It takes a village?
We just had a young man my sons age OD here in my small rural community.
I knew the guy, but had no idea he was into that crap. And it was basically ignored by the local 3 page newsrag.
Heard an interview on the radio with a guy who worked in rehab. He painted a very dire picture of the problem. Rehab only seems to work on less than 25% of those who go into it.
Told a story of a small group that watched a friend OD and then went ahead and shot up with the same sh*t he used. 2 more of them died.
They are left with few options once they get into that crap. Prison, rehab or death
I knew 2 of the 3 kids and they came from what we would all call, 'good families'.
All three had both a mother and father living at home, they all graduated HS and/or college and seemed just like every other kid I watched grow up in this neighborhood.
It breaks your heart and there are no easy answers, no smart ass one liners, that I usually spout.
Prayer helps.
And in my business, we remove logjams in a large creek downstream from a pretty crappy town.
My son and my nephew are in the water hooking cables and have to watch for used needles floating in the water.
Last time, they found a whole bag of needles and homemade pipes, so we now keep a sharps container on the jobsite.
Ditchdigging ain’t all fun and glory
Another example of the ‘Fast and Furious’ franchise? How better to reach deep into ‘Red’ America?
Caught up in the maelstrom that is the opioid crisis are those who suffer from chronic or immense pain. The knee-jerk reaction was for the manufacturers, distributors, doctors, and pharmacists to reduce (if not eliminate) the availability and prescribing of Fentanyl (and other opioid-types) to those who truly are in need of this fantastic drug.
My wife suffers from chronic and acute pancreatitis and often has difficulty in obtaining the medicines she needs due to this heightened awareness/panic over Fentanyl and Dilaudid. Most pharmacists will simply say that they do not have enough on hand. One even flat out told us that they were not ‘comfortable’ delivering the drug. This puts people in a desperate situation, often leading to illegal drug use to attenuate the pain.
No one can simply go off of the drug ‘cold turkey’ and not suffer severe consequences, possibly even dying. The scrutiny is causing many doctors and pharmacists to simply no longer prescribe these medicines without considering what they are doing to their patients.
Touchy freely stuff us the problem, not the solution.
Unless you have been treated for an injury with opioids, you made a conscious CHOICE to take them. Your choosing badly should not be MY problem, nor mine yours!