The news outlets these days are reporting, “out of concern” about this new opiate “epidemic”.
Let me start with a fact.
Opiates are not the problem. Dumb kids and weak adults that can’t handle their drugs are.
I’m just kidding, but not really.
Seriously though, this so called epidemic of downers has been killing people long before it went mainstream. The souls lost, the overdoses, the lies, the slow decline and destruction of families have been a cancer in the United States for about 50 years or so.
To my knowledge musicians started messing with it sometime between the 40s and 50s. It wasn’t something many people used. At one time it was dispensed as a pain killer, but it was quickly discovered that it was too addictive. It wasn’t made illegal till the 70s when Richard Nixon declared a war on drugs and created the D.E.A. (Drug Enforcement Agency). Before then, mostly artists and musicians did heroin. It was quiet and secretive among the players and performers of that time. It wasn’t until the soldiers that were fighting and picking up serious drug habits came home from Vietnam that the problem became prevalent.
By the time the jungle war was over it was the mid 70s, disco was in full control of the New York City club scene. The drug of choice at this time was cocaine. Clubs were also filled with LSD, poppers, downers, ecstasy and as time went on, heroin. Heroin faded in the media because of a new drug but dope didn’t die on the streets.
In the 80s, 70's coke turned into crack and if anything should have been called a crisis of epidemic proportions it should have been this era. People still snorted blow because crack was the poor man’s drug. Coke was sophisticated and to be enjoyed with alcohol in social settings. At the time you wouldn’t see well dressed users in abandon buildings tooting it up. Eventually, coke wasn’t enough and some of the well dressed, well you know how that story ends…
Then came the 90s and it was all about designer drugs. I called them club drugs because there was nothing designer about them. But, for a moment it was all about ecstasy and special K.
Were they good? You better fucking believe they were, but at the end of the day it’s just another drug and it would not be powerful enough for many users.
Around the mid to late 90s and 2000s, heroin came back in a big way. Also to hit the streets was the newly created strongest pain killer, oxycontin.
I remember when I encountered them. Oxy only came in an 80 milligram pill with a time release coding which if you washed off would make the pill hit quicker.
What’s hysterical to me is the time release. The brilliant and creative lab rats in white coats thought the time release would keep people from getting hooked on the new, highly addictive and powerful pain killer.
These are the smartest minds in the world. These people really thought an addictive substance like that would not addict because of a coding that any nitwit could and would figure out that simply washing it off or even crushing it would hit them faster and harder.
Are they really this stupid or did they know exactly what they were doing?
This is when the pill craze turned into the heroin epidemic we all hear about today.
Drum roll please…And now it’s fentanyl.
That’s just a taste of the smallest run down I can give you, otherwise this blog would be a book. If you look this shit up, the issue will bug you out. But, like I said before this is nothing new.
The only thing that is new about drug overdoses now is that white kids are dying in the suburbs. The rest of white America, women and men, ranging from 20 to 70 year olds are dropping from opioid pain relievers otherwise known as pain killers. What starts off as a physical pain management mechanism ends in emotional murder.
You start because of a sprained ankle, broken bone or torn ligament and within weeks you’re taking double because your entire body hurts. That just doesn’t add up to me.
Then you become depressed without the pills. Before you know it you’re seeking cheaper and stronger ways of self medicating. You start to not want to feel anything at all. The problem is by the time you get there, you’re either a zombie or your dead.
This is the kind of crap that makes it harder for normal people who just want to have a little fun. I’m sure there are many people who do not want to smoke pot at a concert or take ecstasy at dance club. But, there are many people that do.
Normally I would say that the problem is choice and adults should be allowed to put whatever, whenever into their bodies. But, when doctors are providing heroin in a pill for 60 days then expect a person to just drop the meds on day 61, I can’t talk about choice.
It seems to me time and again that the government is behind this so called crisis. The federal government spends billions a year on the war on drugs. This “epidemic” the government is allegedly fighting can only have happened because of the government.
The drugs that pharmaceutical companies are introducing to the marketplace can only be dispensed by federal approval.
The problem wasn’t an issue and was no where near an epidemic when the poor were dying. The poor are still dying, but now so are the average citizens; middle and upper class people snorting and shooting their way into their graves.
The government and the media are playing a misdirection trick on us because at the end of the day pain killers are still be handed out legally like candy.
What the media and the government will never mention are ways to get clean. There are many avenues but an addict has to hunt them down and at times can’t afford them.
For all of those people who aren’t twelve steppers or can’t afford to live 90 days in a rehab clinic
there are other ways to kick. One in particular has shown positive results though the process itself may seem a bit out there.
Ibogaine is one substance scientifically proven to curb addiction and withdrawal symptoms. It is currently illegal in the United States, for its hallucinogenic properties. Ibogaine treatment clinics have gained popularity in Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica, the Netherlands, South Africa, and New Zealand. In most countries, it is unregulated, used as a prescription treatment or in a clinical setting.
One more thing I have to share blew me off my chair. A town in these United States haunted by its own heroin problem has taken measures into their own hands.
Everett, Seattle has a major opioid problem. The usage of heroin and fentanyl is so big that the E.M.T.s (Emergency Medical Technicians) can’t handle the overdose rate on the streets. So the Everette Police Department partnered up with social workers to help heroin addicts.
The city government and it’s cops are saving people overdosing not arresting them. They realized that they can’t arrest their way out of this problem. They spend their nights chasing overdose calls on the streets. Sometimes 15 to 20 times a night, every night. Many of these users started on pain medication such as oxycontin.
All silk roads lead to ‘Big Pharma’ I guess.
Here’s a small part of a Frontline Documentary which focused on the Everette police department.
And here is the whole documentary.
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