Yesterday it was Oxy, tomorrow it’ll be something else. We’ve been through this with heroin, meth, crack and the list never ends. When will we realize we lost the war on drugs? This approach doesn’t work…
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@samueltyler2 everyone’s different. One persons poison is another’s elixir and yes LSD can do harm to the brain but in moderation it’s definitely not as harmful as meth and opioids and crack and so on. My message is not actually specific advice for anyone. It’s mostly sarcasm and suggestions based on my own experiences. I saw someone lose their sanity and end up being picked up by their parents after a few weeks of partying in college. I don’t if they had a history of mental health issues but they certainly didn’t handle the LSD especially but I’ve also seen people have a similar reaction to THC when used excessively. Everything in moderation is a good idea. And anything that is synthesized is going to have a variety of ways that people can get “lost” in. I think hallucinogenic mushrooms aren’t for everyone either but sadly it seems like they have become something that people see as being “safe” enough for daily usage because they heard about micro-dosing from a some YouTube vlogger or Vice “news” story.
@2cool4school I don't disagree, but LSD can lead to a trip that is very self-destructive, that is why I always say stay away, crystal meth is a disaster for overall health. Humans have sought mind altering substances for more than a millennium, moderation protects some, others get addicted and it is downhill from there. No one knows who and why someone becomes an addict.
Humans have sought mind altering substances for more than a millennium
Slightly longer than 1000 years actually. (but I understand your point.) Everyone has a different brain chemistry and so someone’s fun is another persons hell or worse. I seem to recall that cocaine is fatally toxic to 1/10K people as well.
@2cool4school We really have no idea why one person can use these sort of substances and not become addicted while others one or 2 doses and they are hooked. There is some genetic basis behind alcoholism, but other drugs not as much.
@samueltyler2 addiction has a multitude of factors to it. From learned behavior to hereditary predispositions like alcoholism and I don’t think it’s easy to trace and research and understand because we only know so much about the human brain. It’s definitely interesting that it affects everyone differently.
@2cool4school I don't think enough funding has been made available to study the factors involved. One senior public health official once told me that until drugs are legal, they are not a public health problem, but a law enforcement issue. That means that we are no where near understanding why some become addicts.
@samueltyler2 they legalized usage in many of the cities in the northwestern part of the US and Canada specifically Vancouver. They have community support and places where people can get all the stuff to use IV drugs as well as a place to use them. They call it an SIS
Supervised injection sites (SIS)[1] are medically supervised facilities designed to provide a hygienic environment in which people are able to consume illicit recreational drugs intravenously and prevent deaths due to drug overdoses.[2][3] The legality of such a facility is dependent by location and political jurisdiction. Supervised injection sites are part of a harm reduction approach towards drug problems. The facilities provide sterile injection equipment, information about drugs and basic health care, treatment referrals, access to medical staff, and, at some facilities, counseling. Most programs prohibit the sale or purchase of recreational drugs at the facility
Some places are available for testing different substances for fentanyl too. As a form of managed usage for safety. It drives some people crazy but I guess it’s better than the alternatives.
@samueltyler2 Harm Reduction programs seem to be a lot more prevalent on the west coast of the US too. I’m not sure about the rest of the country but I’m told that it’s not something that you see in red states. I’m all for harm reduction but I do worry that it could send the wrong message to minors and younger adult users or potential users.
@2cool4school I fought to make naloxone OTC. At least we got needle exchange programs and liberal distribution of free naloxone. Safe injection sites are a long way off.
I don't really worry about any of these efforts making things worse, things are so bad already.
@samueltyler2 safe injection site’s currently exist and have for a few years now. FYI. Naloxone only works if you get to the person in time and I’ve seen cases where they needed 2 or 3 and even 4 doses of it to counter the effects of the amount of fentanyl in the subject. It’s helpful but it’s only used in the lucky few people that are found before they expire and it’s common for teens especially to take oxy pills for example while they are alone in their room with the door closed or after their parents go to bed and then their parents find them stone dead in the morning. It’s sadly common I saw that a user lost her only daughter just recently to fentanyl. I can not imagine what her pain and grief must feel like. Too many kids are convinced that they need to get numb because they are overwhelmed by society today or they just got dumped by their bf/gf. It’s sad all around.
@2cool4school there are very, very few safe sites, fyi, in the US I only know of, perhaps, 2. If i could have it my way, everyone would have rapid access to naloxone. Yes, it only works if someone still has a pulse and can get it administered. We need to teach rescue breathing and naloxone administration.
@samueltyler2 San Francisco has Safe Injection Sites as does New York which I believe was the first in the US but Vancouver has had them since 2018 at least. It’s not a long way off. They’er already here. Time moves faster than you realize. I’m all for harm reduction but I don’t know if it’s going to be a good fit for IV drug users and potential IV drug users that’s what I think only time will tell.
@2cool4school no offense, but, Vancouver isn't US. I know about SF, but I am unaware of any such site in the greater NY metropolitan area, and I live in NJ and still have friends working in NY ERs.
@samueltyler2 I never claimed Vancouver British Columbia was in the United States. You said SIS’s don’t exist but they actually do. Not years away. They are here today. New York had the very first ones in the US. Go ahead and do your own research. I’ll wait.
@2cool4school Okay, cool it. i was trying to be nice, you, obviously are not interested. Having practiced medicine and toxicology, and been very involved in mitigation of drug abuse for many years in the NY metropolitan area, I think I would have been aware of sies here, if they exist, if they are officially sanctioned. The "we" is the group that I interface with in NJ and NY on issues of drug abuse.
@samueltyler2 look it up or let it go. If you don’t want to consider that things exist that you don’t know about then I don’t really see the point of typing anything in your general direction. You must be fun at parties…
Nov. 30, 2021 In an attempt to curb a surge in overdose deaths caused by increasingly potent street drugs, New York City authorized two supervised injection sites in Manhattan that began operating on Tuesday.
From your local press the NYTimes. So you’re just not exactly accurate or relevant. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/30/nyregion/supervised-injection-sites-nyc.html
@2cool4school I stand corrected, i see there are allegedly 2 privately run sites, my colleagues in NYC were also unaware of them. I will have to see if they really are functioning, or if it is simply the media saying they do.
"Supervised drug-consumption sites go back decades in Europe, Australia and Canada. Several U.S. cities and the state of Rhode Island have approved the concept, but no authorized sites were actually operating until New York’s opened in November. The announcement came six weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a lower court ruling that a planned Philadelphia site was illegal under a 1986 federal law against running a venue for illicit drug use."
@samueltyler2 you can do as you wish but don’t assume that you know everything especially when you don’t do your own research and yes you should always “see” if something is real before you do anything.
