Drugs in Rural Ohio

[zeitgeist57]

heroine

 

That's a completely different box of frogs.

[99StockGT]

Honestly, if your aren't hunting or fishing up there, it's a depressing place. The crappy economy combined with the stagnant gene pool make me feel gross whenever I go back there. :/

 

When your options on a friday night are heroine/meth, or getting coffee at Perkins...it's not hard to guess where most people are going to wind up.

 

Even though its only an hour and a half away, I rarely make it back to my "hometown" more than once or twice a year. Not for a lack of chances to do so, but it doesn't feel like "home" anymore. There's also a creepy feeling of square peg/round hole where you just don't fit in, even just sitting at Applebees/BW3s having a drink.

[El Karacho1647545492]

It's not just lack of education. Plenty of educated people get wrapped up in pills and it leads to H. I'm from CT, the wealthier areas are just as hard hit by the epidemic as the poor areas, the only difference is that when you're rich you don't encounter the same risks and police encounters as poor people do.

 

To me the issue is how we deal with it. Putting people in prison for years just teaches them ways to not get caught. If we're going to provide people with 3 hots and a cot, might as well do it in a rehabilitative/treatment environment rather than a punitive one. Help decrease the demand through treatment and the supply will become less profitable, and since profit is the only reason it's here, the supply will then dwindle.

 

Plenty of people get hooked on legitimate use. A friend of mine played college football and vicodin was handed out to players like aspirin. When he got addicted to that and the supply ran dry, his body chemistry got in the way of "just get past it." He was a fiend and a friend with an H connection was his way out. Once you have that first taste, the rest of your existence is pretty much geared towards getting back to that feeling of not caring, of not hurting.

[RedRocket1647545505]

It's not just lack of education. Plenty of educated people get wrapped up in pills and it leads to H. I'm from CT, the wealthier areas are just as hard hit by the epidemic as the poor areas, the only difference is that when you're rich you don't encounter the same risks and police encounters as poor people do.

 

To me the issue is how we deal with it. Putting people in prison for years just teaches them ways to not get caught. If we're going to provide people with 3 hots and a cot, might as well do it in a rehabilitative/treatment environment rather than a punitive one. Help decrease the demand through treatment and the supply will become less profitable, and since profit is the only reason it's here, the supply will then dwindle.

 

Plenty of people get hooked on legitimate use. A friend of mine played college football and vicodin was handed out to players like aspirin. When he got addicted to that and the supply ran dry, his body chemistry got in the way of "just get past it." He was a fiend and a friend with an H connection was his way out. Once you have that first taste, the rest of your existence is pretty much geared towards getting back to that feeling of not caring, of not hurting.

 

It needs to be both addressed from both a rehabilitative and criminal standpoint. People who go to jail, relapse. People who go to rehab, relapse. What needs to happen is the courts need to mandate that the individual move at least 500 miles away from their previous environment. What happens is people successfully complete rehab, and then are dropped back into the same environment in which they left. Same friends doing the same shit, and there's your relapse. Make these people move across the country after rehab and start fresh.

[El Karacho1647545492]

It needs to be both addressed from both a rehabilitative and criminal standpoint. People who go to jail, relapse. People who go to rehab, relapse. What needs to happen is the courts need to mandate that the individual move at least 500 miles away from their previous environment. What happens is people successfully complete rehab, and then are dropped back into the same environment in which they left. Same friends doing the same shit, and there's your relapse. Make these people move across the country after rehab and start fresh.

 

I highlighted the start fresh aspect because it's important. The most valuable thing towards creating a positive way forward for these individuals and their surroundings is to make sure they can get a job that sustains them. Job prospects for criminals and addicts are hard to come by, but it's one of the most positive mental reinforcements for good behavior. Like you said, get them away from the environment and give them the opportunity to create a better environment, not just a different location of the same shit.

[99StockGT]

Completely agree with both of you, removing the addict from the environment they are in plays a huge role in giving them a fighting chance to remain clean. I have several people in my life from my younger days who have completed multiple "tours" in the prisions/hospitals but once they get out they take a step back into their old crew and its over with.

[Supplicium]

I had a buddy just pass away within the year of an H overdose. He lived with a good friend of mine from college. Its been almost a year since his death and it came out that prior to his death he was narcan'd 5 times. His roommate didnt even know he had been narcanned. He was able to basically OD 5 times and continue to go to work and what not without his roommate knowing.

 

Next point about the take the addict out of his environment. It my help some but in the case of my cousin he was able to find other shitheads like him in the Marines, San Diego, NC, Prison, Jail, any city he was in he fell into and found other people like him.

[DKilbourne]

If you guys think that moving someone far away from where they are will cure them of addiction, then you are clueless. Yes, you need to remove yourself from old associations and places, but just dropping someone 500 miles away doesn't solve anything. Addicts will find a way to get what they are looking for no matter where they are. There are almost always deeper seeded issues that need to be addressed as well. How many of you guys who "know how to solve the problem" have actually gone through it? I don't mean that you know someone who was addicted, but that YOU were addicted and are no longer drinking or taking anything.

Just read Andrews post. Haha.

[RedRocket1647545505]

If you guys think that moving someone far away from where they are will cure them of addiction, then you are clueless. Yes, you need to remove yourself from old associations and places, but just dropping someone 500 miles away doesn't solve anything. Addicts will find a way to get what they are looking for no matter where they are. There are almost always deeper seeded issues that need to be addressed as well. How many of you guys who "know how to solve the problem" have actually gone through it? I don't mean that you know someone who was addicted, but that YOU were addicted and are no longer drinking or taking anything.

Just read Andrews post. Haha.

 

First off, I don't believe that I am anywhere close to being clueless on the subject. In fact, I've probably been involved with more addicts than most on this board, at least from a clinical standpoint.

 

Second. Cure? No. Have a significant impact towards their recovery by nearly eliminating the comfortable environment from which they found it to begin with? Yes. Could the seek out another source? Absolutely, but it will definitely be harder. No one is saying its THE fix, but it should be part of it. I'm not sure what your argument would be against this...

[DKilbourne]

First off, I don't believe that I am anywhere close to being clueless on the subject. In fact, I've probably been involved with more addicts than most on this board, at least from a clinical standpoint.

 

Second. Cure? No. Have a significant impact towards their recovery by nearly eliminating the comfortable environment from which they found it to begin with? Yes. Could the seek out another source? Absolutely, but it will definitely be harder. No one is saying its THE fix, but it should be part of it. I'm not sure what your argument would be against this...

 

We don't have to agree. Saying that the judges should mandate the addict to move 500 miles away is just silly. Most of the people out there are at the point that they just don't care and don't want to stop. I do agree that staying away from old friends and enablers is an absolute must. Obviously, old friends who aren't in to doing shit are fine. Most of the "so-called" friends aren't really friends at all. Just using buddies. I think if you and I had a sit down discussion on the matter that we would be much closer on thinking than trying to convey it on the internet.

I have heard too many people convince themselves that a move is the answer to all of their problems only to find out that the baggage comes with them. That is why saying that moving 500 miles away should be mandatory is silly. So much more to it than that.

[RedRocket1647545505]

We don't have to agree. Saying that the judges should mandate the addict to move 500 miles away is just silly. Most of the people out there are at the point that they just don't care and don't want to stop. I do agree that staying away from old friends and enablers is an absolute must. Obviously, old friends who aren't in to doing shit are fine. Most of the "so-called" friends aren't really friends at all. Just using buddies. I think if you and I had a sit down discussion on the matter that we would be much closer on thinking than trying to convey it on the internet.

I have heard too many people convince themselves that a move is the answer to all of their problems only to find out that the baggage comes with them. That is why saying that moving 500 miles away should be mandatory is silly. So much more to it than that.

 

 

500 miles was just a number I threw out; not something set in concrete. I agree, there is much more to it than that. I think it needs to be attacked from all angles.

[10phone2]

The problem with forcing a move away, is that you then create distribution networks easier.