As long as she keeps her nicotine addiction alive, she'll never be rid of her other substance addictions.
Posted on 03/08/2014 2:46:05 PM PST by mgist
Stephanie Predel is off heroin. But the Bennington, Vt., area, where she lives, is in the throes of an epidemic. BENNINGTON, Vt. — Stephanie Predel, a stick-thin 23-year-old freshly out of jail, said she was off heroin. But she knows precisely where she could get more drugs if she ever wanted them — at the support meetings for addicts. “I can get most of my drugs right at the meeting,” she said. “Drug dealers go because they know they’re going to get business.” She added, “People are going into the bathroom to get high.” Bennington, a pre-Revolutionary town of 17,000 people, presents another face of the heroin epidemic that has swept through Vermont. In January, Gov. Peter Shumlin devoted his entire State of the State address to what he said was a “full-blown heroin crisis” gripping the state. In an interview later, he said that the state’s localities had managed only a patchwork response. Citing Rutland’s antidrug crusade as a hopeful sign, he said that not all areas had felt the same urgency. “Bennington is where Rutland was four years ago,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
If we (and that is the United States military) didn’t want opium poppies growing in Afghanistan, we might not be able to stop it but we could, and would, sure as hell put a big crimp on their cultivation. I agree with you; our government doesn’t want cultivation stopped and isn’t acting against it. But once the soldiers see what’s going on, they will make money off it if they can.
I’m sorry but it’s human nature. Again, it’s not all of them or even a significant number of them. But to deny that any are involved is naive.
Funny, I've never met a junkie in my life. Never even saw one that I know of.
I've meet about a half dozen that were addicted to pain killers though. About the same number I've met that are addicted to alcohol.
Also opiates like heroin do NOT cause dangerous withdrawal symptoms.
They are very addictive and withdrawal is very uncomfortable, but not dangerous. Alcohol, and benzodiazepines, like Valium are much more dangerous to withdraw from.
As long as she keeps her nicotine addiction alive, she'll never be rid of her other substance addictions.
It is cheaper and the quality is better. And, thanks to better transportation out of Central Asia and Mexico, it is coming in to our country in large amounts.
The consistency of the product means it is less likely you will OD.
Cheap, available, and higher quality will drive ANY product. Toss in the depression hitting lots of communities, people will turn to drugs in droves.
And, for these rural communities, it’s not going to get better.
(And New England is the entry point for huge amounts of drugs over a still pours border with Canada.)
Sad. Vermont is such a beautiful state. She looks almost feral.
The only two that can kill upon abrupt withdraw.
Everything else is a notch down.
Having once been addicted (and, thankfully no longer) to the first two mentioned I can Testify.
Notice both of those are legal.
Pot helped me kick both and kicking pot was as easy as a walk with a beautiful woman in comparison.
I'll not be ashamed for using that crutch.
Bennington is pretty small town stuff. Five miles outside the pretty Vermont postcard town (or outside ANY Vermont town) is Appalachia. Some areas are worse than the slums in any urban center.
It is really sad. The Dairy business is dying. The is little manufacturing. The regulations make it difficult to do ANYTHING to make things better.
It’s pretty as a postcard. I wouldn’t live there or raise my kids in most any part.
Here in small town Wisconsin, heroin is a huge problem. I know of kids in prison, going to prison or slowly killing themselves. It is devastating to the families and the communities. Occasionally, there will be a bust, but, yes, the cops prefer to arrest someone with pot. Having taken prescription pain killers on occasion, I can almost get it, the hook, but I know better than to take it even as much as prescribed. From what I understand, with heroin, some can become immediate addicts. That is scary!
I grew up in Vermont. The college towns draw in everyone from everywhere. I am not surprised, but am saddened. Friends back east are concerned and not sure what to do. I may not like the direction Vermont has taken, but hate that this is happening.
Some of the victims--and I don't use that term lightly--are people who, thanks to Øbamacare no longer have the type of prescription drug coverage they once enjoyed. They have chronic pain.
A $10.00 shot of heroin is cheaper than the scrips they can no longer afford.
Just another perfect lib/’Rat/Socialist Utopia.
Afghanistan does produce a majority of the illicit opium in the world, but the vast majority consumed in the US is grown in Mexico and South America. The heroin trade is skyrocketing as the interstate transportation of drugs in this country is being taken over by Mexicans.
Believe it.
“It’s the high school kids and college age kids where the problem is most widespread. And heroin is absolutely destroying their lives.”
But at least they can’t buy beer. They would get in trouble if they did that.
I suppose that can happen; I didn't know anybody who needed it then.
Also opiates like heroin do NOT cause dangerous withdrawal symptoms.
Didn't know that either. It must be extremely unpleasant to want a fix, I don't know. But you seem to know whereof you speak.
Opiate withdrawal can feel like you’re dying but it can’t directly kill you.
Alcohol withdrawal can
Opiate addicts are miserable in withdrawal. Anxious, sweaty, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, cramps. But that’s about it. Alcohol and benzos, much worse, tachycardia, hypertension, hallucinations, seizures.
30 years working in the “pit”, aka ER.
We have a winner! Exactly right, and this one is Bushes fault. He forbade the armed forces from destroying the poppy fields, and in my mind that was a huge problem. The revenue was used to fund the Taliban and production was ramped up. I wouldn’t put it past Obama to use government resources for distribution, especially now that this seems to be becoming a new white underclass epidemic.
Alcohol not a problem for me but I took valium in the past, just quit taking it on my own, now on a benzo. The latter worries me some. Even though a low dose and I skip the fourth one per day I’m allowed. The panic attacks can be horrible; that keeps them in check and helps me sleep better at night.
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