Kensington, Philadelphia-WTF?

This looks just like half of Los Angeles.

I'm not watching 22 minutes filmed on a shaky iphone. What are the best parts?

OP this is the new normal, we simply live in a very dystopian age with a huge population of people who have “checked out” and are unable to function in any aspect of society.

HELP THEM, r3!! HELP THEM!!

R4 this is simply the end result of one of the sacred cows of both the American Right and the American Left, self-determination and social libertarianism.

R3 I get that but it seems as if the city has simply given up. Reading the comments on the videos it seems that this area gets worse by the day. It’s a complicated situation with no single answer but seems odd to just let it fester and get even more out of control.

This is a very familiar facet of modern urbanism R6, segregating the lumpenproletariat. One limb of the tree is allowed sick in order for the other limbs to thrive. I was last in Philadelphia in 2017 and I was in Center City and it was remarkable clean and totally pleasant with minimum visibility of homeless.

My aunt grew up there in the 50s when it was an Irish working class neighborhood. I heard it had become a crappy part of town when I was a kid and have never been there despite living in the Philly area for a few years. Sadly, it does resemble LA's skid row now.

Is this another one of culture wars threads? It's a bit early for trolling - the weekend doesn't start until tomorrow.

Now do deploraville. Florida. Missouri. Etc. they make the inner cities look pristine by comparison.

Kensington is ground zero for the drug epidemic in Philadelphia. Trying to make a generalization about the whole city would be the same as filming the 10x10 block Tenderloin area in San Francisco and saying all of SF is a shit hole. It's true however that the (terrible) Mayor and city leadership have done little to improve the situation.

They are doing something r11, they are allowing this area to get and stay bad so other areas can be prosperous.

Kensington has been a—perhaps the—center of the opioid crisis for at least 25 years. People come from all over to buy/use. There are syringes and pill bottles and other paraphernalia all over the streets, the El is just mobile homeless shelter and has become even scarier since COVID. The areas adjacent to fishtown are starting to gentrify, but most of the area is still a hellscape.

Holy shit.

luckily the Kensington where I live is nothing like this

For such a rich country, this is sad to see.

It’s like east Hastings in Vancouver.

OP I have thought about this a lot and there is very little that can be done to solve this problem that can be recitifed within any accepted concept of civil rights and American civil liberties from both left and right perspectives

Solutions:

1. Kill them

2. Legalize walk-in euthanasia and strongly encourage these people to choose it

3. Put them in concentration camps where they will be forced to integrate into society

4. Put them into concentration camps and let them do whatever they want (Escape from New York scenario)

The video keeps pausing so it's hard to actually watch. Love how there's a "normal" dude with a gym bag going into the train station mixed in with this dystopian looking scene.

How can it be legal to film humans in this state?

It’s a rough area, always has been even when it was all white. Odious folks.

Funny thing is it’s right next to Fishtown, the “up and coming“ hipster neighborhood...

I only watched a few minutes buy I saw two look-alikes for cast members of It's Always Sunny -- Danny DeVito and the blonde woman.

I almost think sometimes there should be a containment zone like this.

Allowing people to do whatever they are doing without excessive interference.

The videos are horrible to watch but the saddest part was watching a school bus drive by a group of junkies shooting heroin at 8am and nodding off in the streets. Children should not be forced to grow up in environments like that.

A lack of leadership.

[quote]How can it be legal to film humans in this state?

Is it that to chronicle the American underbelly is bad? Or that to film people in such a horrible state infringes on their rights? And if the latter who is to blame, the chronicler rather than the people and the city that seemingly does nothing to discourage this habitual state?

Surprised that the driver did not get shot for filming dealers. Must have been a concealed camera. And yes, R26, I thought one would have to blur the faces of those filmed without their consent. No sure hat the law says if it is a "documentary".

If you’re in public there’s no expectation of privacy. You can be filmed.

R21 I'm Kenzo born and raised and yes ut was always rough when it was white but NOTHING like this

It was lower middle class Irish and very hard scrapple. i was born in the early 80s and lived there until the mid 90s

Rocky is also from there, they filmed Rocky all over Kensington, the pet store Adrienne worked out is right under the EL

No r29 I remember. The only difference was that most folks had jobs. Factory jobs. But it didn’t hide the tackiness and vulgarity peculiar to Kensington.

And Rocky is a fictional character, so, what are you talking about?

R30 yeah I know, the CHARACTER is from Kensington and the movies, except 4, were shot on location there

Just trying to give the people on here some familarity with Kensington

R30m Rocky I (and II) was such a huge hit because the fictional character was totally believable and authentic.

R30, Rocky I (and II) was such a huge hit because the fictional character was totally believable and authentic.

[quote]very hard scrapple

Good one, r29. I almost didn't catch that.

R34 thanks!

How's the trade? Abundant BBC it seems.

What is this, R34? A Philly version of Spam?

At least it’s a diverse community

A friend recently travelled to DC by train and said the situation in and around Union Station is quite similar, despite the proximity to the US Capitol and Capitol office buildings. Very sad.

[quote]How Kensington got to be the center of Philly's opioid crisis

[quote][bold]Trapped by the ‘Walmart of Heroin’[/bold] - A Philadelphia neighborhood is the largest open-air narcotics market for heroin on the East Coast. Addicts come from all over, and many never leave.

A quick video, just over 2 minutes.

Jesus R42. Imagine what this place must smell like.

Poor-shaming thread du jour.

OP, have you heard of the opioid epidemic?

[quote]I get that but it seems as if the city has simply given up.

What would you like the city to do? What solutions would you support?

[quote]How can it be legal to film humans in this state?

The first amendment protects the right to record people in public. It's legal because it's happening in public. I'm not sure what their "state" has to do with it. It might not be moral or ethical, but it's perfectly legal.

I find it odd that the person filming them is who you're fixated on.

Rocky is from South Philadelphia. The films, including the original, were filmed all over the city.

People don't like this being filmed because then they have to admit its happening. You can find an area like this in pretty much any major US city.

R47, Rocky lived in Kensington according to the film. I can’t believe he has his own Wikipedia page.

Welcome to the Wild/wide World of what addiction is, what it looks like..Sub human? BINGO, Degrading? BINGO. As someone with 31+ years of recovery from heroin & everything, anything else I could beg borrow or steal & use to get high. I have 31 + years in a row..but 20+ years in & out of recovery. So, if I had gotten clean when I needed it, I would have 54 years, instead of 31+ When I needed it I was psychotic, talking only to a raggedy anne doll that live w. me in my rolling home..courtesy of the New York Subway System. NO ONE could help, save, cure me. I was physically addicted so had to use against my will many times a day in order not to get sick, vomit, shit myself, leg pains. Any time I kicked dope(I'm old school Samuari Junkie did it on my own) all the other drugs I used led me right back to dope. What changed? Finally I wanted to get clean & became entirely willing to go to any lengths. I still have to keep that fire in my belly. My addiction is a chronic disease. Can't speak for anyone else.

[quote]How can it be legal to film humans in this state?

It’s legal but people don’t like it.

What a trashy, dirty city!! Sad

I love Philadelphia. In many ways it's my favorite city in the U.S.

Part of why people who love it love it is that it's not prissy, up it's own self-important ass DC, not is it jaded/better-than-you NYC. But fuck, sometimes it could do with a hint of either of those other places, just caring enough to not live in the same cheesesteak-greasy grey sweats with the unpleasant to contemplate the multiple stains in all the wrong places. That working class don't give-a-shit slovenliness is pervasive, and worse, the city extends for miles in all directions much of it miserable neighborhoods that were always miserable but now are unsafe, unpleasant, and seemingly unsolvable.

Obviously Fishtown and some of the Kensington adjacent neighborhoods became the focus of gentrification because of their proximity to good neighborhoods. But Fishtown is a hideous neighborhood with the exception of parts of a few blocks. The new, expensive construction: more hideous. Philadelphia can feel swallowed up in worse than Fish town neighborhoods where gentrification is not going to arrive and the future is grim.

Agreed R54, Fishtown is overrated, especially now that it becomes expensive and loses its starter home appeal.

R46 I am not fixated on the person filming. I don't know what their motif is, maybe shaking politicians into action. Perhaps it is a local resident (doubt it). But I find it cruel to film people when they are down and out. Perhaps, they don't care when high but I am sure they don't like the idea in their sober (and miserable) moments. Also, everybody in this movie is portrayed, per extension, as a dealer or junkie.

How much of this bleeds into neighbouring communities?

New from today. How horrible that the guy with the dog was nodding off on the sidewalk. That poor dog!

Agree with R52, Philly is actually great and very livable city. Its underbelly is just more visible (and probably larger) than elsewhere. You can't judge LA and SF from their skid rows either.

Fair enough, R55. Maybe I was unduly harsh responding to a reasonable question. I do appreciate your point even if we disagree in our priorities.

The footage of that woman in woman (seen in the preview image in OP's link) is horrifying. She is so terribly lost, standing there asleep, waking just barely, trying to pick up the box but it's all too much, trying maybe to sit in the box as if storing her cares away, You can't help but think is she going to die just now? And does she have anything to look forward to not to just die right there? I can't guess what's going through her not sound at the moment at least mind, but it's frightening. The NYT piece was wrenching, but seeing that woman in white so fucked up and knowing it's not a party weekend thing but a state more normal than odd for her...I don't know that there is any way to present that with even 1/10 the impact purely with words, or still images not showing her face. Just that footage with the nonplussed comings and goings all around her paints the story of that neighborhood in a way that nothing else can.

I think people need to see that woman. And her face. It's a story everyone has heard many times, but look at that bit of video and you see how low society sinks when it lets people sink so. And if that raises the question as to the privacy rights of people who are deathly high in a public place, fine, but I can't make that the pressing point when people rush to her aid to protect her from a prying photographer's lens, but not from the drugs and the dealers and the indifference of a city that has turned over a neighborhood to people who lives clearly don't matter, so what's a deathly little dance caught on camera.

Not surprising. Life sucks and is mostly pain. Some people just aren’t cut out to work and struggle all day every day. Honestly, I would stay high as a kite 24/7, if I was able to guarantee safety, security, and creature comforts during the process.

R60 it just makes everything worse. When you’re that addicted you barely even get high anymore. You take the drugs to feel normal. I was an alcoholic for years and never got any pleasure or escape from being drunk towards the end of my drinking. My life was constant misery. I only drank because I was physically addicted to alcohol and if I didn’t I would get violently ill.

[quote] How can it be legal to film humans in this state?

These creatures are no longer human.

In Boston it’s Methadone Mile. There is actually a debate going on about how that term is so disrespectful to those struggling with “substance use disorder.” Simply astounding the room we make in our cities for these people. I know that they face struggles but there are no answers.

They had to shut down the El station there for months because the elevators were destroyed with urine, excrement and mounds of garbage.

[quote]I thought one would have to blur the faces of those filmed without their consent. No sure hat the law says if it is a "documentary".

As if any of those dumb junkies are going to be concerned about their privacy being violated.

Pray that nobody depends on you, R60. What makes addiction so awful is that so many people, friends, family, children, mothers, colleagues, neighbors, etc. are let down.

No worries, R66. The only thing I hate more than myself is being around other people.

But there are answers, R63. Something is wrong in the US (and other countries, too). It's affecting the 'underbelly' right now but it's coming for what's left of the middle class. The US has had 40 years of 'trickle-down' economics, and as a result wages have been stagnant since the 80s. It's getting harder and harder just to get by. Kensington (or Skid Row, or The Tenderloin, or East Vancouver in Canada) is what you get at a certain point. This is late stage capitalism in action. Repair the social safety net, it's that simple, but that takes balls, and most politicians gave theirs away to their corporate overlords.

I can’t forgive people who have kids or pets and are addicts. That is the worst kind of hell you can do to another life that depends on you. Hurt yourself if you want but don’t destroy innocent lives in the process.

[quote] The US has had 40 years of 'trickle-down' economics, and as a result wages have been stagnant since the 80s.

The USA has allowed 40 years of manufacturing to be undercut by slave-labor in China and Japan.

You don’t see this in European cities

[quote]The USA has allowed 40 years of manufacturing to be undercut by slave-labor in China and Japan.

Slaver labour in Japan?

I wonder what solution he has to offer?

It's too late to fix. Just close it off and bomb it. Flatten everything, and let nature take the whole area back.

[quote] Slaver labour in Japan

R71 Perhaps more Muslims might be the answer.

[quote] I can’t forgive people who have kids or pets and are addicts.

Especially since such people usually make such good life choices!

R76 Religion is the opiate for the masses.

R75: Re: Slavery in Japan.

Japan: 0.3 victims of modern slavery for every thousand people in the country.

USA: 1.3 victims of modern slavery for every thousand in the country.

You were saying?

[quote] You were saying?

I was saying US manufacturing is being undercut. And US consumers are buying stuff manufactured in Asia.

Philadelphia has one of the best homeless support networks in the US. Between the relatively affordable and abundant housing and the city’s homeless outreach programs, most people can get a roof over their heads - unlike CA.

The issue being filmed here is heroin addiction - different in many ways from the CA crisis which is a mix of unaffordable housing, mental health issues, transiency/immigration from out of state as well as addiction. It has become somewhat of a free zone for addicts. If it weren’t for the fact that non-addicts live there, it would be a potentially legitimate exercise in how to handle heroin addiction by proving a safe haven to shoot up and do nothing,

R80 no, that's not what you said. You said: "The USA has allowed 40 years of manufacturing to be undercut by slave-labor in China and Japan."

Slave labour in Japan is infinitesimal compared to the US, UK and Euro countries.

I agree that Europe (or Western Europe) doesn't have things like this. Sure they have homeless here and there and sketchy places but not to this degree. I lived in Barcelona for 2 years and this is unthinkable in Spain.

It’s a far cry...

But the fabulous Muriel knew the horrors in London's Kensington

[quote]I can’t forgive people who have kids or pets and are addicts. That is the worst kind of hell you can do to another life that depends on you. Hurt yourself if you want but don’t destroy innocent lives in the process.

It’s not as if they have a lot of self-control, r69.

Sad. Not a lot of masks in that video. How many of those people are actually vaccinated?

Booooooooring movie!

I can’t think of any places in NYC that look as bad as this. Maybe I’m just in denial. Parts of Hells Kitchen have lots of homeless but nothing like this.

R90 there’s no nyc equivalent to this

Not since the Bowery was reclaimed by punks & then gentrified by politicians so their kids could live there.

On the negative side, Kensington is an absolute shithole, not helped at all by that idiot mayor.

On the plus side, it's a great place to pick up straight trade. They'll do ANYTHING for drug money.

R93, seriously! I was just thinking about the wide selection of hot meat, just hanging around in those clips.

r16 only 1% of the country holds the wealth and controls the government and they don't give a fuck.

Is that Courtney Love in OP's link?

These videos look a lot like downtown Portland. Things should get even more interesting:

"Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt announced Dec. 17 that his office will no longer issue charges for people found possessing small amounts of hard drugs, including heroin, meth or cocaine. That policy will become the law of the land statewide on Feb. 1, when Ballot Measure 110 goes into effect"

R78 I thought opium was the opium of the masses.

It makes me feel right at home.

We have lots of junkies like this in Vancouver and they’re harmless to everyone but themselves. Just don’t leave your valuables unattended.

I swear I thought that was Sandy Dennis in a film I’d never seen in the YouTube video screen cap in op 😂

R90 all the junkies from NYC come to Kensington in Philly

OP, I think this is a film set. The woman in white a minute or so in is definitely Toni Collette-Galafassi. Possibly its a sequel to Muriel's Wedding. I'm sure Rachel Griffiths was in there somewhere too.

Should be "it's a sequel", not that it really matters anymore.

I disagree about this being an effect of late stage capitalism because all countries around the world are experiencing late stage capitalism. This is a particularly American problem because the solutions to this problem both collide with essential beliefs held across the American political spectrum. Another reason why a country like China is able to contain its pandemic fairly quickly (massive violation of individual civil liberties for the good of the masses) while it languished so long in America.

R81, your first paragraph is laughably incorrect. What are you basing that on???

Where are all these people getting opioids? No one is getting much in the way of prescriptions anymore. Hell, just try and get a doc to prescribe some.

Some of the people in the video look like extras from Night of the Living Dead.

R18 Here's another possible solution:

Raise minimum wage to $15 an hour, raise the tax rate on income over $10 million a year to 75%, cut the military budget by 50%, implement a universal basic income. No more obscene wealth accumulation, no more having a very small percentage of our population hoarding the wealth being generated through the labors of the rest of the country. It's time to put an end to our vampire economy, with the 1% draining the life out of the bottom 99%.

Legitimate question. How do homeless people afford drugs? Begging? Robbery? How do they rob without guns?

I posted reply # 50, so won't reiterate.. I have horrific active addiction experience & blessed recovery as well..

I think punishment(Iranians hang addicts upside down & beat the soles of their feet, death in other places) doesn't work, throwing money, benefits, doesn't work(see USA, Europe). Legalization doesn't work(see UK legal heroin program, since 1964 & still not working), Methadone doesn't work, Suboxone doesn't work everybody drinks, does whatever other drugs on these money spinners & wind up in the gutter as well.

The problem is you don't want to see addicts at their rock bottoms or have them photoed so its real to you...

What you are seeing is the reality.. Want you mind blown? Imagine what you don't see at night..Now 10X that image!

Each addict must find his own way to recovery or to jails, institutions, death. You can do it for them.

So, you want to be humane?

Set up closed facilities with medical grade opiates & other drugs(including alcohol) let them have as much as they want but only living there as inpatient. No welfare, ssi or ssd if they leave, no free housing. No need to give any extra medical treatment when they Od. & die.

Allow 12 step meetings in. People who want to get clean can be in a separate wing & will be drug tested everyday. If they slip back into general pop.

Make sure everyone is on involuntary birth control.

R71 I lived in London and saw gypsies sleeping rough all over, outside of St Pauls, etc. Gypsies, with their long history of being persecuted in Europe remind me of the descendants of slaves in the US. Both have high rates of homelessness.

R111 12 step DOES NOT WORK FOR HEROIN ADDICTS!! Read the research. Only 10-15 % of 12 Steppers remain sober after a year. Due to this I consider treating heroin addicts with only 12 Step a fast track to death by overdose/fentanyl.

Medication assisted treatment is the ONLY treatment for opiate abuse that is very effective.

-Addiction Dr with a decade of experience prescribing buprenorphine. 90 % of my patients are alive and some are thriving.

I'm Whitney and Bobby, rolling-up in a limo with dark sunglasses on.

From today’s Philadelphia Inquirer.

From the link at R115:

[quote]Even as pandemic lockdowns ease, Kensington’s heroin economy thrives, along with the endless gun violence it fuels. Some corners pull in more than $20 million a year. Crowds of addicted people jam McPherson Square, where children discover drug dealers’ stashes during playtime. Bullets rattle houses and send the people inside diving to the floor. And the neighborhood’s pain is plainer than ever.

[quote]All of it, residents and authorities say, has meant booming business for the illicit economy that for years has held an entire neighborhood captive, one that prospers in a place where the city’s legitimate economy is overwhelmed.

[quote]“I would say it’s approaching a billion-dollar enterprise,” Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said of Kensington’s heroin trade.

The whole article is worth the read.

TBH, it is convenient to know exactly where to score, assuming you’re able to come back to a safe, comfortable home.

FOR: 113- I am not unique, special or chosen. I am 31 + years clean from opiates & ALL other drugs, including alcohol. 54 years going to 12 step meetings all over the world, 31 + years clean, I can say I have met MANY addicts who are clean..even from Opiates

Methadone was invented 1939..so we can see how well that one has worked.

Heroin withdrawl 3 days..Methadone try 30. I felt like every bone in my body was broken. I had to wear a towel under my blouse because of the sweat dripping off me. On Methadone I was like Matt Perry on the Friends Reunion. Methadonaian..stuck on stupid, parked on dumb...like wet brain. When I'd get a glimpse of how limited I was I'd go back to dope.

Suboxone..the new improved Methadone. I have no personal experience only what has been shared with me by those who have experience. Same blunted brain, f-cked up affect. Same nightmare to get off it.

Research supports both Methadone & Suboxone because they are total gold mines & you don't even have to dig a hole..

[quote]We have lots of junkies like this in Vancouver and they’re harmless to everyone but themselves.

Not true.

[quote][bold]Hepatitis A outbreak spreads in Kensington, prompting pleas to ‘Get vaccinated!’[/bold]

[quote][italic]Residents want the city to deal with the issue of human feces, which transmits the disease.[/italic]

[quote]But in both of the current Kensington cases, the people stricken are active leaders in the neighborhood, with stable housing and no history of drug use.

[quote]Human waste is a common sight in the blocks around Kensington Avenue, which has been caught in the riptide of the opioid epidemic. It appears on sidewalks, in the streets, in vacant lots — even on some residents’ front stoops.

[quote]We have lots of junkies like this in Vancouver and they’re harmless to everyone but themselves.

Leaving needles all over the place is not harmless, children shouldn’t have to tiptoe around syringes.

[quote]On Thursday, she walked through McPherson Square with her brother Eddie, who lives around the corner and recalls sledding down Fire Hill. She looked straight ahead.

[quote]Not to the left, where a man from Bucks County had just shot heroin and now danced sluggishly in the grass. Not to the right, where a 4-year-old girl crossed the park's concrete ledge like a tightrope walker, just as Marie had so many years before.

[quote]Except the little girl walked to her father's instructions: [bold]Keep clear of the needles in the grass![/bold]

From R120 ^

[quote]Last year, Grone was speared in the foot by a discarded needle as he walked his dog near McPherson. His granddaughter was 5 when she was pricked by a syringe that stuck out from the pocket of a man who sat down on their steps.

R118. I appreciate you sharing your journey to recovery with us. However, an anecdote is meaningless in terms of looking at the efficacy of treatment modalities.

As a scientist and clinician, I can say that the research supports medication assisted treatment for heroin/opiate use. Buprenorphine is a unique opiate with both antagonism and agonism to the mu opiate receptor.

I get your passion, but we need to provide the most efficacious treatment to those misusing opiates. If we don't, many more will die.

R82 but if you read the article it said the majority of the goods are outsourced to China which uses slave labor. Thus, high profits & low cost because some other country’s slaves are doing the labor.

122 Not to be rude. How many heroin addicts have you personally known, treated?

What kind of treatment have you provided?

How successful has it been?

Have you continued to follow up with them after treatment?

What I am saying is not just my experience.. I have known Many addicts for many years.

Hey R124

Familiarize yourself with how to use PubMed.

You will be able to answer all your questions via reviews of the literature.

So, you are listed in Pub. Med. Review as the anonymous clinician.

Interesting name.

Will I see your case studies, results of experiments, etc.

Nice attempt at a dodge..

Can't answer a simple ??

I don't put a lot of stock in someone's Youtube video compilations as being reflective of fact. I think a great deal of what's shown is being staged, acted, or otherwise misrepresented, sort of like what Project Veritas does. I don't think these videos are 'real' in the documentary sense of the word. I think that some posters' comparisons of it to a movie set or like 'Night of the Living Dead' and 'The Walking Dead' are spot on.

Is heroin/opioid addiction a problem? Oh yes, definitely. But I don't think these videos are a valid documentation of it.

Another sunny morning in Kensington

Most of them look...white...that section of town I guess. The Market-Frankford line that serves that area is always filled with rough looking white people, rivaling so-called "ghetto" blacks in terms of crudeness and vulgarity.

Most junkies are white

We knew we had to flee Kensington when Camilla asked if our baby would be born addicted to heroin.

This is catnip for suburbanites.

These are the bi-products of your Sackler Family that reaped $8 billion off its drugs and has paid only $330 million in fines.

Where do you think all of the addicts went when they clamped down on Oxy?

AmerisourceBergen is in Ohio and West Virginia defending itself from pushing oxycodone.

They joke about “Pillbilly migrations”.

There’s where your addicts originated, OP. And those responsible will not be held accountable.

What will the woke residents of Philly do about this? Give them their own condos so they can shoot up in private?

Why does it matter where they originated. They are there now.

Recovery opend the gates of hell, & let me out.

31+years without a drink, a drug or needle in my arm.

No chemical handcuffs, either(Methadone, Suboxone).

I am not unique, special or chosen. It an be done. A Day at a time

Yup, OP, troll or not, Kensington has streaks of terrible squalor. It’s also a traditional working class white neighborhood, which grants it a different status to the run-of-the-mill black ghetto.

I have friends who live there and indeed are upset at the recent upturn in degradation and the mayor seems ready to simply walk from it entirely.

Ugh, I really don’t know what to say

How do these people get the money to buy drugs?

They beg, borrow, steal, sell their bodies.

Funny, you never see videos like this with people saying that we need more steps towards legalization. usually makes people revert to Republican talking points like "cracking down on crime"

These videos show the reality. Its grotesque, horrific & people feel their personal powerlessness to help.

The more drugs that are legal the more addiction there will be. Easier to get, easier to use, easier to get addicted.

Look what happened w. Oxy & V. so available.

When the Dr. won't write the script & you can afford $50.00 a pill..heroin is the answer.

[quote]The more drugs that are legal the more addiction there will be. Easier to get, easier to use, easier to get addicted.

r140, This is what bothers me about Portland legalizing small quantities of all drugs.

We always revert to this fetishization of societal productivity. Not everybody wants to be a wage slave. Some people want to coast on the river of pleasure until they expire.

What's with the people crouched over or squatting in these Kensington videos? Is it a meth thing?

R143, I think it's a heroin thing.

R143 Live in the hood long enough, and you will have seen it all. And I don't just mean that in the bad way. There really is a lot that goes on that you can't get anywhere else in the world.

The crouching, bent over is the goal when shooting heroin.

Its called the nod.

Its being totally high. You have achieved the goal. Making the world go away, yet being still alive.(Well, sort of alive)

Ugh.

Nah not ugh..Hell on earth that you cannot escape.

Ugh.

I always thought squatting would be hard when high. If I’m drunk I can’t do it.

The crust and filth that develops from not washing your ass keeps the legs in place r150. Those are some funky people.

Not true, R71.

Europe is not immune

Berlin

Paris

Thanks for the cruelty, & inhumanity..NICE

Europe is likely worse

Ya gotta love the "this would never happen in Europe" idiots. And the ones who think this is endemic of Philadelphia exclusively. THIS IS HAPPENING IN YOUR TOWN RIGHT NOW.

Every addict is unique, thus methods to quit need to be unique. I am 100% legalization. People that were getting meds from doctors isn't a good reason to uphold legal punishments, since a lot of those people would've gotten the one way or another (legal otc drugs, alcohol, illegal drugs, etc.) Look at how meth has exploded and taken over for areas that used to be hot for pills. Let's not pretend taking a drug means everyone will become a junkie -- there's lots of people that do recreational drugs and function just fine, because addiction is more complex than simply taking a drug.

I've always had a theory that the reason some people become addicts, while others don't, is due to body chemistry. Something they lack is fulfilled by certain substances, it's just that tolerance is a bitch (if we could maintain tolerance levels, it wouldn't be so bad). This would explain why some people just don't like alcohol, or why some people can get pain meds and hate taking them. There's genetic tests they can do to see if certain meds will be compatible.

Other people just want to get fucked up and the world be damned. They'll take multiple cough meds and drink with it just to escape their life circumstances. It's not about a certain substance, but having a void inside themselves.

Though i'm happy for those that overcame addiction, I'm always hesitant to let them lead the charge on solutions -- some become too sanctimonious. Almost the way older generations are about todays financial struggles ("I paid college off delivering pizzas, bought a house, raised a family of 5, by the time I was 25, so you should be able to as well!)

And if you were clean 20 years ago, with no help, it's hard to believe you've tried the latest treatments to know "they don't work". It worked just fine for about half the addicts I've known. There's also examples of legalization, with monitoring, working out well (Portugal). There's promising studies with ketamine to reset opiate receptors.

About 20% of the population will suffer from addiction. This has been consistent throughout history. It's time to stop blaming it on moral failings. In a modern society, there should be multiple options when dealing with addiction, not BS like "you have to want it". Well that time may never come for some people, but there's ways of figuring out how to at least make them functional.

Legalization of hard drugs is not the way to go. We would create millions of Zombies, addicted, unable to take responsibilities as parents, drivers, colleagues etc . The idea that you can manage heroin, meth, etc. on the long run of they are freely available is delusional and maybe applies to 5% of people.

R160 sure that's why every patient taking pain meds jumps to heroin, and everyone that tried a drug is hooked for life 🙄 For an ex addict, you'd think you'd know better that it's not the drugs that hook you, it's mental illness, wanting escapism, and genetics, which you can find out about.

It's just weird to me that society keeps taking stupid stances that don't work, but keeps trying that same thing out. There's no good reason to keep treating addiction as a criminal act and to not at least provide clinics with safe drugs.

R160 I'm really not trying to be too snarky, but it's weird how these drugs were very legal, not too long ago in human history, yet we've managed to not die off much sooner. Cocaine, performance enhancers, opiates, etc., were otc and widely accessible (they used to put opiates in tampons), without 95% of the population becoming zombified druggies.

This was back when life was a hell lot tougher too. No medical advancements and lots of poors. The only reason it seems so much worse now, is because of the population expanding from 1 billion globally, to 7 billion. That's a lot more addicts and mentally ill in number, but not really percentage wise.

And if for some reason 95% did become addicts, that points to a much bigger problem going on with people's modern lifestyles, that needs to be addressed no matter the policy on drugs. That would mean life has become so meaningless, 95% rather nod out all day than live their lives. I hope to hell that it hasn't gotten that bad.