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Opioid, Schmopioid
american thinker ^ | 7/14/2017 | r j kozar

Posted on 07/14/2017 5:31:02 AM PDT by from occupied ga

...

legal or not, using opioids is just plain stupid. Compared to an opioid user, a man who punches himself in the face looks smart.

That's why I roll my eyes and change the channel when hectored about this so-called epidemic. If you want to talk about an epidemic, talk about zika or bird flu. Opioid addiction comes from a decision, not a virus. No mosquito can infect you with opioid addiction, and you don't need antibacterial soap to avoid catching it. To speak of it as an epidemic and to speak of addicts as victims is to stack the rhetorical deck for the view that addictions and overdoses are diseases rather than choices.

And that brings us to Middletown, Ohio, ... A city councilman there ... has proposed that the city’s EMTs simply ignore 911 calls from any overdosing addict who has already received Narcan from the city twice before. Three strikes, says his proposal, and you’re out. The very suggestion has, of course, prompted a tsunami of hate mail from people with lots of tattoos.

...

And if my cold-hearted attitude means that more opioid users die, my answer is a big, fat so what? If they don’t want to die, they shouldn’t abuse opioids. If an addict doesn't care about his own life, why should I?

...

You who tell us we have a duty to rescue every user, you who say we should give him a government program and pay a regiment of social workers for his benefit, you are the same people who portray the addict’s drug use as something other than a conscious decision.

...

Save our EMTs for real victims of real diseases.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/07/opioid_schmopioid.html#ixzz4mo9Lmwsz Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: addiction; epidemic; opioid; wod
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To: superfries

Not sure which one you mean, but try this:

http://www.officer.com/article/12263320/dea-warning-to-law-enforcement-fentanyl-and-carfentanil-exposure-kills

I also posted links earlier for a couple of police officers stories turned up on a google search.


141 posted on 07/14/2017 10:54:31 AM PDT by BlackAdderess (Proverbs 17:22 A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.)
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To: Ted Grant
I think we should make treatment available and if someone can’t afford it, we should help them

There isn't an unlimited supply of medical care. if you're swamping the emergency facilities for people who voluntarily chose to run their lives with drugs, then those who are having heart attacks, gunshot wounds, accident victims, severe pneumonia, which are not things the people chose it seems wrong to me.

142 posted on 07/14/2017 10:56:44 AM PDT by from occupied ga (Your government is your most dangerous enemy)
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To: ImJustAnotherOkie
however are predisposed to addiction. It’s always been that way always. Like casino’s

I would agree with that statement, that's why I now refuse to go to casinos or enter friendly poker games with the guys......

143 posted on 07/14/2017 11:04:12 AM PDT by Hot Tabasco
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To: mewzilla

“Thus isn’t about compassion. It’s about finite resources.”

But finite resources do dictate compassion. Where should we put our limited time, money, effort?

Well, as individuals we should be free to choose. If you want to work to help addicts in whatever way you think helps, good on you.

But as a society? There are lots of diseases, millions, that people to take up as volunteers.


144 posted on 07/14/2017 11:11:43 AM PDT by Persevero (Democrats haven't been this nutty since we freed their slaves.)
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To: Persevero; mewzilla

i mean that people DON’T take up as volunteers


145 posted on 07/14/2017 11:13:41 AM PDT by Persevero (Democrats haven't been this nutty since we freed their slaves.)
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To: Slyfox
That's why there are so many fiber commercials on TV.
146 posted on 07/14/2017 11:16:28 AM PDT by 4yearlurker (Government can make you feel so small and mean.-John Steinbeck)
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To: BlackAdderess

Thanks for the link!


147 posted on 07/14/2017 11:20:11 AM PDT by superfries
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To: Slyfox

You are thinking they are eating.

They are not.

And the “casual” users do get constipated.

The whole life of an addict is so incredibly different than that of a normal person. Things that we could never imagine doing to our bodies and acting in ways that would literally make us ill, are common place for the addict.

I am not buying that all of these addicts are the result of too many pills when you sprain your ankle...but there are a ton of addicts out there.


148 posted on 07/14/2017 11:26:42 AM PDT by Vermont Lt
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To: HangThemHigh

What came first, the chicken or the egg? You have education, parents, drugs, and media with television in particular.


149 posted on 07/14/2017 11:27:15 AM PDT by ImJustAnotherOkie
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To: truth_seeker; Mariner; arthurus; LambSlave; miss marmelstein; yldstrk; momincombatboots; ...

Here are two points to consider:

I’ve never been an alcoholic. A friend of mine was. I am addicted to cigarettes. That’s my thing. Nicotine.

I’ve tried to quit many times over the past 22 years but have failed. Today I mark 1 week of success, which is frankly a lot longer than I thought I would. While I’m not robbing people for a fix, I can tell you that you have confused “Addict” for “Criminal Addict”.

An addiction is a real thing, and I pray for the recovery of anyone shaking an addiction. But these are human beings, and I know from suffering from addiction (Albeit not a criminal type of addiction) that the choice to begin was theirs (Mine was mine) but to quit is not an option. There are tricks and what works for one person will likely not work for another. Pray for these people are offer your hand as Jesus would offer his.

I have been confused as to why someone would start Crack. I never understood why someone, anyone, would look at the punchline of a joke and say “Yup. That’s for me!” but the truth is that Crack addicts are normally tricked into it. Be it from just a few pills to feel “different” or a full blown get drunk, pass out, and get injected (Which happens more frequently than you can imagine). Crack is the butt end of every joke, yet still people wind up hooked on it.

No one chooses to be addicted. They choose to start a bad habit, but finishing it is now out of their hands. It’s in the realm of possibility, but addiction is real. My mind goes through mental gymnastics every 5 minutes to get me to light up another cigarette. I will even take stupid events and blow them up in my head to create stress “.. .from which only a last cigarette will fix”.

THIS IS THE MEAT OF THE POST:

I had a $15,000,000 company 2 years ago. We did telecom. We had contracts, quality tower climbers and top-notch analysts and engineers. An opiate addict who sat on my executive board (Who was just a game winner kind of guy) destroyed the entire company in a single weekend. A 6-digit salary guy stole the credit cards of one of our contractors and hacked a pharmacist to send him Oxy through the mail. After years of hard work and building relationships, it was all destroyed in one weekend. I lost about $180k out of pocket and the ghost of the company still haunts me with the people who lost their paychecks and couldn’t pay bills.

He did it because he couldn’t have anyone seeing the charges on his cards, so he stole the cards of one of our contractors to get it.

So opioid addiction has had a SEVERE cost on my life, even without being the addict. But I can tell you that as an addicted person, I can understand why he did it. I don’t condone why he did it - but I can understand that his brain was doing mental gymnastics to make him think that what he was doing was the smartest thing anyone has ever done.

There is a saying, however. “A drug addict will steal money from your pocketbook and deny ever doing it. A pill-head will steal money from your pocketbook and _help you look for it_”

Pill addictions are very, very complex addictions. And yes, to maintain that addiction the brain begins to exhibit signs of damage and the addict will become so delusional that it strongly resembles a non-voluntary psychosis.


150 posted on 07/14/2017 11:32:18 AM PDT by Celerity
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To: TigerClaws

“Similar to alcoholism. Ton of people drink. A certain percentage are going to become alcoholics. Certain percentage of those will die from it.”

Look up drunk driving statistics, they are killing people left and right. I’ve known so many families impacted by drunk drivers that I have no sympathy for drinkers or drug abusers. No, I don’t drink or do drugs. I have had several surgeries for various things, a kidney stone and a few severe horse riding accidents. I’ve been on Vicodin many times. I HATED IT. The drugged out feeling and the unrelenting constipation are not worth it.

Drug dealers should be executed. That would stop the problem in its tracks. Alcoholism is trickier because all the boozehounds in this country need their booze.


151 posted on 07/14/2017 11:40:00 AM PDT by tuffydoodle ("Never underestimate the total depravity of the average human being.")
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To: from occupied ga

“Opioid addiction comes from a decision, not a virus,” Ergo, it can not be an epidemic. HEH HEH


152 posted on 07/14/2017 11:45:27 AM PDT by hawg-farmer - FR..October 1998 (---->VMFA 235- '69 -'72 KMCAS <--- F4 PHANTOM FLYING BRICK)
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To: A_perfect_lady

You are not a perfect lady, you are sarcastic, caustic and unpleasant, very unladylike.


153 posted on 07/14/2017 12:14:57 PM PDT by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: semantic

You are very wise, some problems don’t have a solution, they have to be managed.


154 posted on 07/14/2017 12:17:18 PM PDT by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: Slyfox

Aside from the overdosing, how do these people take this stuff without getting SUPER constipated?

___________

Who says they aren’t?


155 posted on 07/14/2017 12:22:55 PM PDT by Chickensoup (Leftists today are speaking as if they plan to commence to commit genocide against conservatives.)
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To: Veto!

Sad. Do you consider alcoholism an addiction? I do. It has decimated my family, taking down brilliant, successful people, and I can’t understand it as I have zero desire to drink or do drugs or take prescription meds.

Families of alcoholics/addicts take a big hit too...living with sorrow, fear, fury...So hard to just live your life and ignore your loved ones who are essentially trying to kill themselves.

________________________________________________________

Sad indeed!

Yes of course I consider alcoholism an addiction. My mother died from the liver damage her alcoholism caused. When she asked if she could get a liver transplant the doctor actually laughed at her, in my presence. It was a difficult thing to watch her go through, it took me a long time to forgive her actions.

Addiction is beyond logic. I was a smoker and didn’t believe I was addicted, a friend of mine bet me air fare home when we both lived far from our homes that I couldn’t quit for two weeks. After a few days I bought him his ticket.

I don’t smoke now but have a greater understanding I think of people who have addictions. My little sister died of lung cancer because she couldn’t manage to stop smoking.

Addictions are a disease. It requires some stupidity to get the disease but once you get it, it is terrifyingly difficult to get rid of it.


156 posted on 07/14/2017 1:13:03 PM PDT by JAKraig (my religion is at leMPGast as good as yours)
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To: yldstrk
You are not a perfect lady, you are sarcastic, caustic and unpleasant, very unladylike.

You know what else I'm not? I'm not interested in seeing our tax dollars drained away down the bottomless pit of addicts who overdose again and again, using the ambulance as their personal physician to enable their thrill-seeking behavior. You forget, every dollar they consume is taken from someone who needed it. Either taken from the tax-payer, or taken out of the budget meant to help someone else who is just as needful, and far more deserving. You might as well pile the money up, pour gasoline on it, and set it on fire.

Of course, people like you think that's fine, as long as the fire keeps THEM warm.

157 posted on 07/14/2017 1:20:43 PM PDT by A_perfect_lady
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To: Celerity
An addiction is a real thing. I quit cigarettes after years of multi pack-a-day smoking. It occurred tome one day that cigs are why I never had any money in my pocket so I quit. Opiods were formerly not a worse problem than heroin. The advent of fentanyl changed that. It doesn't matter how addictive an addiction may be. Taking that first hit or puff or whatever is a conscious decision. If we would promote personal responsibility which is what I think, hey maybe I am wrong, is a basic tenet of the Republic as it was founded.

If that is accurate then I have no social or legal obligation to save one's life from one's own conscious decisions either directly or through the money the government takes from me. The Federal government has no business and no Constitutional excuse to spend my money saving people from themselves. Any organization or individual is welcome to save these useless peoples' lives as many times per as they will. I will even donate time and effort to such. I have direct experience with addicts of one sort or another and have offered support to a heroin addicted couple. but these people do not have a right to require my aid and succor for their addictions.

Tobacco addictions are not harmful to others, regardless of the false claims about "side stream pollution" Addiction to caffeine is even posited as beneficial by some authorities.

Opiods, opiates, and meth, are dangerous, to the users and to others because some of those addicted will rob and kill for the money to get high. There is no obligation on society to keep them alive. I say give them a chance to rid themselves of it- send the ambulance once or even twice, then tell them they are on their own.

158 posted on 07/14/2017 1:25:08 PM PDT by arthurus
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To: Celerity

Plus one


159 posted on 07/14/2017 1:59:44 PM PDT by wardaddy (Virtue signalers should be shot...conservative ones racked and hanged then fed to dogs)
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To: dp0622

Lol

Pretty much agree

Anti drug folks love their booze though usually


160 posted on 07/14/2017 2:01:01 PM PDT by wardaddy (Virtue signalers should be shot...conservative ones racked and hanged then fed to dogs)
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