of pocket) facility. Oh, and no refills, you’re an addict” “Maybe I can be a short-term patient at a mental health facility?” “Sorry, you’ve never tried committing suicide because of your drug use. Maybe you can get on a wait list at a private facility? Oh, and no refills, you’re an addict!” So... what does an opioid addict who is in withdrawal and can’t get support from the health care system do? Goes and scores some heroin... Today he’s mostly clean again. I think he pops a pill here and there but isn’t high all day. But... this could have all been avoided. The health care system had many opportunities to help out here, but didn’t. Edit: one last note: the private facilities are quite expensive and have massive waiting lists. Even if he had had the cash to go, he would have still been in limbo for weeks-to-months with no access to clean drugs nor support to get clean.
dkarl 6y ago
> decriminalization gave even more visibility to the addiction problem and newer generations didn't like what they saw I can believe this. My father used to tell me that drugs like heroin have recurring waves of popularity, because when a dangerous drug becomes popular enough, the Russian roulette aspect becomes so obvious. Everybody knows somebody whose life has been ruined by it. When a drug becomes niche, the few people you know who use it might be handling it okay (or early in their trajectory with the drug) and their experience with it can look cool and attractive. He also said his generation was the last one where basically everybody had seen firsthand what heroin could do to people, but he was optimistic that it had "killed enough famous musicians" that it couldn't come back. That was in the 1990s, so....
js2 6y ago
Sorry, but what's your complaint about this specific piece from the NYT? Just skimming, I see 21 links to other sources. I haven't clicked through on all of them. It appears to weigh various pros and cons. It seems even handed to me on a quick skim. Further, the NYT has many sections and voices. This piece is specifically from from The Upshot which has this tagline: "Analysis that explains politics, policy and everyday life, with an emphasis on data and charts." And this specific piece is written not by a reporter, but by a expert in the field: Austin Frakt is director of the Partnered Evidence-Based Policy Resource Center at the V.A. Boston Healthcare System; associate professor with Boston University’s School of Public Health; and a senior research scientist with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. I appreciate the rest of your comment.
- DoingIsLearning 6y ago
  Not the grand parent comment and I don't have anything specifically against the NYT or this piece, which I agree is pretty balanced. It is great that they paint a positive picture of Portugal as a forward-thinking progressive nation, the point that Portuguese people often take an issue with this and other pieces, in american and british press, is that they fail to explain the motivation behind this policy. These measures were not a hippie social experiment, they were created out of a desperate lack of alternatives in the face of a de facto public health crisis due to a heroin epidemic. I cannot put in words that make it justice, you had entire neighbourhoods become drug slums with hundreds of heroin dealers and people inject on the sidewalks in broad daylight. It was crime problem, it was a health problem, it was a whole generation of people lost to this. It's this omission in the 'why' of decriminalization that feels somewhat dishonest.
  - 082349872349872 6y ago
    Reading highly reductive US coverage of my country is what makes me skeptical they do much better in covering their own national news.

f-securus 6y ago

Personally, growing up in Appalachia in the 90s it was more likely my extended family was abusing drugs than not. Cracking down on pill mills and making Oxy less abusable has pushed more and more to heroin/meth/synthetics. The drug problem is still rampant in the area. People need help and the barrier to receiving help in this country is too high. I had a friend begging for help with treatment and the only in patient place at the time for substance abuse in the area had an 8 week waiting list... and you had to pay your way so unless you had a family/friend with extra resources you were on your own. We wonder why the drug problem still exists in this country where we punish those struggling instead of help them.

tonyarkles 6y ago
Your description of the in-patient problem sadly reflects the state of affairs up in Canada too, where most, but not all, healthcare is free (eyes and teeth are strange exceptions). I’ve got an older friend who did a lot of drugs back in the day, but got his life mostly figured out until a few years ago when he had to get shoulder surgery. Prescribed Oxy for recovery, even after telling the surgeon about his past addiction struggles. As expected, they become less effective over time, he likes getting high, so he starts taking larger doses. Gets to the end of his prescription and can’t get a refill. Did he make bad choices here? Definitely. But then the health care system screws up: “I want to detox and get clean again.” “Sorry, you’ve never overdosed, so you can’t detox in the hospital. Maybe you can get on a waiting list for a private (out of pocket) facility. Oh, and no refills, you’re an addict” “Maybe I can be a short-term patient at a mental health facility?” “Sorry, you’ve never tried committing suicide because of your drug use. Maybe you can get on a wait list at a private facility? Oh, and no refills, you’re an addict!” So... what does an opioid addict who is in withdrawal and can’t get support from the health care system do? Goes and scores some heroin... Today he’s mostly clean again. I think he pops a pill here and there but isn’t high all day. But... this could have all been avoided. The health care system had many opportunities to help out here, but didn’t. Edit: one last note: the private facilities are quite expensive and have massive waiting lists. Even if he had had the cash to go, he would have still been in limbo for weeks-to-months with no access to clean drugs nor support to get clean.

dkarl 6y ago

> decriminalization gave even more visibility to the addiction problem and newer generations didn't like what they saw I can believe this. My father used to tell me that drugs like heroin have recurring waves of popularity, because when a dangerous drug becomes popular enough, the Russian roulette aspect becomes so obvious. Everybody knows somebody whose life has been ruined by it. When a drug becomes niche, the few people you know who use it might be handling it okay (or early in their trajectory with the drug) and their experience with it can look cool and attractive. He also said his generation was the last one where basically everybody had seen firsthand what heroin could do to people, but he was optimistic that it had "killed enough famous musicians" that it couldn't come back. That was in the 1990s, so....

js2 6y ago

Sorry, but what's your complaint about this specific piece from the NYT? Just skimming, I see 21 links to other sources. I haven't clicked through on all of them. It appears to weigh various pros and cons. It seems even handed to me on a quick skim. Further, the NYT has many sections and voices. This piece is specifically from from The Upshot which has this tagline: "Analysis that explains politics, policy and everyday life, with an emphasis on data and charts." And this specific piece is written not by a reporter, but by a expert in the field: Austin Frakt is director of the Partnered Evidence-Based Policy Resource Center at the V.A. Boston Healthcare System; associate professor with Boston University’s School of Public Health; and a senior research scientist with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. I appreciate the rest of your comment.

DoingIsLearning 6y ago
Not the grand parent comment and I don't have anything specifically against the NYT or this piece, which I agree is pretty balanced. It is great that they paint a positive picture of Portugal as a forward-thinking progressive nation, the point that Portuguese people often take an issue with this and other pieces, in american and british press, is that they fail to explain the motivation behind this policy. These measures were not a hippie social experiment, they were created out of a desperate lack of alternatives in the face of a de facto public health crisis due to a heroin epidemic. I cannot put in words that make it justice, you had entire neighbourhoods become drug slums with hundreds of heroin dealers and people inject on the sidewalks in broad daylight. It was crime problem, it was a health problem, it was a whole generation of people lost to this. It's this omission in the 'why' of decriminalization that feels somewhat dishonest.
- 082349872349872 6y ago
  Reading highly reductive US coverage of my country is what makes me skeptical they do much better in covering their own national news.