Drug overdoses now kill more US citizen's than guns

[HamburgerBoy]

50,000 jobs are now available...sweet

Laying around inside of a trailer park doesn't pay a whole lot.

 

[Kazukian]

50,000 jobs are now available...sweet

Add in the gun deaths, and you're up to 100,000.

 

[Darwin333]

Legalizing heroin would probably be a better solution than anything else that has happened in recent American drug history. We'd be better off doing the Canadian thing and just give out free, rationed heroin for any druggies that want it.

Heroin use and overdoses have shot way the hell up in the last 5ish years or so. What happened that caused this spike you may or may not have asked? Well the government, both state and Fed, have seriously cracked down on prescription opiate abuse. So the people already addicted to a pharmaceutical that they could very easily get the exact dosage that they wanted had only one place to turn. They turned to a drug they otherwise never would have but was now the only readily available and cheap opiate they could get, heroin. So much to their glee, I saw all kinds of press statements from politicians gloating about curbing prescription drug abuse, they succeeded. Unfortunately, they didn't really cut down on actual drug use, they just pushed people to a far far more dangerous and even more addictive substance. To make matters worse, people who were used to taking very specific dosages of tightly controlled pharmaceuticals are now taking a drug whose strength can vary by a huge amount from batch to batch.

Now we have heroin overdoses and deaths skyrocketing across the country, even more people hooked on heroin and our only solution is to throw them in jail. So, umm, good job government?

 

[1sikbITCH]

Legalizing heroin would probably be a better solution than anything else that has happened in recent American drug history. We'd be better off doing the Canadian thing and just give out free, rationed heroin for any druggies that want it.

That is a very liberal attitude and a convenient one now that doctors have turned rural white America into a shooting gallery. Heroin has been here in massive quantities since the Vietnam War and been fucking shit up the whole time. Just not white shit. For the last 40 years we were more than happy to lock up all the black drug addicts. Get em off the streets! Meanwhile the white folks were living it up in Oxyland. Now, rural white folks are slamming dope like they invented it so common sense says lets just make it legal.
It looks bad when you lock up soccer mom.

 

[Zaap]

Well, the Republicans are in charge so they'll fix the health care system. Right OP?

Well the D's sure did while they were in charge, right? Such an idiot you are.

 

[HeXen]

Laying around inside of a trailer park doesn't pay a whole lot.

True but less residents in a trailer park, the higher nearby homes values may go up. There's always a positive side.

 

[ivwshane]

Well the D's sure did while they were in charge, right? Such an idiot you are.

They certainly attempted to and they certainly did achieve some of their goals. What have Republicans done? Nothing.

Oops! Looks like you were projecting again.

 

[Zaap]

They certainly attempted to and they certainly did achieved some of their goals.

Participation trophy.

What have Republicans done? Nothing.

Wait, your ilk has been sniveling for years that Obamacare is a Republican idea. Back to another talking point now?

 

[ivwshane]

Participation trophy.


Wait, your ilk has been sniveling for years that Obamacare is a Republican idea. Back to another talking point now?

Wait, so now Obamacare is a Republican idea and you want to credit Republicans for it?

Yeah, you are that fucking stupid.

 

[Blue_Max]

Progressive brainwashing at its finest.

 

[superstition]

The US government put methanol into the alcohol supply to maim and kill Americans during Prohibition.

Now the heroin supply is increasingly having elephant tranquilizer added to it — the main cause of death/injury/destruction from heroin use.

connection?

I'm sure it's in the interest of drug cartels to kill off its buyers and prompt more of a crackdown. Shirley.

I'm sure it's also coincidental that a doctor was convicted of second degree murder because her adult patients chose to abuse painkillers — without her having come to their homes and forced them to abuse them.

Yeah, can't get painkillers for chronic pain (a common thing for working-class men — thanks to the kind of work they do) so get people to buy heroin laced with elephant tranquilizers.

No adults in America anymore, apparently.

 

[dank69]

Progressive brainwashing at its finest.

I don't see suicide by gun on your little chart there.

 

[IronWing]

Now we have heroin overdoses and deaths skyrocketing across the country, even more people hooked on heroin and our only solution is to throw them in jail. So, umm, good job government?

Silly me, but I blame druggies for their own drug use. Are doctors enablers? Of course, but it comes down to personal responsibility or lack there of on the part of the drug abuser.

 

[FIVR]

It is pretty interesting that in the USA a doctor can be convicted of Murder for prescribing medication, while a cop can shoot a man in the back on video and they won't even give him manslaughter. Both Doctors and Cops are given great responsibility, but only one of them actually gets held to account when things go wrong.

 

[1sikbITCH]

Participation trophy.


Wait, your ilk has been sniveling for years that Obamacare is a Republican idea. Back to another talking point now?

ilk? Your ilk is white supremist. See how that works?

 

[Chaotic42]

I don't see suicide by gun on your little chart there.

Here's a more official chart (note that it doesn't track abortion):
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db229_table.pdf#1

This site lists the number of abortions in 2013 at 664,435:
http://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/data_stats/

 

[JockoJohnson]

Here's a more official chart (note that it doesn't track abortion):
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db229_table.pdf#1

This site lists the number of abortions in 2013 at 664,435:
http://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/data_stats/

The first chart doesn't track abortions because we don't count parasites being killed, duh!

 

[Darwin333]

Silly me, but I blame druggies for their own drug use. Are doctors enablers? Of course, but it comes down to personal responsibility or lack there of on the part of the drug abuser.

Of course it's their own fault. My point was rather simple, said druggies were on a much safer drug until all of their options were taken away except for the worst possible drug for them to be on.

 

[momeNt]

I'd argue that basically all these deaths are in one form or another "suicide".

Unless somebody was injected or otherwise dosed by another person, then that would be considered a "drug homicide".

So the drug overdose deaths can be looked at in the same light as suicide by guns - done by the willing in order to check out.

Guns are still at the top of killing OTHER people.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

I'd argue that basically all these deaths are in one form or another "suicide".

Unless somebody was injected or otherwise dosed by another person, then that would be considered a "drug homicide".

So the drug overdose deaths can be looked at in the same light as suicide by guns - done by the willing in order to check out.

Guns are still at the top of killing OTHER people.

I tend to agree in that I don't cry over junkies dying, and that it is ultimately their responsibility for becoming drug addicts to begin with, but the rate of these deaths accelerating isn't just random noise. It's government regulations that directly encourage addicts to go down more dangerous routes.

 

[soundforbjt]

People in the US are pussies, they use iirc, almost 80% of all painkillers produced in the world.

 

[ivwshane]

I tend to agree in that I don't cry over junkies dying, and that it is ultimately their responsibility for becoming drug addicts to begin with, but the rate of these deaths accelerating isn't just random noise. It's government regulations that directly encourage addicts to go down more dangerous routes.

Government regulation? My understanding is that it was "fake news" that actually started this waive of opioid prescription abuse that gave doctors the go ahead to start prescribing opioids way more than they previously did.
What government regulation are you talking about?

 

[interchange]

Drug use that results in death but intended only to produce a high is not suicide. Of course, you can't ask a dead person what they intended.

A doctor has responsibility in prescribing medications where benefits outweigh risks. If a doctor prescribes large quantities of opioids continuously and without oversight such that several of their patients die, this is absolutely criminal. The only medications a patient has ever gotten mad at me, threatened me, etc. for not prescribing are opioids and benzodiazepines. There is no question that these medications can be addictive, and there is very limited data to suggest that long-term use has benefit.

It seems much of the problem has to do with the introduction of fentanyl into the market as a substitute (often marketed as another drug). Inconsistency in the potency of a product mean a user may overdose on what they believe to be a normal amount of the drug. Sickeningly, a dealer's clients dying from their stuff increases their ability to sell it.

While cutting someone off of opioids abruptly after enabling an addiction to foster can be a push toward illicit use, there is a role in education of physicians to encourage not prescribing opioids when they are not essential to avoid addiction in the first place.

Of course, tightening of criminalization of drug users is not effective. Drug courts and increasing funding for treatment programs is (especially with a contingency). I am generally a fan of opioid-replacement as a harm reduction strategy (methadone, buprenorphine). Other things like clean needle exchanges, places to allow people to use IV drugs while monitored for overdose, etc. are counter-intuitive harm reduction strategies that have benefit.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Government regulation? My understanding is that it was "fake news" that actually started this waive of opioid prescription abuse that gave doctors the go ahead to start prescribing opioids way more than they previously did.
What government regulation are you talking about?

See for one example:

It's not really a healthcare thing. It's a DEA rescheduling hydrocodone thing (among many other efforts in vain to stop drug abuse via stricter laws).

What specific fake news are you referring to that allowed for over-prescription of these drugs?

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

It's Obama's administration that caused this problem broski.

lol, really? explain please.