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I don't understand the mentality of people who partake in these things. Everyone has seen the zombies in the streets. Who looks at the human misery that is the

I don't understand the mentality of people who partake in these things. Everyone has seen the zombies in the streets. Who looks at the human misery that is the direct consequence of opioid abuse and decides "It won't happen to me, I'll take two fentanyls please Mr Drug Dealer"?

glimshe 3y ago
In a nutshell, addiction. If people could just easily walk away from it through moral reasoning, the problem wouldn't be happening at the scale it is. And the first contact with the drug is triggered by other things, like pain, peer pressure etc.
alecco 3y ago
IMHO working on this at an NGO, these are mostly people who hate themselves and have extreme depression. They will take anything, even poison. They usually are not looking for a high but complete detachment. The solution is intervention but this is out of fashion thanks for campaigns against it. From Foucault to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Their magic solution for the broken system was to destroy the system. Now he have all these "zombies" who are just slowly killing themselves, in front of us, and they are causing a lot crime and problems. The problem is snowballing and will end up in unspeakable solutions. It's sad.
650REDHAIR 3y ago
Most people aren’t buying fentanyl. They’re buying something else that is laced or cut with fentanyl. Typically the end user is unaware.
- flerchin 3y ago
  That just slightly changes the question to the drug dealer. People, seeing zombies in the streets, are still making purchases.
  - 650REDHAIR 3y ago
    By calling human beings zombies I’m going to assume you lack any empathy. As someone who works on the forefront of this epidemic (EMS) I can say with near 100% certainty you know people who consume drugs.
    - flerchin 3y ago
      > By calling human beings zombies I’m going to assume you lack any empathy. I certainly haven't displayed any, you're right. I would say that "drug addicted people in the streets, unable to care for themselves" is more humanizing than "zombies", but otherwise is unwieldy. > I can say with near 100% certainty you know people who consume drugs. This may well be true, but they certainly are hiding it from me, hence my lack of comprehension of the issue. With over a hundred Americans dying of opioids everyday, it's clearly a widespread issue. I can understand that addicts have an enormous challenge to beat addiction, but I cannot understand how there seems to be more addicts everyday.
BobaFloutist 3y ago
Ignoring the recreational pipeline, opioid addiction usually comes from chronic pain. You're a manual laborer. Your body gets slowly worn down by the job, and over time you get more and more dramatic joint and muscle pains but you don't have enough money to retire. At first NSAIDs are enough, but then you start slowing down again, and finally someone offers something that works better - but you still can't stop working, so you injure your body more and more while numbing the pain. You're a sex worker. Violent sex (at times indistinguishable from sexual violence) has become a de facto cultural norm. Your clients are increasingly brutal, not even necessarily in seriously injuring you, just in their indifference to your comfort. In order to keep up with their appetites, and to keep a roof over your head, you resort to some chemical escapism - it feels good, and it makes it feel less bad when you're working. It also relaxes your body, so that the unbelievably incompetent sex can actually happen. You're in a car accident, or get injured playing school sports, or are born in a body that just hurts all the time, for any or no reason. You're on a controlled, calculated, sustainable regimen of prescription opioids. Then you lose your health insurance, or your provider retires, or pharmacies stop being willing to fill your prescriptions because their role in the opioid crisis has shown them they have liability and they refuse to actually make judgment calls. You are in constant, excruciating pain, you're suffering from sudden, involuntary, unpredictable withdrawal, and there's no legal recourse. Pain is the most fundamentally unpleasant experience there is. You might think you have a high pain tolerance, and you might even be right, but...have you ever had a headache that lasted a whole day, or just been sore from something for a solid 8 hours? If you have, you know how quickly you get worn thin, irritable, incapable of rationality. Imagine if you were in pain at all times. Does this help you understand?

glimshe 3y ago

In a nutshell, addiction. If people could just easily walk away from it through moral reasoning, the problem wouldn't be happening at the scale it is. And the first contact with the drug is triggered by other things, like pain, peer pressure etc.

alecco 3y ago

IMHO working on this at an NGO, these are mostly people who hate themselves and have extreme depression. They will take anything, even poison. They usually are not looking for a high but complete detachment. The solution is intervention but this is out of fashion thanks for campaigns against it. From Foucault to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Their magic solution for the broken system was to destroy the system. Now he have all these "zombies" who are just slowly killing themselves, in front of us, and they are causing a lot crime and problems. The problem is snowballing and will end up in unspeakable solutions. It's sad.

650REDHAIR 3y ago

Most people aren’t buying fentanyl. They’re buying something else that is laced or cut with fentanyl. Typically the end user is unaware.

flerchin 3y ago
That just slightly changes the question to the drug dealer. People, seeing zombies in the streets, are still making purchases.
- 650REDHAIR 3y ago
  By calling human beings zombies I’m going to assume you lack any empathy. As someone who works on the forefront of this epidemic (EMS) I can say with near 100% certainty you know people who consume drugs.
  - flerchin 3y ago
    > By calling human beings zombies I’m going to assume you lack any empathy. I certainly haven't displayed any, you're right. I would say that "drug addicted people in the streets, unable to care for themselves" is more humanizing than "zombies", but otherwise is unwieldy. > I can say with near 100% certainty you know people who consume drugs. This may well be true, but they certainly are hiding it from me, hence my lack of comprehension of the issue. With over a hundred Americans dying of opioids everyday, it's clearly a widespread issue. I can understand that addicts have an enormous challenge to beat addiction, but I cannot understand how there seems to be more addicts everyday.

BobaFloutist 3y ago

Ignoring the recreational pipeline, opioid addiction usually comes from chronic pain. You're a manual laborer. Your body gets slowly worn down by the job, and over time you get more and more dramatic joint and muscle pains but you don't have enough money to retire. At first NSAIDs are enough, but then you start slowing down again, and finally someone offers something that works better - but you still can't stop working, so you injure your body more and more while numbing the pain. You're a sex worker. Violent sex (at times indistinguishable from sexual violence) has become a de facto cultural norm. Your clients are increasingly brutal, not even necessarily in seriously injuring you, just in their indifference to your comfort. In order to keep up with their appetites, and to keep a roof over your head, you resort to some chemical escapism - it feels good, and it makes it feel less bad when you're working. It also relaxes your body, so that the unbelievably incompetent sex can actually happen. You're in a car accident, or get injured playing school sports, or are born in a body that just hurts all the time, for any or no reason. You're on a controlled, calculated, sustainable regimen of prescription opioids. Then you lose your health insurance, or your provider retires, or pharmacies stop being willing to fill your prescriptions because their role in the opioid crisis has shown them they have liability and they refuse to actually make judgment calls. You are in constant, excruciating pain, you're suffering from sudden, involuntary, unpredictable withdrawal, and there's no legal recourse. Pain is the most fundamentally unpleasant experience there is. You might think you have a high pain tolerance, and you might even be right, but...have you ever had a headache that lasted a whole day, or just been sore from something for a solid 8 hours? If you have, you know how quickly you get worn thin, irritable, incapable of rationality. Imagine if you were in pain at all times. Does this help you understand?