Posted on 07/14/2017 5:31:02 AM PDT by from occupied ga
...
legal or not, using opioids is just plain stupid. Compared to an opioid user, a man who punches himself in the face looks smart.
That's why I roll my eyes and change the channel when hectored about this so-called epidemic. If you want to talk about an epidemic, talk about zika or bird flu. Opioid addiction comes from a decision, not a virus. No mosquito can infect you with opioid addiction, and you don't need antibacterial soap to avoid catching it. To speak of it as an epidemic and to speak of addicts as victims is to stack the rhetorical deck for the view that addictions and overdoses are diseases rather than choices.
And that brings us to Middletown, Ohio, ... A city councilman there ... has proposed that the city’s EMTs simply ignore 911 calls from any overdosing addict who has already received Narcan from the city twice before. Three strikes, says his proposal, and you’re out. The very suggestion has, of course, prompted a tsunami of hate mail from people with lots of tattoos.
...
And if my cold-hearted attitude means that more opioid users die, my answer is a big, fat so what? If they don’t want to die, they shouldn’t abuse opioids. If an addict doesn't care about his own life, why should I?
...
You who tell us we have a duty to rescue every user, you who say we should give him a government program and pay a regiment of social workers for his benefit, you are the same people who portray the addict’s drug use as something other than a conscious decision.
...
Save our EMTs for real victims of real diseases.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/07/opioid_schmopioid.html#ixzz4mo9Lmwsz Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
It isn't at all deep or complicated. People make a conscious choice to abuse drugs. Like the author said you don't catch drug addiction from a mosquito bite. You CHOOSE whether or not to go down this path, and frankly I have no patience with someone using my hard earned money to treat addicts.
My money represents part of my life of which I only have a limited amount. Treating addicts with tax money means that you're saying that the taxpayers' lives are worth less than the lives of addicts. Sorry (not really) - just ain't so in my book.
Right? The Chinese have NO REASON to hold a grudge against the English for the Opium Wars. All they had to do was say NO!
Clearly also written by someone without any knowledge of addictions.
I disagree.
__________________________________________________________
I think I agree.
First, addictions are at “epidemic” proportions.
It is USUALLY pretty stupid to get hooked on any addictive pain killer. Very often the person is addicted from using prescription drugs. the drugs don’t do a very good job and the person is in severe pain so they take two pills instead of one. It helps. It doesn’t take long however for the pain killing to take more and more pills until the doctor says enough then the person goes doctor shopping, and eventually they steal the prescriptions medicines because they are hopelessly addicted.
One of my children, a cop, had back surgery and was prescribed Vicodin as a pain killer after surgery. His pain never got better and his life was ruined from his desire for more. While he has gotten over the addiction, that is he is no longer using, he has not gotten his life back together fully yet.
I understand the desire to punish drug users, when my son was stealing medications from me and my wife we were pretty upset about it. The problem is that it can start pretty innocently and grow to an uncontrollable addiction.
I realize that the answer is to cut off the drugs and the desire subsides somewhat over time until it is manageable. To cut off help however is not a good answer. Yes these people brought it upon themselves BUT they didn’t know it was happening when it happened. They know better. Once they get hooked their power of reason for good and bad diminishes greatly. the most important desire is to get what we used to call a fix. This “fix” is more important than food, shelter or sex, it runs their lives. It is the first thought when they wake up and the last thought on falling asleep. I for one don’t believe that abandoning people when they need it most is a Christian thing to do. Ok Government is not Christian but we are still at least for now a Christian society and I feel we need to help those that cannot help themselves. Addicts are beyond helping themselves.
we’re all predisposed to something - it’s called a sin nature. doesn’t mean we waller in it ....
America has a spiritual problem !
Sort of. I don't believe it should be legalized, because this implies that it isn't a really stupid idea - arguably the dumbest thing that you can do with your life, but otherwise let them OD and DON'T USE MY MONEY TO TREAT THEM. If they can pay, then OK, otherwise adios.
Agree. Ignorant article.
Doctots were handing out these pills telling people they weren’t addictive and were safe. Many folks got hooked who should have never been given opioids in the first place.
For folks in constant pain from sag back problems it’s a big risk.
The idiot writer is one car wreck away from being in the same boat as those he ridicules.
So when it’s your loved family member who was given a legal prescription opioid for chronic pain and fell down a slippery slope, turn you back and let them die.
Sometimes you don’t catch an addiction, the addiction catches you. Broaden your view.
“Agreed.. and has neither understood how drug addiction is used to enslave people for prostitution.”
I’ve heard of instances where a person was held captive for a period of time and injected regularly with the stuff. It doesnt take long to get hooked. Modt can’t stop through thei own willpower. That said, I have no sympathy for those who pick it up via their own choice. I do feel for those genuinly in chronic pain who have few options for relief.
“Agreed.. and has neither understood how drug addiction is used to enslave people for prostitution.”
I’ve heard of instances where a person was held captive for a period of time and injected regularly with the stuff. It doesnt take long to get hooked. Modt can’t stop through thei own willpower. That said, I have no sympathy for those who pick it up via their own choice. I do feel for those genuinly in chronic pain who have few options for relief.
Or written by someone who has never had a toothache.
Or maybe there’s a better solution than on the one hand telling them to f off and die and on the other spend 20K a week for stupid treatment centers.
Yes, there ought to be some solutions in between
You are the biggest idiot I’ve seen on here in a while. It’ll be a damn shame when someone Close to You drops dead from opoid abuse. I’ll be crying. But you sound like such a piece of *** you probably wouldn’t care and say they deserved that.
The first opiod usage may be prescribed for pain and then the person gets hooked.
As an alcoholic, I know first hand the pain and misery that my series of falling into the pit has caused other people.
If you've never been addicted to any substance or behavior, thank your God because you are fortunate, and rare.
I make no excuse nor justify any of my bad behavior on my disease, because at some point it is/was a choice.
But it is very easy to pontificate from high atop your horse of righteousness, be careful, the fall from a high horse, can damage your self image, Mr. Perfect.
Self righteous, sanctimonious pr*ck..
Or by someone who unceremoniously overcame an addiction by a simple choice of will and refuses to sugar coat their personal failings with the label of a disease.
I asked my doctor if taking opioids might be somehow interfering with magnesium in the body and he gave me a funny look like he had never thought of that. Magnesium is what keeps the muscles operating and when it is interfered with the bowels are not going to work properly. Thus, constipation IS going to be a problem. The heart muscle would also have problems if that is the case.
I like the suggestion someone made here . Three strikes for opioids. The EMTs will come to you three times and give you a ride to the ER. The fourth call will get no response. I would extend that to drug ODs in general and maybe limit it to two calls. We used to have institutions where such people could be stashed to keep them alive. I am ambivalent about the ending of those back in the 70s. They provided a seemingly necessary service but the people who were drawn to work in those places - well, many of them belonged in another sort of institution and the corruption that allowed people to be put in them for political and social reasons was intractable.
False argument - not at all equivalent. For one thing recreational use of opioids is ILLEGAL. My understanding of the time that opium parlors were perfectly legal, thus implying it was OK to indulge. But in reality all you have to do IS say no. You don't get an addiction from someone coughing in your face, You don't get it from handling contaminated items. You don't get it from a mosquito bite, and unlike something like cancer you don't go to the doctor feeling pain to discover that you have an addiction. YOU GET ADDICTIONS BY CONSCIOUSLY CHOOSING TO COMMIT AN ILLEGAL ACT.
Your choice, YOU take the consequences. The rest of us are NOT responsible for addicts' bad life choices.
Bingo, or developing a debilitating progressive disease like osteoarthritis. He is attempting to paint a fine art piece of an argument with a large floor mop.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.