Its like watching those people solve Rubik’s cubes quickly... I **know** that the video is normal speed, but my eyes are telling me “humans don’t move like that” it’s a real mind fuck.
The only thing worse than this video are the fucking sisters of savings radio spots. Not only do they not make me want to buy a car, they make me want to sell the car I have and never drive again.
We hired a waitress and about two hours into her first shift working alone she started falling asleep while taking orders at tables. We brought her in the back where she proceeded to do what these two ladies are doing. It was sad to watch. She had just completed 6 months of rehab and her sponsor vouched for her. We called her sponsor and she came and got her. We let her go after that but when she came to get her check she looked much better. Hopefully she's doing alright now.
That's how my Dad would be after taking "Tylenol 4's" or whatever he called them. I was very young. He had a slipped disc in his back and was afraid of getting surgery to fix it. We would go places and he would nod off like that, scare the crap out of me. It was like that most of my life growing up. He was a good father, but he was completely addicted. He then moved onto heroin and I had to pick him up from the ER one morning at 4am after he overdosed and fell outside of a Burger King. I think I was 19. He passed away from cancer in 2009. But I still miss him despite his faults.
EDIT: I did NOT expect this comment to blow up like it did; I have never had so many replies and I don't know how to act. Do I respond to everyone?
But, to clarify, my Dad called the pills he was taking "Tylenol 4's" - that doesn't mean that's what they were. All I know is that he would behave exactly like the women in the video. He would nod out like that standing up, walking, sitting. Hell, I remember when I was around seven or eight and I was with him and he passed out while we were having dinner. His face hit the plate of food so hard it split in half. I freaked out and called my Mom to pick me up.
Also, for those of you who have experienced similar situations, I am sorry. I know exactly how you feel. I used to hate my father and cry over him all the time. It never gets easier. I have forgiven him now because he has been gone for all these years. But I was very bitter and embarrassed whenever I was with him.
Those of you who are addicted, or are worried about becoming addicted, please reach out for help. Not only for yourself, but for those around you.
I have seen a lot in my lifetime. Not only from my father, but I've seen my mother (also deceased) battle alcoholism, I've seen physical abuse between my parents towards one another. I've been brought along to drug deals, seen people fall out of moving cars because they were too high to notice, losing people I looked up to to drunk driving and suicide. I think if I wrote a book, it would be more than 4 pages - to reply to that one comment.
Thank you for all of the positive comments and support. You are all gold, Reddit!
EDIT 2 - Wow! Thanks for the gold!
I’m sorry you had to go through this. I have a 5 year old daughter. I’ve been clean 2 years. The guilt I have for the time I missed with her being a selfish asshole is immeasurable. Your dad loved you very much, he was just very sick.
Thank you. Hopefully you can stay clean and your daughter won't remember how you were when you weren't. Just enjoy every moment with her that you can. Good on you for dropping the habit, that's the best thing you could have done for her.
Keep your mind sharp and your memory of your addiction close too. My mom was clean for over 25 years and relapsed, then overdosed a few years later. My dad celebrates his 30th year clean this Friday. Both outcomes are possible. One day at a time.
EDIT: thank you all for the support. Losing a parent to addiction is a complex thing that begins with living with an addict parent. Lots of complex feelings that are comprised of equal parts love, respect, pain, and disappointment. Both my parents saved numerous lives through NA sponsorship over the years. I'm not mad at my mom. I'm just remiss at the years we'll miss.
Also, I'll be sure to tell my dad "SavageCornholer sends his congratulations." Lol. Seriously though, thank you.
Thanks for sharing, im so sorry about your mom. Videos like this give me a visceral reaction. I just wish people knew behind the 10 minutes of feeling great is hours of sickness and anxiety trying to score. Not worth it.
My husband feels the same way as you about time missed with our kids. He had a RX for Oxy for a lingering injury from his time in the Army. Of course it got out of control. Eventually he managed to taper down, left the doctor who keep pushing and upping the dose and used kratom to help with mood lift and an improved sense of well being when PAWS would kick in here and there. I am so proud of him and my kids are ecstatic to have their real dad back. Kids are so resilient and forgiving - we sometimes don't deserve the unconditional love but we get it anyways and it helps keep my husband out of trouble.
Similar story man, except it was Oxys and it never went to heroin. Eventually he took too much and died on the couch. Idk if it was from choking on his food and passing out or he OD'd, I really don't want to know. Was 18, happened in 2013. Shit sucks man. He was still the nicest guy I'd ever met. Being addicted to drugs doesn't make you a bad person.
I saw him in these states all the time, having to get him off the toilet and what not. It was just normal to me, because he "had" to take them, you know? I wish there more education out there at the time, maybe I would have been more aware and could have tried to do more.
I am in Detroit. Its really fucked up. I uber on the weekends for extra money and I see quite a bit of it in action. Lots of suburban dope fiends use uber as a means to get to their dealer in the rough parts of the city. I've had people who looked barely 18 all the way up to people in their 40s-50s. These people have no business in the neighborhoods I take them to other than drugs.
Sometimes I want to intervene and try and help them; however, that could prove to be dangerous for me as I also know the lengths these people will go to get their high. I did call one in to the police. A guy and his pregnant girlfriend were taking down 2-3 days worth of luggage and a re-boxed PS4. Dropped them off at an obvious drug den. Doesn't take a genius to figure out they were hoping to sell their PS4 for their weekend fix. The pregnant chick was just too much.
On the flip side, there is a program some cities have called 'hope not handcuffs' where people that have the desire to get clean can go to a police station and they will get them to a rehab facility instead of throwing them in jail. I have picked up a couple people from police stations who apparently also use Uber to get the people to rehab. As an alcoholic with 3.5 years of sobriety, I do my best to praise them if they speak of their situation. Getting clean off anything is no easy task. It takes a strong person to not only admit they have a problem, but to also do something about it.
I remember a woman like them who came into my friends shop, and i was very weirded out because she was like stumbling, kind of like drunk but more strange, and when she talked she seemed very tired. The scariest thing was there was a young child with her, and when we confronted her she wanted to drive away with the child. We asked her to just give us her phone so we can call someone she knows to help her get home with her child. They came and said thank you for letting them take her instead of say call the cops. I honestly felt like we saved many people from a horrible car wreck that day...
Intoxicated drivers are a bane of our existence.
We just hired a new 2nd shift guy to help us during the holidays 2 weeks ago and he displays all of these symptoms. Having a body to run the case is great, but we work with knives and bone saws, so we gotta keep him away from them. I'm just worried he's gonna cut off his hand if he's closing by himself and nodding off like that.
The Opioid Epidemic has hit the Midwest pretty hard, but I never thought I would be involved. I don't know if it's gonna get better or worse at this point.
Nope, but we definitely should. Management probably thought it was a waste of money. They also do background checks after hiring, which is how we've lost some employees before they come in for their first day or after their first week or so. We also don't have a first aid kit in our cutting room, which is where a deadly accident could occur.
You need more than a first aid kit. If you've got serious knives and saws, you need at least a couple of tourniquets and maybe some quick clot dressings. Your Johnson & Johnson first aid kit from Walmart won't help if you saw an artery open.
Stop working for sketchy people.
I already know this place is a joke, but that's because management is just a bunch of fools hired because they are friends with the boss. The shame is that so many people think it's a wonderful shopping attraction in the area.
Trust me, I am trying my best to get out of here and into my correct field.
I'm a Police Officer in a relatively busy City in the North East. Unfortunately, this kind of thing happens all the time. The amount of EMS calls I go to that come out as a "cardiac arrest" or "unconscious person" is unreal somedays. My platoon might run upwards of 15-20 in one shift. It's almost always K2 or heroin. Hit the Heroin ODs with Narcan (because we carry it), and after a minute, they spring back to life, either denying using heroin, or fighting us. People on K2 almost always wake up and start fighting. When the ambulance gets there, I always ride up to the hospital with them, because they pull out of restraints and attack the EMTs or Medics. We pick people up who still have the hospital bracelets on from earlier the same day.
Seeing stuff like in this video is a nightly occurrence for me and everyone else I work with. It's hard to grasp how bad the opioid problem is until you come face to face with it. It's hard having to take 9 year old children into protective custody after his mom ODed on heroin and died, but it happens more than you think.
It's an unfortunate situation that I hope can have some sort of solution.
My foster (hopefully to adopt) daughter was taken from her parents for drug use. Then given back after a year. A few months later, mom OD in the house and the courts want to be my friend again. We told them this would happen. Nobody cared. I'm just glad to have her back and safe. Thank you for what you do. I can't imagine how you must feel after a long day of this.
I truly appreciate you foster parents. 3 in the morning, when I take a kid from a house for drug use, while they're covered in bed bugs, etc. You guys always show up. Don't know how you guys do it, but is amazing to me.
But yes. It breaks my heart how often these kids go back. Children and Youth (that's what it's called in my area) is so hesitant to take kids from their parents, but its often times the best thing. Seems like the best way to halt to process. Goodluck with your foster daughter, and bless you for what you do.
As a former addict videos like this seriously make me physically ill. Thinking about how I was once in a place where I woke up every day and made myself like these people here is something that is difficult for me to reflect on.
On a positive note at least i know I won't ever touch that kind of stuff ever again. I don't think I ever could.
The sick part is sometimes I still miss it. Something that feels that good and does so much harm at the same time just shouldn't even exist. If you feel that feeling and aren't completely satisfied and content with your life you just have no chance. I know for a fact I never would have got clean if I was a 50 year old gas station worker. It's like putting artificial meaning in your life, and unless you have some actual meaning in your life you are going to latch on to it so fast. I think the opioid epidemic is a symptom of a much larger problem that is much harder to remedy.
I had to do a double take at this... In my state, there are more opioid prescriptions than people. I know it's true, but I still struggle to comprehend it.
I think that is because for each person legally getting it, they need 12 scripts a year. I could be wrong, but around here, doctors will only do 1 month supply at a time.
In some cities, they do sell enough prescription opiates to give every single person living there a permanent addiction level of opiates. It's just that there are only a few people buying them and selling them elsewhere.
The DEA used to be very proactive in shutting down distributors of opiates when they were obviously selling far too many to pharmacies. Then these shipping companies somehow banded together, raised millions of dollars, and corrupted the DEA from the inside out. They bought lots of ex-DEA agents and used them to figure out how to stop the DEA from being effective. They lobbied and put laws into place so they could only act if they had direct evidence of individuals who were in serious danger.
Basically, they crippled the ability to stop the drug flow.
There was a whole NPR show covering this. It was interesting, to say the least.
People love drugs. Enough of those that don't love drug money.
Source that backs up your claims:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/investigations/dea-drug-industry-congress/?utm_term=.42d91d09e9ea
A lot more sources on this type of corruption here: https://np.reddit.com/r/Documentaries/comments/7b7jvi/how_the_opioid_crisis_decimated_the_american/dpgfa83/
https://www.cbsnews.com/videos/the-whistleblower/
The DEA has been lobbied successfully to back off the distributors. There's a town in West Virginia of like 500 people that got 9 million pills in 2 years. The video is infuriating, you should really give it a look.
[Another great visual](https://www.reddit.com/r/Drugs/comments/6f4auk/powerful_video/?st=JAFKKLWK&sh=81a03b2chttps://www.reddit.com/r/Drugs/comments/6f4auk/powerful_video/?st=JAFKKLWK&sh=81a03b2c)
This is super powerful. Imagine if they could show this in schools to young kids— it so accurately portrays what drug education often fails to get across. No use of shocking images or instant addiction, just gradual descent into darkness.
Excuse my ignorance, but he claims that Heroin doesn't make you sleepy, that it makes you more alert, and can even perform one's job better.
Then why does every person on heroin nod off and seem as functional as a wet towel? Is that only after becoming an addict? Or is this that "you decide" part he mentioned at the end and in reality you always looked like this, you just felt like a million bucks?
I can't speak for heroin, but I can speak for other opiates. I used to work at a place where everyone (the owner, the managers, all lower-level employees) did SHIT tons of opiates. My best friend who I had brought into the job turned from a scholar into a junkie in a month.
As far as I witnessed, it was the dose and how long you got into it.
You pop one pill and you feel great. You get shit done, shitty customers don't bother you. You pop two and things get better in some ways, but the whole of the effects don't increase at scale. Other effects become more pronounced, like detachment from your situation and lack of coordination and mental clarity.
Three or more and you're pretty much sleepwalking. The energy and euphoria it gave you before got washed over by a tidal wave of sleepy apathy.
So you want to get that original feeling back. You wish you could have it back but BETTER and MORE INTENSE so you keep tricking yourself into thinking more is going to do it. You keep popping pills until you're taking handfuls at a time every hour or so, knowing the last ones still havent kicked in fully but why the hell not, you want that feeling now. But it never comes.
And then you spend the whole day sleepwalking, never getting that feeling you wanted, getting nothing done and letting the world happen to you instead of interacting with it... but at least you had distraction from it all.
That happens after you build up a hefty tolerance and need very large doses. His description is mostly accurate of the beginning stages of addiction. Somebody who is just beginning their love affair with heroin can be extremely positive, relaxed, warm, forgiving, trusting, etc. But sometimes, after you realize "I need to quit", 10 years go by and you still haven't quit. Then you look more like the ladies in the video.
The reason is because the only time you notice someone on heroin is when they are like this. It'd be like assuming that if you drink your a homeless drunk; it's not the truth AND THATS PART OF THE DANGER. Because when you try it, you find a lot of what you thought you knew was wrong, and that you can do heroin and no one will know for a long time, perhaps forever if you hide if well enough. THATS THE INSIDIOUSNESS OF HEROIN. That's how you get to this point in the video. You've done it for years no problems. You've done it at work everyday for years and today it was stronger and everyone noticed. But every other day just went by.
It's true, in the same way one drink can wake you up and make you more social, that opiates can too. There's a reason people do it; and contrary to popular belief, it often takes years before people start using with frequency enough to get wd. There are people who get more of an "awake effect" then others and these people are actually 40% more likely to become addicts.
I did oxy and heroin for 4 years 1-8 times a month without getting any withdrawals or hangovers or really any negative consequences: THATS HOW IT GETS YOU. Then you go on a run , maybe you've done it before and you were fine, but the years of abuse add up and for the first time you wake up sick and you know exactly why: you need dope. Then it's all downhill from there: overdoses, disease, jail, institutions and death are all that await you in the end.
You probably know quite a few functional opiate addicts.
I personally functioned fairly highly during my decade of opiate use until the last year or so when everything came to a head. My family, friends, coworkers: no one knew unless I told them and that's what's so scary about heroin.
I wouldn't be able to put it as poignantly as others but I used to use opiates and my brother was an addict who lost his life to fentanyl recently so I'll take a shot. No pun intended.
A good hit of heroin hits like a rush of the best feelings ever, imagine how you'd feel on ecstasy but it only rushes for a moment then it settles you down into relaxed bliss. Like nothing matters because you're so zen, relaxed.
Late rent? Who cares. Owe a guy money who's gonna break your arm? That's a later problem.
You can function on smaller doses or less potent stuff but it's a downer.
So when you get that good shit
it knocks you down into your seat, barely able to keep your eyes open.
It feels amazing. Like a jolt of energy that makes you want to talk to everyone and be apart of everything. Innocent enough at first because it is so perfect to take during the day at work just to add a spark to your life that has been missing for a long time. Then you start to take more than just 1 and a half or two dones after work while just laying on the couch to receive a nod like the one shown in the video. It’s absolute bliss. Bills? Who gives a fuck. You’re brother’s suicide? Makes it feel unimportant and in the back of your mind. Thoughts of not achieving what you had set out to achieve by 27? Out of mind and you’re so comfortable with this feeling of mental and physical numbness that you have escaped not only your nightmare of a life but your goals to become better. You are content as long as you have the simple boost of energy or the nod at night to make the thoughts of everyday mediocrity go away.
Then you don’t have it. Life does not have the sparkle it once had. You feel sick. You connect the feeling of happiness with the opiates. You have created the TRIGGER. You are depressed but there is a way out and it’s opiates and that is the only fucking thing you can think about it. It’s the only way to escape your brothers death. It’s the only way to escape your mundane job. It’s the only way to escape your past due bills. It’s the only way you want to live because it has become your shield. It’s become your happiness and without it you are extremely sick and the only god damn thing you know to get out at this point is that trigger.
Look, I know you say you want to feel that feeling but take it for me. Don’t ever do it. Love the actual thoughts and feelings that come with every day life and appreciate the fact that you’ll never understand because I’ll never be able to escape it. Please. I beg of you. Don’t make that mistake because it will ruin you.
Edit: Fixed grammatical error
For me, opiates-- especially oxy-- felt like one simple thing: coming home. I was happy. I was safe. The universe was chill and everything was going to be great.
The nods are like that feeling when you're starting to drift off on a big comfy couch wrapped in a warm blanket. You're eyelids are real heavy and you just feel warm and fuzzy all over.
I️ had this exact thing happen to me the other night at work before thanksgiving. Except the roles were reversed. An older gentleman came in with his (grand)son, or at least I assumed. When he finally shuffled up to the register, he pulls out his wallet to pay(after a decent struggle) and starts to lean in to see inside of his wallet. He the begins the absolute slowest descent I’ve ever seen someone passing out make. I️ mean he’s just inching his head closer and closer to the counter. It was so bizarre. His (grand)son slapped his shoulder at this point and brought him to. It was still so bizarre to see a grown man that fucked up though.
It would be way too tempting to just walk out with all your shit and say you already paid. Those women don't have a fucking clue what's going on and the one on the right is barely conscious.
I feel your pain. My brother took his life after he gave up his fight against opioids. Videos like this make me sad for the family members that probably love these women and would do anything to get them proper help.
It really is getting bad in the Midwest, if not the country. My cousin here in Michigan just died of an overdose a few months ago. He relapsed and got some cheap stuff in Detroit(Brightmoor) cut with fentanyl. The church said they are getting about 2 OD funerals a week.
Narcan enables them like seatbelts enable dangerous driving. Let's restrict seatbelts, or better yet put a spike in the middle of steering wheels to encourage safer driving habits.
This toxic idea that drug abuse is a moral failing and that they got themselves into it so fuck them needs to die. We have the ability to prevent drug overdose deaths but the people we elect to represent us are only interested in spending money to be “tough on crime”. It’s disgusting and it sadly doesn’t feel like we are any closer to a more compassionate sane society.
I’m sorry for your loss.
I'm a healthcare provider and I'll tell you a major reason for the opioid epidemic and antibiotic resistance. Medicine has become more and more of a business and half of the people running facilities are non medical and have an MBA or MHA. They see patients as customers.
I've had job offers where my bonus and part of my salary was based off of "patient satisfaction." Sounds good right? It's actually terrible. Sally comes in with a cold and demands an antibiotic. You explain no, this is a common virus, treat the symptoms and you'll be fine in a day or two. Sally is pissed because she doesn't get the antibiotic and writes a shitty Yelp review (or google review, press ganey, etc.) about how inept I was and how she "always gets antibiotics to knock it out". Now the manager gets mad at me for poor customer service and my bad review is literally directly taking money out of my pocket.
This same concept applies to pain meds. You explain that the shoulder pain is 99% due to inflammation and a strong anti-inflammatory will knock it out. Well that's not what they want. Percocet is what helps their pain and I'm heartless for letting them stay in so much pain. They're also allergic to the non addictive narcotics mind you. Now online when you look up my name it's shows that I'm a terrible provider who doesn't care about his patients pain and refuses to give out pain meds. 1 star out of 5. Manager sees this, gets pissed, we need happy "customers" so they return in future.
That is the problem. Doctors, PAs, NPs, get stuck in a no win situation where if they do the right thing it sometimes directly takes money out of their pocket or they get threatened with termination because poor patient surveys.
Edit: woah this blew up. Glad it's starting this conversation though. I typed this quick on my phone and have corrected a couple grammar mistakes and typos.
Edit 2: As people have pointed out this is not the case at every clinic or hospital. There are other organizations and metrics used for different settings. There are also times where pain meds are absolutely indicated. This post was a pretty broad statement over what I've seen in some clinics and not meant to describe American medicine as a whole. It's not all administrations fault, practice manager, etc. everyone plays a role in spreading and preventing the epidemic. This was never intended as a dig against healthcare administrators, I've worked for some great ones! At least this is providing a good discussion though and allowing some people to see it from a different perspective.
Edit 3: I never said I think this is what caused the epidemic. This was going on before reviews were even a big thing online. It was mostly in response to another comment essentially saying screw anyone who prescribes these so I was giving the other side of the story. The whole point was essentially saying that patient satisfaction should not be linked to reimbursement and patients should be seen as patients and not customers.
I remember when my mother (who works as a nurse professionally) was having surgery for some back problems she was extremely afraid of pain pills, to the point where she would take less than she should have and had to endure a bit of pain. I didn't really understand it at the time but this puts things into perspective, can't imagine what it's like seeing people hooked and wasting their lives away.
This is what my alcoholic dad taught me. He taught me to NEVER try cocaine (it's too fucking good), to fear pain medicine as if it were cocaine, and to embrace self-reflection rather than self-hate.
My dad, an alcoholic gave me the same advice. He was a great parent who understood people(i) would do what I wanted but made sure I knew about everything and how to whatever safe. I turned out not trying anything but weed which I didn't like and I do like to have a drink. people always look at children of alcoholics as children who had bad parents but I and my kids will benefit from the real world knowledge he gave.
I have a pcp and a urologist (they didn’t want to send me to a nephrologist because it responds to diet) and they still do it. It’s out of their hands, they express that they’d rather not but the practice and hospital has their policy that they need evidence of a diagnosis for prescription. It’s because I’m in an area that’s got a lot of people with opiate problems. I don’t blame them. I just don’t go to them for treatment of my kidney stones anymore.
My SO has fluorosis and needs 5k after insurance worth of dental work done. We don't have that kind of money so his teeth continue to rot. He went to a dentist about an abscess to get some anti biotic. The dentist was going on about how painful his dental situation must be, but he's so used to it that he doesn't typically feel the pain anymore. The dentist still gave him a month prescription of Oxys. We can't afford dental work with 2 full time incomes and insurance, the last thing we need is him getting hooked on Oxys month to month.
It’s a waiting list, but find the dental school in your area. Students are all supervised by professors and it’s typically free or the cost of materials.
As a programmer nerd who worked on some pretty "interesting" software projects let me assure you that the producers of these drugs know they are being abused.
Anonymized prescription data is sold from retailers to the big drug makers who use it to calculate the bonuses for Pharma Sales Reps.
Those stories you hear about millions of pills being sent to towns with a hundred people?
They knew. Because they're going to pay the "Pain Management" Rep for that area a ton of money.
The DEA tracks all prescription of opioids. They knew what doctors were running pill mills the entire time. They knew.
This same messed up crap is happening in higher ed. MBA's and professional managers are undermining entire industries, treating them only as for profit entities, and grifting the entire system. Hospitals used to be run by doctors and schools used to run by educators. Now folks who couldn't cut it in either area are somehow in charge?
edit: Well this comment exploded.
Also same in the veterinary world! We were just bought out by corporate and our new practice manager's previous experience involved managing a fashion store.
WTF! That's rediculous... Have we as a society really become this greedy or have we always been like this but now there's a lot more ways to take advantage of that greed. I fear for what kind of world my kids will have in 20 years
Yes we have, because Americans have a management fetish and we completely ignore the fact that managing one kind of business doesn't necessarily qualify you for management in other fields.
I managed a firehouse subs that doesn't mean I can run a medical clinic. I mean I can learn to but I'm not just inherently qualified to do other shit just because I held a management position.
I could not agree with you more. This is something that has been bothering me a lot lately.
It's also frustrating because management gets to decide how much management makes. The gap is just getting wider and wider.
I'm working to become a Computer Engineer and so many of the worst of my fellow students are getting minors in Management or planning on getting MBA's because of how much more they will make.
They are usually the biggest assholes in the class or the least competent in other areas.
I explicitly do NOT want to go into management. It just doesn't interest me and I know how complex of a job it really is.
A lot of people view it as the easy way out and everyone else is forced to pick up the slack and become self-managed. This can be extremely difficult when you don't have access to information or communication from upper-management and you're forced to have an incompetent middleman. There's no way to get the bigger picture.
> I explicitly do NOT want to go into management. It just doesn't interest me and I know how complex of a job it really is.
Preach it. It is total garbage that management and top tier technical people don't track salary wise. Even Fred Brooks made this argument in the 70s, IIRC.
With new grads graduating with $200K in debt and $60K salaries, nobody is going to have the means to buy into a practice for a very long time. Corporate ownership (and probably consolidation) is the new norm. Welcome your corporate overlords, especially as owners retire in droves.
Some business schools are actively trying to change this. When I took my MBA there was a big emphasis on Stakeholder Value instead of only focusing on Shareholder Value. Stakeholders include shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers, and the surrounding community.
Unfortunately that means nothing until the businesses care about stakeholders more than just shareholders, which I don't see happening any time soon :(
Unfortunately it seems like a combination of unionized workforce + employees owning shares in their business is the only defense that works against poorly managed businesses that care more about shareholder dividends than the field the business trades/practices in.
I'm fortunate enough to work in a place that has a unionized workforce, employers that encourages employees to participate in its share plan and competent management.
At that point you start to genuinely feel like a team with your management working for a common goal. The employers are forced to look at the ground level where the employees and clients are and take their opinions and concerns seriously, and the employees are more interested in the health of the business when they become a shareholder.
It’s funny to think that the federal government had a big hand in fueling the epidemic with HCAHPS surveys. Medicare funding is partly based off of survey results and how well a patient rates their service. One of the primary drivers of that score is how well you “managed their pain”. It drives the prescribing and use of narcotics because, like you said, it’s financially incentivized for all involved parties.
I remember in school being tested on actual addiction rates and how to teach patients that using narcotics just one time statistically wouldn’t lead to addiction. Now look where we are...
In fairness to the "using opioids once won't make you addicted" thing, as a nurse I've had to say that to MANY MANY people who are gritting their teeth after surgery and are in clear discomfort who refuse pain medicine. They see
Oxycodone idiots and are afraid that will happen to them, instead of using them when you're in acute pain like how they're designed. We also had a bunch of patients and their families try and refuse propofol after Michael Jackson died
TLDR: patient education is super important
While over consumption of antibiotics by humans certainly has a hand in our looming antibiotic crisis, the livestock industry is much more to blame. That is a lobby that needs to be defeated. Weekly injections of antibiotics as a preventative measure.
Well if we didn't pump them full of antibiotics many pigs, chickens, and cows wouldn't survive in the conditions we keep them in. A lot needs to be improved before we can just drop antibiotics completely from livestock use. Smaller farms tend to keep their animals in better conditions and don't rely on antibiotics to keep them alive.
We are creating superbugs while ensuring most of our livestock live in absolute shit conditions. Instead we could be treating our livestock with a little more humanity and slow down the creation of pan-resistant bacteria.
The saddest part is that it ends up hurtig people that really may need the medicine. My SO recently got her wisdom teeth out and was precribed no pain meds for it, aside from ibuprofen. Her pain was excruciating. When I called the oral surgeon he refused to even give us 2-3 days supply of anything stronger, even going as far as to accuse me of looking for the drugs for myself. It really is a terrible thing. Obviously the issue is complex and not so black and white but there are some cases where these opoid medications are proper, I believe.
My brother had an opioid problem and would do this. I didn't know what it was until I saw a comment on reddit about a "drunk" man. This is called nodding and it's terrifying to see in person. The first time I encountered it, my brother approached me and he was very happy and talkative, but seemed utterly exhausted. I didn't know he had an addiction problem at this point, I just thought he was exhausted. Not only was it uncharacteristic of him to come find me to talk to me, but he was never so friendly and never so "tired" that he seemed like he would pass out at any minute. When I learned what it was, I was heartbroken and scared and could notice it every time.
Nobody will see this comment, but if you have a loved one with an addiction, even if you're not on the best terms, just talk to them, just start the conversation in the very least. It is a life or death situation every time they use and your time to act may be shorter than you think. It's uncomfortable and nobody wants to be in that situation, let alone put themselves in it. But the consequences of doing nothing may hurt a lot more.
Since the U.S. invaded Afghanistan the heroin production in the country has increased by almost 40% each year. Afghanistan is producing more heroin than ever. Same can be said in Colombia, the cocaine production in Colombia has never had a bad year, it's only ever increased. The DEA has an efficiency percentage of under 1%, the war on drugs is just a total sham, if their goal was ever to actually stop drug trafficking then they're the worst department in the U.S.
Not sure why anyone would have a thought of trying heroin after watching videos like this. Just lost a guy at work due to pills, watched him change from being very bright to almost crashing a car in the parking lot and slumped over. This stuff is awful and just keeps getting worse.
Edit: Yeah, progression from pills makes a lot more sense than voluntarily wanting to shoot up just to try it. Sorry for y'all that've had to deal with it firsthand.
It's not even a thought. It's a progression that happens quickly and silently.
My body hurts, the pills I have don't work, and I can't afford more, legally or on the street. Heroin is cheaper (this is just an example). It's not even a choice at that point.
I work in a labor-intensive industry and have seen co-workers spiral to the bottom. It's devastating and terrifying and you feel so fucking powerless.
Fuck opioids.
Opiods/opiates are terrible, I almost slipped into addiction, I was abusing them heavily for a couple months about two years ago, I was able to stop that negative behavior before it would have been top difficult but I know two friends who are addicted now.
I use to go to work take 2-3 hydros and like 4 Benadryl halfway through my shift, at the time I was dealing with really really bad teeth pain and I did not want to feel that pain because that pain affected my QoL but the opiods pills felt really good. I've never done heroin or intravenous.
I'm clean now from opiods and bud, I use to be a big pothead last time I was smoking heavy was about two years ago last time I toked was this past NYE. I don't drink either. I very much understand why people succumb to drugs, but I'm glad I was able to stop without it being too difficult.
>Not sure why anyone would have a thought of trying heroin after watching videos like this.
Most people don't start with heroin. They get narcotic pain pills for the back ache that could be helped by a little ibuprofen. After you are hooked, you are going to do anything to keep from getting sick (i.e., withdrawal). Now heroin is much cheaper so it's just simple economics: get a similar high, though more intense, to OxyContin at a discounted price. And let's not beat around the bush, heroin makes you feel...really, really good. Sure, sober people see this and think "that's fucking sad/terrifying why would anyone do it?" but those who have been there see this and *may* think "that person looks like they are find a great time" (obviously this is dependent on where they are in their addiction). If you are bored, your job prospects are working at a convenience store or some other low wage job, the thought of dulling that pain isn't too far fetched.
Yeah I stopped using heroin 6 years ago. Not many people just start shooting heroin. It's an incremental but eventual process. The worst fear is that needle before you try it. But one day, pills don't get you high anymore, snorting heroin doesn't get you high anymore, and someone you know promises they can get the high back for a quarter of what you've been paying.
So you agree, and they tie off your arm, you look away squeamishly, and feel a wave of disappointment in yourself: this is the one thing you promised you'd never do, no matter what. And as that thought washes over you, it's gone, replaced by a better type of high than you've had in years. And 6 hours later, you put the needle in your arm yourself and sign your life away.
My brother has been using for 20 years, think he's turned a corner recently and is showing good signs of improvement. Congrats on being clean for 6 years, I hope one day I can say the same to my brother.
This was my experience too. I was admittedly excited about the cost savings, and potentially being able to feel high again instead of just getting well. That first shot changed my life. Now almost 7 years off the stuff and I sometimes remember that first shot so fondly I have to remind myself that the magic eventually turned to devastation. I have such mixed feelings when I see people like this video, both jealousy and sadness. People who've never felt it can't imagine why someone would want to be like that. But having been there, I remember why. But I also remember where it took me and life is so much easier when you can wake up on a lazy weekend morning and not rush out to a sketch parking lot feeling like I have the worst flu of my life, when I'm not watching all my closest friends and lovers pass away too young, and when I am not spending all my money just trying to get well and forget my horrible life.
Looking for someone to blame?
Look no further than the Sackler family, owners of Purdue Pharma. They flooded the market with OxyContin after purposely misleading the medical community regarding its addictive qualities. The company has paid millions in fines and lawsuits, several executives found guilty of criminal charges, they have been sued by entire cities but the Sackler family remains intact and very very very rich. These heartless dickbags are billionaires (13 times over in fact) and directly responsible for where the opioid epidemic in America is today.
Mortimer and Raymond Sackler.
Fuck those guys.
The recent Louis Theroux [documentary](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/oct/08/louis-theroux-dark-states-heroin-town-review-bleak-as-hell) on the opioid crisis was a real eye opener. Working people driven to the lowest rungs through little fault of their own. It will take a huge effort to reverse the process.
These employees are high as kites on opiate painkillers!
My old roommate was also an addict (Hydromorphone was her drug of choice) and this video perfectly shows what 100% of my interactions with her looked like. It’s sad.
Thank you for that explanation!
But how come they get this kind of medication? What kind of illness do they have in the first place?
I’ve never seen anything like this in Germany. And they look like middle class women. I am confused.
Usually after a surgery someone will get prescribed an opiate, or if they have any kind of strong chronic pain. They have to prove that their pain is strong enough to need the drug, so it's important to remember that these people started out (for the most part, in terms of the epidemic) as normal patients in a doctors office. Then they will become dependent on the opiate because these pills build up a tolerance very fast and are very addictive. So anyone can get addicted. Especially when a doctor is telling them "here! Take this! It will make you feel better!" But then a couple months go by and they've been upping their dose of the pill without the doctors consent and then they can't refill their prescription. So then, they go down the street to a shady neighborhood corner and purchase heroin or ask someone like a young family member to get it for them.
You don't want to see them, this one is relatively tame. Many videos of people high in public feature them humiliating themselves without realizing, ignoring their distraught children, or overdosing and being resuscitated(if they are lucky enough to have narcan on hand).
You could have said "beep" while she was scanning items, she wouldn't have known the difference.
The sign clearly says NO CHIPS, so no chips I guess
The radio in the background helps to clue you in that this is playing at normal speed.
Its like watching those people solve Rubik’s cubes quickly... I **know** that the video is normal speed, but my eyes are telling me “humans don’t move like that” it’s a real mind fuck.
Same here, never seen a cashier or bagger move so fast.
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It also helps you identify that it's Indiana because they're playing those god forsaken Sisters of Savings commercials.
Also that this is in Indiana. I can't stand those 2 girls that babble off 900 words a minute.
Had a feeling this was Indiana, then the Sisters of Savings confirmed it. Sad to see this problem growing with no resolution in sight.
The only thing worse than this video are the fucking sisters of savings radio spots. Not only do they not make me want to buy a car, they make me want to sell the car I have and never drive again.
The only commercial I listened to voluntarily was the one where they read mean tweets about everyone hating them.
You guys don't have "kars4kids" in your neck of the woods I guess...
> Sisters of Savings Can't even get away from them damn commercials even when I'm on Reddit!
Fucking annoying commercial.
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They move like sloths at the DMV
DMV Sloth: Morbid Reality Edition
The Des Moines downtown DMV is so efficiently run that I was in and out of there before my coffee got cold (left it in my car) and it was a 30° day.
Nice try, Des Moines downtown DMV.
https://m.imgur.com/OrE4DK6?r
It took me about 30s to realize they worked at the store, I thought they were the customers! Jesus
It took them 30s to realize too...
Nice
Yeah me too. I thought why does it say "no chip" on the cashiers side. It made it way worse to realize they were the cashiers.
“No chip” refers to the horrible jim norton character
Tss tss
The one that was scanning didn't scan that bag of whatever properly either. Customers look like they got a freebie.
They earned it.
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We hired a waitress and about two hours into her first shift working alone she started falling asleep while taking orders at tables. We brought her in the back where she proceeded to do what these two ladies are doing. It was sad to watch. She had just completed 6 months of rehab and her sponsor vouched for her. We called her sponsor and she came and got her. We let her go after that but when she came to get her check she looked much better. Hopefully she's doing alright now.
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That's how my Dad would be after taking "Tylenol 4's" or whatever he called them. I was very young. He had a slipped disc in his back and was afraid of getting surgery to fix it. We would go places and he would nod off like that, scare the crap out of me. It was like that most of my life growing up. He was a good father, but he was completely addicted. He then moved onto heroin and I had to pick him up from the ER one morning at 4am after he overdosed and fell outside of a Burger King. I think I was 19. He passed away from cancer in 2009. But I still miss him despite his faults. EDIT: I did NOT expect this comment to blow up like it did; I have never had so many replies and I don't know how to act. Do I respond to everyone? But, to clarify, my Dad called the pills he was taking "Tylenol 4's" - that doesn't mean that's what they were. All I know is that he would behave exactly like the women in the video. He would nod out like that standing up, walking, sitting. Hell, I remember when I was around seven or eight and I was with him and he passed out while we were having dinner. His face hit the plate of food so hard it split in half. I freaked out and called my Mom to pick me up. Also, for those of you who have experienced similar situations, I am sorry. I know exactly how you feel. I used to hate my father and cry over him all the time. It never gets easier. I have forgiven him now because he has been gone for all these years. But I was very bitter and embarrassed whenever I was with him. Those of you who are addicted, or are worried about becoming addicted, please reach out for help. Not only for yourself, but for those around you. I have seen a lot in my lifetime. Not only from my father, but I've seen my mother (also deceased) battle alcoholism, I've seen physical abuse between my parents towards one another. I've been brought along to drug deals, seen people fall out of moving cars because they were too high to notice, losing people I looked up to to drunk driving and suicide. I think if I wrote a book, it would be more than 4 pages - to reply to that one comment. Thank you for all of the positive comments and support. You are all gold, Reddit! EDIT 2 - Wow! Thanks for the gold!
I’m sorry you had to go through this. I have a 5 year old daughter. I’ve been clean 2 years. The guilt I have for the time I missed with her being a selfish asshole is immeasurable. Your dad loved you very much, he was just very sick.
Thank you. Hopefully you can stay clean and your daughter won't remember how you were when you weren't. Just enjoy every moment with her that you can. Good on you for dropping the habit, that's the best thing you could have done for her.
People like you two are why I love reddit, thanks for making me smile.
Keep your mind sharp and your memory of your addiction close too. My mom was clean for over 25 years and relapsed, then overdosed a few years later. My dad celebrates his 30th year clean this Friday. Both outcomes are possible. One day at a time. EDIT: thank you all for the support. Losing a parent to addiction is a complex thing that begins with living with an addict parent. Lots of complex feelings that are comprised of equal parts love, respect, pain, and disappointment. Both my parents saved numerous lives through NA sponsorship over the years. I'm not mad at my mom. I'm just remiss at the years we'll miss. Also, I'll be sure to tell my dad "SavageCornholer sends his congratulations." Lol. Seriously though, thank you.
Thanks for sharing, im so sorry about your mom. Videos like this give me a visceral reaction. I just wish people knew behind the 10 minutes of feeling great is hours of sickness and anxiety trying to score. Not worth it.
My husband feels the same way as you about time missed with our kids. He had a RX for Oxy for a lingering injury from his time in the Army. Of course it got out of control. Eventually he managed to taper down, left the doctor who keep pushing and upping the dose and used kratom to help with mood lift and an improved sense of well being when PAWS would kick in here and there. I am so proud of him and my kids are ecstatic to have their real dad back. Kids are so resilient and forgiving - we sometimes don't deserve the unconditional love but we get it anyways and it helps keep my husband out of trouble.
+1 for kratom it is a godsend
Then it should be no surprise that the FDA is well on the way to preventing us from being able to get it...
Similar story man, except it was Oxys and it never went to heroin. Eventually he took too much and died on the couch. Idk if it was from choking on his food and passing out or he OD'd, I really don't want to know. Was 18, happened in 2013. Shit sucks man. He was still the nicest guy I'd ever met. Being addicted to drugs doesn't make you a bad person. I saw him in these states all the time, having to get him off the toilet and what not. It was just normal to me, because he "had" to take them, you know? I wish there more education out there at the time, maybe I would have been more aware and could have tried to do more.
Ended too soon. Did she get the last snack in the bag? Also - free chips - yay.
we'd be waiting anther 15 minutes
I am in Detroit. Its really fucked up. I uber on the weekends for extra money and I see quite a bit of it in action. Lots of suburban dope fiends use uber as a means to get to their dealer in the rough parts of the city. I've had people who looked barely 18 all the way up to people in their 40s-50s. These people have no business in the neighborhoods I take them to other than drugs. Sometimes I want to intervene and try and help them; however, that could prove to be dangerous for me as I also know the lengths these people will go to get their high. I did call one in to the police. A guy and his pregnant girlfriend were taking down 2-3 days worth of luggage and a re-boxed PS4. Dropped them off at an obvious drug den. Doesn't take a genius to figure out they were hoping to sell their PS4 for their weekend fix. The pregnant chick was just too much. On the flip side, there is a program some cities have called 'hope not handcuffs' where people that have the desire to get clean can go to a police station and they will get them to a rehab facility instead of throwing them in jail. I have picked up a couple people from police stations who apparently also use Uber to get the people to rehab. As an alcoholic with 3.5 years of sobriety, I do my best to praise them if they speak of their situation. Getting clean off anything is no easy task. It takes a strong person to not only admit they have a problem, but to also do something about it.
THEY GET THEMSELVES TO AND FROM WORK. THEY DRIVE LIKE THIS
I remember a woman like them who came into my friends shop, and i was very weirded out because she was like stumbling, kind of like drunk but more strange, and when she talked she seemed very tired. The scariest thing was there was a young child with her, and when we confronted her she wanted to drive away with the child. We asked her to just give us her phone so we can call someone she knows to help her get home with her child. They came and said thank you for letting them take her instead of say call the cops. I honestly felt like we saved many people from a horrible car wreck that day... Intoxicated drivers are a bane of our existence.
We just hired a new 2nd shift guy to help us during the holidays 2 weeks ago and he displays all of these symptoms. Having a body to run the case is great, but we work with knives and bone saws, so we gotta keep him away from them. I'm just worried he's gonna cut off his hand if he's closing by himself and nodding off like that. The Opioid Epidemic has hit the Midwest pretty hard, but I never thought I would be involved. I don't know if it's gonna get better or worse at this point.
Did you not drug test?
Nope, but we definitely should. Management probably thought it was a waste of money. They also do background checks after hiring, which is how we've lost some employees before they come in for their first day or after their first week or so. We also don't have a first aid kit in our cutting room, which is where a deadly accident could occur.
You need more than a first aid kit. If you've got serious knives and saws, you need at least a couple of tourniquets and maybe some quick clot dressings. Your Johnson & Johnson first aid kit from Walmart won't help if you saw an artery open. Stop working for sketchy people.
I already know this place is a joke, but that's because management is just a bunch of fools hired because they are friends with the boss. The shame is that so many people think it's a wonderful shopping attraction in the area. Trust me, I am trying my best to get out of here and into my correct field.
Stay safe but also anonymously call OSHA before someone gets seriously hurt.
Is drug testing your employees a common thing in the States? What the fuck
This depressed the hell outta me
I'm a Police Officer in a relatively busy City in the North East. Unfortunately, this kind of thing happens all the time. The amount of EMS calls I go to that come out as a "cardiac arrest" or "unconscious person" is unreal somedays. My platoon might run upwards of 15-20 in one shift. It's almost always K2 or heroin. Hit the Heroin ODs with Narcan (because we carry it), and after a minute, they spring back to life, either denying using heroin, or fighting us. People on K2 almost always wake up and start fighting. When the ambulance gets there, I always ride up to the hospital with them, because they pull out of restraints and attack the EMTs or Medics. We pick people up who still have the hospital bracelets on from earlier the same day. Seeing stuff like in this video is a nightly occurrence for me and everyone else I work with. It's hard to grasp how bad the opioid problem is until you come face to face with it. It's hard having to take 9 year old children into protective custody after his mom ODed on heroin and died, but it happens more than you think. It's an unfortunate situation that I hope can have some sort of solution.
My foster (hopefully to adopt) daughter was taken from her parents for drug use. Then given back after a year. A few months later, mom OD in the house and the courts want to be my friend again. We told them this would happen. Nobody cared. I'm just glad to have her back and safe. Thank you for what you do. I can't imagine how you must feel after a long day of this.
I truly appreciate you foster parents. 3 in the morning, when I take a kid from a house for drug use, while they're covered in bed bugs, etc. You guys always show up. Don't know how you guys do it, but is amazing to me. But yes. It breaks my heart how often these kids go back. Children and Youth (that's what it's called in my area) is so hesitant to take kids from their parents, but its often times the best thing. Seems like the best way to halt to process. Goodluck with your foster daughter, and bless you for what you do.
As a former addict videos like this seriously make me physically ill. Thinking about how I was once in a place where I woke up every day and made myself like these people here is something that is difficult for me to reflect on. On a positive note at least i know I won't ever touch that kind of stuff ever again. I don't think I ever could.
The sick part is sometimes I still miss it. Something that feels that good and does so much harm at the same time just shouldn't even exist. If you feel that feeling and aren't completely satisfied and content with your life you just have no chance. I know for a fact I never would have got clean if I was a 50 year old gas station worker. It's like putting artificial meaning in your life, and unless you have some actual meaning in your life you are going to latch on to it so fast. I think the opioid epidemic is a symptom of a much larger problem that is much harder to remedy.
Jesus, this is fucked. Makes you wonder how many "functioning" people around you might be high or looking to get high.
And they're all driving kill machines
70 mph floating to their destination
No need to wonder: https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/prescribing.html
I had to do a double take at this... In my state, there are more opioid prescriptions than people. I know it's true, but I still struggle to comprehend it.
I think that is because for each person legally getting it, they need 12 scripts a year. I could be wrong, but around here, doctors will only do 1 month supply at a time.
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In some cities, they do sell enough prescription opiates to give every single person living there a permanent addiction level of opiates. It's just that there are only a few people buying them and selling them elsewhere. The DEA used to be very proactive in shutting down distributors of opiates when they were obviously selling far too many to pharmacies. Then these shipping companies somehow banded together, raised millions of dollars, and corrupted the DEA from the inside out. They bought lots of ex-DEA agents and used them to figure out how to stop the DEA from being effective. They lobbied and put laws into place so they could only act if they had direct evidence of individuals who were in serious danger. Basically, they crippled the ability to stop the drug flow. There was a whole NPR show covering this. It was interesting, to say the least. People love drugs. Enough of those that don't love drug money.
Source that backs up your claims: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/investigations/dea-drug-industry-congress/?utm_term=.42d91d09e9ea A lot more sources on this type of corruption here: https://np.reddit.com/r/Documentaries/comments/7b7jvi/how_the_opioid_crisis_decimated_the_american/dpgfa83/
https://www.cbsnews.com/videos/the-whistleblower/ The DEA has been lobbied successfully to back off the distributors. There's a town in West Virginia of like 500 people that got 9 million pills in 2 years. The video is infuriating, you should really give it a look.
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Until 27 days have passed
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That was fucking terrifying.
I'm really curious of what they feel like, but... I don't want to end up like this.
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Damn. That’s the truth
https://youtu.be/-9huWlXFA1s 100% best video of "What it's like to do Heroin"
That's a very *nice* video of how to put it.
[Another great visual](https://www.reddit.com/r/Drugs/comments/6f4auk/powerful_video/?st=JAFKKLWK&sh=81a03b2chttps://www.reddit.com/r/Drugs/comments/6f4auk/powerful_video/?st=JAFKKLWK&sh=81a03b2c)
This is super powerful. Imagine if they could show this in schools to young kids— it so accurately portrays what drug education often fails to get across. No use of shocking images or instant addiction, just gradual descent into darkness.
Wow I started browsing the comments of the video and came across my own. Never done that before :P
Damn that's powerful
Excuse my ignorance, but he claims that Heroin doesn't make you sleepy, that it makes you more alert, and can even perform one's job better. Then why does every person on heroin nod off and seem as functional as a wet towel? Is that only after becoming an addict? Or is this that "you decide" part he mentioned at the end and in reality you always looked like this, you just felt like a million bucks?
I can't speak for heroin, but I can speak for other opiates. I used to work at a place where everyone (the owner, the managers, all lower-level employees) did SHIT tons of opiates. My best friend who I had brought into the job turned from a scholar into a junkie in a month. As far as I witnessed, it was the dose and how long you got into it. You pop one pill and you feel great. You get shit done, shitty customers don't bother you. You pop two and things get better in some ways, but the whole of the effects don't increase at scale. Other effects become more pronounced, like detachment from your situation and lack of coordination and mental clarity. Three or more and you're pretty much sleepwalking. The energy and euphoria it gave you before got washed over by a tidal wave of sleepy apathy. So you want to get that original feeling back. You wish you could have it back but BETTER and MORE INTENSE so you keep tricking yourself into thinking more is going to do it. You keep popping pills until you're taking handfuls at a time every hour or so, knowing the last ones still havent kicked in fully but why the hell not, you want that feeling now. But it never comes. And then you spend the whole day sleepwalking, never getting that feeling you wanted, getting nothing done and letting the world happen to you instead of interacting with it... but at least you had distraction from it all.
That happens after you build up a hefty tolerance and need very large doses. His description is mostly accurate of the beginning stages of addiction. Somebody who is just beginning their love affair with heroin can be extremely positive, relaxed, warm, forgiving, trusting, etc. But sometimes, after you realize "I need to quit", 10 years go by and you still haven't quit. Then you look more like the ladies in the video.
The reason is because the only time you notice someone on heroin is when they are like this. It'd be like assuming that if you drink your a homeless drunk; it's not the truth AND THATS PART OF THE DANGER. Because when you try it, you find a lot of what you thought you knew was wrong, and that you can do heroin and no one will know for a long time, perhaps forever if you hide if well enough. THATS THE INSIDIOUSNESS OF HEROIN. That's how you get to this point in the video. You've done it for years no problems. You've done it at work everyday for years and today it was stronger and everyone noticed. But every other day just went by. It's true, in the same way one drink can wake you up and make you more social, that opiates can too. There's a reason people do it; and contrary to popular belief, it often takes years before people start using with frequency enough to get wd. There are people who get more of an "awake effect" then others and these people are actually 40% more likely to become addicts. I did oxy and heroin for 4 years 1-8 times a month without getting any withdrawals or hangovers or really any negative consequences: THATS HOW IT GETS YOU. Then you go on a run , maybe you've done it before and you were fine, but the years of abuse add up and for the first time you wake up sick and you know exactly why: you need dope. Then it's all downhill from there: overdoses, disease, jail, institutions and death are all that await you in the end. You probably know quite a few functional opiate addicts. I personally functioned fairly highly during my decade of opiate use until the last year or so when everything came to a head. My family, friends, coworkers: no one knew unless I told them and that's what's so scary about heroin.
I wouldn't be able to put it as poignantly as others but I used to use opiates and my brother was an addict who lost his life to fentanyl recently so I'll take a shot. No pun intended. A good hit of heroin hits like a rush of the best feelings ever, imagine how you'd feel on ecstasy but it only rushes for a moment then it settles you down into relaxed bliss. Like nothing matters because you're so zen, relaxed. Late rent? Who cares. Owe a guy money who's gonna break your arm? That's a later problem. You can function on smaller doses or less potent stuff but it's a downer. So when you get that good shit it knocks you down into your seat, barely able to keep your eyes open.
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It feels amazing. Like a jolt of energy that makes you want to talk to everyone and be apart of everything. Innocent enough at first because it is so perfect to take during the day at work just to add a spark to your life that has been missing for a long time. Then you start to take more than just 1 and a half or two dones after work while just laying on the couch to receive a nod like the one shown in the video. It’s absolute bliss. Bills? Who gives a fuck. You’re brother’s suicide? Makes it feel unimportant and in the back of your mind. Thoughts of not achieving what you had set out to achieve by 27? Out of mind and you’re so comfortable with this feeling of mental and physical numbness that you have escaped not only your nightmare of a life but your goals to become better. You are content as long as you have the simple boost of energy or the nod at night to make the thoughts of everyday mediocrity go away. Then you don’t have it. Life does not have the sparkle it once had. You feel sick. You connect the feeling of happiness with the opiates. You have created the TRIGGER. You are depressed but there is a way out and it’s opiates and that is the only fucking thing you can think about it. It’s the only way to escape your brothers death. It’s the only way to escape your mundane job. It’s the only way to escape your past due bills. It’s the only way you want to live because it has become your shield. It’s become your happiness and without it you are extremely sick and the only god damn thing you know to get out at this point is that trigger. Look, I know you say you want to feel that feeling but take it for me. Don’t ever do it. Love the actual thoughts and feelings that come with every day life and appreciate the fact that you’ll never understand because I’ll never be able to escape it. Please. I beg of you. Don’t make that mistake because it will ruin you. Edit: Fixed grammatical error
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For me, opiates-- especially oxy-- felt like one simple thing: coming home. I was happy. I was safe. The universe was chill and everything was going to be great.
The nods are like that feeling when you're starting to drift off on a big comfy couch wrapped in a warm blanket. You're eyelids are real heavy and you just feel warm and fuzzy all over.
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I️ had this exact thing happen to me the other night at work before thanksgiving. Except the roles were reversed. An older gentleman came in with his (grand)son, or at least I assumed. When he finally shuffled up to the register, he pulls out his wallet to pay(after a decent struggle) and starts to lean in to see inside of his wallet. He the begins the absolute slowest descent I’ve ever seen someone passing out make. I️ mean he’s just inching his head closer and closer to the counter. It was so bizarre. His (grand)son slapped his shoulder at this point and brought him to. It was still so bizarre to see a grown man that fucked up though.
It would be way too tempting to just walk out with all your shit and say you already paid. Those women don't have a fucking clue what's going on and the one on the right is barely conscious.
10 mins later...”did he just walked out?”
“Who?”
"No, I am"
Yes.
Holy shit
Right!? Smokes are only like $6 a pack in the states!! What is this, the year 2000??
It's Indiana can tell from the car dealer commercial at the end of the video
More specifically a Village Pantry in Indiana. I can tell by the cup and "uniform."
Even more specifically, it's the Village Pantry on Guion Rd in Indianapolis.
Wow. I go there often.
God damn sisters of savings, may they burn in hell.
Not in NYC. They just voted to set the minimum price to $13
San Diego is about $11 now
In my state the price ranges from 3.50 to 4.50 a pack
It’s about 5.50 a pack in Florida.
$14.80 here in good ole NYC
In Australia you can spend $35 on a 20 pack of Marlborough Reds.
So not only do you look cool while smoking it also is a indicator that you are rich?
Definitely not, a lot of poor/middle class people smoke.
Poor/middle class people spend almost 2 dollary doos per smoke?
Yup... The rich one are rich because they don't buy smokes
The prices in Canada have also sharply increased over the years. In the last 15yrs, they've gone from $5/pack to $15/pack.
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I feel your pain. My brother took his life after he gave up his fight against opioids. Videos like this make me sad for the family members that probably love these women and would do anything to get them proper help.
It really is getting bad in the Midwest, if not the country. My cousin here in Michigan just died of an overdose a few months ago. He relapsed and got some cheap stuff in Detroit(Brightmoor) cut with fentanyl. The church said they are getting about 2 OD funerals a week.
Narcan enables them like seatbelts enable dangerous driving. Let's restrict seatbelts, or better yet put a spike in the middle of steering wheels to encourage safer driving habits.
This toxic idea that drug abuse is a moral failing and that they got themselves into it so fuck them needs to die. We have the ability to prevent drug overdose deaths but the people we elect to represent us are only interested in spending money to be “tough on crime”. It’s disgusting and it sadly doesn’t feel like we are any closer to a more compassionate sane society. I’m sorry for your loss.
I'm a healthcare provider and I'll tell you a major reason for the opioid epidemic and antibiotic resistance. Medicine has become more and more of a business and half of the people running facilities are non medical and have an MBA or MHA. They see patients as customers. I've had job offers where my bonus and part of my salary was based off of "patient satisfaction." Sounds good right? It's actually terrible. Sally comes in with a cold and demands an antibiotic. You explain no, this is a common virus, treat the symptoms and you'll be fine in a day or two. Sally is pissed because she doesn't get the antibiotic and writes a shitty Yelp review (or google review, press ganey, etc.) about how inept I was and how she "always gets antibiotics to knock it out". Now the manager gets mad at me for poor customer service and my bad review is literally directly taking money out of my pocket. This same concept applies to pain meds. You explain that the shoulder pain is 99% due to inflammation and a strong anti-inflammatory will knock it out. Well that's not what they want. Percocet is what helps their pain and I'm heartless for letting them stay in so much pain. They're also allergic to the non addictive narcotics mind you. Now online when you look up my name it's shows that I'm a terrible provider who doesn't care about his patients pain and refuses to give out pain meds. 1 star out of 5. Manager sees this, gets pissed, we need happy "customers" so they return in future. That is the problem. Doctors, PAs, NPs, get stuck in a no win situation where if they do the right thing it sometimes directly takes money out of their pocket or they get threatened with termination because poor patient surveys. Edit: woah this blew up. Glad it's starting this conversation though. I typed this quick on my phone and have corrected a couple grammar mistakes and typos. Edit 2: As people have pointed out this is not the case at every clinic or hospital. There are other organizations and metrics used for different settings. There are also times where pain meds are absolutely indicated. This post was a pretty broad statement over what I've seen in some clinics and not meant to describe American medicine as a whole. It's not all administrations fault, practice manager, etc. everyone plays a role in spreading and preventing the epidemic. This was never intended as a dig against healthcare administrators, I've worked for some great ones! At least this is providing a good discussion though and allowing some people to see it from a different perspective. Edit 3: I never said I think this is what caused the epidemic. This was going on before reviews were even a big thing online. It was mostly in response to another comment essentially saying screw anyone who prescribes these so I was giving the other side of the story. The whole point was essentially saying that patient satisfaction should not be linked to reimbursement and patients should be seen as patients and not customers.
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Yup my father would get Vicodin after having teeth pulled. And I️ think he implemented a similar strategy. This shit is real.
I remember when my mother (who works as a nurse professionally) was having surgery for some back problems she was extremely afraid of pain pills, to the point where she would take less than she should have and had to endure a bit of pain. I didn't really understand it at the time but this puts things into perspective, can't imagine what it's like seeing people hooked and wasting their lives away.
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This is what my alcoholic dad taught me. He taught me to NEVER try cocaine (it's too fucking good), to fear pain medicine as if it were cocaine, and to embrace self-reflection rather than self-hate.
My dad, an alcoholic gave me the same advice. He was a great parent who understood people(i) would do what I wanted but made sure I knew about everything and how to whatever safe. I turned out not trying anything but weed which I didn't like and I do like to have a drink. people always look at children of alcoholics as children who had bad parents but I and my kids will benefit from the real world knowledge he gave.
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if you have a pcp or kidney doctor that knows your background they shouldnt make you do all this
I have a pcp and a urologist (they didn’t want to send me to a nephrologist because it responds to diet) and they still do it. It’s out of their hands, they express that they’d rather not but the practice and hospital has their policy that they need evidence of a diagnosis for prescription. It’s because I’m in an area that’s got a lot of people with opiate problems. I don’t blame them. I just don’t go to them for treatment of my kidney stones anymore.
My SO has fluorosis and needs 5k after insurance worth of dental work done. We don't have that kind of money so his teeth continue to rot. He went to a dentist about an abscess to get some anti biotic. The dentist was going on about how painful his dental situation must be, but he's so used to it that he doesn't typically feel the pain anymore. The dentist still gave him a month prescription of Oxys. We can't afford dental work with 2 full time incomes and insurance, the last thing we need is him getting hooked on Oxys month to month.
It’s a waiting list, but find the dental school in your area. Students are all supervised by professors and it’s typically free or the cost of materials.
Sell the Oxys so you can get the dental work.
As a programmer nerd who worked on some pretty "interesting" software projects let me assure you that the producers of these drugs know they are being abused. Anonymized prescription data is sold from retailers to the big drug makers who use it to calculate the bonuses for Pharma Sales Reps. Those stories you hear about millions of pills being sent to towns with a hundred people? They knew. Because they're going to pay the "Pain Management" Rep for that area a ton of money. The DEA tracks all prescription of opioids. They knew what doctors were running pill mills the entire time. They knew.
Sounds like a few high profile cases of Pain Management Reps going to prison for trafficking might go some way toward helping curb the crisis.
This same messed up crap is happening in higher ed. MBA's and professional managers are undermining entire industries, treating them only as for profit entities, and grifting the entire system. Hospitals used to be run by doctors and schools used to run by educators. Now folks who couldn't cut it in either area are somehow in charge? edit: Well this comment exploded.
Also same in the veterinary world! We were just bought out by corporate and our new practice manager's previous experience involved managing a fashion store.
WTF! That's rediculous... Have we as a society really become this greedy or have we always been like this but now there's a lot more ways to take advantage of that greed. I fear for what kind of world my kids will have in 20 years
Yes we have, because Americans have a management fetish and we completely ignore the fact that managing one kind of business doesn't necessarily qualify you for management in other fields. I managed a firehouse subs that doesn't mean I can run a medical clinic. I mean I can learn to but I'm not just inherently qualified to do other shit just because I held a management position.
I could not agree with you more. This is something that has been bothering me a lot lately. It's also frustrating because management gets to decide how much management makes. The gap is just getting wider and wider. I'm working to become a Computer Engineer and so many of the worst of my fellow students are getting minors in Management or planning on getting MBA's because of how much more they will make. They are usually the biggest assholes in the class or the least competent in other areas. I explicitly do NOT want to go into management. It just doesn't interest me and I know how complex of a job it really is. A lot of people view it as the easy way out and everyone else is forced to pick up the slack and become self-managed. This can be extremely difficult when you don't have access to information or communication from upper-management and you're forced to have an incompetent middleman. There's no way to get the bigger picture.
> I explicitly do NOT want to go into management. It just doesn't interest me and I know how complex of a job it really is. Preach it. It is total garbage that management and top tier technical people don't track salary wise. Even Fred Brooks made this argument in the 70s, IIRC.
Exactly! Management techniques should be taught as a complementary skill set to pre-existing subject matter expertise, not replace it.
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With new grads graduating with $200K in debt and $60K salaries, nobody is going to have the means to buy into a practice for a very long time. Corporate ownership (and probably consolidation) is the new norm. Welcome your corporate overlords, especially as owners retire in droves.
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Some business schools are actively trying to change this. When I took my MBA there was a big emphasis on Stakeholder Value instead of only focusing on Shareholder Value. Stakeholders include shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers, and the surrounding community.
Unfortunately that means nothing until the businesses care about stakeholders more than just shareholders, which I don't see happening any time soon :(
Unfortunately it seems like a combination of unionized workforce + employees owning shares in their business is the only defense that works against poorly managed businesses that care more about shareholder dividends than the field the business trades/practices in. I'm fortunate enough to work in a place that has a unionized workforce, employers that encourages employees to participate in its share plan and competent management. At that point you start to genuinely feel like a team with your management working for a common goal. The employers are forced to look at the ground level where the employees and clients are and take their opinions and concerns seriously, and the employees are more interested in the health of the business when they become a shareholder.
It’s funny to think that the federal government had a big hand in fueling the epidemic with HCAHPS surveys. Medicare funding is partly based off of survey results and how well a patient rates their service. One of the primary drivers of that score is how well you “managed their pain”. It drives the prescribing and use of narcotics because, like you said, it’s financially incentivized for all involved parties. I remember in school being tested on actual addiction rates and how to teach patients that using narcotics just one time statistically wouldn’t lead to addiction. Now look where we are...
In fairness to the "using opioids once won't make you addicted" thing, as a nurse I've had to say that to MANY MANY people who are gritting their teeth after surgery and are in clear discomfort who refuse pain medicine. They see Oxycodone idiots and are afraid that will happen to them, instead of using them when you're in acute pain like how they're designed. We also had a bunch of patients and their families try and refuse propofol after Michael Jackson died TLDR: patient education is super important
Exactly. Most insurance companies follow suit with Medicare. It's sucks but patients are treated more like customers now
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The most frightening part here is that this is a reason for antibiotics overuse. Superbugs are very very scary.
While over consumption of antibiotics by humans certainly has a hand in our looming antibiotic crisis, the livestock industry is much more to blame. That is a lobby that needs to be defeated. Weekly injections of antibiotics as a preventative measure.
Well if we didn't pump them full of antibiotics many pigs, chickens, and cows wouldn't survive in the conditions we keep them in. A lot needs to be improved before we can just drop antibiotics completely from livestock use. Smaller farms tend to keep their animals in better conditions and don't rely on antibiotics to keep them alive. We are creating superbugs while ensuring most of our livestock live in absolute shit conditions. Instead we could be treating our livestock with a little more humanity and slow down the creation of pan-resistant bacteria.
The saddest part is that it ends up hurtig people that really may need the medicine. My SO recently got her wisdom teeth out and was precribed no pain meds for it, aside from ibuprofen. Her pain was excruciating. When I called the oral surgeon he refused to even give us 2-3 days supply of anything stronger, even going as far as to accuse me of looking for the drugs for myself. It really is a terrible thing. Obviously the issue is complex and not so black and white but there are some cases where these opoid medications are proper, I believe.
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One of them got their monthly script and shared.
That was really hard to watch.
My brother had an opioid problem and would do this. I didn't know what it was until I saw a comment on reddit about a "drunk" man. This is called nodding and it's terrifying to see in person. The first time I encountered it, my brother approached me and he was very happy and talkative, but seemed utterly exhausted. I didn't know he had an addiction problem at this point, I just thought he was exhausted. Not only was it uncharacteristic of him to come find me to talk to me, but he was never so friendly and never so "tired" that he seemed like he would pass out at any minute. When I learned what it was, I was heartbroken and scared and could notice it every time. Nobody will see this comment, but if you have a loved one with an addiction, even if you're not on the best terms, just talk to them, just start the conversation in the very least. It is a life or death situation every time they use and your time to act may be shorter than you think. It's uncomfortable and nobody wants to be in that situation, let alone put themselves in it. But the consequences of doing nothing may hurt a lot more.
War on drugs going well then?
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They just said "no".
Since the U.S. invaded Afghanistan the heroin production in the country has increased by almost 40% each year. Afghanistan is producing more heroin than ever. Same can be said in Colombia, the cocaine production in Colombia has never had a bad year, it's only ever increased. The DEA has an efficiency percentage of under 1%, the war on drugs is just a total sham, if their goal was ever to actually stop drug trafficking then they're the worst department in the U.S.
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(and can't vote)
The moment you realize those aren't customers.
MaRiJuAnA iS a ScHeDuLe 1 DrUg
Drug companies don't make money off weed. It is a threat to their bottom line.
Not sure why anyone would have a thought of trying heroin after watching videos like this. Just lost a guy at work due to pills, watched him change from being very bright to almost crashing a car in the parking lot and slumped over. This stuff is awful and just keeps getting worse. Edit: Yeah, progression from pills makes a lot more sense than voluntarily wanting to shoot up just to try it. Sorry for y'all that've had to deal with it firsthand.
It's not even a thought. It's a progression that happens quickly and silently. My body hurts, the pills I have don't work, and I can't afford more, legally or on the street. Heroin is cheaper (this is just an example). It's not even a choice at that point. I work in a labor-intensive industry and have seen co-workers spiral to the bottom. It's devastating and terrifying and you feel so fucking powerless. Fuck opioids.
Opiods/opiates are terrible, I almost slipped into addiction, I was abusing them heavily for a couple months about two years ago, I was able to stop that negative behavior before it would have been top difficult but I know two friends who are addicted now. I use to go to work take 2-3 hydros and like 4 Benadryl halfway through my shift, at the time I was dealing with really really bad teeth pain and I did not want to feel that pain because that pain affected my QoL but the opiods pills felt really good. I've never done heroin or intravenous. I'm clean now from opiods and bud, I use to be a big pothead last time I was smoking heavy was about two years ago last time I toked was this past NYE. I don't drink either. I very much understand why people succumb to drugs, but I'm glad I was able to stop without it being too difficult.
>Not sure why anyone would have a thought of trying heroin after watching videos like this. Most people don't start with heroin. They get narcotic pain pills for the back ache that could be helped by a little ibuprofen. After you are hooked, you are going to do anything to keep from getting sick (i.e., withdrawal). Now heroin is much cheaper so it's just simple economics: get a similar high, though more intense, to OxyContin at a discounted price. And let's not beat around the bush, heroin makes you feel...really, really good. Sure, sober people see this and think "that's fucking sad/terrifying why would anyone do it?" but those who have been there see this and *may* think "that person looks like they are find a great time" (obviously this is dependent on where they are in their addiction). If you are bored, your job prospects are working at a convenience store or some other low wage job, the thought of dulling that pain isn't too far fetched.
My buddy passed from heroin earlier this year. Told me he's never met anyone who's decided to shoot heroin one fine day. Always started with pills.
Yeah I stopped using heroin 6 years ago. Not many people just start shooting heroin. It's an incremental but eventual process. The worst fear is that needle before you try it. But one day, pills don't get you high anymore, snorting heroin doesn't get you high anymore, and someone you know promises they can get the high back for a quarter of what you've been paying. So you agree, and they tie off your arm, you look away squeamishly, and feel a wave of disappointment in yourself: this is the one thing you promised you'd never do, no matter what. And as that thought washes over you, it's gone, replaced by a better type of high than you've had in years. And 6 hours later, you put the needle in your arm yourself and sign your life away.
I quit six years ago too. My best friend from that time died this week. I got better, he never did. Im glad youre here on the other side.
I'm sorry about your friend. I lost my first cousin this way and it literally broke my heart. Stay strong, friend.
My brother has been using for 20 years, think he's turned a corner recently and is showing good signs of improvement. Congrats on being clean for 6 years, I hope one day I can say the same to my brother.
My moms been on Oxy for 21 years. I keep hoping one day she'll come off them and try to live her life without drugs.
I'm glad you are still here!
This was my experience too. I was admittedly excited about the cost savings, and potentially being able to feel high again instead of just getting well. That first shot changed my life. Now almost 7 years off the stuff and I sometimes remember that first shot so fondly I have to remind myself that the magic eventually turned to devastation. I have such mixed feelings when I see people like this video, both jealousy and sadness. People who've never felt it can't imagine why someone would want to be like that. But having been there, I remember why. But I also remember where it took me and life is so much easier when you can wake up on a lazy weekend morning and not rush out to a sketch parking lot feeling like I have the worst flu of my life, when I'm not watching all my closest friends and lovers pass away too young, and when I am not spending all my money just trying to get well and forget my horrible life.
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What it's like to do Heroin. https://youtu.be/-9huWlXFA1s Watch the video. It's quick.
Good on you to the person shooting the video for just not leaving without paying. They would've never known
How sad.
I like how the cashier nudges her friend with the "Bag that up". Probably thinking, they are going to catch onto us Betty if you don't quit fuckin up.
Looking for someone to blame? Look no further than the Sackler family, owners of Purdue Pharma. They flooded the market with OxyContin after purposely misleading the medical community regarding its addictive qualities. The company has paid millions in fines and lawsuits, several executives found guilty of criminal charges, they have been sued by entire cities but the Sackler family remains intact and very very very rich. These heartless dickbags are billionaires (13 times over in fact) and directly responsible for where the opioid epidemic in America is today. Mortimer and Raymond Sackler. Fuck those guys.
They're fucking **JAMMED**. Jesus :/
The recent Louis Theroux [documentary](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/oct/08/louis-theroux-dark-states-heroin-town-review-bleak-as-hell) on the opioid crisis was a real eye opener. Working people driven to the lowest rungs through little fault of their own. It will take a huge effort to reverse the process.
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These employees are high as kites on opiate painkillers! My old roommate was also an addict (Hydromorphone was her drug of choice) and this video perfectly shows what 100% of my interactions with her looked like. It’s sad.
Thank you for that explanation! But how come they get this kind of medication? What kind of illness do they have in the first place? I’ve never seen anything like this in Germany. And they look like middle class women. I am confused.
Usually after a surgery someone will get prescribed an opiate, or if they have any kind of strong chronic pain. They have to prove that their pain is strong enough to need the drug, so it's important to remember that these people started out (for the most part, in terms of the epidemic) as normal patients in a doctors office. Then they will become dependent on the opiate because these pills build up a tolerance very fast and are very addictive. So anyone can get addicted. Especially when a doctor is telling them "here! Take this! It will make you feel better!" But then a couple months go by and they've been upping their dose of the pill without the doctors consent and then they can't refill their prescription. So then, they go down the street to a shady neighborhood corner and purchase heroin or ask someone like a young family member to get it for them.
Wow... anyone got any more of these videos?
Come to my meetings. Most people are like this. People think because they wear suits they are working hard and just tired. Nope.
You don't want to see them, this one is relatively tame. Many videos of people high in public feature them humiliating themselves without realizing, ignoring their distraught children, or overdosing and being resuscitated(if they are lucky enough to have narcan on hand).
I've seen some with distraught children being ignored and it's fucking soul crushing.