Its not Anecdotal

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Bright Raven

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...the real life exposure to drugs in my circle. A guy I see once a week at the Mayslick Mill, his son found dead of an opioid overdose this summer. Good family. The constant news of opioid overdoses. Now the facts to support the anecdotal evidence:

The rates of opioid overdose deaths in West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania are all now above the national average, according to a study done by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

The study, which focused on the impact of the opioid crisis on the labor market in the fourth Federal Reserve district, found that while the nationwide rate of deaths from opioid overdoses sits at around ten per 100,000 people, Pennsylvania's is around 10.5, Kentucky's is 20, and Ohio's is around 22. West Virginia's is a staggering 35.
 
Bright Raven":1eluj39s said:
...the real life exposure to drugs in my circle. A guy I see once a week at the Mayslick Mill, his son found dead of an opioid overdose this summer. Good family. The constant news of opioid overdoses. Now the facts to support the anecdotal evidence:

The rates of opioid overdose deaths in West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania are all now above the national average, according to a study done by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

The study, which focused on the impact of the opioid crisis on the labor market in the fourth Federal Reserve district, found that while the nationwide rate of deaths from opioid overdoses sits at around ten per 100,000 people, Pennsylvania's is around 10.5, Kentucky's is 20, and Ohio's is around 22. West Virginia's is a staggering 35.

That's staggering. See it face to face on, sadly, a regular basis. Save many, but not all..sometimes, you save the same person more than once. Those are the ones that really get your mind going. I suspect it will continue to grow as well...what is the alternative?
I am sorry about your friends loss of his son. As a father, it is one of my very real fears.
 
Drugs have been a problem for ever. With kids all you can do is point them in the right direction and hope for the best. Nothing will work it's been proven time and again. Everyone knows someone that's been affected negatively by drugs, alcohol or nicotine, and yet most of us still have to learn the hard way. Educating kids about drugs, sex just seems to make it worse. No easy answer here, but living by the three strikes and your out will slow this bs down.
 
When I got my prescription renewed the other day I commented to the doc that I didn;t understand why people took them to get high since all they do for me is take the edge off the pain. I said they affect people in different ways. Then he related his experience. A couple of years ago he had kidney surgery. The next day he took one Norco (the same stuff I use). He said a couple of hours later when he woke up he LOVED everybody. And was calling people he hadn't talked to in years. Decided then and there never again.
 
dun":nub3g4m6 said:
When I got my prescription renewed the other day I commented to the doc that I didn;t understand why people took them to get high since all they do for me is take the edge off the pain. I said they affect people in different ways. Then he related his experience. A couple of years ago he had kidney surgery. The next day he took one Norco (the same stuff I use). He said a couple of hours later when he woke up he LOVED everybody. And was calling people he hadn't talked to in years. Decided then and there never again.

I take hydrocodone occasionally when my back pain is worse than usual, but also can't imagine getting hooked on them. Besides the unpleasant effects on my digestive system they make me feel realllly relaxed, but I can't sleep until they wear off.
 
When I had my knee replacement surgery nearly two years ago, it had some complications that were very painful... I was on some pretty serious pain meds for nearly 2 months. When I went back to see my doctor, I told him I needed my prescription refilled and he told me "No"! Looking back, that was the best thing he could have said to me and I am thankful for that. There are still doctors out there that are looking out for the well being of their patients and not just over prescribing meds.
 
How many parents are feeding their kids drugs every morning for ADHD, ADD? And then more drugs so they can come down and go to sleep. We need to legalize marijuana that'll fix our drug problems.
 
True Grit Farms":2j69jbiy said:
How many parents are feeding their kids drugs every morning for ADHD, ADD? And then more drugs so they can come down and go to sleep. We need to legalize marijuana that'll fix our drug problems.


There's a lot to that. I have a friend that is a state trooper and I asked him how he felt about legal marijuana. He was all for it so that he could take care of real crime that harms the community more significantly.
 
The problems are not with the drugs, they are with the people. If someone wants to get high they will find a way.
Instead a burden is placed on doctor's and people who need the medication because some are to weak to control their vices.
The majority of drugs should be legalized. And all the crime associated with illicit drugs would end. Sure there would be some who couldn't control themselves. But that's the case with everything.
 
callmefence":24imwitx said:
The problems are not with the drugs, they are with the people. If someone wants to get high they will find a way.
Instead a burden is placed on doctor's and people who need the medication because some are to weak to control their vices.
The majority of drugs should be legalized. And all the crime associated with illicit drugs would end. Sure there would be some who couldn't control themselves. But that's the case with everything.

I agree with you.

It seems we go from one drug crisis to another. It's been crack, heroin, meth, bath salts, synthetic marijuana, and now it's prescription opioids. Folks seem to flock to whatever is the easiest to get.

Legalize them all and let the problem take care of itself.
 
That West Virginia death rate is only exceed by 4 or 5 of the most dangerous jobs in the country. There are a lot of jobs that many people consider dangerous that have a much lower death rate.
 
Many years ago I smoked weed, but only a few times. It made everything funny, then I got hungry and went to sleep. It really didn't appeal to me.

I know people that smoke it daily and do absolutely nothing.
No job, living on welfare, living without any ambition or care in the world except to get high.

Is that what it does for you ?

Other than medical purposes, what's it good for ?
 
callmefence":1djnkres said:
The problems are not with the drugs, they are with the people. If someone wants to get high they will find a way.
Instead a burden is placed on doctor's and people who need the medication because some are to weak to control their vices.
The majority of drugs should be legalized. And all the crime associated with illicit drugs would end. Sure there would be some who couldn't control themselves. But that's the case with everything.

You'd have the same dope heads plus some new ones.....good news is that drugs would be much more affordable for all of them. :nod: :nod: :nod:
 
Dave":w9casl5a said:
That West Virginia death rate is only exceed by 4 or 5 of the most dangerous jobs in the country. There are a lot of jobs that many people consider dangerous that have a much lower death rate.

Just got back 2 weeks ago from visiting the old homelands in WV. Spent several days traipsing around the cemeteries (in very poor rural areas), "visiting" our long-departed ancestors. Kept seeing new graves from the past year to five. A shocking number of people in their late teens to age 50 or so. There were cemeteries where ALL of the fresh graves were either the very young (under age 28 or so), or the elderly. I had to conclude many were likely opiate/heroin/fentanyl deaths. Very sad
 
I also cannot see the big draw to drugs for myself. There hasn't been a prescription yet that will even take off the edge of the knee/ankle pain. The hydrocodone, and tramadol and such just make me queasy and a little light headed, that's not my idea of "feeling good". Oxycontin doesn't even register.... meloxicam was like taking m&m's .... seriously, wish sometimes I could find something to take the edge off. I hate the queasy feeling, sometimes it isn't as pronounced if I've eaten first.... but what's the point if I don't get any relief from the pain in the ankle. Yet there are so many that don"t do anything but get high and mooch off someone else..... sometimes I just think that if their life is that unimportant then they need to take an overdose and put themselves and every one else that they cause to suffer out of their misery. Guess that's cold... but I have very little use for anyone who just gives up or doesn't try. I know I wouldn't make a good counselor...
 
Rafter S":q9d52pfw said:
dun":q9d52pfw said:
When I got my prescription renewed the other day I commented to the doc that I didn;t understand why people took them to get high since all they do for me is take the edge off the pain. I said they affect people in different ways. Then he related his experience. A couple of years ago he had kidney surgery. The next day he took one Norco (the same stuff I use). He said a couple of hours later when he woke up he LOVED everybody. And was calling people he hadn't talked to in years. Decided then and there never again.

I take hydrocodone occasionally when my back pain is worse than usual, but also can't imagine getting hooked on them. Besides the unpleasant effects on my digestive system they make me feel realllly relaxed, but I can't sleep until they wear off.
Was on it a few years ago after shoulder surgery. Definitly eased the sting from surgery, but best of all, it took care of all my other aches too. Didn't realize that till I stopped taking it.
 
farmerjan":vzsdph1n said:
.... sometimes I just think that if their life is that unimportant then they need to take an overdose and put themselves and every one else that they cause to suffer out of their misery. Guess that's cold... but I have very little use for anyone who just gives up or doesn't try. I know I wouldn't make a good counselor...

I don't know what a "good counselor" would say. Maybe your approach would be a kind of shock treatment. I am startled by your statement that they "need to take an overdose" and put themselves out of their misery. I wonder if you mean that?
 
Took hydrocodone a few times in the hospital (I think they called it norco) after heart bypass surgery.
Didn't do squat for the pain but did make me just not give a shat that I hurt.
The morphine I got when I was burned..yes, that worked..but not for very long.
I can see how someone could get hooked on morphine pretty easy.
 

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