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Fentanyl-Laced Cocaine Becoming A Deadly Problem Among Drug Users
National Public Radio NPR ^ | March 29, 2018 | Martha Bebinger

Posted on 03/31/2018 8:54:11 PM PDT by BeadCounter

A pipe was the only sign of drug use found near Chris Bennett's body in November. But it looked like the 32-year-old Taunton, Mass., native had stopped breathing and died of an opioid overdose. Bennett's mother, Liisa, couldn't understand what happened. Then she saw the toxicology report.

"I'm convinced he was smoking cocaine that was laced," she says. "That's what he had in his system, [it] was cocaine and fentanyl."

Liisa Bennett was shocked. Chris had developed an addiction to pain pills and then heroin in his late teens but had not used opioids for at least 10 years, as far as she knew. Bennett had warned her son that if he ever used opioids again, he'd be in greater danger of an overdose because fentanyl, an opioid drug more powerful than heroin, was mixed into much of the supply.

(Excerpt) Read more at kpbs.org ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: chrisbennett; cocaine; consequences; defundnpr; defundpbs; drugs; epidemic; fentanyl; heroin; karma; liisabennett; marthabebinger; massachusetts; npr; pbs; selfcorrecting; taunton; wod
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To: Nifster

No, I have a very low opinion of those who use narcotics recreationally. They are idiots.


61 posted on 04/01/2018 7:36:51 AM PDT by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: exDemMom; P.O.E.
Often, an overdose death is strong advertising for the dealer...having a few deaths among your customers means you’ve got the good stuff

Eeesh...that scenario never occurred to me. A few must die so many more can get high.

62 posted on 04/01/2018 7:53:33 AM PDT by NautiNurse (Do not make me pay Ferrari prices for Chevy Vega health insurance.)
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To: Rurudyne

Drug addicts do not use drugs recreationally

Being ignorant of addiction does not help


63 posted on 04/01/2018 8:05:50 PM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: Jim Noble

Because people are just plain stupid.
Tell them NOT to dive in a certain place because it is dangerous - rocks, undercurrents, debris, etc. - and some smuck will do it.

Liberals are more willing to experiment or take risks, unless you have the “jock class” who have to show off how strong and brave they are (and crippled or dead they will be).

I know two people, one an old neighbor of mine, who did stupid things and lived, but ... The first one totaled a 1956 T-Bird into a wall and lived (went out an bought a 57 T Bird).

The other, a very nice, good looking guy, attended my college (in 1962+). He totaled a motorcycle by hitting a wall (speeding was probably the cause), and was crippled for life. He could barely use his hands to hold things and feed himself, and he had a very bad limp in one lega.

He was a nice guy but his youthful exuberance turned him into a lifelong cripple. He didn’t do anything to deserve it except become reckless at one time when he should have known better. My prays always went out for him.

My son lost two of his best female “buddies” when they got drunk one night and sped down US 95 in No. Virginia. He had to bury bought of them and it hurt him for years, and he was a combat veteran of Iraq who saw some pretty terrible things. Two lovely girls wiped out in seconds.

People who use illegal drugs are just plain stupid no matter how decent they are, but they know that they can be deadly. It’s like playing Russian roulette. There is always the possibility that the bullet is in your chamber. The smart thing to do is to put it down, unload it, and walk away.

Drugs are like bullets and roulette that you play with every day of your life, and more often than not, you will lose.

And liberals keep on wanting to make drug use more available and more legal. How stupid is this? And why are they that stupid in the first place?

I know some of the answers but not all. But have you seen any major Democrat Party effort to fight deadly illegally imported drugs, esp. since many come from Mexico through “illegal” mules and cartels?

The answer is “NO” because it is more important to them to get the “illegals” to support them politically with the promises of citizenship through an amnesty, than it is to stop the flow of deadly drugs into our country (and the Dems almost never say anything about Red China. Why not? Is it because the Reds funded the Clintons/Gore in the 1990’s to the tune of tens of millions of illegal campaign contributions through fronts and cut-out Buddhist nuns?

You’re damned right it is.

Until we start teaching our children and our citizens what is “dangerous” to their well-being on a national level, naming names and countries, then the death from illegal drugs and abuse of opiates will continue unabated.

Just because you have an education doesn’t mean you have Common Sense. The daily death toll from illegal drugs proves that point like the apple which hit Isaac Newton in the head proved gravity exists.

Unfortunately, the apples that are falling on our children are “fruits of the poisonous apple tree” and too many of us refuse to cut that tree down, even if it means saving their own children’s lives.


64 posted on 04/01/2018 9:31:53 PM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: Nifster

Many drug addicts START with recreational use. They were idiots. Many of those will end up dead idiots. Too bad, so sad.

If you don’t want to reap the whirlwind don’t sow the wind.


65 posted on 04/01/2018 9:56:30 PM PDT by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: Rurudyne

Your ignorance of drug addiction is astonishing


66 posted on 04/02/2018 1:46:49 AM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: Nifster

Is that all you’ve really got? “Ignorance”? Pathetic.

A lot of drug use starts as recreational: a fact.

If you never use (or if your mom wasn’t some evil idiot who poisoned you in the womb) you don’t become an addict: a fact.

Not seeing much reason to care about the poor widdle idiots who do it to themselves.


67 posted on 04/02/2018 9:32:18 AM PDT by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: ASOC
A Chinese manufactured epidemic...

It worked pretty well when the British did this to China....

I guess they learned a good lesson about how to destroy an opponent's society.

68 posted on 04/02/2018 9:41:27 AM PDT by SomeCallMeTim ( The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them!it)
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To: Rurudyne

Many drug addicts get started due to over prescription of pain killers. Many more start as part of their alcoholism

I did not ask you to feel any way in particular about them. It is apparent you do not work with addicts or alcoholics to help them get clean and sober.

Pretending that drug addiction is not killing people in huge numbers does not solve the problem


69 posted on 04/02/2018 11:27:52 AM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: Nifster

Actually, I’m not pretending it doesn’t kill them. I have not acted like they aren’t dying. What part of reaping the whirlwind as a comment didn’t you understand?


70 posted on 04/02/2018 11:32:03 AM PDT by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: exDemMom

And doper refuse to admit there is any downside to mj legalization.

What you posted is factual and even I as a layman have done enough research to have seen all of that and more in my readings.


71 posted on 04/02/2018 9:22:22 PM PDT by little jeremiah (Half the truth is often a great lie. B. Franklin)
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To: Susquehanna Patriot; Excuse_My_Bellicosity; fr_freak

We have a friend and neighbor whose daughter became a heroin addict. Maybe meth too, not sure. He has tried over the years to help her and her poor children in every way possible.

The result?

She’s still an addict, pimped our her children, been involved with LE numerous times, runs away from rehab, involved in crime constantly, and finally stole so much from her father that he won’t let her near his house any more.

All his help did was cause himself and daughter at home mental anguish and great financial loss, and addict daughter refused all real help and just used the helpers for whatever she could get from them by trickery, deceit, threats or outright burglary.


72 posted on 04/02/2018 9:25:45 PM PDT by little jeremiah (Half the truth is often a great lie. B. Franklin)
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To: little jeremiah

That is a very sad story.

.


73 posted on 04/02/2018 9:28:19 PM PDT by Mears
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To: little jeremiah

Yeah, I have a cousin like that, too. It’s a never-ending cycle with her. She runs away from home, shacks up with a loser addict, uses with him and usually winds up prostituting. After 3-4 years of this and getting extremely strung-out, she calls up mommy and daddy, asks if she can come home, and of course they welcome her with open arms. She goes clean for a year or two, gets a job, gets sick of her job, then runs away again—usually stealing a family member’s car and burglarizing a business or 3 on her way out of town. Then cycle starts all over again. She’s been doing this for 25 years.

I get sick of seeing these addicts being the king-babies of the family. They run roughshod over entire families, take everything they possibly can from them, drive them completely nuts with their constant antics, but you’re the jerk if you say anything negative about them or how they’re handling the situation. You always get the, “It’s not her, it’s the drugs, it’s not her fault.” It’s a classic case of parents loving their kids to death. I get sick of hearing the same crap for decades. I just dead-pan them and ask, “Is this sh** getting old yet?” Somehow it’s going to be different this time but it never is.


74 posted on 04/02/2018 10:16:24 PM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity (Liberalism is a social disease.)
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To: Jim Noble

Totally agree, calling addiction a “disease” is just one more thing that enables addicts and teaches society that they’re not responsible for their actions. Nobody puts a gun to your head and makes you hit the pipe. It’s not the doctors’ fault, it’s their weak ass.


75 posted on 04/02/2018 10:18:50 PM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity (Liberalism is a social disease.)
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To: Nifster

You’re showing a real impressive level of knowledge—NOT. Got anything besides one-liners that show zero insight? The obvious answer is no. If you did, it wouldn’t have to be dragged out of you.


76 posted on 04/02/2018 10:24:58 PM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity (Liberalism is a social disease.)
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To: little jeremiah

Thank you.

One of the worst aspects of drug addiction is that the drugs destroy the parts of the brain that are responsible for impulse control/self-control. So they seek the elusive feelings of euphoria and cannot “just say no.” Your story about your friend’s daughter illustrates that.

One of my coworkers told me that when he was a boy, his father worked at a rehab clinic, and he went often to help out. One of the clinic workers was a former addict who was clean for twenty years. Then one day, when my coworker went to help at the clinic, that worker was gone. He found out that the clinic worker had relapsed, after 20 years, and ODed. This event was what inspired my coworker to become a scientist.

Addiction does not go away and is very difficult to treat because it damages the brain in ways that cement the addicted behavior.


77 posted on 04/03/2018 3:43:54 AM PDT by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
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