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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The future seems to be Carfentanyl I guess. Hope not but it’s human nature to surpass the past high marks or low marks depending upon how you see things.
@Graylight long time, yes, an air pollution, obesity, lack of exercise. Last year over 100k Americans lost their lives from drug ODs, almost all opioids. The US war on drugs cost trillions and did not, does not, work!
carfentanyl is even more difficult to deal with than fentanyl!
I know I was just speculating on the fact that people seem to have an ingrained drive to outdo the past extremes and try and get to a new level. Be it lower or higher it just seems like the drive to surpass the past is inevitable sadly.
long time, yes, an air pollution, obesity, lack of exercise. Last year over 100k Americans lost their lives from drug ODs, almost all opioids. The US war on drugs cost trillions and did not, does not, work!
@Graylight sometimes it seems like it’s population control but I doubt that’s actually the case.
@samueltyler2 well look at it like a Darwinian form of survival. Population of homeless or unhoused people are not going away unless of course they just die from their addictions. I recently heard about the plan San Francisco has to issue mandatory drug rehabilitation to anyone caught using illegal substances 5 times, if they actually survive their intake they will be incarcerated and given a drug treatment program that is still being drawn up. I guess I just see it as a way to clear out a section of society that can’t seem to find a way to get all the basic amenities of modern life. A home a job and enough income to pay for the expenses of life. I’m not saying that it’s a conspiracy and the cia/government is flooding the ghettos with drugs to keep people down but I don’t know how to get someone from living on the streets and using addictive drugs to a better position in society and life because once you slip low enough in todays world in the US specifically there doesn’t seem to be a way out. Only death breaks the cycle. Just my observations and opinions. Nothing more.
@2cool4school You're dead-on about the downward spiral trouble with the law as a result of homelessness, mental health or drugs can start. I've known a man arrested for sleeping off a bender in a parking lot who was triggered into a hole whether the only rungs available out are all broken. I've seen men come out of prison as a result of a crime related to their addiction who will never again get a decent chance at housing, official documentation, employment, etc. Once you fall out of society, it's nearly impossible to make it back in any meaningful way.
@Graylight I think about it every time I see someone living in a tent on the side of the freeways and I’m sad that it’s becoming so common. I still recall my first experience with becoming aware of homelessness. And I can’t help but tear up still. I was going to see a performance of Swan Lake as a field trip. I went to a very hippie-ish private hands-on learning parent participation school. Everyone was from a comfortable and often affluent family. My parents were not as well off but we were comfortable enough. I got out of one of the cars in the carpool of mostly moms and students and our teacher who organized the trip. There were about 12 students in my class and I knew what everyones parents did for work. My mom was a teacher still on leave after having my sister and I my dad was a police officer. We had a nasa scientist and a navy pilot and a few computer industry workers. I noticed a man was just sitting against the wall of a building and he had a sleeping bag and his belongings in a backpack. I asked my mom what he was doing he may have had a sign. My mom explained once we got some distance and were out of earshot that he was probably homeless and he was just trying to get by living on the street. I don’t remember how much information she gave me I was in 1st grade but I do recall that I felt like the group that we had should stop and help him find a home and a job and I just didn’t understand how we were going to walk away and go see a play when there was a person in need of help. (I’m already in tears now just recalling this) My mom tried to explain that it wasn’t that simple and I felt like it wasn’t that hard and we had so many smart parents and they had resources and certainly we could solve his problems and then he wouldn’t have to sleep on the sidewalk. I’m told that I would not put the topic down all day and when we returned to the cars to drive back to the suburbs he was nowhere in sight and I got even more upset that we had not done anything to help him when I knew we had done things like food drives to help around the holidays and rummage sales to raise money for the school. Certainly we could find a way to get help him. And I’ve never been comfortable in my life just ignoring someone that needs help. I usually have something to give with me in my car. Food and water is my usual go to. My parents still worry about me putting myself in an unsafe situation while trying to help someone because I feel best when I get a chance to talk to someone who’s homeless because I know they often get ignored and treated like they are invisible. I know now it’s a complex problem but it’s still a highly upsetting fact of life in society. Now I’m too upset to be able to see what I’m typing. 😭 so I’m going to have to stop and get back to this. Sorry
@2cool4school Your heart is expansive and empathetic; never apologize for that. I had a similar situation at 13 when I realized the kid right around my age that I'd struck up a conversation with while waiting for my parents was, in fact, homeless and living on the street in all likelihood. It set me on a peculiar edge for a long time.
In my adult life, I've come to work with at-risk and post-prison populations. These are men who've killed their manager to see what it feels like, helped dismember bodies, robbed banks, beat their wives. And they cry, and reflect, and work at getting up earlier in the morning and learn to navigate the DMV and are in every other respect just like you an me. Most of them - certainly the ones that come my way - are addicted. We are not the worst things we've ever done. We're not our worst failures. We're so much more than that and to view another human in black and white or to step by as they die out of the corner of your eye is less human than the lack of humanity those walking on by complain about.
But there are always steps forward, and good people are always thinking about those in need. And we'd do well to remember they're not just "in need." They need our assistance, our advocacy, our attention. It's a heartbreaking situation but it's workable, and the work won't stop until there's a solution.
