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I overdosed on fentanyl. I barely survived. A radical solution could save thousands like me.
Slate ^ | MARCH 24, 2024 | James T. Morrison

Posted on 03/25/2024 12:10:45 AM PDT by nickcarraway

FENTANYL KILLS. That’s what the billboard says. That’s all the billboard says—FENTANYL in a cold, light blue, KILLS in stark white against an all-black background. Below is a woman on a gurney, treated with the same dead-blue tones as the script above her. She’s covered to her armpits in a sheet, arms at her sides, awaiting an autopsy. Anyone who has seen a cop drama in the past 30 years knows the image.

When an opioid user overdoses, their lips turn a cold, light blue. That was the color of my lips when I lay slumped in a pile outside the automatic doors of an emergency room. Jenny, the girl I had absconded from rehab with just days before, shouted for help, and once she saw the staff stir to action, jumped back in the car. Gustavo, who Jenny had guilted into driving, stepped on the gas, bald tires searching for traction before squealing to life, catapulting them into a night drowning in coastal fog. I imagined the diffuse light from cherry-red plastic growing faint, the EMERGENCY dissolving in their rearview. I’m sure it was traumatic for them. I’m sure they went back to our wretched motel room and immediately got high to blunt the terror. That’s what I would have done.

Splashed across the bottom right-hand corner of the billboard are the insignia of several city agencies proudly supporting its message. What is noticeably absent is any reference to a single resource—not a website, not a phone number, not a mention of how someone might stop using fentanyl and thus avoid their impending death. The billboard looms large over a dirt lot dotted with tarps and tents and other telltale signs of DIY shelters in a southwest

(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: fentanyl; overdose; save
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To: nickcarraway

The best way to stop fentanyl overdoses is to stop the use of narcan on drug users... Eventually the abusers will be thinned out.


21 posted on 03/25/2024 4:20:12 AM PDT by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it!)
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To: nickcarraway

Google the number.


22 posted on 03/25/2024 4:20:22 AM PDT by roving (Deplorable Listless Vessel Trumpist With Trumpitis and a Rainbow Bully)
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To: Celtic Conservative

“Something radical? Like don’t effing take drugs?”

There have been reports that fentanyl is being introduced in to other OTC drugs, and even candy. If true, probably many who are impacted have taken it unknowingly.

I used to pick up some antibiotics in port while on cruises. I guess I wouldn’t do that again; it’s not worth the risk.


23 posted on 03/25/2024 4:21:00 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (Fraud vitiates everything." - SCOTUS)
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To: nickcarraway
FTA: "... stepped on the gas, bald tires searching for traction before squealing to life, catapulting them into a night drowning in coastal fog. I imagined the diffuse light from cherry-red plastic growing faint, the EMERGENCY dissolving in their rearview.

Snoopy: "It was a dark and stormy night".

24 posted on 03/25/2024 4:23:39 AM PDT by TangoLimaSierra (⭐⭐To the Left, The Truth is Right Wing Violence⭐⭐)
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To: nickcarraway

don’t use street drugs, idiots.
how people can muster up sympathy is beyond me.


25 posted on 03/25/2024 4:30:01 AM PDT by ronniesgal (have you even tried to mind your own business?)
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To: monkeyshine

I say we legalize it all and let Safeway and Walmart fight it out for market share. Sell the crap in 5 pound sacks for all I care.

All the idiots will be dead in about 6 weeks. We can run some end loaders down the street, dump the bodies in a common grave and be done with it.

L


26 posted on 03/25/2024 4:39:04 AM PDT by Lurker ( Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.)
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To: nickcarraway

The overflowering language had me laughing out loud. Somebody’s going for a Pulitzer. 🤣


27 posted on 03/25/2024 4:42:07 AM PDT by cuban leaf (2024 is going to be one for the history books, like 1939. And 2025 will be more so, like 1940-1945.)
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To: 9YearLurker

Well, unless they smear fentanyl on the boxes of stuff I get from Amazon I don’t have anything to worry about. Well, and also, I don’t live in an urban or suburban area. I left that years ago.


28 posted on 03/25/2024 4:45:52 AM PDT by cuban leaf (2024 is going to be one for the history books, like 1939. And 2025 will be more so, like 1940-1945.)
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To: Tacrolimus1mg

I had open on its heart surgery almost exactly a year ago. They prescribed some pain meds for me but the only thing that I ended up taking was some extra strength Tylenol that they gave me after the surgery. We gave back the other stuff. Not needed.


29 posted on 03/25/2024 4:47:02 AM PDT by cuban leaf (2024 is going to be one for the history books, like 1939. And 2025 will be more so, like 1940-1945.)
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To: Jimmy Valentine

And it made you tough! 😎


30 posted on 03/25/2024 4:49:05 AM PDT by cuban leaf (2024 is going to be one for the history books, like 1939. And 2025 will be more so, like 1940-1945.)
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To: Rowdyone

The death penalty for drug dealers of fentanyl would put a dent in this issue. Thats radical but this is where were at.


31 posted on 03/25/2024 4:49:38 AM PDT by MrRelevant
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To: TangoLimaSierra

Ha! I wasn’t the only one that noticed that. You and I called out the exact same thing. Author must be a 22-year-old recent college graduate.


32 posted on 03/25/2024 4:53:13 AM PDT by cuban leaf (2024 is going to be one for the history books, like 1939. And 2025 will be more so, like 1940-1945.)
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To: MrRelevant

Yep. How do you call it a drug “war” if you’re not trying to kill the army of the enemy?


33 posted on 03/25/2024 4:54:06 AM PDT by cuban leaf (2024 is going to be one for the history books, like 1939. And 2025 will be more so, like 1940-1945.)
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To: MayflowerMadam

I consider that issue to be a red herring, kind of like bringing up rape victims when disgusting legalizing abortion.


34 posted on 03/25/2024 4:55:33 AM PDT by cuban leaf (2024 is going to be one for the history books, like 1939. And 2025 will be more so, like 1940-1945.)
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To: nickcarraway

As with most things, the bible has the answer for this issue...

2 Thessalonians 3:10-13

If you don’t work, you don’t eat. It will solve the drug crisis in short order.


35 posted on 03/25/2024 5:09:05 AM PDT by nitzy (I wonder if the telescreens in 1984 were first called "free Obamascreens")
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To: Dutch Boy

“..Having had a few family members that are/were addicts, death is often the most merciful thing that could happen. They have not only destroyed their lives but also those around them. The ones that died, were grieved. Those that survived have destroyed many adjacent lives.....”

Sadly, I have to say that I have witnessed ^THIS^ with my own eyes firsthand. They were addicted so bad, they begged, then robbed, then killed their own relatives in order to support their addiction. That’s after they wrecked their homes, their vehicles, whatever financial accounts were available, etc. It was utter destruction and outright tragic; not only for the addict, but also friends, relatives, etc..
Some family members armed themselves for self preservation and protection from them. Neighbors and friends did the same after being burglarized several times. Law enforcement could do little to stop em.
While the family grieved, they actually felt a huge sense of relief, when their addicted relatives finally OD’ed and died. Yep....very sad.
Some call it the Devi’s candy and rightly so.


36 posted on 03/25/2024 5:19:26 AM PDT by lgjhn23 ("On the 8th day, Satan created the progressive liberal to destroy all the good that God created..." )
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To: nitzy

“2 Thessalonians 3:10-13
“If you don’t work, you don’t eat.”

More accurately, if you WON’T (are unwilling to) work, you shall not eat.

2 Thess. 3:10 “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.” NIV, NKJV

“If any one will not work, let him not eat.” RSV

Some people can’t work. It’s not a decision they made.


37 posted on 03/25/2024 5:20:54 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (Fraud vitiates everything." - SCOTUS)
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To: ifinnegan

You must be on drugs. The person who posted said “the west” not the US.


38 posted on 03/25/2024 5:28:48 AM PDT by dforest
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To: nickcarraway

Want to put a stop to something? MTPTHTP
Make the price too high to pay.
Execute a few high profile dealers on TV, and in a public space somewhere. Public hangings will put a stop to the trade.


39 posted on 03/25/2024 5:39:59 AM PDT by Fireone (Who killed Obama's chef?)
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To: Fireone

Some Asian countries don’t have much of a problem with drugs because drug dealing is a capital crime. If convicted, the dealer gets one appeal, and if that appeal is lost the sentence is carried out almost immediately. I don’t understand why we allow drug dealers to indirectly kill thousands and then shower them with extreme reluctance to hold them accountable, unless the whole system has been corrupted.


40 posted on 03/25/2024 6:01:34 AM PDT by Rlsau1
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