Not dead but in a coma.
Fuck me.

He's had addiction issues for a long time and I cant say this comes as too much of a surprise

His dad is like one of my best friends and he's put him through hell over the years.


This opioid epidemic is very real

Indeed it is.

Sorry to hear...

Sister-in-law is in the same boat, found out she was Narcan'ed a few weeks ago. 4 year old at home, single mom, Grandma and Grandpa are raising another kid instead of retiring.

Horrible, horrible shit

agreed we should make it illegal.

Maybe this will be his bottom...

I guess we should make meth and opioids illegal, or available only with a Doctor's prescription.

Real Sorry.
My step-son died from that, Feb. 2014.
Lucky me found him and had to call wife at work, agonized for an hour on how to tell her.
He was clean for a good while too......

I understand what you're saying but it's not like them being illegal seems to counter the problem. 

People forget the explosion of illicit opioid use is tied directly to the expanded prescription rate of legal painkillers.

Legal doesn't equal safe.

Feel your pain bro.

My nephew found his wife overdosed about 4 weeks ago.
He gave her a couple of doses of Narcan, but it was too late.

Bad times.

Correct.

My nephew and his wife both became addicted after surgical procedures.

My cousin is a massive heroin addict. I still think it should be legal. It’s clearly not stopped her with it being illegal. I just wish paramedics would quit resuscitating her.

Go off the phone with my mother and uncle. Both are MDs
Now they're talking brain damage as they have no idea how long he wasn't breathing for

Saw a woman OD yesterday.
Asked why I didnt help. Answer. Some drugs can be transferred through skin contact.

My brother who was there answered that my nephew was poison attempting mouth to mouth to save his friend while also administrating Narcan with no protection. He spent a day in the ER.

I was ask next to a priest what I thought about it. Drug use is like Russian roulette. Eventually Darwin wins and death gets his soul. Just like three of my cousins and two neighbors did with out drugs.

Priest did not like my answer.
If you cant face reality and have a drug addiction. Just go into the woods where people cant save you and stop  putting a burden on family and the taxpayer.

Well, that's not true,  but no need to derail this thread over your rant.

So if guns were illegal would gun related crimes go up, down, or stay the same?

Yea. I learned about that in a CPR class a few months ago. I had no idea. 

I'm sorry to hear that, man.

Will keep you guys in my prayers. If he does have brain damage, the family might consider at some point talking to his doctor about IV peptide nootropics. It's a long shot, but I think it's possible they can help the brain repair itself to some degree in those circumstances. Cerebrolysin or the Ceretropic P21 product might be worth a shot at some point, and there are others that can be researched (the racetam family of drugs, etc. )

The addiction problem is a different matter. You might want to look at the Kratom thread here in GD, there's a lot of good information in there. Ibogaine therapy was a suggestion in that thread that might have some merit for someone with a problem with opioids, but again it would need to be a decision the family made...just mentioning it so that it's out there.

I hope he makes a full recovery. I can't imagine seeing that happen to my son or what I would feel.

They simply will never get it.

Is Narcan only making it worse in that it removes some of the fear involved with OD? 

Sorry you are going through this.  It is a very difficult situation for those who want to help someone...because there is really nothing you can do to change the addict.  At best they need to want to change themselves.  If they every reach that point, that is when people should bend over backwards to help them get treatment.  

In your opinion will the needle exchanges and free Narcan to anyone who wants it, help the problem or simple enable and maybe even encourage the problem?  Around here the liberals are pushing everyone to follow what Lexington Ky does; which is a needle exchange and free Narcan.

IM sorry for your uncle.

But I'm not blaming the drug. I'm blaming the people that do the drug illegally

That's like blaming a gun

Instead of the person who used it illegally

Opioid drugs are not illegal. They are regulated for medical purposes. They do help people that need them.

I'm truely sorry for your uncle, but your cousin was using drugs illegally.  He was breaking the law.

What are going to do regulate every out of existence because some people abuse an item.

You can babysit every person in the world. I've have death in the family because of a drug. Not once did it even cross my mind to blame the drug.

I blame the person that bought and did the drugs. If it were not Opioids it'd be something else. There are 325 million people in America. The number of deaths from Opioids isn't even high enough to register a percentage number.

This is a made up epidemic. The reason there has been an up tick in heroin deaths is because of peoplein chronic pain that can't get Opioid pain meds because of the new regulations and they switch to heroin. Pain can make people do stupid things.

But don't feed me the blame game. It's the people that break the law and do drugs llegally. It killed my brother. Not the drugs. I blame him and his stupid choices in life. That drug did not jump up by it's self. If it had not been one drug it would have been another and I can guarantee you knowing addicts as a medic. He was doing more than Opioids.

i think it is the exact opposite. i think that people who have experienced drug damage, know that drugs are not a blame game they are part of the human condition. drug use has been found in bodies that lived before the time of written language. You can keep pretending it is some moral failing or take the reigns and see what form or realistic control can do.

To tell you the truth I really wasn't aware of Narcan as I don't really have opioid addiction in my day to day life.

If I had to theorize about it, I would bet on my cousin thinking it was an insurance policy, a get out of jail free card.
He's always been overtly carefree about his drug use despite all the trouble he's gotten into and his parents objections. I suppose in WA state this sort of thing is becoming more prevalent.

He's a highly intelligent, motivated addict and a goddamn selfish asshole.
I love him, but he's still a douche

My nephew ODed about 5 months ago.  Upstanding young guy not some crack headed tweaker so to speak.

He fell at work about 4 years ago and broke his femur while healing from the injury they gave him oxy to cut the pain.  Well my family has a long history of addiction issues and he is no different.  He got addicted to the shit and no one knew.  

Fast forward to 6 months ago.  Well he was at work got loopy, passed out and they called the EMTs.  Come to find out he had been hitting oxy and opioids since the injury, and got hold of some wicked shit.

The family has since found out he was going door to door to docs to complain about pain in an effort to fish for the drugs.  A number of docs became his dealer.

The fault falls on my nephew, and the medical providers who enabled the addiction.  Narcotic prescription drugs are fucking up our nation from the top down these days.  It is very sad.  

OP you family is in my thoughts, I have BTDT.

Sorry to hear that OP.

Something like 60k/yr are dying from opioid overdoses. Leading cause of death in people under 50.

Yes and no. For the addicts who aren't totally gone, they still want to live and Narcan is their savior. Hardcore addicts, ones who no longer give a shit about anything except their next high, the ones who are basically dead already, don't give a shit, and in some cases, will try to fight whoever administered the narcan because it kicks them out of the high and into instant withdrawal.

You need to be careful giving Narcan to a addict that's overdosed. Narcan blocks the receptors of an addict and totally take their high away depending on dose You can cause them to go into instance withdrawals.

Ask me how I know this, also ask me what happens in the back of my rescue unit when an addict goes into withdrawals and why I titrate to effect now. Just enough Narcan to sablize the patient but let them keep their high.

They can become very violent, throw up in my unit pee or poo on them selves all kinds of nasty things. Get very mad at you for taking away their high. True they may have been dieing but you took away their buzz and now they are really pissed at you and want to kick your ass.

So now they get soft restraints just in case and just enough Narcan to stablize their vitals.

Addicts make choices in life. Just like criminals. Brother alway smoked pot. If he was offered a job making 1 million a year under the condition he could not do drugs. He couldn't do it. He was going to get high weather it was on pot, coke I don't know what else.

But he worked hard. I cant say he was lazy. That boy worked, fished and hunted. But he loved his drugs and alcohol.
He died in a single car crash coke and alcohol was in his blood. It killed me.

Sure it'd been real easy to blame drugs and alcohol instead of my brothers choices HE MADE IN LIFE.
But the truth is drugs and alcohol did not kill my brother. HE KILLED HIMSELF BY THE CHOICES HE MADE.

It's no different than cigarette smokers. Now there's a drug. People choice to either smoke or not.

If you smoke and become addicted. It's the hardest thing in the world to quit. But if you want to you can. It's a choice.

I have nothing against people that smoke. I don't blame cigarettes for a stupid choice I made when dizens of people told me not to do it.

But I quit and it was hard.

But the OP blames a legal drug because his cousin broke the law and used it illegally.  

Also cites a made up epidemic that the death rate is so low that it can't register percentage wise. Unless they clump it in with illegal drugs like heroin. Opioid drugs are a legal drug used in medicine were as heroin is illegal and they lump them together.

The government is creating an illegal drug market an causing illegal drug use among chronic pain patients who are having a hard time getting pains now or who can't get then because of some b,s. Made up epidemic. These people have started using heroin and other illegal drugs without doctor supervision.

Everyone here knows for a fact. That when the government get's involved in anything they fuck it up.

Sorry to hear it OP.  Drugs have played hell on a number of people in my family as well.  One uncle was shot and killed by a police officer several years ago.  Damned drugs.

First I heard that.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/overdoses-are-leading-cause-of-death-americans-under-50/

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/05/upshot/opioid-epidemic-drug-overdose-deaths-are-rising-faster-than-ever.html

Bad stuff.

My baby sister, (L. Ridings...if anyone wants to look it up), died October 31st 2012 of cardiac arrest, most likely caused by an acute Methamphetamine overdose, in a truck stop, in Amarillo, TX...on Halloween night (as if she couldn't have made it more cliched.)

According to the autopsy and toxicology performed in a lab at Lubbock, the order of magnitude in her system for a 35 year old, well nourished female weighing 153 lbs, estimated oral ingestion was over an ounce...a distributable quantity.

I knew she was dabbling in dope from time to time. She did it for the high too, but mostly for the easy money.

If the shit were legal, there wouldn't be any money in it.

No flame, bro...just saying.

Yep because seeing as how making it illegal has done any good.

If it were legal it would kill are the dumbasses who choose to do it quicker and we can clean up the gene pool.

There are plenty of people who dont makr bad choices after surgical procedures. No one forces them to take pills.

In before the 420 crowd.



My wife was at the super market this week and saw a young guy and girl shooting up in their car.

It's an epidemic of stupid.

Actually its the crackdown on legal prescriptions that is causing this "Epidemic"!

research it yourself if you dont believe me! I was on the front lines of this war, before I chose my family over death!

ETA

Heroin is already massively illegal! How much more "Illegal" should it be? 

Drug epidemic is outrageous.  We ran on a Narcan party Friday in an abandoned house....6 od'd., two dead.  We used 35 doses of Narcan took two departments to respond.

My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

.

My cousin is in the same boat. Been addicted to pain killers for 5 years or so now. Ma and pa are afraid to cut the financial ties in fear of the worst. He's draining their checking account along with stealing stuff and pawning it for dope. Been to treatment twice in the past 3 years. Called me last Thursday and told me he was using again and that he called an addiction rehab joint and checked himself in for a minimum 30 day inpatient program. Glad he's pulled his head out of his ass and was smart enough to nip this one before it got out of hand again. Hoping for the best.

White people,  blacks? Just curious what demographics most od on heroin?
Whole lot of sober homes showing up in local area.
One is run by a guy from Toledo, OH
They fly patients down here from Ohio.
Like Florida Man not enough.

2 Hispanic (one dead)
1 black (dead)
rest white....age range 16-57

We had a 17yo girl OD on Monday.

Bet a lot of that sh*t comes from Afghanistan.

I’m so sorry that you’re dealing with this.
My baby brother OD’d August 2nd after having been clean for years.
Miss him every single day.

Actually in this case the opioid epidemic can be directly tied to ratcheting up the control on pill mills.

Once upon a time there were hundreds of legal "pain management" clinics.  The DEA in it's infinite wisdom decided to shut them down in a very short period of time.  This left a bunch of functioning addicts without a supply of cheap opioids.  Because they could not afford pills on the street they turned to heroin and fentanyl.

I'll take functioning addicts over herion junkies any day of the week.