Posted on 12/22/2017 7:34:04 AM PST by cyclotic
At first glance, it looked like Greg Perdue was stretching. The 58-year-old sat cross-legged on the matted wall-to-wall carpet in his Aberdeen, Maryland, apartment, a head of shaggy, graying hair bent toward his knees. But when medical examiners gingerly turned him over, they found his bloated face was a deep purple, his nose and mustache covered with crusted blood. Next to a pack of cigarettes on the kitchen table were three clear pill capsules: two empty, one containing an off-white powder that was later identified as heroin.
After being prescribed painkillers to treat a work injury, he started snorting heroin and became estranged from his friends and family. When the cops found him in April, they determined he’d likely been slumped in his apartment for a couple of days. His was the 113th overdose of the year in Harford County, a white, working-class suburb a half-hour up Interstate 95 from Baltimore. There was no funeral; his ashes sit uncollected at the morgue.
After Perdue’s quiet death, a lanky, affable 38-year-old cop named Brandon Underhill was assigned to investigate the dealer who had sold the fatal dose to Perdue. Underhill, a clean-cut churchgoer who grew out his wavy blond hair and got his ears pierced when he started doing undercover work 10 years ago, quickly zoomed in on a suspect: Zack Carter, a 35-year-old with a rap sheet including several drug charges and an attempted murder. As spring turned to humid summer, he tracked Carter’s cellphone data, talked to “friendlies,” or informants, and met Carter behind the yellow home in J&K Mobile Home Park in Aberdeen, where Carter, whose name I have changed, would lean into Underhill’s car window and exchange glass vials of heroin for cash.
(Excerpt) Read more at motherjones.com ...
Sometimes it depends on medical treatment used to cure the cause of the pain. A while ago I had severe back pain, and was prescribed an opiate. The official information stated that if the cause of the pain was eliminated, the need for pain medication would be eliminated.
It took two bad experiences with so-called "pain management" specialists for my primary care doctor to send me to a real doctor of physical therapy; It took her over a year and a half to get my back pain free! But we did it. I say we because I was the one who had to "do the work."
I passed the one year anniversary of "no opiates" last week. I know this is not an answer for chronic pain sufferers. But for those who can be helped; find a real doctor with a track record of success, follow their directions, see what happens.
“”There have been over 400 overdoses this year in the county””
At some point the repeat overdosers need to be taken off the street and institutionalized.
Both of my sons have prescriptions for opioids right now for medical reasons.
Think about that for a moment. That’s either one hell of a coincidence or an obvious indicator that pain medication is over-prescribed.
Not really. One had a bout of Kidney stones and a few days later, the other had scheduled intestinal surgery. Just weird timing.
And of course, the first thing they did was look up the street value of a bottle of OXY.
Jokingly of course.
Getting addicted may be a character flaw - being addicted is a neurochemical imbalance in the brain. "Character" can no more cure it than it can diabetes (however acquired).
<>Perhaps you should break FReeper tradition and actually read the article.<>
They are addicted to responding to titles. It is not their fault.
But, as he said, addiction is still a character flaw.
You are aware, and you set a good example. I suspect you will also warn them often of the danger of peer pressure. When they are old enough, you can tell them of your experiences. No kids will have a better chance.
I'd like to know how many mixed their narcotics with alcohol. How come we never hear about that? It could save lives if that were talked about more, because narcotics and alcohol together are extremely deadly. Other depressant drugs with narcotics are very dangerous, too.
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
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