9 ms·

Here is a recent article about xylazine from the NYT https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/07/health/fentanyl-xylazine-drug.html https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/07/he

Here is a recent article about xylazine from the NYT https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/07/health/fentanyl-xylazine-drug.html https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/07/health/fentanyl-xylazine-... > “The tranq dope literally eats your flesh,” she said. “It’s self-destruction at its finest.” > She unrolled a bandage from elbow to palm. Beneath patches of blackened tissue, exposed white tendons and pus, the sheared flesh was hot and red. To stave off xylazine’s excruciating withdrawal, she said, she injects tranq dope several times a day. Fearful that injecting in a fresh site could create a new wound, she reluctantly shoots into her festering forearm. > The only person who would let her use a cellphone was a guy whose arm and leg had been amputated because of his tranq wounds. He was still injecting into his leg stump. If a drug that literally turns you into a melting, oozing zombie with flesh dripping off your bones doesn't make you find a different drug - not even quit, I mean, find a different drug to get fucked up on - I think that person is suicidal. This is some morbid shit right here.

grugagag 4y ago
Drug use can really mess with a person's ability to think logically. Yes, it’s self distruction but first of all comes getting the next hit
lr4444lr 4y ago
Isn't this a cost issue? Fentanyl users are already bargain hunters.
- atchoo 4y ago
  Maybe more about the dealer's profit margin rather than the user's ability to pay. Fent is everywhere and not a choice. Celebrities are dying from Fent overdoes e.g. Michael K. Williams and Coolio.
poink 4y ago
> I think that person is suicidal Someone doing this stuff isn't thinking of the endgame any more than an alcoholic is thinking about cirrhosis. They just want to get high. They're not at the opiod buffet picking their fave. They're doing the best stuff their dealer has that they can afford.
- dragonwriter 4y ago
  > They just want to get high. Or not even that, just to avoid withdrawal symptoms.
  - imtringued 4y ago
    The most effective form of drug addiction treatment consists of using a long acting substitute and slowly tapering off. The most common cause of overdose deaths is quitting cold turkey as people end up taking more of the drug to compensate the withdrawal.
    - atchoo 4y ago
      I don't think you lose much tolerance within the week or so the acute withdrawal symptoms last. I think the danger is from relapses long after withdrawal when both tolerance and knowledge of the supply has been lost. In some ways, withdrawal is the easy the bit - brutal but something to fight that gets easier as time passes. The nagging empty hole in your soul with sobriety is harder to fill and drags you back.
- monero-xmr 4y ago
  I'm just saying, would being an alcoholic of rock-bottom spirits be that much more expensive? I'd rather be a shaking alcoholic than have my arm fall off my body as I inject drugs into my festering stump. But that's just me.
  - capableweb 4y ago
    Without previous experience of what kind of high strong opioids (or other heavy drugs) gives you, it's hard to imagine people taking the risks of using them. But some of them really are that fucked up on your psyche, that you'll do anything to continue using them after you've used them for just a short while. It's really easy to get addicted and really hard to get out of there.
  - sharkweek 4y ago
    You’re failing to appreciate the harshness of the addictive spell these users are under. It’s not to say being an alcoholic is easier per se, but whatever specific substance a person is abusing is going to be what their body demands to feel relief. If you’re addicted to pain meds, alcohol intoxication isn’t going to be the sensation your body will fiendishly crave.
jacooper 4y ago
Its time for the government to intervene.
- grugagag 4y ago
  By legalizing most drugs and providing the supply legally they could simply put an end to a lot of problems. Drugs aren’t expensive to produce, they get expensive on the black market due to being illegal so the government wouldn’t even need to spend too much, probably a lot less than cleaning up this mess. Of course they should only allow addicts to get their daily fix in special centers so as to not allow these drugs freely on the streets.
  - JumpCrisscross 4y ago
    > legalizing it and providing the supply legally they could simply put an end to a lot of problems To underscore this, the reason we have a heroin epidemic is because our solution to the preceding prescription opioid epidemic was to take away the pills.
    - elbigbad 4y ago
      Is this true? Congress made heroin illegal in 1924, 99 years ago, and the “heroin epidemic” didn’t really start until maybe 2010.
      - JumpCrisscross 4y ago
        > Is this true? Congress made heroin illegal in 1924, 99 years ago, and the “heroin epidemic” didn’t really start until maybe 2010 Yes [1]. Law-abiding Americans became addicted to prescription opioids (wave 1). We clamped down on their distribution, particularly prescription, and left those addicted with no legal choices. They turned to heroin (wave 2). So we clamped down on its distribution, particularly import, and so got concentrated (easier to ship) and synthetic (no unique precursors) fentanyl (wave 3). [1] https://www.cdc.gov/opioids/basics/epidemic.html https://www.cdc.gov/opioids/basics/epidemic.html
jtmlis 4y ago
https://www.aad.org/dw/dw-insights-and-inquiries/archive/2022/xylazine-potential-for-loss-of-life-and-limb https://www.aad.org/dw/dw-insights-and-inquiries/archive/202...
- akiselev 4y ago
  Extreme NSFL warning!
- casefields 4y ago
  That is a gnarly wound.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
JumpCrisscross 4y ago
> a drug that literally turns you into a melting, oozing zombie with flesh dripping off your bones Reminds me of Krokodil [1]. That said, I just finished listening to an episode of Radiolab [2] describing how unsubstantiated claims about fentanyl causing overdoses through contact may have triggered episodes of mass psychogenic illness [3]. So I'm inclined to take these gory images with a grain of salt, e.g. these may be a wounds that were neglected due to drug use versus unavoidably caused by it. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desomorphine#Toxicity_of_krokodil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desomorphine#Toxicity_of_kroko... [2] https://radiolab.org/podcast/good-samaritan https://radiolab.org/podcast/good-samaritan [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desomorphine#Toxicity_of_krokodil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desomorphine#Toxicity_of_kroko...
- sqlcommando 4y ago
  second link should be https://radiolab.org/podcast/good-samaritan https://radiolab.org/podcast/good-samaritan
  - JumpCrisscross 4y ago
    Thank you–fixed.
- cleansingfire 4y ago
  I thought of Krokodil also. Considering that tiny amounts of impurities can cause terrible consequences. MPTP impurities in MPPP caused parkinson's, and bad commercial synthesis of tryptophan by Showa Denko caused EMS, it seems likely that this is real. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPTP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPTP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tryptophan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tryptophan
  - blindriver 4y ago
    I thought of that drug as well. The thing I remember most about that is if the addict missed the vein and injected it into the tissue, it would basically destroy the area. Addiction to drugs like this is horrible way to end one's life.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
1attice 4y ago
> I think that person is suicidal. Important to remember that the alternative to shooting up is, often, to be cold, and miserable, alone, on the street, with no sleep. One possibility potentiates the other. Horrifically, you could even think of drug use as an attempt to adapt to loss of housing. The backdrop for urban drug use, here in Vancouver, is a profound housing crisis and shortage, and a complete, thoroughgoing failure on the part of multiple levels of government to do anything about it.
lamename 4y ago
Morbid indeed. Sounds like classic separation of Wanting vs. Liking in addiction https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reward_system#Wanting_and_liking https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reward_system#Wanting_and_li...
dragonwriter 4y ago
> If a drug that literally turns you into a melting, oozing zombie with flesh dripping off your bones doesn't make you find a different drug - not even quit, I mean, find a different drug to get fucked up on - I think that person is suicidal. I think you have not even the most basic understanding of addiction, or (perhaps most relevant to this case) specifically withdrawal. If you are addicted, you can’t simply choose a substitute, and particularly you can’t avoid withdrawal from one drug just by choosing another, except for some very special cases.
- AstralStorm 4y ago
  In this case, any sufficiently strong opiate would do. However this thing is probably cheapest and easiest to get.
  - aww_dang 4y ago
    If not for prohibition lab quality drugs would be cheaper and easier to get.
    - indecisive_user 4y ago
      Why would they be cheaper? Lab quality would require lab grade testing and safety, and lab grade ingredients, not to mention taxes on recreational drugs are usually astronomical. And I doubt it would be easier to get either since they're unlikely to hand out an unlimited quantity to anyone who pays for it even if it were legal.
      - htag 4y ago
        1. You can buy shopping carts full of alcohol at one time if you want. I've watched people purchase thousands of cigarettes in one purchase. Having essentially unlimited access to addictive drugs wouldn't be out of the social norm. 2. I think some drugs would become cheaper, and other drugs would become more expensive. Drugs with limited supply would become cheaper as more production/supply chains open up. Think cocaine, heroin, and some pharmaceuticals without large overseas labs. There are inefficiencies in the illegal drug trade that legal trade could smooth over as well: better payment methods, more open price negotiations, legal settlement for disputes, reduced employee churn from violence/arrest, reduced bribes/corruption related charges. 3. Regardless of the price of drugs, the overall price would be smaller, as illegal drug use has huge externalized costs. Everything from corrupt governments to increased health care utilization to wasted law enforcement resources to destroyed human capital. 4. The existence of an available quality tested market would force the black market to compete more on quality.
Weatebob 4y ago
The drug is not the problem. The social net / missing social network is. Our society struggles to take care of its own people because we live in a mentally restraint. Even in Germany were you have a right for a basic living like a flat and heat and foot and electricity we have homeless. And no we don't spend the money a flat and everything would cost us into alternative 'equivilent' like enough street worker / social help for them. People with good choices and support primarily choose non self harming activities. Everyone else should get proper professional care.
- agumonkey 4y ago
  I'd go even further, modern society is an anti-safety net. It seems the nicest way to live is to get slightly away from most of urban life as thought since post-ww2 era.
  - krapp 4y ago
    Modern American society is anti safety net. The rest of the modern world seems to accept the premise just fine.
    - agumonkey 4y ago
      USA might be above others but even in France and other western countries I sense a similar sense of senseless running around toxic everything and the state struggles to maintain protections since problems accrete.
  - Fricken 4y ago
    Deaths of despair in the US are highest amongst rural white men. (Urban white men aren't too far behind.)
    - agumonkey 4y ago
      Sorry I didn't mean to go full farming. Just middle sized, near country side, villages lifestyle.
this_steve_j 4y ago
Suicidal is probably too strong a term. Addiction is a total mind f#*k because you can be totally rational, full of regret walking home from the ER and then think “hey a cold beer would be really delicious right now”. Then coming out of a blackout later like “hey, what happened?” It’s more of a head space where you don’t care whether or not you are alive tomorrow, and I definitely shouldn’t be doing this, but that’s a problem for tomorrow. If there’s even a brief moment of contemplation it is no match for the physical withdrawal that takes over from your rational mind, like a totally different person carjacking your your body at gunpoint with a sensible plan to save the day. The negotiation lasts less than one second. Frustration, bewilderment, terror, despair, oblivion, repeat. Recovery is not easy. It’s obviously a lot more complicated than “don’t do that, dummy!”, considering that message combined with gangrene loses the argument with the carjacker nine times out of ten. Edit: sober for 9 years (one day at a time).
thrownaway561 4y ago
this sounds like Krokodil that they had in Russia
privthrowaway 4y ago
Throwaway to share some thoughts from my first hand experience. They're not suicidal. Addiction is a pathological state. I've been an addict, with some long periods of sobriety and/or healthy moderation, since my late teens and I'm in my 40s now. Opioids is what got me started but it doesn't matter the substance. They change. At the moment I'm trying really hard to get clean from a serious cocaine and ketamine addiction. I'm also a successful business owner and CEO, I'm Very High Net Worth, I have a loving partner and a loving family. I had no significant traumas growing up. I have access to the highest level of care possible. Between my psychiatrist and my addiction specialist and all the various coaches and providers I spend hours a week working on this problem. And yet I cannot stop taking drugs. I cannot stop by will alone. Having been through the ups and downs so many times I know I have to attack this problem from like 20 different angles 20 different times before I'll stop. I've been through this so many times now. I went to rehab a year ago and then I maintained sobriety for a few weeks until the unexpected death of someone very close to me triggered me to relapse. Life stressors tend to be triggers. That's why I say I've been an addict for 20 something years. Even though I was clean many of those years, it's just an illness in remission. The struggle never ends it just waxes and wanes. Now I'm trying to make arrangements in my affairs so I can go away to rehab again. My point was, I'm not suicidal. I'm terrified of death. I'm not even depressed. I love the life that I've built. Yet I continue to use, compulsively, drugs that are causing me physical health problems and that have a high risk of ultimately killing me. Addiction is a pathological state. Full genetic sequencing recently told me I have a D2 receptor subtype that is associated with a higher risk for addiction. Confirmed what I already knew. It's a compulsion. It feels like a tic. There's a button in my brain that needs to be pressed, an itch that needs to be scratched, and only taking certain substances will do it. I'm all for the decriminalization of drugs. No one should be incarcerated for this. It's reprehensible that our society does that. But full legalization of all substances? That's a position born of ignorance. These substances are not evil but they are biologically dangerous. Any chemicals that directly activate the reward pathways in the brain are inherently dangerous. Addicts are created they are not born. You shouldn't be able to buy heroin from the heroin store anymore than you should be able to buy sarin gas from the sarin gas store. I've read all the articles about tranq. My heart aches for these addicts. My heart aches for all the friends I've lost to addiction. Welcome to Coming of Age in the Opioid Epidemic.
nickserv 4y ago
I've known a few addicts and recovering addicts over the years. Telling them to "just stop, you're hurting yourself" does about as much good as telling someone suffering from depression to "just be happy, you're hurting yourself".
runnerup 4y ago
Tho photos of the damage are incredible. It was tricky to find a source I trust not to exaggerate too much for ideological reasons but I think a professional dermatology association has the right incentives towards accuracy: https://www.aad.org/dw/dw-insights-and-inquiries/archive/2022/xylazine-potential-for-loss-of-life-and-limb https://www.aad.org/dw/dw-insights-and-inquiries/archive/202...

grugagag 4y ago

Drug use can really mess with a person's ability to think logically. Yes, it’s self distruction but first of all comes getting the next hit

lr4444lr 4y ago

Isn't this a cost issue? Fentanyl users are already bargain hunters.

atchoo 4y ago
Maybe more about the dealer's profit margin rather than the user's ability to pay. Fent is everywhere and not a choice. Celebrities are dying from Fent overdoes e.g. Michael K. Williams and Coolio.

poink 4y ago

> I think that person is suicidal Someone doing this stuff isn't thinking of the endgame any more than an alcoholic is thinking about cirrhosis. They just want to get high. They're not at the opiod buffet picking their fave. They're doing the best stuff their dealer has that they can afford.

dragonwriter 4y ago
> They just want to get high. Or not even that, just to avoid withdrawal symptoms.
- imtringued 4y ago
  The most effective form of drug addiction treatment consists of using a long acting substitute and slowly tapering off. The most common cause of overdose deaths is quitting cold turkey as people end up taking more of the drug to compensate the withdrawal.
  - atchoo 4y ago
    I don't think you lose much tolerance within the week or so the acute withdrawal symptoms last. I think the danger is from relapses long after withdrawal when both tolerance and knowledge of the supply has been lost. In some ways, withdrawal is the easy the bit - brutal but something to fight that gets easier as time passes. The nagging empty hole in your soul with sobriety is harder to fill and drags you back.
monero-xmr 4y ago
I'm just saying, would being an alcoholic of rock-bottom spirits be that much more expensive? I'd rather be a shaking alcoholic than have my arm fall off my body as I inject drugs into my festering stump. But that's just me.
- capableweb 4y ago
  Without previous experience of what kind of high strong opioids (or other heavy drugs) gives you, it's hard to imagine people taking the risks of using them. But some of them really are that fucked up on your psyche, that you'll do anything to continue using them after you've used them for just a short while. It's really easy to get addicted and really hard to get out of there.
- sharkweek 4y ago
  You’re failing to appreciate the harshness of the addictive spell these users are under. It’s not to say being an alcoholic is easier per se, but whatever specific substance a person is abusing is going to be what their body demands to feel relief. If you’re addicted to pain meds, alcohol intoxication isn’t going to be the sensation your body will fiendishly crave.

jacooper 4y ago

Its time for the government to intervene.

grugagag 4y ago
By legalizing most drugs and providing the supply legally they could simply put an end to a lot of problems. Drugs aren’t expensive to produce, they get expensive on the black market due to being illegal so the government wouldn’t even need to spend too much, probably a lot less than cleaning up this mess. Of course they should only allow addicts to get their daily fix in special centers so as to not allow these drugs freely on the streets.
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago
  > legalizing it and providing the supply legally they could simply put an end to a lot of problems To underscore this, the reason we have a heroin epidemic is because our solution to the preceding prescription opioid epidemic was to take away the pills.
  - elbigbad 4y ago
    Is this true? Congress made heroin illegal in 1924, 99 years ago, and the “heroin epidemic” didn’t really start until maybe 2010.
    - JumpCrisscross 4y ago
      > Is this true? Congress made heroin illegal in 1924, 99 years ago, and the “heroin epidemic” didn’t really start until maybe 2010 Yes [1]. Law-abiding Americans became addicted to prescription opioids (wave 1). We clamped down on their distribution, particularly prescription, and left those addicted with no legal choices. They turned to heroin (wave 2). So we clamped down on its distribution, particularly import, and so got concentrated (easier to ship) and synthetic (no unique precursors) fentanyl (wave 3). [1] https://www.cdc.gov/opioids/basics/epidemic.html https://www.cdc.gov/opioids/basics/epidemic.html

jtmlis 4y ago

https://www.aad.org/dw/dw-insights-and-inquiries/archive/2022/xylazine-potential-for-loss-of-life-and-limb https://www.aad.org/dw/dw-insights-and-inquiries/archive/202...

akiselev 4y ago
Extreme NSFL warning!
casefields 4y ago
That is a gnarly wound.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

JumpCrisscross 4y ago

> a drug that literally turns you into a melting, oozing zombie with flesh dripping off your bones Reminds me of Krokodil [1]. That said, I just finished listening to an episode of Radiolab [2] describing how unsubstantiated claims about fentanyl causing overdoses through contact may have triggered episodes of mass psychogenic illness [3]. So I'm inclined to take these gory images with a grain of salt, e.g. these may be a wounds that were neglected due to drug use versus unavoidably caused by it. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desomorphine#Toxicity_of_krokodil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desomorphine#Toxicity_of_kroko... [2] https://radiolab.org/podcast/good-samaritan https://radiolab.org/podcast/good-samaritan [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desomorphine#Toxicity_of_krokodil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desomorphine#Toxicity_of_kroko...

sqlcommando 4y ago
second link should be https://radiolab.org/podcast/good-samaritan https://radiolab.org/podcast/good-samaritan
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago
  Thank you–fixed.
cleansingfire 4y ago
I thought of Krokodil also. Considering that tiny amounts of impurities can cause terrible consequences. MPTP impurities in MPPP caused parkinson's, and bad commercial synthesis of tryptophan by Showa Denko caused EMS, it seems likely that this is real. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPTP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPTP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tryptophan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tryptophan
- blindriver 4y ago
  I thought of that drug as well. The thing I remember most about that is if the addict missed the vein and injected it into the tissue, it would basically destroy the area. Addiction to drugs like this is horrible way to end one's life.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

1attice 4y ago

> I think that person is suicidal. Important to remember that the alternative to shooting up is, often, to be cold, and miserable, alone, on the street, with no sleep. One possibility potentiates the other. Horrifically, you could even think of drug use as an attempt to adapt to loss of housing. The backdrop for urban drug use, here in Vancouver, is a profound housing crisis and shortage, and a complete, thoroughgoing failure on the part of multiple levels of government to do anything about it.

lamename 4y ago

Morbid indeed. Sounds like classic separation of Wanting vs. Liking in addiction https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reward_system#Wanting_and_liking https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reward_system#Wanting_and_li...

dragonwriter 4y ago

> If a drug that literally turns you into a melting, oozing zombie with flesh dripping off your bones doesn't make you find a different drug - not even quit, I mean, find a different drug to get fucked up on - I think that person is suicidal. I think you have not even the most basic understanding of addiction, or (perhaps most relevant to this case) specifically withdrawal. If you are addicted, you can’t simply choose a substitute, and particularly you can’t avoid withdrawal from one drug just by choosing another, except for some very special cases.

AstralStorm 4y ago
In this case, any sufficiently strong opiate would do. However this thing is probably cheapest and easiest to get.
- aww_dang 4y ago
  If not for prohibition lab quality drugs would be cheaper and easier to get.
  - indecisive_user 4y ago
    Why would they be cheaper? Lab quality would require lab grade testing and safety, and lab grade ingredients, not to mention taxes on recreational drugs are usually astronomical. And I doubt it would be easier to get either since they're unlikely to hand out an unlimited quantity to anyone who pays for it even if it were legal.
    - htag 4y ago
      1. You can buy shopping carts full of alcohol at one time if you want. I've watched people purchase thousands of cigarettes in one purchase. Having essentially unlimited access to addictive drugs wouldn't be out of the social norm. 2. I think some drugs would become cheaper, and other drugs would become more expensive. Drugs with limited supply would become cheaper as more production/supply chains open up. Think cocaine, heroin, and some pharmaceuticals without large overseas labs. There are inefficiencies in the illegal drug trade that legal trade could smooth over as well: better payment methods, more open price negotiations, legal settlement for disputes, reduced employee churn from violence/arrest, reduced bribes/corruption related charges. 3. Regardless of the price of drugs, the overall price would be smaller, as illegal drug use has huge externalized costs. Everything from corrupt governments to increased health care utilization to wasted law enforcement resources to destroyed human capital. 4. The existence of an available quality tested market would force the black market to compete more on quality.

Weatebob 4y ago

The drug is not the problem. The social net / missing social network is. Our society struggles to take care of its own people because we live in a mentally restraint. Even in Germany were you have a right for a basic living like a flat and heat and foot and electricity we have homeless. And no we don't spend the money a flat and everything would cost us into alternative 'equivilent' like enough street worker / social help for them. People with good choices and support primarily choose non self harming activities. Everyone else should get proper professional care.

agumonkey 4y ago
I'd go even further, modern society is an anti-safety net. It seems the nicest way to live is to get slightly away from most of urban life as thought since post-ww2 era.
- krapp 4y ago
  Modern American society is anti safety net. The rest of the modern world seems to accept the premise just fine.
  - agumonkey 4y ago
    USA might be above others but even in France and other western countries I sense a similar sense of senseless running around toxic everything and the state struggles to maintain protections since problems accrete.
- Fricken 4y ago
  Deaths of despair in the US are highest amongst rural white men. (Urban white men aren't too far behind.)
  - agumonkey 4y ago
    Sorry I didn't mean to go full farming. Just middle sized, near country side, villages lifestyle.

this_steve_j 4y ago

Suicidal is probably too strong a term. Addiction is a total mind f#*k because you can be totally rational, full of regret walking home from the ER and then think “hey a cold beer would be really delicious right now”. Then coming out of a blackout later like “hey, what happened?” It’s more of a head space where you don’t care whether or not you are alive tomorrow, and I definitely shouldn’t be doing this, but that’s a problem for tomorrow. If there’s even a brief moment of contemplation it is no match for the physical withdrawal that takes over from your rational mind, like a totally different person carjacking your your body at gunpoint with a sensible plan to save the day. The negotiation lasts less than one second. Frustration, bewilderment, terror, despair, oblivion, repeat. Recovery is not easy. It’s obviously a lot more complicated than “don’t do that, dummy!”, considering that message combined with gangrene loses the argument with the carjacker nine times out of ten. Edit: sober for 9 years (one day at a time).

thrownaway561 4y ago

this sounds like Krokodil that they had in Russia

privthrowaway 4y ago

Throwaway to share some thoughts from my first hand experience. They're not suicidal. Addiction is a pathological state. I've been an addict, with some long periods of sobriety and/or healthy moderation, since my late teens and I'm in my 40s now. Opioids is what got me started but it doesn't matter the substance. They change. At the moment I'm trying really hard to get clean from a serious cocaine and ketamine addiction. I'm also a successful business owner and CEO, I'm Very High Net Worth, I have a loving partner and a loving family. I had no significant traumas growing up. I have access to the highest level of care possible. Between my psychiatrist and my addiction specialist and all the various coaches and providers I spend hours a week working on this problem. And yet I cannot stop taking drugs. I cannot stop by will alone. Having been through the ups and downs so many times I know I have to attack this problem from like 20 different angles 20 different times before I'll stop. I've been through this so many times now. I went to rehab a year ago and then I maintained sobriety for a few weeks until the unexpected death of someone very close to me triggered me to relapse. Life stressors tend to be triggers. That's why I say I've been an addict for 20 something years. Even though I was clean many of those years, it's just an illness in remission. The struggle never ends it just waxes and wanes. Now I'm trying to make arrangements in my affairs so I can go away to rehab again. My point was, I'm not suicidal. I'm terrified of death. I'm not even depressed. I love the life that I've built. Yet I continue to use, compulsively, drugs that are causing me physical health problems and that have a high risk of ultimately killing me. Addiction is a pathological state. Full genetic sequencing recently told me I have a D2 receptor subtype that is associated with a higher risk for addiction. Confirmed what I already knew. It's a compulsion. It feels like a tic. There's a button in my brain that needs to be pressed, an itch that needs to be scratched, and only taking certain substances will do it. I'm all for the decriminalization of drugs. No one should be incarcerated for this. It's reprehensible that our society does that. But full legalization of all substances? That's a position born of ignorance. These substances are not evil but they are biologically dangerous. Any chemicals that directly activate the reward pathways in the brain are inherently dangerous. Addicts are created they are not born. You shouldn't be able to buy heroin from the heroin store anymore than you should be able to buy sarin gas from the sarin gas store. I've read all the articles about tranq. My heart aches for these addicts. My heart aches for all the friends I've lost to addiction. Welcome to Coming of Age in the Opioid Epidemic.

nickserv 4y ago

I've known a few addicts and recovering addicts over the years. Telling them to "just stop, you're hurting yourself" does about as much good as telling someone suffering from depression to "just be happy, you're hurting yourself".

runnerup 4y ago

Tho photos of the damage are incredible. It was tricky to find a source I trust not to exaggerate too much for ideological reasons but I think a professional dermatology association has the right incentives towards accuracy: https://www.aad.org/dw/dw-insights-and-inquiries/archive/2022/xylazine-potential-for-loss-of-life-and-limb https://www.aad.org/dw/dw-insights-and-inquiries/archive/202...