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Saturday, August 17. 2019

Addiction: A pitiful sanctuary

She begins:



I never anticipated spending so much of my clinical time in bathrooms. But drug overdose is the leading cause of death among the homeless individuals I take care of at a health center in Boston—and without homes or access to supervised consumption sites, people who are homeless frequently inject drugs behind the closed doors of public bathrooms, including ours...


Posted by Dr. Joy Bliss in Psychology, and Dr. Bliss at 09:54 | Comments (7) | Trackbacks (0)

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I'm going out on a limb here to say something no one will agree with. Let's stop saving the overdosed drug users. The amount of crime they commit and public resources these people use is a terrible drain on our society. Let them go.
#1 Anon on 2019-08-17 09:57 (Reply)
You’re right. I disagree. Addicts are people who screwed up, perhaps, and yet still deserve the same consideration and care as anyone else with a disease. A major consideration is dealing with mental health issues of the addiction.
#1.1 Mark on 2019-08-17 11:59 (Reply)
Opiate antagonists such as Narcan (generic: naloxone) effectively costs in the vicinity of between 20 and 70 dollars a dose.
We watch the first responder TV shows and I've heard cops/EMTs on those shows comment about how good it is and how well it works, though sometimes it takes more than one application to reverse an overdose.
I've also heard them talk about how they've administered the antidote to the same drug user several times over several days. Most I remember is something like 17 times in a week or two to -- the same person.
Besides the naloxone, we really do need to be investing in in-patient, involuntary detox. Multiple involuntary detoxes and you get to spend a few years in a sanitarium. The facilities and staffing can be funded, in part, by siphoning funds from "homeless" programs and other "war-on-drug" boondoggles.
#1.2 OldFert on 2019-08-17 15:56 (Reply)
I agree - as long as drugs are viewed as recreational and victimless, I say let their victims deal with their recreation. Not one more dime of taxpayer money to aid and abet the personal choices users make. And it is a choice to use the various addictive drugs. I also believe we don’t have a homeless problem- we have a problem of undiagnosed mental illness and unacknowledged misuse of drugs. Drug use for recreation is not mental illness.
#1.3 Annie on 2019-08-17 16:54 (Reply)
Welcome to the decline.
#2 Fjord on 2019-08-17 18:37 (Reply)
…"supervised consumption sites..." that pretty much says it all. My tax dollars at work.
#3 mary on 2019-08-17 18:53 (Reply)
Addicts with homes shoot up in public bathrooms too. Access to water and a little privacy when away from home.

As for the ODs, I'd like to know how many are suicides or attempted suicides. I suspect it's pretty common that 'accidental overdoses are often not accidents.

A third point is that as tempting as it is to say "let them die", some people do quit using heroin and other opiates/opioids, and it's not a small number. Rush Limbaugh and Miles Davis are a couple examples.
#4 itsatax on 2019-08-18 11:35 (Reply)

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