Is the opiate crisis as bad as media says it is?

14 comments

1. Yeah, it’s pretty bad.

2. Yeah my father was, for years after a surgery. So bad that he was stealing his kid’s money and the house was almost foreclosed without my mother noticing.

   He’s been clean for 10 years though.

   I also don’t know anyone else personally who struggled with addiction. Though my father says he meets people from all walks of life in NA.

3. No one i know is dealing with an opioid issue yet i read & hear the media & politicians claiming all manner of violet death in a world under opioids.

   What I & many others are doing is suffering with pain & constant “stink-eye” from a new policy where-in everyone who claims they’re in pain is more than likely an opioid crazed bad person.

   Doctors say just give the a tube of diclofinac & tell ’em to rub it in. They’ll be fine…

4. I think in general, we have a pretty severe drug problem, not just opiates. I know people that are abusing benzos, and never mind the alcoholism.

5. I don’t know anybody who is addicted and am only even aware of this because of Reddit.

6. It exists, and it’s bad, but it’s not spread evenly. It’s very possible to have a circle of friends and family where no one is on hard drugs. It’s bad… if you’re part of that world.

7. What’s bad is the fact that the use rates and overdose death rates have continued to increase over the last several years. It’s not like everywhere you go you will see it, but yes many areas throughout the country have visible signs of an opioid epidemic. A few things, we border one of the world’s largest heroin producers. Also, Chinese fentanyl exports flood the streets. It gets pressed into pills and sold for next to nothing. I have never heard of Dopesick on Disney so I cannot speak it it’s accuracy.

8. Though I’ve never been a user and no close friends or family have, it’s affected my region. I used to work at a place where there was a percentage of the client base that it was known were using heroin, then we had a client nodding out that we could barely awaken, so after that I made sure we Narcan in our office in case we had an overdose (edit: this was not a homeless shelter, recovery facility, or similar where you’d expect to normally encounter addiction).

   There was a surreal moment when I was in a pharmacy and saw a typical cheerful airbrushed drug ad and realized it was also for Narcan.

   Also I visited an area for work that was hard hit and saw a cute little small town Main Street, but many of the shop windows also had fliers for rehab facilities, just one flier after the next.

   I appreciate that they made Dopesick, the story needed to be told, but I haven’t had the heart to watch it.

9. I volunteer in the recovery community.

   I would say the news sensationalizes it but it is a major issue.

   Tons of addicts in recovery started on prescribed pills then eventually switched to heroin. The scary part is that it had almost entirely switched to fentanyl. I know someone that checks people in to detox and they do a drug screen because they need a no bs assessment of what they are dealing with. Their screen can distinguish between heroin and fentanyl. He says in the last four years no one has come in with “just” heroin. It’s always fentanyl or fentanyl and heroin.

   Fentanyl is dangerous because it is so powerful. A small change in purity makes much more of a difference. So people overdose on it more because drug dealers aren’t known for strict dosing regimens.

   So yeah, it’s a big problem.

   Since I have gone to AA and HA meetings to support people I can tell you there are a *lot* of people that are in recovery that you probably interact with every day and never know. Everyone from lawyers, insurance agents, dentists, to the guy that makes your food or does your carpentry.

10. Drugs and alcohol have always been an issue in the US. Opioids are bad. Virtually everyone knows an addict. Rich, poor, young, old you name it. Many got addicted through prescription pain killer prescriptions for injuries.

11. I am an expat so take this into consideration. 10 years ago when I transferred out, I would only randomly here a news segment about kids busted for vicodin or percos. Now, I hear about the crisis, have read articles, saw some movie called Ben is Back which as a parent was kind of disturbing, but in reality I don’t know anyone with the addiction nor anyone touched by it.

    Having said that, you can see from the stats that it is the leading cause of OD deaths, and there was the Purdue Pharma settlement, so clearly there is an issue.

12. In my experience the problem is fentanyl overdose. I know way to many people who have died of overdose. They aren’t the typical “addicted junkies”. We lost a young family member to overdose and my best friend did also. Teens and young adult who are experimenting with drugs and “partying” are dying of fentanyl overdose. It’s a serious problem and if it hasn’t effected you, you are lucky.

13. Yup. Some areas are worse than others, but it not tied to geography or affluenece only.

    My wife lost her brother to opiods, and he came from a well off working class family in a nice suburb.

    I went to college in the Appalachians, and it was pretty hard hit there too.

14. I also hear about it on the news all the time, but I am not aware of anyone in my life who has an addiction or is in recovery.

    I have a family member who is a paramedic and he often gets calls to resuscitate opioid users with Narcan.