Jason Botchford Passes Away

[Gawdzukes]

On 8/28/2020 at 4:51 PM, cuporbust said:

I've lost 8 friends in 2 years this way. All had been though recovery at least once.  It's an animal that's really hard to control.  Sad news.

Geez, that's a lot of people. You guys must party really hard. My good friend lost his cousin the same way. Found him with a needle in his arm sitting in the front window after he didn't show up to work for a couple days. Quite sad.

[Gawdzukes]

On 8/28/2020 at 7:29 PM, Robert Long said:

I'm not sure how many more people we need to lose to this. We need to legalize drugs to ensure as safe a supply as possible, and put the emphasis on addiction and mental health care.

 

Not to mention we'd undercut a big part of the money that funds crime. 

 

Yes, exactly. People do drugs for a variety of reasons. One big one being the unfair distribution of wealth. It should be regulated instead of held just out of reach like a reward for being poor. It's ironic on so many levels but I've been there. 

[tigerswaggerman]

I have a close family member who's been in the scene for over 15 years.

I just want to emphasize that legalizing and controlling  substances isn't the magic fix that some wish it to be. Just because a prescription is written out at the clinic doesn't mean people's appetite for it is somehow more controlled.  A dose is a dose, its nice to have it regulated for purity, but purity and ease of access doesn't curb the chemical reality of the addict. Families will still fall apart and people will still run out of money even if the regulated market is cheaper and more reliable. 

 

Also, I think its a mistake to say legalize everything. Cocaine is like coffee, meth is another level and opiates are another beast in regards to addictive quality. 

Its true that drug abuse and addiction have an economic correlation, but simply putting more resources into safe injection  sites and providing pharmaceutical grade options isn't a grand fix. In fact I would suggest that there are multitudes of unintended consequences that crop up over time in a society that tries to fix a problem, using empathy and 'common sense' as a rudder. 

There's  an entire generation in our society who have been turned into rentiers with no chance of ever owning their own little home. Its maybe hard for those of us who have the boomer and gen x inheritance hope to understand what is driving this systemic shift towards drug dependency. 

Sometimes its one bad decision that snowballs into speedballs and hopelessness.

"Legalize everything" is about as effective an answer to a temporal problem as is a needle in the arm.

 

 

[RU SERIOUS]

1 hour ago, tigerswaggerman said:

I have a close family member who's been in the scene for over 15 years.

I just want to emphasize that legalizing and controlling  substances isn't the magic fix that some wish it to be. Just because a prescription is written out at the clinic doesn't mean people's appetite for it is somehow more controlled.  A dose is a dose, its nice to have it regulated for purity, but purity and ease of access doesn't curb the chemical reality of the addict. Families will still fall apart and people will still run out of money even if the regulated market is cheaper and more reliable. 

 

Also, I think its a mistake to say legalize everything. Cocaine is like coffee, meth is another level and opiates are another beast in regards to addictive quality. 

Its true that drug abuse and addiction have an economic correlation, but simply putting more resources into safe injection  sites and providing pharmaceutical grade options isn't a grand fix. In fact I would suggest that there are multitudes of unintended consequences that crop up over time in a society that tries to fix a problem, using empathy and 'common sense' as a rudder. 

There's  an entire generation in our society who have been turned into rentiers with no chance of ever owning their own little home. Its maybe hard for those of us who have the boomer and gen x inheritance hope to understand what is driving this systemic shift towards drug dependency. 

Sometimes its one bad decision that snowballs into speedballs and hopelessness.

"Legalize everything" is about as effective an answer to a temporal problem as is a needle in the arm.

 

 

Post of the month!

[alt kilgore]

3 hours ago, tigerswaggerman said:

I have a close family member who's been in the scene for over 15 years.

I just want to emphasize that legalizing and controlling  substances isn't the magic fix that some wish it to be. Just because a prescription is written out at the clinic doesn't mean people's appetite for it is somehow more controlled.  A dose is a dose, its nice to have it regulated for purity, but purity and ease of access doesn't curb the chemical reality of the addict. Families will still fall apart and people will still run out of money even if the regulated market is cheaper and more reliable. 

 

Also, I think its a mistake to say legalize everything. Cocaine is like coffee, meth is another level and opiates are another beast in regards to addictive quality. 

Its true that drug abuse and addiction have an economic correlation, but simply putting more resources into safe injection  sites and providing pharmaceutical grade options isn't a grand fix. In fact I would suggest that there are multitudes of unintended consequences that crop up over time in a society that tries to fix a problem, using empathy and 'common sense' as a rudder. 

There's  an entire generation in our society who have been turned into rentiers with no chance of ever owning their own little home. Its maybe hard for those of us who have the boomer and gen x inheritance hope to understand what is driving this systemic shift towards drug dependency. 

Sometimes its one bad decision that snowballs into speedballs and hopelessness.

"Legalize everything" is about as effective an answer to a temporal problem as is a needle in the arm.

 

 

 

There is no magic fix.  But legalizing drugs, ensuring safe products, and doing it in combination with other pillars has much better results than the draconian war on drugs approach.

 

Look at Portugal as an example.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/dec/05/portugals-radical-drugs-policy-is-working-why-hasnt-the-world-copied-it

 

In 2001, nearly two decades into Pereira’s accidental specialisation in addiction, Portugal became the first country to decriminalise the possession and consumption of all illicit substances. Rather than being arrested, those caught with a personal supply might be given a warning, a small fine, or told to appear before a local commission – a doctor, a lawyer and a social worker – about treatment, harm reduction, and the support services that were available to them.

The opioid crisis soon stabilised, and the ensuing years saw dramatic drops in problematic drug use, HIV and hepatitis infection rates, overdose deaths, drug-related crime and incarceration rates. HIV infection plummeted from an all-time high in 2000 of 104.2 new cases per million to 4.2 cases per million in 2015. The data behind these changes has been studied and cited as evidence by harm-reduction movements around the globe. It’s misleading, however, to credit these positive results entirely to a change in law.

Portugal’s remarkable recovery, and the fact that it has held steady through several changes in government – including conservative leaders who would have preferred to return to the US-style war on drugs – could not have happened without an enormous cultural shift, and a change in how the country viewed drugs, addiction – and itself. In many ways, the law was merely a reflection of transformations that were already happening in clinics, in pharmacies and around kitchen tables across the country. The official policy of decriminalisation made it far easier for a broad range of services (health, psychiatry, employment, housing etc) that had been struggling to pool their resources and expertise, to work together more effectively to serve their communities.

.....................................................

Portugal’s policy rests on three pillars: one, that there’s no such thing as a soft or hard drug, only healthy and unhealthy relationships with drugs; two, that an individual’s unhealthy relationship with drugs often conceals frayed relationships with loved ones, with the world around them, and with themselves; and three, that the eradication of all drugs is an impossible goal.

“The national policy is to treat each individual differently,” Goulão told me. “The secret is for us to be present.”

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Edited August 30, 2020 by kilgore

[cuporbust]

5 hours ago, Gawdzukes said:

Geez, that's a lot of people. You guys must party really hard. My good friend lost his cousin the same way. Found him with a needle in his arm sitting in the front window after he didn't show up to work for a couple days. Quite sad.

No, they were mostly met in a recovery centre.  4 roommates in 2 different ones , and close friends in another as well.

Edited August 30, 2020 by cuporbust