The Worst Addiction Epidemic in U.S. History

[seemslikeadream]

The worst addiction epidemic in U.S. history
"The Opioid Diaries" is the first issue in TIME’s 95-year history devoted entirely to one photographer’s work. Over the past year, TIME commissioned acclaimed photographer James Nachtwey to document this crisis through the people on its front lines."



"Working closely with TIME’s Paul Moakley [who wrote the issue's text], the pair traveled the country, spending months on the streets of Boston and San Francisco, on patrol with first responders in Ohio, New Mexico and West Virginia, visiting clinics in New Hampshire, in jail cells in Kentucky and at prayer meetings in Massachusetts."

In a first-person piece that opens the issue, Nachtwey writes:

"Over the past 35 years, my work as a photojournalist has taken me to other countries to document wars, uprisings, natural disasters and global health crises ... In revisiting my own country I discovered a national nightmare."
"But the people living through it aren’t deviants. They are ordinary citizens, our neighbors, our family members. I don’t think I met one user whom I would consider to be a bad person. No one wants to be an addict."
https://www.axios.com/opioid-epidemic-t ... ab675.html

The Opioid Diaries: Videos from the Opioid Epidemic in America
http://time.com/stories-opioid-addictio ... c-america/


James Nachtwey
http://www.jamesnachtwey.com

[Karmamatterz]

Thanks for this post. Natchwey's work is excellent. I've admired his photojournalism since taking a workshop with him in college. The opioids crisis is truly an epidemic with incredibly horrible results.

[seemslikeadream]

yes...... have you seen his photos of Iraq War soldiers?

I would post pics here but there is somebody here that objects to seeing real life.... a black eye is a problem

What Veterans Look Like After A Decade Of War In The Middle East In 10+ Shocking Pics By David Jay & James Nachtwey
https://www.boredpanda.com/veterans-por ... htwey-usa/

BTW I stood on a street corner every Friday night for 6 years straight because of that Iraq War

I've seen first hand what guns do

I've seen what war does to the men in my family


my dad is a WWII veteran

my son in law is a Iraq War veteran

my son's father in law is a Vietnam War veteran

my niece's husband is a Vietnam War veteran

my best friend never came home

I could go on and on



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbcZMocgYrk

[Cordelia]

I would post pics here but there is somebody here that objects to seeing real life.... a black eye is a problem

No, at all



Back to topic (and real life) ; thanks for starting this thread SLAD. The suffering of addicts and, by extension, those who love them, is staggering, overwhelming and heartbreaking. I don't know anyone not affected by this (current U.S.) epidemic. Over my lifetime, I've known and been close to just too many impacted by heroin; some overdosed and died, some recovered, some continue to struggle.

They are ordinary citizens, our neighbors, our family members. I don’t think I met one user whom I would consider to be a bad person. No one wants to be an addict."

Worth reading are responses from addicts from around the world, following Philip Seymour Hoffman's death:

37 Quotes from Heroin Users on Addiction and the Struggle to Stay Sober

I was a high-profile model and intravenous heroin addict. I copped on the street. Heroin doesn't discriminate. It is unbearably wonderful for surpressing pain and generating a false sense of well-being. I loved heroin. Addicts who say "I hate heroin" are lying to themselves. We wouldn't stick needles in our arms daily if we didn't love the way it made us feel. But when it wears off, you're in a hole so big its impossible to climb out. No one sets out to be a heroin addict. It's not a lifestyle choice."
Janice: six years clean, Middletown, New Jersey, US

When you're addicted to heroin, it's generally a long-running, close relationship. There are plenty of bad times, but there are also gems that stay with you. It's like family – a parent, sibling or child. You may swear that for all they've put you through, you never want anything to do with them again, but there's always that part of you that misses the good times and wonders how you'd get along now. When I first gave up heroin, I could never tell myself it was forever. I could not imagine never entering that cosy cocoon again."
Linda: still using, Geelong, Australia

I have been in recovery for 16 years. Throughout that time unfortunately I have seen many people relapse some of whom have died. The high-profile deaths do not affect me any more than hearing about any addict dying. Addiction is a great equal opportunities malady. It takes one and all regardless of class, creed or distinction. You get tough from going to so many funerals, you harden to the loss. I learned early on that I will never be cured."
Iain: 16 years clean, London, UK

More....
https://www.alternet.org/drugs/37-quote ... stay-sober

[norton ash]

Pharmaceutical painkillers are the gate. Canada's got it bad too. And it so often ends now with fentanyl, either street sketchy from god knows where, or prescribed like it was for Prince and Tom Petty.

[seemslikeadream]

Cordelia .....it was my first instinct to post a pic of an Iraq War vet but then I didn't sorry I just should have left the snark out but I didn't post it out of resect to you....I should have said that better. The photo I was going to post was really real but I left the choice to see it if one wants to at the link. Ever since I watched my first black and white WWll movie when I was about 6 years old seeing the piles of dead bodies being thrown into mass graves ......I always felt the need to never look away from reality no matter how horrible

[norton ash]

“To be an artist means never to avert one's eyes.”

― Akira Kurosawa

[Burnt Hill]

And those photos are beautiful anyway.

“To be an artist means never to avert one's eyes.”

― Akira Kurosawa

[Cordelia]

Cordelia .....it was my first instinct to post a pic of an Iraq War vet but then I didn't sorry I just should have left the snark out but I didn't post it out of resect to you....I should have said that better. The photo I was going to post was really real but I left the choice to see it if one wants to at the link. Ever since I watched my first black and white WWll movie when I was about 6 years old seeing the piles of dead bodies being thrown into mass graves ......I always felt the need to never look away from reality no matter how horrible

Thanks for that...........no worries! Photos are like that, some must impact more than others, depending on the viewer, the day.....the weather . My response wasn’t meant to try to censure. I too can remember the impact of viewing images from WW2 at an early age. My dad was a vet, later a newspaper photographer/journalist and the newsroom where he worked was full of photo magazines and books on that era. (Unfortunately I also became acquainted w/crime & accident photos at an early age, but realizing, as I get older, I’m becoming more sensitive to images.)

I find the intentional promotion by industry professionals to routinely prescribe Opioids to treat pain was way beyond the pale—how could they not suspect the risk for patients and the probable results from those risks?

[Elvis]

When I'm prescribed opioid pain pills, there are none left over. I'll use the slightest excuse to take a couple if I have any. Last time, a couple of years ago after some surgery, I noticed something—especially ironic for addicts (which I've never been): when I'm on the stuff, I feel so positively optimistic.

[Jerky]

That's because opiates don't just numb physical pain (including a number of pains you often weren't even aware you were suffering with), they also numb psychic pain, too. Some are more euphoric than others. One of the weakest, ironically, is one of the most euphoric, particularly for opiate naive people, is Percocets. That stuff makes you downright giddy. And then there's the delicious glowing love-bomb that is IV Dilaudid. Sweet Christ, that stuff is evil, in the Luciferian sense.

Jerky

[Joe Hillshoist]

Opiate use isn't that bad. You could socialise your medical system, grow poppies and provide enough heroin or whatever to keep addicts on a level cheap as fuck then spend the money that gets wasted on big pharma and crime fighting developing proper systems to deal with why some people become addicted to opiods in the first place and provide proper treatment/assistance.

I don't use heroin, have used it less than a dozen times, decades ago but never felt the need to take it seriously I guess. But even so i think it should be a legal over the counter drug. I know plenty of junkies or ex junkies, knew more than a few dead ones. One consistent thing that I've seen myself or heard from them is how effective opiates, especially heroin, are in treating or, more accurately, self medicating depression, psychosis, schizophrenia, anxiety, ptsd and a host of other mental health problems.

The worse problems with opiate use come from the ridiculous prices that .... well in Australia you'd say that drug cartels charge to supply the stuff, but pharma prices for opiates in the US are fucken insane. In Australia people get on methadone maintenance programs that cost less than 100 bucks a fortnight. There is some welfare involved but not much cos we grow poppies for medical use in Tasmania. It doesn't cost a lot to make. People with habits can spend over 1000 bucks a week for heroin but would need a tenth of that or less if you could buy it over the counter prescription free.

That's 900 bucks less a week per person in the hands of the networks that do that sort of thing.

[Burnt Hill]

That's because opiates don't just numb physical pain (including a number of pains you often weren't even aware you were suffering with), they also numb psychic pain, too. Some are more euphoric than others. One of the weakest, ironically, is one of the most euphoric, particularly for opiate naive people, is Percocets. That stuff makes you downright giddy. And then there's the delicious glowing love-bomb that is IV Dilaudid. Sweet Christ, that stuff is evil, in the Luciferian sense.

Jerky

Actually Percocet (Oxycodone) - is stronger than both Morphine and Vicodin (Hydrocodone),
With Dilaudid (Hydromorphone) stronger yet.
And of course anything taken IV gets in your bloodstream immediately.

And right on about self medicating, the main way we get addicted.

So while Opiates can be/are dangerous, if everyone had a proper attitude towards them like Joe Hillshoist's,
it would make it so much easier to address the addiction issue..

[The Consul]

I had a dose of Diprivan yesterday. First 18 seconds or so are intense. I asked them to film me with my phone but they declined.
The nurses were listening to Neil Diamond's "I Am I Said". (featuring Rod McKewan's greatest line "and no one heard at all, not even the chair").
But today my mental inventory of jokes is down at least 37%
As the dream world comes into focus today I'm wondering if the whole population is being secretly dosed.
At this point, I almost hope so....

[Elvis]

I play guitar better on codiene. I think it's because I'm relaxed.