US Yearly Drug Overdose Deaths Top 100,000

Like a population colonic.

"Vermont saw the biggest rise, with a nearly 70 percent increase. Large increases were also observed in West Virginia (62 percent), Kentucky (55 percent), Louisiana (52 percent) and Tennessee (50 percent)."

Isn't it ironic that 4/5 of those states are GOP. I thought Republicans were strictly anti any drugs...

White drug addicts harm themselves, black drug addicts harm others.

Synthetic crystal meth is changing everything. Read this article in The Atlantic if you want some insight into what is going on.

R3 Spoke nothing but the truth.

R3 and R5 are both ignorant racists. Just ask any of the millions of white children raised by neglectful, barely present, undependable, white drug addicted parents.

R4, that article probably explains the uptick in the homeless crisis better than anything I've ever read before.

[quote][R3] and [R5] are both ignorant racists

And almost certainly the same person.

Thanks, CIA!

Meth and Fentanyl are being smuggled in from Mexico. US authorities killed meth production in the US by basically banning ephedrine. This had the unintended consequence of the void being filled by a much worse version of meth.

R7/R8 No, we're not the same person. I'm R2 and R5. If anything, I bet both of you are the same person. Also, don't you have any other relevant thing to pull up other than the race card? It's getting kind of irrelevant at this point.

Wanna stop the opioid epidemic? Stop giving out free narcan. Eliminate the demand.

You'd think they would have figured out by now that banning something leads to something worse. The entire history of addictive substances in the US is riddled with variations of this same story.

Also, I never did meth, but I fucking LOVED ephedrine. If I could win a lifetime supply of any one drug, with no health or legal issues, that would be it.

R13 is on the way to make it on that 100,000 list.

Strange how it wasnt "the doctors OR the patients" who were fueling the drug epidemic !!!!! Its frickin MEXICO CARTEL. Our dumb f ing lawmakers need to WAKE THE FUCK UP.

R15 Believe it or not, drug trafficking is a good profit for the country. Of course lawmakers won't change that if they're getting money from it.

Darwinism at its best. Thinning the herd, culling the weak. This can’t happen fast enough. Same thing with the anti-vaxxers. Let them go down that path of stupidity to the ultimate end. Die ignorant bitches! Die!

Listen to R16.

I had 2 patients who missed their annual checkups, one went on a meth-fueled rampage and wound up in jail. Other one OD’d on fentanyl but her family’s calling it a suicide instead. The latter had 5 kids all of whom she lost custody to CPS after they were born. These addicts with mental illness leave more problems behind besides themselves. I feel bad for their kids.

Listen to R16.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

R13 We're past that. People have developed a taste for P2P meth and fentanyl. There's no going back to less dangerous "alternatives".

R15 the Sacklers should be in prison, as should every doctor-turned-dealer, and drug lobbying politician. That's doesn't negate the fact that most of the drugs now are coming in through Mexico.

It can happen to anyone. My sister was in an accident, prescribed for pain and became addicted. The pain was gone, the addiction remained. Why a doctor would prescribe for YEARS and YEARS is also a problem.

R14, I don't do any hard drugs. Ephedrine was something one could easily buy at the gas station when I was teen-early 20s.

I was never into opiates or sedatives. I'll be fine.

There was a public service announcement on the tee-vee last night, warning about people being poisoned/killed by fentanyl-contaminated meth.

Young males have spent their lives playing video games since birth, smoking weed & watching porn since they were eleven. There’s never been a generation like this. They live in mom’s basement and they love it. Maybe more of them should shuffle off this mortal coil.

Let doctors write prescriptions for pain meds and people will stop turning to street drugs for relief.

100,000 drug overdose deaths? Sounds like a good start.

When I was growing up there was no equivalent of Little League for girls. There were no female sports in school, girls wore dresses until after I graduated HS. Boys had shop, where they built things. Girls had Home Economics, where they sewed aprons. Class President was always a boy. Girls never ran for class president. I don’t know if schools wouldn’t let them or if it just never occurred to them that they could do it. Valedictorians and salutatorians were males.

When I started nursing there was one female dr and she was from England. For years I worked in surgery and the surgeons & residents were all male. Even when females started to go to med school in higher numbers, they didn’t become surgeons. When I stopped working in 2001 the first female surgical resident stared with our surgical group. I knew maybe 5 male nurses throughout my career.

I worked in a PACU and we had to wear dresses. When I left in 1992, it was still the rule. White wrap around dresses. Nurses were forbidden from wearing. scrubs unless they worked in the OR.

Now girls have been given equal footing as boys. And the girls are zooming past the boys, while the boys are riveted to game screens, superhero movies and porn. They have no motivation. Only the gay ones are as involved as the females in school activities.

Every young male I come across is high. It might make them feel good, but they look & act like morons.

Culling.

I've never paid much attention to these statistics, but I would have thought the number higher than 100K to be honest.

So if this lasts another 20 years , which state will lose a US congressional district?

Vermont only has 1 to begin with so it won't be them.

That’s not a whole lot for a country of 350M

Why a doctor would prescribe for YEARS and YEARS is also a problem.

A game of Spritzengooven is a simple detox.

R30 I live in an economically depressed town in Florida, and there are tons of female addicts around here.

Just stop taking drugs. Problems solved.

R37 = Nancy Reagan

Just stop sucking cocks, Nancy. Problem solved.

At least Afghanistan is out of the picture now. Fewer deaths next year.

All white guys falling dead, white gays will be even more constrained in their searching for other white guys to have sex with.

They might have to *gasp* Change their preferences

Whites falling dead is the end of gays, period. Whites are the only group to like gays—besides Hispanics.

Jared Kushner did a great job handling the opioid epidemic

Plenty of people of color doing drugs, racist R41.

I have a 36 year-old lawyer friend who’s been completely psychotic for almost two years now. Believes he’s a deity, that he time travels through multiple realms, he talks to spirit entities. He tells me he’s done meth before. I have no idea if he was a meth addict before his psychotic breakdown or if he was doing it occasionally or if he is still doing it, but I’m concerned that his psychosis is now permanent.

The actual number of overdose deaths in the U.S. is likely higher than 100,000. It's possible a kind-hearted coroner here and there might list "Cardiac Arrest" or something similar as a cause of death to accommodate the wishes of the dead person's family.

R42 That’s why the whitest dominated states still have the the most anti-gay laws.

[quote]Isn't it ironic that 4/5 of those states are GOP. I thought Republicans were strictly anti any drugs...

And I believe the worst opioid addiction problem in NYC is in.....Staten Island, the one overwhelmingly Republican stronghold. It can't be a coincidence.

I had a heroin addict roommate who came from an upper middle class family in Colorado. They were super religious. They also pushed him into competing in skiing. He got injured and then got addicted to pain medication.

"Tents themselves seem to play a role in this phenomenon. Tents protect many homeless people from the elements. But tents and the new meth seem made for each other. With a tent, the user can retreat not just mentally from the world but physically. Encampments provide a community for users, creating the kinds of environmental cues that the USC psychologist Wendy Wood finds crucial in forming and maintaining habits. They are often places where addicts flee from treatment, where they can find approval for their meth use.

In Los Angeles, the city’s unwillingness, or inability under judicial rulings, to remove the tents has allowed encampments to persist for weeks or months, though a recent law allows for more proactive action."

So the writer is saying that they should sweep up all the tents? and they'll go where exactly? and I think the part about the city's unwillingness to clear the encampments is a lie, pretty sure I've heard of them doing it in the past

R50, this is why I am in favor of abridging the rights of people suffering psychosis.

You have no idea how frustrating it is dealing with people stuck in psychosis. What's worse, the government has basically given them carte blanche to do whatever they want, as long as they are not an imminent threat to themselves or others.

Last year, I was taking care of a friend who was psychotic and off his medication. I was letting him live with me. I suspect he got this way because he had been doing meth. I TRIED calling the King County Mental Health department, and they sent over social workers, but there was nothing the social workers could do because he REFUSED to talk with them. What was I supposed to do after that, kick him out on the streets?

And now, he's going to eventually kicked out of his apartment when his lease is up and he has nobody paying his rent. And he'll be homeless and on the streets and starving. And I've TRIED to help him, but he RESISTS efforts from others to help him. He is not willing to do what is necessary to get better.

So FUCK the rights of these homeless people who are homeless because of drug addiction. More often than not, they have already been offered help and they have refused. They are violating a basic social contract.

I have no problem having them forcefully detained indefinitely until they are sober and unpsychotic. At least they're off the streets and not starving.

And to the extent that this meth is causing long term psychosis, I have no problem imposing harsh, long term prison sentences on people who are distributing this meth for profit. This is doing as much brain damage to people as a child molester damages a child and causes the child to grow up to have mental health issues.

But R47 all white states, counties & cities give LGBTs thousands of rights from marriage equality.

Most dark skinned Native American tribes still do not & there is no part (dems, repubs or libertarians) trying to force them to change 6+ years after the US SC decision.

It's still not clear if non white American Samoa will grant equal rights to LGBTs who want to marry 6+ years after the US SC ruling.

[quote]There’s never been a generation like this. They live in mom’s basement and they love it.

This is just flat-out wrong. The percentage of 18-34 year old males living at home isn't that different than it was in 1960. It was about 53% in 1960 and it's 59% now.

The chart on this page needs to be downloaded but if you can read it, the first page shows data for 1960, 1970, 1980, then year by year from 1980 on.

Thanks, R4. That was a very interesting article.

America has shown that it is very good at killing Americans. Trump still holds the record.

Thinning the herd.

R55, stop letting Trump take so much space in your brain.

[quote] I have a 36 year-old lawyer friend who’s been completely psychotic for almost two years now.

That describes several of my law school professors

[quote Isn't it ironic that 4/5 of those states are GOP. I thought Republicans were strictly anti any drugs...

Perchance wouldst thou have a breakdown on the political affiliation of those junkies?

Folks, we got a problem. Fuck the partisan blame shit.

But COVID are the only deaths that matter.

R30 This is not true at all. For every video game and porn addicted straight male there is a fat, functionally alcoholic female who is screeching on social media about how no one wants to fuck her. Males still make substantially more money than women because they enter professions that pay substantially more. Cushy jobs in NGOs or in management are just sinecures for daddys' girls. Women aren't making huge strides in industries that matter, like tech, without substantial hand holding and quotas. Also, go back to mumsnet.

I can see getting addicted to coke or alcohol - something that makes you feel better or more relaxed. But what is the attraction to a drug that instantly makes you paranoid and psychotic?

[quote] But what is the attraction to a drug that instantly makes you paranoid and psychotic?

Don't knock it till you tried it

R63, it’s an amped-up amphetamine. I assume it makes you feel energized and all-powerful.

R63, all drugs, including alcohol, make people paranoid and psychotic.

when used in excess.

R66

r57, Trump aided in the deaths of over 400K Americans. He has earned his space in my brain as a genocidal killer of Americans.

We’re not exactly losing our best and brightest.

River Phoenix died of a drug overdose.^^

Either it doesn't matter or Trump did it.

You are wrong, r71, it matters AND Trump did it.

The Sacklers don't deserve all the credit...but they did their part.

Humans are always going to seek out substances to make them feel a way. And many will abuse these substances to the detriment of everything else. Why can’t we figure out, in a lab, some nice substance that makes people happy and functional?

R68 Have Covid deaths stopped occurring under Biden? What about the other 4.5 million people around the world who have died of covid? Did Trump do that? "TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP". You sound like a zombie.

[quote] Why can’t we figure out, in a lab

Cause that worked out so well in 2019...

R68 There have been more Covid deaths under Biden than under Trump.

And that's despite the fact that under Trump there were no vaccines yet available.

And the virus is skyrocketing again in Europe.

Is that Trump's fault too?

If Trump had not thrown out the Obama Epidemic Operations Manual the entire trajectory of the pandemic could have followed the Canadian Corona Virus outbreak that never cought fire. A businessman who has never held public office should never be elected president.

R78 4 of the 10 busiest airports in the world are in the US. Toronto ranks at 32.

The US has a population of 330 million people. Canada: a little over 38 million.

It is absurd to compare the two countries

The containment of viral outbreaks is scalable.

Jesus, people, get your shit together. Or it's Bye, Felicia.

Is this China's revenge for the Opium Wars?

Is it wrong to think100k is no big deal? Several times that will soon have died because people couldn't handle staying home when they were sick. A tenth of a million have succumbed to this super-meth? BFD, IMHO.

This and covid is really cleaning up the gene pool in the US.

What R84 said. Crystal has long been known to be extremely addictive and dangerous. Intelligent people exercising a reasonable amount of caution stay far away from it. The only people doing crystal would have been crushed by something else soon enough, if they hadn't already crushed themselves with crystal met.

It's not my job to save them. It's their job to save themselves. And they're not doing it. So we'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when.....

100,000 dead junkies does not equal free fall to me, OP.

[quote]This and covid is really cleaning up the gene pool in the US.

Jews?

Is the coke still safe?

Absolutely, R88. The cocaine drug cartels are comprised of only the very most ethical drug king pins and their choir boy drug runners. There is no reason to worry about cocaine being cut with anything dangerous by unscrupulous people looking to increase their profits.

R88, it’s not common, but fentanyl occasionally shows up in cocaine, and there have been deaths in NYC, Atlanta and various places in Florida.

[quote] Is this China's revenge for the Opium Wars?

Not really, seeing as how that was mainly between Britain and them.

Watch out, fentanyl's showing up in pot now.

Sadly, this economy and social system isn't working for alot of people. They become isolated and depress, often turning to drugs and alcohol.

Instead of medicalizing these problems, we've pushed them to the police, courts, and jails.

When urban ghettos were hit by the crack epidemic, no one cared and everyone was stuck in jail. Now, with white middle class kids getting addicted to opioids and heroin, the country is finally waking up that jailing people isn't the solution.

[quote] Crystal has long been known to be extremely addictive and dangerous. Intelligent people exercising a reasonable amount of caution stay far away from it. The only people doing crystal would have been crushed by something else soon enough, if they hadn't already crushed themselves with crystal met.

More people die of heart attacks and strokes from a lifetime of eating meat than from meth OD. Do you hate the meat eaters too?

[quote] Isn't it ironic that 4/5 of those states are GOP. I thought Republicans were strictly anti any drugs...

The GOP is fine with drugs as long as their supporters, like drug companies, are making a killing on them

So everything goes better with fentanyl?

R95 It's also the Democrats, it's all of them.

R92, a writer in Vice argues that the "weed-laced fentanyl" stories might involve a bit of "Reefer Madness"-style exaggeration.

30 years clean and sober. It CAN be done but not if you are coddled. Take accountability, people, don't just blame it on the pharm companies.

[quote] a writer in Vice argues that the "weed-laced fentanyl" stories might involve a bit of "Reefer Madness"-style exaggeration.

Yes, druggies being so careful after all

Why would a dealer waste good fentanyl sprinkling it on weed? Why would a dealer want to poison and kill his customers? It doesn't make sense at all. OTOH, I did hear about a batch of meth that got contaminated with fentanyl and killed a few people. But that seems more likely, since they're produced and transported similarly (and differently than MJ).