re: EBR Coroner: Heroin overdoses reaches record highs, most are white males

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Most of these so-called victims are young white males

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What about the black ones?

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with no history of pain or back surgery.

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You seem sure about that. Virtually everyone I know who has had a problem with the stuff in the past 5 years started with prescription pills for pain.

If you ever want to do heroin I'll buy as much as you want.

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if they don't want people to OD on heroin then stop making prescription opiates so hard to get.

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No doctors give those out like candy and patients get addicted to them very easy.

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and was likely unwittingly led to heroin through painkillers prescribed by his or her doctor.

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There is no data on this. "Likely unwittingly led" is suspect wording for a "study".

I've been around that scene, not one person was on it because they had pain pills rx'd to them in the past. That's absurd. Does it happen? Sure, it's a part of it, especially on the introduction of opiates in general, but I bet they also did other recreational drugs in the past as well and are addicts to begin with.

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There is no data on this. "Likely unwittingly led" is suspect wording for a "study".

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LINK

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The recent trend of a switch from prescription opioids to heroin seen in some communities in our country alerts us to the complex issues surrounding opioid addiction and the intrinsic difficulties in addressing it through any single measure such as enhanced diversion control (Fig.3). Of particular concern has been the rise in new populations of heroin users, particularly young people.

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The emergence of chemical tolerance toward prescribed opioids, perhaps combined in a smaller number of cases with an increasing difficulty in obtaining these medications illegally[28], may in some instances explain the transition to abuse of heroin, which is cheaper and in some communities easier to obtain than prescription opioids.

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The emergence of chemical tolerance toward prescribed opioids, perhaps combined in a smaller number of cases with an increasing difficulty in obtaining these medications illegally[28], may in some instances explain the transition to abuse of heroin, which is cheaper and in some communities easier to obtain than prescription opioids.

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The key operator in that quote says "may in some instances explain the transition"

Thanks for helping me out and proving my point.

So "may in some instances" to you means "virtually everyone"? Which is where this whole discussion started.

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So "may in some instances" to you means "virtually everyone"? Which is where this whole discussion started.

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It's a pretty common and well known phenomenon. This was in 2014, it's blown up since then.

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Nearly half of young people who inject heroin surveyed in three recent studies reported abusing prescription opioids before starting to use heroin. Some individuals reported switching to heroin because it is cheaper and easier to obtain than prescription opioids.2-4

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LINK

Locally, it's not even close. Virtually every heroin death we had in town started with prescription pills.

That's what I do for a living as well. Through the intravenous route, it can cause seizures, vomiting, etc. if given too fast, hence the paramedic idiom, "don't slam the narcan."
A seasoned medic knows you give it slowly and only enough to breathe on their own. I don't want these people waking up and trying to fight me or vomiting in my ambulance. When given correctly, the aforementioned side effects are fairly uncommon.

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Coke is dead as fricking... Dead

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My next door neighbor is a heavy with ATF and we get in some great conversations. He basically said the exact same thing. He also said he asked not to do any more undercover work with H because jonesing mfers start calling at 7am trying to sell their tvs & shite.