from Hacker News

Nineteen people a week overdose in Richmond, dozens are dying, hundreds revived

by iamjeff on 11/8/17, 9:59 PM with 231 comments

• by jrowley on 11/8/17, 10:24 PM

  Just the other morning I got off of bart in downtown Oakland, 12th street and there was a guy just laid out, unresponsive right on the steps outside the station. He had smoked something out of a can. I stuck with the guy while the paramedics came, but the most tragic part was that he had a plastic "No Allergies" bracelet on. When the paramedics took off his shirt he still had adhesive on his skin from the EKG straps or what not. So he had gotten out of the hospital and then immediately ODed (presumably again).

  I'm not sure what we need to do, but if you haven't encountered the epidemic first hand, it's only a matter of time until you do.

• by dep_b on 11/9/17, 11:51 AM

  The greatest argument against the death penalty is that it's not applied to the people that deserve it the most. Not only did the pharmaceutical industry earn billions by pushing addictive opioids to people but they also charge people up the nose for the injections they need after they OD'ed because they got addicted. People are still getting filthy rich literally over other people's deaths. In the name of health.

  I know a lot of people love capitalism here and I think it works pretty great if you apply it to a lot of markets. But health isn't something that can be regulated by capitalism.

  You can buy the new iPhone or you don't. It's a decision. You can make a stupid decision and buy it while you really should feed your kids instead but it's still a decision.

  Health issues are not. Nobody decides to have cancer next year because this year things look a bit uncertain at work right now. It just hits you.

  Free markets only work when somebody is free to decide.

• by zamalek on 11/9/17, 8:59 AM

  My experience originates in South Africa. All my friends did coke - it took, in some cases, years to get them off of it. One thing I learned is the barrier of "it's a problem." A few quit entirely (citing biological/logical reasons), almost the rest now use it on occasion - I don't give them hell for that. If someone goes on a drug-filled festival for 5 days (think Burning Man), it's a legitimate experience (that I am entirely unfamiliar with).

  I think that's the key: shades of grey. At one point I was very seriously alcoholic but pulled myself out of it; I still concede to social situations. It's not a problem, it's a momentary span of blissful negligence followed by a day of sorrow (that I'm fully dreadful of while drunk).

  I'm not special in any regard. I was absolutely lucky enough to realize these things internally. Here's the scary thing:

  I spent every living weekend at my friends' digs in South Africa, years and years. It took me a long time to learn about their drug habits. The very first friend candidate that I have met in Seattle has guaranteed that he will get me on coke in no time.

  It's an epidemic for absolute certainty. I failed to resolve a single friend's addiction and it still haunts me - what am I going to do with thousands of people who are convinced that there is no problem?

  Seattle has a big problem. We are telling addicts to come get their fix safely (which I deeply applaud), but are not attempting to understand their motivation.

  Is there any charity making an actual difference that I can volunteer at?

• by iambateman on 11/8/17, 10:53 PM

  Serious questions...if you’ve used an opioid more than once for recreational purposes, I’d like to hear (1) what prompted you to try it (2) how old you were (3) cost (4) where did you get them (5) why did you stop

  Treat me like an idiot, I don’t understand this stuff and I’d like to know more.

  * obviously feel free to use a burner account if you’d rather not speak publicly.

• by joshschreuder on 11/9/17, 7:24 AM

  There was a very good Louis Theroux doco (Dark States) set in Huntington, West Virginia a couple of weeks ago about the opiod epidemic.

  It really hit hard with me for some reason, despite never having first hand contact with anyone with this sort of addiction. In particular, a man who was apparently a pentester before having some sort of accident and becoming addicted to prescribed opoids before transitioning onto illegal drugs. It just felt like something that could hit anyone, and not just the standard "junkie" problem.

• by mschuster91 on 11/8/17, 10:17 PM

  > Local jails have been overrun with people locked up and in need of treatment

  Why. Do. People. End. Up. In. Jail. Seriously this one is beyond my comprehension - they need treatment, not jails filled with hardened criminals, rapists and probably more (and nastier) drugs than on the street.

• by mirimir on 11/9/17, 8:45 AM

  This is just so sad.

  It costs less to prescribe drugs than to diagnose and treat underlying problems. So the American profit-driven medical system relies heavily on drugs, especially for poorer patients. And drug companies love addictive drugs. So we get lots of opiate-addicted patients.

  And then there's the "drugs are evil" mindset, which justifies criminalization. Even preventing pain is too much like having fun. So it's better for addicts to OD than get safe drugs. Because they deserve it, or whatever. They should just suck it up, walk it off, ...

  So it goes.

• by AdmiralAsshat on 11/8/17, 10:20 PM

  This reminds me that the lead singer of GWAR died in Richmond from a heroin overdose in 2014: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Brockie

• by OliverJones on 11/9/17, 12:43 PM

  The "iron law of prohibition" teaches us this: prohibiting a substance drives out all but the most potent forms of that substance. Back during alcohol prohibition in the US, people made, smuggled, and sold "white lightning" not light beer.

  In the case of opiods, the most potent forms are stuff like street fentanyl and oxy 80s pulverized. Milligram mistakes in dosages of this stuff are very dangerous.

  The iron law leads to a paradox: decriminalizing a substance makes it safer. Obviously it's more complex than that: addicts need access to safe supplies of the substance. But it's still true.

  But keeping opiods criminalized is, basically, makework for law enforcement and public safety people, not to mention people with names like El Chapo.

  Switzerland and Portugal are having good success with decriminalization and treatment. Juristictions who don't need anything in the way of foreign aid or other cooperation from the USA are in the best position to do this.

  Source: Chasing The Scream, a book by Johann Hari.

• by billturner on 11/8/17, 11:24 PM

  One of the Pittsburgh papers just ran an excellent, in-depth article about something very similar, happening in one particular neighborhood of the city: https://newsinteractive.post-gazette.com/riding-od-road/

• by jenkstom on 11/8/17, 10:15 PM

  The opioid epidemic is huge. Legal Cannabis is helping in some places, but it's still illegal at the federal level.

• by Feniks on 11/9/17, 11:24 AM

  My country had a heroine epidemic in the 80s and early 90s. One of the root causes was a shitty economy and chronic unemployment.

  All you can do in the end is try to keep things contained. They opened special places were junkies could use their drugs so that they wouldn't have to OD on the streets.

  You can't fix someone unless they WANT to be fixed.

• by askvictor on 11/8/17, 11:42 PM

  Interesting coincidence that Richmond in Melbourne, Australia, has just been announced as a location for a supervised injecting room. This Richmond is also a hot spot for heroin usage, dealing, and overdoses.

• by PatientTrades on 11/8/17, 10:23 PM

  Most of this stems from the overprescription of opioids. I remember when I had surgery for a broken leg the amount of drugs I received after the surgery was astounding. It was almost as if the hospital wanted me to become hooked. I didn't need or ask for the opioids, they were just prescribed for pain killing. A regular Tylenol or Advil would have done the job. Not saying hospitals want people on drugs, but at some point we have hold the people initially prescribing the drugs accountable.

• by krisives on 11/9/17, 11:53 AM

  Talk to the leader of any emergency room staff and this is how it works in most cities.

  Another reason to charge more for working in a big city, since smaller rural cities don’t have this problem as much - like the middle of nowhere in Montana versus Seattle.

• by beefsack on 11/8/17, 11:58 PM

  There are many places around the world called Richmond, and even if we assume it's in the US there are still 16 places called Richmond[1].

  I wish people were more specific, particularly when reaching an international audience without an innate understanding of places in the US.

  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond

• by Double_a_92 on 11/9/17, 9:09 AM

  And nothing of value was lost...

• by loverofcode on 11/9/17, 3:25 AM

  PLEASE READ AND PUSH TO THE TOP!! this is a direct result of the war on drugs. the fentanyl and carfentanil coming from china are responsible. before these two were being imported at such high rates opioid deaths were 4,000 per year vs 400,000 for alcohol. Which at first was being blamed on fentanyl being prescribed legally, but was incorrect data. Check the numbers yourself at wonder cdc. attached is the screenshot form cdc data. https://imgur.com/a/fFBTe

• by jcmoscon on 11/8/17, 10:34 PM

  Maybe all these drugs being dumped in USA is really part of an evil plan from an enemy nation to destroy this country by destroying its people. Check out this book "Red Cocaine" to see how cocaine traffic started in America.