24 ms·

How a nation of junkies went cold turkey

145 points by krakensden 13y ago

losethos 13y ago
We need an elephant in Vegas. There's a plant nursery with exotic birds. Do I get a pet elephant, God? God says... 3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 3:2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3:3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 3:4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 3:5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. 3:6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, 3:7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 3:8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. ----- God says... seems ungodly I'm_not_sure prove replenishing pause purposed admonition deriders hushed straighten_up mockers writings weights ho_ho_ho embrace seeking pursue savoured position Catastrophic_Success winding expectation die- supreme hit page do_you_want_another forgiving couldnt_possibly Wretched Juno Present informed tore provest is conversing forgotten generate necessaries imagined by INDEMNITY penally private 'it can't other remaining fashion exceedingly intimately intrude solving bathing wander assurance story students famine weltering diligently spunky understood Valentinian foulness ahh Ridiculous I_didn't_do_it forsaketh terrors Sudden awfulness aptly two-edged erred Yawn accompany Deceased ascended bewailed gate purchase plucked chariots ulcerous begged applauses Legal fourthly suggestion fit exceeding Wyoming I_didn't_do_it Earth tire Duck probable incorruption retreat holy-day recollect hearers Name joyously sucking spreads barbarism ardent SMALL bloody Idaho Now I_see_nothing prizes knocketh lungs track take that's_your_opinion imitation distinguish commandest find stone congregations directions Antony injurable necessarily Bangladesh what_have_you_done_for_me_lately driven striving telleth God entangled deceitful bickering thirst far continueth right Adam I_just_might test_pilot suggestions kinds teachest gains excused Holy guidest gaining Costa_Rica fatherly password weariness throat
gailees 13y ago
Interesting. This really got me thinking: "Dependence on pot isn’t a minor thing—imagine stalling the careers of a tenth of the U.S. workforce for a year—and we should certainly consider it in the negative side of the ledger when contemplating reform in drug policy."
- mikeash 13y ago
  Imagine what Steve Jobs could have done if he hadn't gotten into drugs! I bet Barack Obama could have gone so much further in life if he hadn't smoked weed.
  - chopsueyar 13y ago
    How many more gold medals would Michael Phelps have won?
  - paulhauggis 13y ago
    I will gladly get further ahead in life than people in my industry that are chronic pot smokers (that continue to deny the effects). Smoking pot does effect the drive of many people, whether you would like to believe it or not. Some people are better at functioning under the influence than others. Two examples of people that dabbled in drugs does not make your case. I could give you two examples of couples that have sex without protection every day and have never gotten pregnant. Does this mean everyone can do it with the same outcome?
    - mikeash 13y ago
      I agree that two examples doesn't mean much, but it means more than an unsourced assertion.
- Lost_BiomedE 13y ago
  Yeah, and family too, what a drag on the career! Vacations?, forget about it. I mean hobbies?, that isn't going to do anything for corporate. When it comes to lifestyle, choice trumps IMO, and no, I don't smoke.
- 13y ago
Symmetry 13y ago
Honestly the cure seems worse than the disease here, if what they were saying about Subutex is true (I'd never heard of it before this article). Heroin is horrible stuff that can easily kill you. For that matter so is alcohol. I really don't see the point of cracking down on something that is displacing far more dangerous drugs.
- jlgreco 13y ago
  Going cold turkey on alcohol is extraordinarily dangerous: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delirium_tremens http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delirium_tremens However I am not familiar with opiate withdrawal killing people without other medical things going on.
- conroe64 13y ago
  It wasn't displacing heroin. Heroin didn't make a resurgence. Krododil did, but its use was not nearly as prevalent as the use of Subutex was. The point is that the society got a lot safer and more productive after the Subutex problem was fixed.
  - bcoates 13y ago
    The only concrete improvement I see cited is solving their needle disposal problem. Surely there are less drastic alternatives that could have accomplished that.
  - girvo 13y ago
    "Krokodil" (which just by the way, barely creates trace amounts of Desomorphine; the chemistry just isn't correct. No-one really knows WHAT it creates) is guaranteed to kill you. Suboxone (while possible) generally didn't have that sort of guarantee. I'm not sure which is better.
    - raverbashing 13y ago
      Yes Note to readers: don't google pictures of Krokodil effects.
revelation 13y ago
Yes, there is no drug abuse in dictatorships. It can also fix crime, obesity and all kinds of problems. But it's certainly not worth it.
- eatitraw 13y ago
  Well, in fact, they can't. I am pretty sure, there are many regimes that you can consider dictaroship, and they haven't solved these problems. Dictatorships can do a lot of nasty things, but they cannot solve such problems. They may _look_ like they are able to, and they may _pretend_ that they solved these problems(especially if problems aren't easily noticeable by an average citizen. Take heavy heroin abuse as an example), but no, they can't and won't solve them.
- dmm 13y ago
  The US has had its dictators too. FDR was given almost absolute executive and legislative power. He openly admired european facists, describing himself, in the presence of journalists, as a blood brother of Stalin and Mussolini. He imprisoned citizens without trial. I think a similar argument could be made about Lincoln. He too siezed unprecedented executive powers. I'm not saying they were good or bad. I'm just trying to point out that we have had presidents that have taken extreme measures to deal with percieved crises. And we have, for the most part, interpreted this as a-ok.
  - baddox 13y ago
    I'll say it: they were very bad.
  - smacktoward 13y ago
    "FDR was given almost absolute executive and legislative power." Um, no. This is incorrect. Roosevelt's plans and projects were repeatedly frustrated by opposition in the other branches of government. That doesn't happen in dictatorships. Much of the New Deal, for example, ended up being struck down by the Supreme Court. Roosevelt tried to prevent that from happening again by "packing" the Court with friendly justices (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judiciary_Reorganization_Bill_of_1937 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judiciary_Reorganization_Bill_o...), but Congress shot that plan down. He desired for years before Pearl Harbor to get the US to join with the Allied powers in opposing German and Japanese expansionism, but the Neutrality Acts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrality_Acts_of_1930s http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrality_Acts_of_1930s) made it nearly impossible for him to provide any US support for the Allies at all. Even in 1941, after the fall of France and the Battle of Britain, Congress only agreed to extend the military draft instituted in 1940 by a single vote. You can argue whether Roosevelt was in the right on any of the policy decisions he made, but you can't argue that he was operating without checks and balances, because he wasn't.
Wintamute 13y ago
Around 1 in 20 people have personalities such that they're prone to addiction, to the extent that it can cause them to make questionable decisions. Drinking, smoking, sex, heroine, gambling, porn, work, party drugs, Subutex, anti-depressants, whatever, you name it. We need to stop prohibiting whatever activity/substance people actually get addicted to because its essentially arbitrary, and start compassionately treating the root psychological causes.
- acqq 13y ago
  Anybody knows any estimate on how many are addicted to the internet? And how about "addicted to programming"?
  - ics 13y ago
    Addicted to reading, addicted to eating, addicted to...
    - jrockway 13y ago
      I'm addicted to being awake 16 hours a day and asleep for 8 hours a day. If I don't drink several glasses of water a day, I'll go into withdrawal and die!
- tokenadult 13y ago
  start compassionately treating the root psychological causes How? Couldn't limiting access of an addicted person to the substance or activity the person is addicted to be one part of compassionate treatment? What research is there on this?
  - Falkon1313 13y ago
    Limiting access to a substance or activity doesn't address the problem, which is the behavior. If the person in question ends up replacing it with a safer substance or activity, that may be somewhat better, but they may instead end up replacing it with something even more dangerous. It's a gamble and it doesn't even address the problem. Blaming inanimate objects for the actions of humans never really helps. It would be better to address the actual humans, their actions, and the causes instead. We just don't know how to do that yet. As a society, we aren't smart enough.
GigabyteCoin 13y ago
Note to self, never visit Georgia. This is how they did it: >If you think New York’s stop-and-frisk rule is invasive, try Georgia’s: Cops can stop anyone at any time for no reason and force him to urinate into a cup. Fifty-three thousand people were stopped on the street in 2007, or about one in 20 of the young men in Georgia.
coldcode 13y ago
I wonder what the actual affect on people is of Subutex. If the effects generally are similar to pot, why bother regulating it? 30,000 people per year in the US die of alcohol related accidents and other issues, and 250,000 or so die of smoking related cancers. Yet they remain completely acceptable legal "drugs". I don't know off hand the number of deaths from illegal and misdirected drugs including violence but I am sure it's not a small number either. The inconsistency of treating each mind-altering substance is what makes little sense to me.
- coldcode 13y ago
  I found this: "The most common reported side effect of Subutex and Suboxone include: cold or flu-like symptoms, headaches, sweating, sleeping difficulties, nausea, mood swings. Like other opioids Subutex and Suboxone have been associated with respiratory depression (difficulty breathing) especially when combined with other depressants." Sounds like a hangover.
  - girvo 13y ago
    The effects are a feeling of pure (blissful) apathy, and warmness. Suboxone is very light on the side-effect front, compared to other opiates.
- gizzlon 13y ago
  30,000 people per year in the US die of alcohol related accidents That's kind of irrelevant since alcohol is much more widely available and used. The question is, what would happen if [insert drug] was legal and widespread? What effects would it have on individuals and society at large? [edited to make it less harsh]
joyeuse6701 13y ago
In summation, tough policy cleans up the majority of the drug addicts, but the diehards resort to a worse substitute that is , for lack of a better word, grotesque. I wonder if they reintroduced subutex if the old drug addicts would come back, or if just the die hards would return and be free of krokodil?
rammark 13y ago
The article didn't really explain the justification for the crackdown on Subutex except for the usual "drugs are bad, mmmkay". It seems like Subutex is a good cure for misery without serious side effects.
- jaynos 13y ago
  I assume it's because the mob eventually got involved. Plus, the authors comment about his first trip there makes me think they wanted to clean up the country so as to not scare off tourists.
- shabble 13y ago
  There are plenty of undesirable side-effects: can induce mild withdrawal symptoms in patients dependent on opioids; also diarrhoea, abdominal pain, anorexia, dyspepsia; vasodilatation; dyspnoea; paraesthesia, asthenia, fati- gue, agitation, anxiety; less commonly flatulence, taste disturbance, angina, hypertension, syncope, hypoxia, wheezing, cough, restlessness, depersonali- sation, dysarthria, impaired memory, hypoaesthesia, tremor, influenza-like symptoms, pyrexia, rhinitis, rigors, muscle cramp, myalgia, tinnitus, dry eye, and dry skin; rarely paralytic ileus, dysphagia, impaired concentration, and psychosis; very rarely retching, hyperventilation, hiccups, and muscle fasciculation --British National Formulary 59 As well as all the complications that come from self-injecting with potentially non-sterile equipment, and of things not intended for IV use (crushed pills have a number of inactive different binders and fillers that don't dissolve and get lodged somewhere in the body, typically the lungs[2]) It's metabolism can be pretty hard on the liver as well, which is a major concern if users have hepatitis from needle sharing/reuse. Another big problem is that since it operates as an opioid receptor anagonist (rather than an agonist, as practically all other opioids), the usual treatment for overdose -- Naloxone -- won't work very well. Buprenorphine also has a fairly hard effectiveness ceiling at ~32mg/day (although it would be a lucky/rich addict indeed who could afford that at €300/8mg quoted in the article) Finally, if an addict ends up in hospital or requires strong pain-relief, there's not a lot of options because the blockade effect will prevent (afaik) virtually all other opioids from working. [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1276621/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1276621/
girvo 13y ago
Normally, on topics like this I post under a throwaway. Now, I don't see why I should. I'm an ex-heroin addict, and am on Suboxone Opiate Replacement Therapy. I've been clean for 9 months, after 6 years of opiate addiction (starting with Oxycodone, and moving quickly to Heroin). I'm 22 years old. This article has a few factual inaccuracies, which I want to correct. First: Injecting Suboxone is NOT safe. Not even close, especially with the method described in the article: unless you are a fan of Talcosis (which will kill you), you need to get a micron filter. Even then, it's not worth it. The high is minimal, tolerance builds rapidly, and it's dangerous. There are numerous complications that come from injecting pills, and it's never worth it. Second, and this is a small nitpick, heroin users don't have "eyes like saucers" - you have eyes like pinpricks. Opiates constrict pupils, not dilate then. Third, heroin withdrawal IS torture, at least if you have a sizable habit. Yes, Burroughs did say it was "overrated", but I can tell you from experience, it's absolute torture. It's not like fever. It's an entire body ache, down to your very bones; it's your mind crying out for relief. It's something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. Just thought I'd add my two cents.
- shrikant 13y ago
  I can't even begin to empathise with what heroin withdrawal must feel like. Back when I was going through a really rough spot, I sought solace in food and became quite the, uh, chunky chap. When I realised the destructive path I was headed down, I decided to quit junk food cold turkey. There were many, many days when I would lay on my bed trembling and gripping the sheets tightly to prevent myself from dialling out for pizza or chicken. I swear it did feel as if even my knees and toes wanted to eat, eat, EAT!
- arkitaip 13y ago
  Thank you for sharing your story.
- qu4z-2 13y ago
  Thank you for talking about this.
- nullymcnull 13y ago
  There were a number of annoying factual inaccuracies in the article, particular with respect to heroin: > ..time-killing properties of opium or heroin, but with none of the likelihood of it stopping his heart Opiates do not stop your heart. The notion that every single usage of opium or heroin is like a game of russian roulette, that might stop your heart, is fantasy. Opiates are actually quite safe, as drugs go. It's not until you take far too much or mix them that you are screwed. And that's true of any opiate, prescription or otherwise. > Heroin kills, and OxyContin, unless badly mishandled, does not. Basically not true; injected oxy requires no more 'mishandling' than heroin to kill. Both will happily shut down your respiratory system and kill you if you administer too much. Of course one could argue that the pharma is of a consistent manufacture and dosage, whereas one batch of too-strong street opiates could kill someone used to weaker stuff, but the author of this piece seems far too clueless about the subject to be making such distinctions. Then we have comparison of marijuana's 'addictiveness' to that of opiates. The difference between psychological dependence and physical dependence is one of kind, not degree.
chrislloyd 13y ago
For those interested in Krokodil, there's an excellent, harrowing and very NSFW documentary on it by Alison Severs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsUH8llvTZo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsUH8llvTZo
- mauvehaus 13y ago
  An interesting video, but fair warning before you watch: it gets pretty graphic about halfway through. They show some clips of people with the side-effects of krokodil: the skin drying out, falling off, and parts of bodies getting pretty raw. I don't have a particularly weak stomach, but my dinner started getting restless.
  - tetha 13y ago
    Yup, even after seeing to many weird videos, this is one of the 5 worst I know.
- wisty 13y ago
  tl;dr: it will kill you within about 1 year. Horribly. But it's still popular.
uptown 13y ago
WAY off-topic, but I think this is the first mobile-theme I've seen that renders the site completely unusable on a mobile device. (iPhone 4s - doesn't scroll at all)
- lelandbatey 13y ago
  I was hoping it wasn't just me. I'm using a galaxy s3 and I'm experiencing the same issues.
- badgar 13y ago
  Yep, Galaxy Nexus here and it is completely unresponsive to any interaction whatsoever.
- Moto7451 13y ago
  I can scroll using Chrome on Android 4.0.3. The "share" popup tab is useless however as it requires pressing down which selects text and then hides the tab.
- res0nat0r 13y ago
  Same for Chrome on my ipad.
- hayksaakian 13y ago
  Nexus 7 Chrome Beta same issue.
equilibrium 13y ago
Cycle of addiction http://visual.ly/cycle-addiction http://visual.ly/cycle-addiction
raddoc 13y ago
FYI- Suboxone is actually buprenorphine combined with naloxone whereas Subutex is only buprenorphine. When Suboxone is taken sublingually as indicated, the buprenorphine is absorbed and naloxone is not. Thus, if taken as prescribed, Suboxone can be an effective detox/maintenance drug. However, if it is injected, the naloxone becomes bioavailable, binding as an antagonist to the opiod receptors and inducing withdrawal if the user was taking methadone, heroin, or buprenorphine (theoretically). Clever.
inDigiNeous 13y ago
Is it just me, or is this article praising Subutex ? If you want to know what subutex does to people, watch this Finnish Documentary about Subutex, Reindeerspotting, Escape From Santaland: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8O_Ot-wCIg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8O_Ot-wCIg. Subutex misuse is a big problem in Finland, and it seems to create more problems than solve them, at least to the information I've read about it.
jnbiche 13y ago
As an opiate addict on methadone for 5 years, I have a problem with this article because of several major factual inaccuracies. First, and most notably, heroin withdrawal, like withdrawal from any opiate worth its cost, is absolute torture. It's ironic that Burroughs was quoted here, since he's written some of the most accurate descriptions of the utter pain of withdrawal. It's far, far more serious than something like swine flu (which I had during the pandemic), and people can and do die from opiate withdrawal on a frequent basis, usually from the accompanying cardiac issues. Second, having dosed in methadone clinics across this country, I've never seen one with an armed guard, or even an unarmed guard. I've dosed in a clinic in Gary, Indiana, and one in a rough spot near Orlando. Both were clean, safe, well-run places with no guards necessary. In my 5 years on methadone, I've only seen the police called to a clinic on one occasion, when a disgruntled patient got a little verbally abusive toward a counselor. But never physical violence, and never a need for armed guards. It's possible that there is a clinic somewhere that has an armed guard, but saying methadone clinics in general have armed guards is incorrect. Others with far more experience in issues like this than the writer have commented on other inaccuracies, like the "saucer-like" eyes of heroin users, and the exaggerated desirability of Subutex to IV drug users. Because of inaccuracies like this, I have to doubt the other "facts" reported in this article. The whole piece seems to have been written to support a pre-existing idea the writer has about drug policy. Good journalists do this the other way around.
- corin_ 13y ago
  I've never been near one of these clinics, but is it not possible that 95% of them do have armed guards and the two you went to are in the 5%. Not saying you are or aren't wrong, just that both ways are possible.
  - girvo 13y ago
    None that I know of (and go to) in Australia do, mainly because you can dose at any pharmacy that participates in the program.
cnp 13y ago
I wish more people were familiar with Ibogaine. It's expensive, but it's helped two friends completely return to life with no withdrawal symptoms or desire to use again. It has properties that break opiate withdrawal almost instantaneously, as well as other psychological effects that tend to reset senses such as smell, touch, etc, back to an almost childlike state. Very mysterious and beautiful substance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibogaine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibogaine This is also a must-watch documentary: Ibogaine, Rite of Passage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPDIH9WODnk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPDIH9WODnk

145 points by krakensden 13y ago

We need an elephant in Vegas. There's a plant nursery with exotic birds. Do I get a pet elephant, God? God says... 3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 3:2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3:3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 3:4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 3:5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. 3:6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, 3:7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 3:8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. ----- God says... seems ungodly I'm_not_sure prove replenishing pause purposed admonition deriders hushed straighten_up mockers writings weights ho_ho_ho embrace seeking pursue savoured position Catastrophic_Success winding expectation die- supreme hit page do_you_want_another forgiving couldnt_possibly Wretched Juno Present informed tore provest is conversing forgotten generate necessaries imagined by INDEMNITY penally private 'it can't other remaining fashion exceedingly intimately intrude solving bathing wander assurance story students famine weltering diligently spunky understood Valentinian foulness ahh Ridiculous I_didn't_do_it forsaketh terrors Sudden awfulness aptly two-edged erred Yawn accompany Deceased ascended bewailed gate purchase plucked chariots ulcerous begged applauses Legal fourthly suggestion fit exceeding Wyoming I_didn't_do_it Earth tire Duck probable incorruption retreat holy-day recollect hearers Name joyously sucking spreads barbarism ardent SMALL bloody Idaho Now I_see_nothing prizes knocketh lungs track take that's_your_opinion imitation distinguish commandest find stone congregations directions Antony injurable necessarily Bangladesh what_have_you_done_for_me_lately driven striving telleth God entangled deceitful bickering thirst far continueth right Adam I_just_might test_pilot suggestions kinds teachest gains excused Holy guidest gaining Costa_Rica fatherly password weariness throat

gailees 13y ago

Interesting. This really got me thinking: "Dependence on pot isn’t a minor thing—imagine stalling the careers of a tenth of the U.S. workforce for a year—and we should certainly consider it in the negative side of the ledger when contemplating reform in drug policy."

mikeash 13y ago
Imagine what Steve Jobs could have done if he hadn't gotten into drugs! I bet Barack Obama could have gone so much further in life if he hadn't smoked weed.
- chopsueyar 13y ago
  How many more gold medals would Michael Phelps have won?
- paulhauggis 13y ago
  I will gladly get further ahead in life than people in my industry that are chronic pot smokers (that continue to deny the effects). Smoking pot does effect the drive of many people, whether you would like to believe it or not. Some people are better at functioning under the influence than others. Two examples of people that dabbled in drugs does not make your case. I could give you two examples of couples that have sex without protection every day and have never gotten pregnant. Does this mean everyone can do it with the same outcome?
  - mikeash 13y ago
    I agree that two examples doesn't mean much, but it means more than an unsourced assertion.
Lost_BiomedE 13y ago
Yeah, and family too, what a drag on the career! Vacations?, forget about it. I mean hobbies?, that isn't going to do anything for corporate. When it comes to lifestyle, choice trumps IMO, and no, I don't smoke.
13y ago

Symmetry 13y ago

Honestly the cure seems worse than the disease here, if what they were saying about Subutex is true (I'd never heard of it before this article). Heroin is horrible stuff that can easily kill you. For that matter so is alcohol. I really don't see the point of cracking down on something that is displacing far more dangerous drugs.

jlgreco 13y ago
Going cold turkey on alcohol is extraordinarily dangerous: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delirium_tremens http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delirium_tremens However I am not familiar with opiate withdrawal killing people without other medical things going on.
conroe64 13y ago
It wasn't displacing heroin. Heroin didn't make a resurgence. Krododil did, but its use was not nearly as prevalent as the use of Subutex was. The point is that the society got a lot safer and more productive after the Subutex problem was fixed.
- bcoates 13y ago
  The only concrete improvement I see cited is solving their needle disposal problem. Surely there are less drastic alternatives that could have accomplished that.
- girvo 13y ago
  "Krokodil" (which just by the way, barely creates trace amounts of Desomorphine; the chemistry just isn't correct. No-one really knows WHAT it creates) is guaranteed to kill you. Suboxone (while possible) generally didn't have that sort of guarantee. I'm not sure which is better.
  - raverbashing 13y ago
    Yes Note to readers: don't google pictures of Krokodil effects.

revelation 13y ago

Yes, there is no drug abuse in dictatorships. It can also fix crime, obesity and all kinds of problems. But it's certainly not worth it.

eatitraw 13y ago
Well, in fact, they can't. I am pretty sure, there are many regimes that you can consider dictaroship, and they haven't solved these problems. Dictatorships can do a lot of nasty things, but they cannot solve such problems. They may _look_ like they are able to, and they may _pretend_ that they solved these problems(especially if problems aren't easily noticeable by an average citizen. Take heavy heroin abuse as an example), but no, they can't and won't solve them.
dmm 13y ago
The US has had its dictators too. FDR was given almost absolute executive and legislative power. He openly admired european facists, describing himself, in the presence of journalists, as a blood brother of Stalin and Mussolini. He imprisoned citizens without trial. I think a similar argument could be made about Lincoln. He too siezed unprecedented executive powers. I'm not saying they were good or bad. I'm just trying to point out that we have had presidents that have taken extreme measures to deal with percieved crises. And we have, for the most part, interpreted this as a-ok.
- baddox 13y ago
  I'll say it: they were very bad.
- smacktoward 13y ago
  "FDR was given almost absolute executive and legislative power." Um, no. This is incorrect. Roosevelt's plans and projects were repeatedly frustrated by opposition in the other branches of government. That doesn't happen in dictatorships. Much of the New Deal, for example, ended up being struck down by the Supreme Court. Roosevelt tried to prevent that from happening again by "packing" the Court with friendly justices (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judiciary_Reorganization_Bill_of_1937 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judiciary_Reorganization_Bill_o...), but Congress shot that plan down. He desired for years before Pearl Harbor to get the US to join with the Allied powers in opposing German and Japanese expansionism, but the Neutrality Acts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrality_Acts_of_1930s http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrality_Acts_of_1930s) made it nearly impossible for him to provide any US support for the Allies at all. Even in 1941, after the fall of France and the Battle of Britain, Congress only agreed to extend the military draft instituted in 1940 by a single vote. You can argue whether Roosevelt was in the right on any of the policy decisions he made, but you can't argue that he was operating without checks and balances, because he wasn't.

Wintamute 13y ago

Around 1 in 20 people have personalities such that they're prone to addiction, to the extent that it can cause them to make questionable decisions. Drinking, smoking, sex, heroine, gambling, porn, work, party drugs, Subutex, anti-depressants, whatever, you name it. We need to stop prohibiting whatever activity/substance people actually get addicted to because its essentially arbitrary, and start compassionately treating the root psychological causes.

acqq 13y ago
Anybody knows any estimate on how many are addicted to the internet? And how about "addicted to programming"?
- ics 13y ago
  Addicted to reading, addicted to eating, addicted to...
  - jrockway 13y ago
    I'm addicted to being awake 16 hours a day and asleep for 8 hours a day. If I don't drink several glasses of water a day, I'll go into withdrawal and die!
tokenadult 13y ago
start compassionately treating the root psychological causes How? Couldn't limiting access of an addicted person to the substance or activity the person is addicted to be one part of compassionate treatment? What research is there on this?
- Falkon1313 13y ago
  Limiting access to a substance or activity doesn't address the problem, which is the behavior. If the person in question ends up replacing it with a safer substance or activity, that may be somewhat better, but they may instead end up replacing it with something even more dangerous. It's a gamble and it doesn't even address the problem. Blaming inanimate objects for the actions of humans never really helps. It would be better to address the actual humans, their actions, and the causes instead. We just don't know how to do that yet. As a society, we aren't smart enough.

GigabyteCoin 13y ago

Note to self, never visit Georgia. This is how they did it: >If you think New York’s stop-and-frisk rule is invasive, try Georgia’s: Cops can stop anyone at any time for no reason and force him to urinate into a cup. Fifty-three thousand people were stopped on the street in 2007, or about one in 20 of the young men in Georgia.

coldcode 13y ago

I wonder what the actual affect on people is of Subutex. If the effects generally are similar to pot, why bother regulating it? 30,000 people per year in the US die of alcohol related accidents and other issues, and 250,000 or so die of smoking related cancers. Yet they remain completely acceptable legal "drugs". I don't know off hand the number of deaths from illegal and misdirected drugs including violence but I am sure it's not a small number either. The inconsistency of treating each mind-altering substance is what makes little sense to me.

coldcode 13y ago
I found this: "The most common reported side effect of Subutex and Suboxone include: cold or flu-like symptoms, headaches, sweating, sleeping difficulties, nausea, mood swings. Like other opioids Subutex and Suboxone have been associated with respiratory depression (difficulty breathing) especially when combined with other depressants." Sounds like a hangover.
- girvo 13y ago
  The effects are a feeling of pure (blissful) apathy, and warmness. Suboxone is very light on the side-effect front, compared to other opiates.
gizzlon 13y ago
30,000 people per year in the US die of alcohol related accidents That's kind of irrelevant since alcohol is much more widely available and used. The question is, what would happen if [insert drug] was legal and widespread? What effects would it have on individuals and society at large? [edited to make it less harsh]

joyeuse6701 13y ago

In summation, tough policy cleans up the majority of the drug addicts, but the diehards resort to a worse substitute that is , for lack of a better word, grotesque. I wonder if they reintroduced subutex if the old drug addicts would come back, or if just the die hards would return and be free of krokodil?

rammark 13y ago

The article didn't really explain the justification for the crackdown on Subutex except for the usual "drugs are bad, mmmkay". It seems like Subutex is a good cure for misery without serious side effects.

jaynos 13y ago
I assume it's because the mob eventually got involved. Plus, the authors comment about his first trip there makes me think they wanted to clean up the country so as to not scare off tourists.
shabble 13y ago
There are plenty of undesirable side-effects: can induce mild withdrawal symptoms in patients dependent on opioids; also diarrhoea, abdominal pain, anorexia, dyspepsia; vasodilatation; dyspnoea; paraesthesia, asthenia, fati- gue, agitation, anxiety; less commonly flatulence, taste disturbance, angina, hypertension, syncope, hypoxia, wheezing, cough, restlessness, depersonali- sation, dysarthria, impaired memory, hypoaesthesia, tremor, influenza-like symptoms, pyrexia, rhinitis, rigors, muscle cramp, myalgia, tinnitus, dry eye, and dry skin; rarely paralytic ileus, dysphagia, impaired concentration, and psychosis; very rarely retching, hyperventilation, hiccups, and muscle fasciculation --British National Formulary 59 As well as all the complications that come from self-injecting with potentially non-sterile equipment, and of things not intended for IV use (crushed pills have a number of inactive different binders and fillers that don't dissolve and get lodged somewhere in the body, typically the lungs[2]) It's metabolism can be pretty hard on the liver as well, which is a major concern if users have hepatitis from needle sharing/reuse. Another big problem is that since it operates as an opioid receptor anagonist (rather than an agonist, as practically all other opioids), the usual treatment for overdose -- Naloxone -- won't work very well. Buprenorphine also has a fairly hard effectiveness ceiling at ~32mg/day (although it would be a lucky/rich addict indeed who could afford that at €300/8mg quoted in the article) Finally, if an addict ends up in hospital or requires strong pain-relief, there's not a lot of options because the blockade effect will prevent (afaik) virtually all other opioids from working. [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1276621/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1276621/

girvo 13y ago

Normally, on topics like this I post under a throwaway. Now, I don't see why I should. I'm an ex-heroin addict, and am on Suboxone Opiate Replacement Therapy. I've been clean for 9 months, after 6 years of opiate addiction (starting with Oxycodone, and moving quickly to Heroin). I'm 22 years old. This article has a few factual inaccuracies, which I want to correct. First: Injecting Suboxone is NOT safe. Not even close, especially with the method described in the article: unless you are a fan of Talcosis (which will kill you), you need to get a micron filter. Even then, it's not worth it. The high is minimal, tolerance builds rapidly, and it's dangerous. There are numerous complications that come from injecting pills, and it's never worth it. Second, and this is a small nitpick, heroin users don't have "eyes like saucers" - you have eyes like pinpricks. Opiates constrict pupils, not dilate then. Third, heroin withdrawal IS torture, at least if you have a sizable habit. Yes, Burroughs did say it was "overrated", but I can tell you from experience, it's absolute torture. It's not like fever. It's an entire body ache, down to your very bones; it's your mind crying out for relief. It's something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. Just thought I'd add my two cents.

shrikant 13y ago
I can't even begin to empathise with what heroin withdrawal must feel like. Back when I was going through a really rough spot, I sought solace in food and became quite the, uh, chunky chap. When I realised the destructive path I was headed down, I decided to quit junk food cold turkey. There were many, many days when I would lay on my bed trembling and gripping the sheets tightly to prevent myself from dialling out for pizza or chicken. I swear it did feel as if even my knees and toes wanted to eat, eat, EAT!
arkitaip 13y ago
Thank you for sharing your story.
qu4z-2 13y ago
Thank you for talking about this.
nullymcnull 13y ago
There were a number of annoying factual inaccuracies in the article, particular with respect to heroin: > ..time-killing properties of opium or heroin, but with none of the likelihood of it stopping his heart Opiates do not stop your heart. The notion that every single usage of opium or heroin is like a game of russian roulette, that might stop your heart, is fantasy. Opiates are actually quite safe, as drugs go. It's not until you take far too much or mix them that you are screwed. And that's true of any opiate, prescription or otherwise. > Heroin kills, and OxyContin, unless badly mishandled, does not. Basically not true; injected oxy requires no more 'mishandling' than heroin to kill. Both will happily shut down your respiratory system and kill you if you administer too much. Of course one could argue that the pharma is of a consistent manufacture and dosage, whereas one batch of too-strong street opiates could kill someone used to weaker stuff, but the author of this piece seems far too clueless about the subject to be making such distinctions. Then we have comparison of marijuana's 'addictiveness' to that of opiates. The difference between psychological dependence and physical dependence is one of kind, not degree.

chrislloyd 13y ago

For those interested in Krokodil, there's an excellent, harrowing and very NSFW documentary on it by Alison Severs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsUH8llvTZo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsUH8llvTZo

mauvehaus 13y ago
An interesting video, but fair warning before you watch: it gets pretty graphic about halfway through. They show some clips of people with the side-effects of krokodil: the skin drying out, falling off, and parts of bodies getting pretty raw. I don't have a particularly weak stomach, but my dinner started getting restless.
- tetha 13y ago
  Yup, even after seeing to many weird videos, this is one of the 5 worst I know.
wisty 13y ago
tl;dr: it will kill you within about 1 year. Horribly. But it's still popular.

uptown 13y ago

WAY off-topic, but I think this is the first mobile-theme I've seen that renders the site completely unusable on a mobile device. (iPhone 4s - doesn't scroll at all)

lelandbatey 13y ago
I was hoping it wasn't just me. I'm using a galaxy s3 and I'm experiencing the same issues.
badgar 13y ago
Yep, Galaxy Nexus here and it is completely unresponsive to any interaction whatsoever.
Moto7451 13y ago
I can scroll using Chrome on Android 4.0.3. The "share" popup tab is useless however as it requires pressing down which selects text and then hides the tab.
res0nat0r 13y ago
Same for Chrome on my ipad.
hayksaakian 13y ago
Nexus 7 Chrome Beta same issue.

equilibrium 13y ago

Cycle of addiction http://visual.ly/cycle-addiction http://visual.ly/cycle-addiction

raddoc 13y ago

FYI- Suboxone is actually buprenorphine combined with naloxone whereas Subutex is only buprenorphine. When Suboxone is taken sublingually as indicated, the buprenorphine is absorbed and naloxone is not. Thus, if taken as prescribed, Suboxone can be an effective detox/maintenance drug. However, if it is injected, the naloxone becomes bioavailable, binding as an antagonist to the opiod receptors and inducing withdrawal if the user was taking methadone, heroin, or buprenorphine (theoretically). Clever.

inDigiNeous 13y ago

Is it just me, or is this article praising Subutex ? If you want to know what subutex does to people, watch this Finnish Documentary about Subutex, Reindeerspotting, Escape From Santaland: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8O_Ot-wCIg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8O_Ot-wCIg. Subutex misuse is a big problem in Finland, and it seems to create more problems than solve them, at least to the information I've read about it.

jnbiche 13y ago

As an opiate addict on methadone for 5 years, I have a problem with this article because of several major factual inaccuracies. First, and most notably, heroin withdrawal, like withdrawal from any opiate worth its cost, is absolute torture. It's ironic that Burroughs was quoted here, since he's written some of the most accurate descriptions of the utter pain of withdrawal. It's far, far more serious than something like swine flu (which I had during the pandemic), and people can and do die from opiate withdrawal on a frequent basis, usually from the accompanying cardiac issues. Second, having dosed in methadone clinics across this country, I've never seen one with an armed guard, or even an unarmed guard. I've dosed in a clinic in Gary, Indiana, and one in a rough spot near Orlando. Both were clean, safe, well-run places with no guards necessary. In my 5 years on methadone, I've only seen the police called to a clinic on one occasion, when a disgruntled patient got a little verbally abusive toward a counselor. But never physical violence, and never a need for armed guards. It's possible that there is a clinic somewhere that has an armed guard, but saying methadone clinics in general have armed guards is incorrect. Others with far more experience in issues like this than the writer have commented on other inaccuracies, like the "saucer-like" eyes of heroin users, and the exaggerated desirability of Subutex to IV drug users. Because of inaccuracies like this, I have to doubt the other "facts" reported in this article. The whole piece seems to have been written to support a pre-existing idea the writer has about drug policy. Good journalists do this the other way around.

corin_ 13y ago
I've never been near one of these clinics, but is it not possible that 95% of them do have armed guards and the two you went to are in the 5%. Not saying you are or aren't wrong, just that both ways are possible.
- girvo 13y ago
  None that I know of (and go to) in Australia do, mainly because you can dose at any pharmacy that participates in the program.

cnp 13y ago

I wish more people were familiar with Ibogaine. It's expensive, but it's helped two friends completely return to life with no withdrawal symptoms or desire to use again. It has properties that break opiate withdrawal almost instantaneously, as well as other psychological effects that tend to reset senses such as smell, touch, etc, back to an almost childlike state. Very mysterious and beautiful substance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibogaine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibogaine This is also a must-watch documentary: Ibogaine, Rite of Passage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPDIH9WODnk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPDIH9WODnk