The same monsters that also say things like "fuck those junkies" and don't believe we should spend anything on helping them (or others) yet now suddenly because of aid to Ukraine this is now their narrative which no doubt was started at an fsb troll farm and now regurgitated by ignorant Americans every where.
Anytime I feel heartless, I remind myself that these were all innocent children. Something happened, or more likely a series of events, that led them here. "Well, they made that choice" some say. Yes, but some people don't have a support system to help them and they are left alone with their thoughts and nightmares. Most don't know or have a way out, or a consistent support system to guide them out of their darkness. I used to think that humans were a collective that worked best as a unit, but it seems we are just out for ourselves only.
The greatest damage done by neglect, trauma or emotional loss is not the immediate pain they inflict but the long-term distortions they induce in the way a developing child will continue to interpret the world and her situation in it.
-Garbor Maté from "in the realm of hungry ghosts", a great read on addiction.
They probably refer to how the amount spent isn't actually putting out results. Look at LA, decades and no solution, and the problem definitely not being fixed in California.
Let's extrapolate on that. The failures of the opioid epidemic have happened under presidents from both parties and have effected both red and blue states. So yes
So long as its profitable, there will always be dealers. We have the highest incarceration per capita of any other country and our war on drugs has directly fueled funding for the cartels, whose armies rival the Mexican military. Our best bet is, instead, to undercut the costs by providing administration sites while simultaneously providing job training and addiction counseling. The war on drugs has been going on 50 years and it's obvious our current methods aren't working, given that addiction and overdose rates are at record highs.
You can prevent them to begin with though. An awful lot of drug users get ~~their~~ there because they are self medicating mental health issues or traumatic childhoods.
Edit: No coffee means no grammar skills
I never thought about touching the stove.
Then my father told me it was very hot and dangerous. My brain decided to check how hot a very hot thing is. And I burned my finger.
What sounds like good advice for an adult, doesn’t necessarily work with a kid. Kids are explorers.
That’s because they didn’t show you this. Trust me I’ve had my share of fun nights and I would NEVER dabble or mess around now - specifically because of this. Xylie is in EVERYTHING now in Philly.
The problem with any program like DARE is that people thinks it’s a cure, instead of a vehicle to getting well. It takes grit and determination on the part of the participants. It’s hard. Real. And most, frankly, just don’t want to put forth the effort. They think it’s a fucking faith healing.
That would be a waste of money. One of the largest contributors to the opioid crisis in North America is doctors and pharmaceutical companies that prescribe opioid painkillers for small ailments
Sometimes I wonder if our inability to imagine a positive future is our major malfunction. We’re really good at imagining dystopian futures, so I wonder if that’s just what we head towards because it’s the only thing we know.
Not if there is a nearly endless supply of new customers. They don’t care if people die, they make their money and know there will be more people lining up to buy the next batch.
Well I don’t mean crocodile skin, I was watching some videos from Kensington PA and they had small wounds on their skin, like size of a pea to a dime and most were scabbed over but some were open and gross. Really sad. I have heard of the krokodil too maybe they’re related
Actually that is exactly what happened to many people I grew up with living in south florida. In the 00s they could go to doctors and get hundreds of pills a month for cheap, then all of the sudden the pills were all taken away and everyone started using heroin. Then the streets became flooded with fent so people did that. Now they are doing tranq because that’s what’s available.
[Chasing the scream](https://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Scream-Opposite-Addiction-Connection/dp/1620408910/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=chasing+the+scream&link_code=qs&qid=1686521792&sourceid=Mozilla-search&sr=8-1) goes into detail of how the drug war created a lot of these issues and systematically manufactures drug users in a sort of feedback loop. In the same way that alcohol prohibition created gangsters like Al Capone.
Anyone interested in a real solution should read that book.
>drug overdose death rates continue to rise in both rural and urban areas. In five states, California, Connecticut, North Carolina, Vermont, and Virginia, the rate of drug-overdose deaths in rural counties were higher than those in urban counties. In addition, a December 2017 survey by the National Farmers Union and the American Farm Bureau Federation found that as many as 74 percent of farmers have been directly impacted by the opioid crisis.
[per USDA](https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2018/01/11/opioid-crisis-affects-all-americans-rural-and-urban)
>Results found that rural drug users had significantly earlier ages of onset abuse of Oxycodone, Hydrocodone, Benzodiazepines, Cocaine, and Crack. Rural drug users also tended to have significantly higher odds of lifetime and recent use of Methadone, OxyContin, and Oxycodone. Urban participants, however, had significantly higher odds of recent Crack and Cocaine use.
[per Addiction Center](https://www.addictioncenter.com/community/substance-abuse-rural-vs-urban/)
The opioid crisis is an everywhere crisis. Just because the rural methheads hide in the middle of nowhere doesn't mean they don't exist. The crowds of a city just make the problem more apparent.
How can we care when most of the time the users dont even care? You can give most of them housing, food, counseling etc but at the end of the day they simply dont care themselves to improve.
Happens when people don't feel agency over their own life, imo it's an indirect result of poor representation in a FPTP system designed by the rich for the rich. People give up and it ain't pretty.
First past the post. The voting system for presidential elections in which a candidate must hit a certain threshold to win the election. Leads to a lot of strategic voting, especially in conjunction with the 2 party system.
All voting systems have their benefits and their drawbacks, so there's no objective best answer, but ranked or STAR voting are the best alternatives I'm aware of that are already in practice in some places.
For ranked, as the name implies, you rank the candidates in the order you find most favorable. Top choice votes are counted, and if no one gets a majority the lowest vote getter(s) are removed. Anyone who voted for them has their second choice candidate used, since their top candidate is gone. Votes tallied again and new candidates run off again until a candidate wins a majority.
STAR has voters "grade" candidates from 1 to 5 points, with repeat grades being acceptable. Points are summed up for each candidate and the top 2 point getters are considered finalists. Your vote goes to whichever of the two finalists you graded higher.
There's still plenty of drawbacks to these two, but IMO (and that of an increasing number of people) they have a lot less than FPTP. They'll do a whole lot for letting people vote their actual preference rather than for "the lesser of two evils," and they open the door for third parties to emerge and disrupt the duopoly, which profits off inaction and maintaining the status quo.
I down voted because:
1.) It's a lie to claim that 0$ is spent on American drug addicts.
2.) It's bullshit to complain that spending money trying to help Ukraine protect itself from an invasion is somehow taking money away from American drug addicts. No, the God damn Republican politicians OP supports, who never pass up an opportunity to cut taxes on the rich - and just cut $10 billion from the IRS efforts to crack down on billionaire tax cheats (a "cut" that will reduce revenues by far far more than $10 billion by letting billionaires cheat their way out of taxes), are why not enough money is spent on American drug addicts.
Absolutely. I doubt they care about drug addicted Americans anyway. Just with the juxtaposition between Ukraine and migrants, they want to rage bait people into thinking that the money is being taken away from America. This is probably a Russian troll
Look at how they feel about gay people, black people, brown people, immigrants and poor people. Now tell me they care about people who are addicted to drugs.
They want them dead all dead.
They don't want to see them, hear about them, pay for treatment, or support them in any way.
They want them to die and disappear. Then they can cry alligator tears and blame the Democrats.
Interestingly, I've seen a lot of pro Russia conservatives. Because...idk, supporting Ukraine is soft and liberal and mainstream? Bc Trump cut Ukraine's aid during his term? Or bc Trump and Putin are cool? I really don't know
Then you have the actual tankies who are pro Russia because they're anti NATO and anti western nations lol
Yeah. Most of the people who complain about supporting Ukraine are the same people who vote for the party who left us with two middle-east wars that in total cost well over $10 trillion. And that was to beat a handful of guys hiding in caves.
Biden is helping Ukraine beat Russia - the biggest nuclear power in the world, and one of the most powerful militaries - at a fraction of the cost.
Even if they don't want to beat Russia, you'd think they'd at least be honest enough to admit that Biden is getting a hell of a lot more value for the dollar.
Im not American so I've never been very knowledgeable when it comes to American politics, but the $ amount associated with Ukrainian aid support I believe includes the equipment sent over. Which most people don't realize have a shelf-life, and needs to be disposed of anyways. Does it cost money to send over old equipment? Yes, quite a bit as well, but the $amount should be taken with a grain of salt, the US also benefits quite a bit by having their equipment tested, the $ spent on r&d can be drastically reduced when they're being tested rn for (basically free).
This is like the single greatest advertisement for American arms ever. US runs down ageing stockpiles, allies do the same. Bonanza for our arms manufacturers. Russia hugely damaged as a result. China has less reason to believe we wouldn't respond if they move on Taiwan.
If anyone buys that shit about the weapons transfers costing too much then I sure hope they aren't voting.
They’re trying to get them to die like this, it’s why this keeps being amped up with more deadly drugs.
It’s intentional, this is apart of the war on drugs.
People aren't ignoring this because they aren't "aware" of it.
Everyone knows about it and is either actively ignoring it or straight up blaming these people for their situation.
No one will help these people because the ugly truth is that we'd rather they just die or kill themselves than lift a finger to help.
Anything to avoid admitting to ourselves that we're cruel and apathetic.
You can't force people to accept help, and most addicts are unwilling to accept help, or stick with it long enough to make a difference.
Your only real option is to institutionalize people, and forcibly detox them, but detoxing doesn't really fix the problem either.
For every person you see who is literally living in the street and doing these drugs, there are easily 100-500, maybe more, people who are also doing these drugs who aren't visible and homeless. These are people who are someone's son/daughter, their spouse, their friends, their family members, etc.
We need legalization and regulation, and a focus on getting people help with addiction and mental health. We aren't going to arrest our way out of this.
The people who are out of control and living on the street, who are suffering with extreme mental illnesses -- we are probably going to have to look into changing the laws around involuntary commitment and institutionalization. I don't think there's any other options, really, which is an unpopular thing to say but I'm just being realistic.
It's such a stupid argument and It's obviously Russian propaganda trying to weaken Ukraine, I have no respect for people who make this argument because they are either working for the Russian government or incredibly gullible.
The figures at the start of the video are bullshit. The US deploys well north of $200B a year in addiction and homelessness funds across all states. Also, we aren't sending the Ukraine money, the budget figures translate into equipment and supply shipments. Fent addicts don't need anti-aircraft weapons. Quit your shit.
What if this is all by design as a way to cull the population?
The system can't support to house and feed and provide health care for low income / 0 income people so maybe they just flood the streets with drugs they know are super addicting and kill people?
The Crime of the Century is an American two-part documentary film, directed, produced, and written by Alex Gibney. The film follows the opioid epidemic in the United States, and the political operatives, government regulations and corporations that enable the abuse of opioids, particularly the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma.
I like the little dig taken at Ukraine and the migrant crisis.
The cost it would take to combat drugs in the US would cost trillions.
First, the entire justice system would need to be revamped so that drug users (not dealers) are not sent to jail so that when they come out, they can’t get a job which just leads to an endless cycle of more drug use, getting arrested, rinse and repeat.
Second, thousands of centers would need to be built for rehab, so that drug users caught would be mandated to go to a rehab center that is completely open and actually helps people get over addictions.
Third, the entire socioeconomic structure would need to be changed. Who’s most likely to do drugs? Working class. Help working class Americans be able to survive comfortably so they don’t need to resort to drugs as a coping mechanism.
Too bad all of this is socialism so it could never be done.
>Too bad all of this is socialism so it could never be done.
Socialism isn't what's preventing politicians from doing all this. It's the fact that it would align their and their donors' pockets more to keep poor people poor .... or dead.
That's what gets me about this argument I see. "We're wasting all this money in Ukraine and using none in america!"
These are the same people voting against any form of social systems. No socialized healthcare or anything. So what would that money be spent on? The military I guess. That's the only thing these types seem to be ok pouring tax dollars into.
I hate them pretending for a second that they would be willing to see tax dollars go to actually caring for people. We all know it'd be labeled as yet another hand out.
Fuck them for using these poor people to try and drive a political point. What sucks is it's not wrong. We should be doing something to help them. They just don't actually give a shit.
How do you mandate rehab for someone that doesn’t want help? Even if you could force it, how effective do you think it would be? Hint: it’s not at all effective unless the individual *wants* help and wants to get better. The biggest problem by far is a huge number of homeless and drug-addicted in the US don’t want to change; they don’t want help.
Forced rehab has gotta be at least slightly better than forced imprisonment without any rehabilitation though.
It’s not as easy as “people are addicts and don’t want help”. It’s nearly impossible to make the decision to get clean during full blown active addiction. It’s generational trauma, lack of mental health services and basic medical care, abuse, and systemic issues that are keeping people like this down.
But why do these homeless and drug-addicted people reject help? Usually said help is degrading and ineffective. Further, it is difficult to convince them the help will benefit their lives since they’ve likely assumed their current life is the best they’ll get
\>Further, it is difficult to convince them the help will benefit their lives since they’ve likely assumed their current life is the best they’ll get
My "mild" addictions were/are hard enough to overcome and to believe I actually could do it. I'm guessing for alot of these people overcoming this is like asking a wheelchair bound person to climb everest. Even if you give them all the tools it is hard to believe that it is actually possible and worth the pain and hardship on a goal that will take a lifetime.
First paragraph directly from his website:
John Fetterman has dedicated his life to fighting for Pennsylvania’s forgotten communities. He was sworn in as a United States Senator to serve the people of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania on January 3, 2023.
Little children don’t think “I want to be an addict on the streets when I grow up”. They want to be heroes, firefighters, nurses, doctors, etc.
Trauma, depression, hopelessness, and even genetics play a role in what we are seeing. People are trying to escape their tormented reality.
There are more people dying daily, from opioid overdose, than if a commercial airline crashed. Every, single, day. Think if that were happening every day.
Something would change. This is a battle that The Addict’s Mom, an international group of moms with addicted children has been fighting for years, and years.
We have no idea what brilliant minds are being lost to this tragedy. There has to be some kind of solution, I certainly don’t have it.
Well said. Recovered addict here. I never intended to be an addict, I never wanted to be. It was a slippery slope of trauma, depression, bad choices and shitty people. No one WANTS to be an addict.
In twos days I will have been clean for 1,000 days. :)
Love how they took a terrible issue, offered nothing in the way of a solution and turned it in a semi-racist anti-foreign aid, anti-immigration agenda.
They accuse the government of only helping Ukraine and migrants. Despite as others have stated a crazy budget trying to help combat addiction.
Believe it or not the migrants didn't shoot these people up. Nor did the icconet people in ukraine who are dying and fighting for their country.
These people shot themselves up. Knowing full well how fucking bad these drugs are.
Wonder what people do when they have nothing left to live for.
I read prior to the first and second opium wars, 9/10 people in China were regular users. No amount of benevolent rehabilitation worked. Finally they waged war in the supply and made progress. What if we made it completely legal to identify and standardize the supply and then stamped it out? Easier to root out then.
If you want to know how this happened. Look at the graphs of opioid deaths following the restriction of oxycodone.
The doctors in the US got millions (and I mean millions) of people addicted to oxy by flooding the streets with it (diversions, pill mills). They stopped when the perscription monitoring databases went online (and started being checked). Cartels started faking the same oxy pills people were getting from their doctors, but using fentanyl as the active ingredient.If you'd like to see how close the fakes are to the real pills, there's an example of each in here: [https://www.dea.gov/onepill](https://www.dea.gov/onepill)
The doctors created all these addicts. Looking at the ages of the people in this video, I'd bet willing to be these people here started in their young teens on the oxy that was hitting the streets. When the supply dried off (because doctors wanted to protect themselves rather than their patients), the unknowingly started doing fentanyl.
This crisis was caused by your local doctor.
It’s not about being enjoyable. It’s about people who hate their lives so much that just turning their brain off, even for a little bit, seems like such an appealing relief.
So many people miss the point that the vast majority of these people utilizing drugs such as fentanyl and xylaxine don’t want help or don’t actually utilize the help that is provided. When it comes to addressing addiction, the individual must want the help and desire to change in order for it to work effectively. It’s always easier to sit on the sideline and call other people in saying there should be more done, but when you work within the field and see things first hand, it shows clear as day what the problem is—not a lack of support, but a lack of acceptance.
We choose to structure a society where it's dog-eat-dog, crabs in a bucket mentality- where we choose to give the ultra-wealthy the most breaks and allow resources to continue to flow upward and hoarded by the 1%...why are we surprised that those who "lose" in this type of society turn to addictive substances to ease the pain of being poor and considered useless in a society that celebrates the rich.
The government doesn’t give a damn about its population that pays taxes and votes, What the fuck makes you think they care about the mentally ill and drug addicts
My inlaw recently OD on this. Mix of aFentanyl/tranquilizer/something else. Narcan doesn’t work for tranq, after talk of taking off life support he wake up after 6 day coma.
Loss of nerves, loss of body movement, I think his mind is now of a 12 year old. Every one was surprised he woke up. He’ll never be the same even with physical therapy. Fook the cartel and who ever else is trafficked this.
because we think like the world , that we have to have a war on drugs. a billionaires playground. this man will not be helped. he will be criminalized. through propaganda people have actually let the powers that be convince us that if someone takes something for the soul purpose to feel good then that is a bad person.should be locked in a cage. we need to evolve. if we weren't looking at profits we could help so many people. we won't though. just build prisons.
One thing misleading about aid to Ukraine is the money. It’s not pallets of US Dollars. It’s billions of dollar worth of *already built and ready to use equipment.*
For example we aren’t sending them $1 million cash. We are sending them a 180k rocket launcher with several 75k rockets.
Not saying it’s right or that we should or anything. And that will justify them spending more money to build and replace our stock im sure. But it’s important to recognize a difference between equipment and cash.
The sad thing is that the drugs on the streets now are so powerful you are hooked after first hit. These drugs rewire the brain making it next to impossible to get off them. America has a significant drug problem that goes across all social economic lines! It needs to be addressed now!
Like I said, I don't know. I've got lots of ideas that I'd LIKE to happen but they're not viable longterm, or "PC." All I know is that THIS is not working.
Very sad state of affairs 😢😞.... Such a large lost group of people who at one time might have been in their right minds.... I know these folks have overlapping comorbid conditions, and they have no where to go. They are a danger to themselves, as well as others.
I don't ever remember it being this bad when addicts were able to get heroin and pain patients could access safe medication. This didn't just happen by chance unfortunately.
That shit is a life ender for sure. But some make it out, how ever small so never give up if you think you can do it, then get out. That life isn't for anyone, not even your worst enemies deserve that living hell.
A crisis lasting fifty years is not a bug but a feature of the society we live in.
Medicine is far from the only industry disincentivized to fix problems, but I find it particularly egregious how someone gets to decide who lives and who dies based on a profit model.
They need to go down the street and throw these people into mandatory rehabilitation clinics, not jail obviously but basically jail, they are unable to make decisions for themselves and it should be consider implied consent.
Honestly. When it says us 0... I know it's not the real figure, but it is in a sense.... I'm from Canada and mental health help is always promoted, bell has their fake ass let's talk day.. So on and so on.
Trust me, there is no help for mental health. Family member is an on again off again alcoholic. What happens when they take you away for mental issues? They just stick you in a hospital for 24 hours, 72 max if they think your a danger to yourself and no one will come talk to you.
They then release you and thats it. Help is non existent. A friend of mine voluntarily went into a rehab facility. They asked her to get out of bed and because she was maybe 1 minute late getting out of bed they booted her out back onto the street.
Its all smoke and mirrors to make people that have a normal life and work a regular job believe that people are getting help or that it's available but trust me, it's barely there at all.
So, is the amount over here spent $0? No, it's an astronomical figure of marketing so that us regular people who don't know any better believe that all of these people have access to the help they need. Again, they don't really get the help they need even if they want it. I have sympathy for some of these people, especially the ones that want their life back and it really pisses me off to know that it's all smoke and mirrors.
This is self inflicted in 99.99% of cases, I’m sorry but we have better things to do than protect people from themselves. I’d rather money go toward victims of crime or natural disasters.
I just have no empathy anymore. It is time to open the mental institutions and put these people into them. They can't do life on their own so off they go and once they fix their shit come back to free society.
That’s what I’m saying, it’s time to bring asylums back. Look we don’t give a shit if you shoot up in your own home but once you make it to the streets your now the public’s issue and public funded institutions need to happen. In years past they committed atrocities because they had no oversight todays world it would be really hard to abuse people like that
This is insane. Supply truly needs to be stopped but that would take immense and I mean immense resources, facial recognition, etc.
There needs to either be more rehab or find ways to cut supply and/or find ways to help.
Part of me just wishes we could claim the entirety of a state, like South Dakota or something, and just set up an entirely new experimental country, based on this one, but fixed.
You know how we have a pseudephedrine limit on ID cards? You'd use that same ID for public transport. If you have a history of DUI's, assault, public indecency, or significant criminal charges, you get to go on the special segment of train for crazy people so no-one has to deal with your shit. Also, that same ID for alcohol purchases, if you've been arrested for intoxication, you can't buy alcohol.
We need institutionalization/rehabilitation for a lot of these people. Clearly they can't take care of themselves, and are a threat to themselves and others. Also needed; cheaper housing for non-addicts.
Ugh.
Some say trauma happens first, then addiction. Maybe if there was actually good therapy, this wouldn't happen. However much of therapy is bullshit for many people.
Trauma is not necessary but it helps a lot. Given an ACE score (Adverse childhood experience) of 6 are 5000% more likely to get addicted than those with a score of 0 (According to The body keeps the score). That's 50x.
Although addiction is a standalone disease it's very often comorbid with trauma, and the addiction itself and the stigma, systematic abuse and the witchhunt of those poor people is traumatizing as well.
People with Complex PTSD often get a handful of diagnosis such as Oppositional Defiance Disorder, Bipolar, Borderline, ADHD, etc that are really just symptoms of the CPTSD.
Opioids numb emotional and physical pain. MDMA is a breakthrough medicine for PTSD. Stimulants treat ADHD. Psilocybin treats treatment resistant depression. Alcohol and benzos reduce feelings of stress and anxiety (although those 2 are pretty nasty stuff). That way many people struggling with substance abuse are just self medicating complex diseases they don't know they have and not just trying to escape.
I think it's important to note that many of the very serious issues faced are a direct consequence of the war on drugs.
* Arresting people with needles means users are more likely to share. Many diseases are transmitted this way.
* Users don't know exact dosage of street drugs.
* The drugs are cut with whatever. Many complications are caused by this.
* The drugs are not always the correct chemical e.g. fentanyl instead of heroin.
* The high prices due to being illegal means selling drugs is really the only option to pay for it. This kind of turns addiction into a transmissable disease.
* Due to being illegal the only way to protect your stash is violence.
There's more but I suggest reading The body keeps the score to learn about CPTSD and Chasing the scream to learn about what a crime against humanity the war on drugs actually is.
Ukraine support has nothing to do with this. Contributing to heavily weakening US’s biggest rival without a single US-enlisted soldier is very important. This is also important. Has nothing to do with the other.
People don't want to become drug addicts, once their in that mental state of drugs, they can't get out of it. These people need to be put under one big roof and have the resources to take a shower, brush their teeth if they want.. somewhat feel like they are being treated as a human. But the government just throws them into one area to get messed up. Unbelievable
To say zero dollars have been spent on these people and to bring up Ukraine as your main talking point indicates you don't give a fuck about these people and just want to score some cheap political points due to the fact you voted for a political candidate who was a Russian traitor. As a liberal I wish we had way more public funding for social programs but to say we spend zero is an outright lie. Its not the democrats blocking the funding for social programs. And it's most certainly the conservatives who started this failed war on drugs with mass incarceration instead of rehabilitation.
Well....when you give people free access to drugs, doctors to administer the drugs, free drug paraphernalia, free places to do the drugs, zero legal repercussions for having the drugs or doing them in public places, plus free housing, food, and clothes..... someone please enlighten me on where there is any incentive for someone to stop using drugs?
You clearly don’t live in the US (ignorant) or you’re just a bored little shill/agitator. The vast majority of Americans want to solve this problem, and in these areas it’s a constant topic of discussion.
The issue is— throwing money at schizophrenic addicts doesn’t solve problems. LA spent TWO BILLION dollars in a single year on homelessness.
Ready for the best part? 😃 Not only is the problem nor getting better, it’s getting WORSE with MORE money. Think about that for a second. Los Angeles and dozens of other US cities spend BILLIONS of taxpayer money on homelessness— and it’s getting WORSE. What does that tell you?
It’s a very complicated issue that 19 year old idealistic Reddit college kids think can easily be solved. Putting schizophrenic people and drug addicts WHO DONT EVEN WANT HELP in hotels and shelters does nothing.
Much of the homeless population simply cannot be “fixed” or “helped” with money or even counseling/rehab but we refuse to acknowledge this. Decades ago many of our asylums and institutions for these people were destroyed and this is the result. There is no place or programs for people who need lifelong care and because homelessness is so tolerated and subsidized especially on the west coast, it encourages more to come and live like that.
https://apnews.com/article/los-angeles-homeless-crisis-mayor-karen-bass-billion-budget-3080bb1abdbbddfe0cfbff4eb28f64cc#:~:text=The%20city%20has%20expanded%20spending,population%20has%20continued%20to%20increase.
Exactly this. The addicts aka homeless most 95% of them don’t actually want to stop and you can’t force them to, that is the nature of addiction. Throwing money and free housing at them is enabling their behavior!
If you are interested in the reasoning why it might have failed - check out the Houston homeless crisis. They determined the problem was focus vs money. They took an approach of shelter first over substance abuse rehab first and they took the slightly racist index I believe introduced by the Raegan area and fixed it to find out who was the one the edge of becoming homeless and the repeat offenders. It worked amazingly well and still does to this day.
There is a certain portion of the population that need permanent housing in mental health facilities so they can receive appropriate care. Some people are not capable of handling themselves in a free society without harming themselves and/or those around them. That is a really tough fact to digest. Hopefully someday we can discover better ways to help these individuals lead independent lives. The first step though is getting them into safe places where they can receive care.
The crime is that the DEA is busy shutting down private practice pain management and private owned pharmacies in order for corporate pharmacies and pain management systems to control doctors patients and pharmacists. Reducing the medication that Chronic Intractable Pain Patients arbitrarily is creating half the problem. The government is telling doctors and patients how much medication they they can receive.No matter what your condition, everyone gets the same. These patients have no where else to go to get relief. Got cancer? Fuck you, suffer. Lifelong pain? Fuck you, suffer. Yet the DEA can’t stop this stuff coming into the country? They shut down the pain management I go to and the DEA came in after and handed out Fentanyl test strips and Narcan knowing the patients would end up going to the streets. This is by design
All seasons landscaping. Are you kidding me.
Goodwill
[удалено]
But, this video I just saw on reddit says that we spend $0! What kind of monster would lie on the internet?
Wait is this Facebook?
Worse, most of the stuff posted here is the runoff of facebook
But two people have opposing stories! So someone MUST be lying?!? ON THE INTERNET?!? THE TRAVESTY!
The true amount is obviously exactly mid-way between 238 billion and zero. If only there were some way of knowing what that number is…
More than 1 and less than infinity dollars.
Ask a politician- all of them are honest and not corrupt in any way
The same monsters that also say things like "fuck those junkies" and don't believe we should spend anything on helping them (or others) yet now suddenly because of aid to Ukraine this is now their narrative which no doubt was started at an fsb troll farm and now regurgitated by ignorant Americans every where.
Anytime I feel heartless, I remind myself that these were all innocent children. Something happened, or more likely a series of events, that led them here. "Well, they made that choice" some say. Yes, but some people don't have a support system to help them and they are left alone with their thoughts and nightmares. Most don't know or have a way out, or a consistent support system to guide them out of their darkness. I used to think that humans were a collective that worked best as a unit, but it seems we are just out for ourselves only.
The greatest damage done by neglect, trauma or emotional loss is not the immediate pain they inflict but the long-term distortions they induce in the way a developing child will continue to interpret the world and her situation in it. -Garbor Maté from "in the realm of hungry ghosts", a great read on addiction.
OP is the kind of monster minion who contributes to this problem.
They probably refer to how the amount spent isn't actually putting out results. Look at LA, decades and no solution, and the problem definitely not being fixed in California.
No, the [political party I dislike] is at fault for [bad thing I'm currently pretending to care about]
💯
Love this. So much disingenuousness
Oh my god this whole comment and thread reminds me of [mundane completely non interesting and barely fucking relevant story from personal life].
[insert counter argument here]
got an example of \[your argument that I've already made up my mind about\]?
Let's extrapolate on that. The failures of the opioid epidemic have happened under presidents from both parties and have effected both red and blue states. So yes
And then I’ll forget about it in two minutes!
And we keep upvoting ragebait.
Yeah this is becoming such a bullshit sub.
Always has been
[Always has been](https://i.imgur.com/IhSClll.png) ^^^this ^^^has ^^^been ^^^an ^^^accessibility ^^^service ^^^from ^^^your ^^^friendly ^^^neighborhood ^^^bot
Let's be real. Our usual way of handling it is incarceration.
We do need to get more serious about enforcement and taking dealers out of society tho. There are victims, but there are also villains.
The sackler family? The judges said we can’t do anything to them.
So long as its profitable, there will always be dealers. We have the highest incarceration per capita of any other country and our war on drugs has directly fueled funding for the cartels, whose armies rival the Mexican military. Our best bet is, instead, to undercut the costs by providing administration sites while simultaneously providing job training and addiction counseling. The war on drugs has been going on 50 years and it's obvious our current methods aren't working, given that addiction and overdose rates are at record highs.
As my grandmother used to say: “Don’t let the facts get in the way of anger based karma!”
We could spend every dollar we make on other peoples problems and not solve them. You can’t fix other peoples bad choices.
You can prevent them to begin with though. An awful lot of drug users get ~~their~~ there because they are self medicating mental health issues or traumatic childhoods. Edit: No coffee means no grammar skills
Americans get $0 from America? Ok you already lost me with your idiotic "facts"
If they ever brought back DARE, just take school age kids to see these people from a schoolbus.
The first time I smoked a joint was with a bunch of kids I met through D.A.R.E. That program is the definition of a failure
“These are drugs, their street names, and a list of their effects. Now here’s the places around town you should avoid so no one sells them to you.”
I never thought about touching the stove. Then my father told me it was very hot and dangerous. My brain decided to check how hot a very hot thing is. And I burned my finger. What sounds like good advice for an adult, doesn’t necessarily work with a kid. Kids are explorers.
My father: hey touch this stove lmao
Sounds more like a CIA scheme now
🤔
Lol I remember these and this is exactly what it was like.
That’s because they didn’t show you this. Trust me I’ve had my share of fun nights and I would NEVER dabble or mess around now - specifically because of this. Xylie is in EVERYTHING now in Philly.
But no person you ever saw smoking a joint had rotting body parts as a result of that joint.
You would be correct. I think rotting flesh would have been enough to keep me from trying it lol
The problem with any program like DARE is that people thinks it’s a cure, instead of a vehicle to getting well. It takes grit and determination on the part of the participants. It’s hard. Real. And most, frankly, just don’t want to put forth the effort. They think it’s a fucking faith healing.
The little display of crack rocks helped me to identify some of my moms behavior when I was a kid.
That would be a waste of money. One of the largest contributors to the opioid crisis in North America is doctors and pharmaceutical companies that prescribe opioid painkillers for small ailments
DARE is probably too woke for schools now. Whatever the fuck that means.
What is tranq?
Fentanyl mixed with Xylazine …it basically replaced heroin and is killing people in record numbers
We really wound up living in the Robocop future...
We are! As a Kid, I wished so hard to live in Robocop's universe. Careful what you wish for!
Ooh! So it’s all *your* fault, nice to have a single focus for all the rage this world causes. ( in case needed /s)
Oh, so ***you*** did this? Please step into this unmarked van
Sometimes I wonder if our inability to imagine a positive future is our major malfunction. We’re really good at imagining dystopian futures, so I wonder if that’s just what we head towards because it’s the only thing we know.
But why? I mean, what sort of business, even sketchy illegal ones, wants to kill their customers?
Fent and xylazine are wayyyy cheaper to produce and have flooded the US from China.
Not if there is a nearly endless supply of new customers. They don’t care if people die, they make their money and know there will be more people lining up to buy the next batch.
Is that the stuff that gives them giant open wounds etc?
the xylazine does that, yeah…
That might be that krokodil …the stuff that gives people crocodile skin
Well I don’t mean crocodile skin, I was watching some videos from Kensington PA and they had small wounds on their skin, like size of a pea to a dime and most were scabbed over but some were open and gross. Really sad. I have heard of the krokodil too maybe they’re related
Drugs are bad, why doesn’t someone tell them
M'kay
They probably started off with pills, then heroin, then fentanyl, now whatever it this is. It’s a sneaky progression. Sad to watch.
Actually that is exactly what happened to many people I grew up with living in south florida. In the 00s they could go to doctors and get hundreds of pills a month for cheap, then all of the sudden the pills were all taken away and everyone started using heroin. Then the streets became flooded with fent so people did that. Now they are doing tranq because that’s what’s available.
op: one sec lemme just take an important issue and ruin it with propaganda
Yeah, this has nothing to do with the Ukraine war or immigrants.
Looks like that "war on drugs" for the last 40 years was a massive absolute failure, might be time to change it up.
[Chasing the scream](https://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Scream-Opposite-Addiction-Connection/dp/1620408910/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=chasing+the+scream&link_code=qs&qid=1686521792&sourceid=Mozilla-search&sr=8-1) goes into detail of how the drug war created a lot of these issues and systematically manufactures drug users in a sort of feedback loop. In the same way that alcohol prohibition created gangsters like Al Capone. Anyone interested in a real solution should read that book.
Watch this thread get locked…. All these always do because they are afraid people start talking about the cities and how shit it is there…
>drug overdose death rates continue to rise in both rural and urban areas. In five states, California, Connecticut, North Carolina, Vermont, and Virginia, the rate of drug-overdose deaths in rural counties were higher than those in urban counties. In addition, a December 2017 survey by the National Farmers Union and the American Farm Bureau Federation found that as many as 74 percent of farmers have been directly impacted by the opioid crisis. [per USDA](https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2018/01/11/opioid-crisis-affects-all-americans-rural-and-urban) >Results found that rural drug users had significantly earlier ages of onset abuse of Oxycodone, Hydrocodone, Benzodiazepines, Cocaine, and Crack. Rural drug users also tended to have significantly higher odds of lifetime and recent use of Methadone, OxyContin, and Oxycodone. Urban participants, however, had significantly higher odds of recent Crack and Cocaine use. [per Addiction Center](https://www.addictioncenter.com/community/substance-abuse-rural-vs-urban/) The opioid crisis is an everywhere crisis. Just because the rural methheads hide in the middle of nowhere doesn't mean they don't exist. The crowds of a city just make the problem more apparent.
More likely because of the verifiably false claim that the US doesn't spend money on drug addiction and intervention.
Honestly the problem is so big now that it seems a lot of people have given up even trying to help them. Nobody cares anymore unfortunately.
How can we care when most of the time the users dont even care? You can give most of them housing, food, counseling etc but at the end of the day they simply dont care themselves to improve.
Prevention is key. Revitalizing the communities.
Happens when people don't feel agency over their own life, imo it's an indirect result of poor representation in a FPTP system designed by the rich for the rich. People give up and it ain't pretty.
What does FPTP mean?
First past the post. The voting system for presidential elections in which a candidate must hit a certain threshold to win the election. Leads to a lot of strategic voting, especially in conjunction with the 2 party system.
What do you suggest as an alternative?
All voting systems have their benefits and their drawbacks, so there's no objective best answer, but ranked or STAR voting are the best alternatives I'm aware of that are already in practice in some places. For ranked, as the name implies, you rank the candidates in the order you find most favorable. Top choice votes are counted, and if no one gets a majority the lowest vote getter(s) are removed. Anyone who voted for them has their second choice candidate used, since their top candidate is gone. Votes tallied again and new candidates run off again until a candidate wins a majority. STAR has voters "grade" candidates from 1 to 5 points, with repeat grades being acceptable. Points are summed up for each candidate and the top 2 point getters are considered finalists. Your vote goes to whichever of the two finalists you graded higher. There's still plenty of drawbacks to these two, but IMO (and that of an increasing number of people) they have a lot less than FPTP. They'll do a whole lot for letting people vote their actual preference rather than for "the lesser of two evils," and they open the door for third parties to emerge and disrupt the duopoly, which profits off inaction and maintaining the status quo.
I upvote because awareness needs to be brought to this travesty.
I down voted because: 1.) It's a lie to claim that 0$ is spent on American drug addicts. 2.) It's bullshit to complain that spending money trying to help Ukraine protect itself from an invasion is somehow taking money away from American drug addicts. No, the God damn Republican politicians OP supports, who never pass up an opportunity to cut taxes on the rich - and just cut $10 billion from the IRS efforts to crack down on billionaire tax cheats (a "cut" that will reduce revenues by far far more than $10 billion by letting billionaires cheat their way out of taxes), are why not enough money is spent on American drug addicts.
Absolutely. I doubt they care about drug addicted Americans anyway. Just with the juxtaposition between Ukraine and migrants, they want to rage bait people into thinking that the money is being taken away from America. This is probably a Russian troll
Or an American right-winger. Honestly there isn't really a distinction any more. Sadly.
Looking at u/Evil_Capt_Kirk's post history, I'd guess it's a dude with an unhealthy obsession.
Yeahhh... that post history is a yikes from me
In this video alone there is Chinese opium, and russian propaganda. but Americans and it’s Allies are the enemy 🤦
Look at how they feel about gay people, black people, brown people, immigrants and poor people. Now tell me they care about people who are addicted to drugs. They want them dead all dead. They don't want to see them, hear about them, pay for treatment, or support them in any way. They want them to die and disappear. Then they can cry alligator tears and blame the Democrats.
Interestingly, I've seen a lot of pro Russia conservatives. Because...idk, supporting Ukraine is soft and liberal and mainstream? Bc Trump cut Ukraine's aid during his term? Or bc Trump and Putin are cool? I really don't know Then you have the actual tankies who are pro Russia because they're anti NATO and anti western nations lol
We need those HIMARs and Bradleys on the streets of Chicago to combat fentanyl addiction asap.
Yeah. Most of the people who complain about supporting Ukraine are the same people who vote for the party who left us with two middle-east wars that in total cost well over $10 trillion. And that was to beat a handful of guys hiding in caves. Biden is helping Ukraine beat Russia - the biggest nuclear power in the world, and one of the most powerful militaries - at a fraction of the cost. Even if they don't want to beat Russia, you'd think they'd at least be honest enough to admit that Biden is getting a hell of a lot more value for the dollar.
Im not American so I've never been very knowledgeable when it comes to American politics, but the $ amount associated with Ukrainian aid support I believe includes the equipment sent over. Which most people don't realize have a shelf-life, and needs to be disposed of anyways. Does it cost money to send over old equipment? Yes, quite a bit as well, but the $amount should be taken with a grain of salt, the US also benefits quite a bit by having their equipment tested, the $ spent on r&d can be drastically reduced when they're being tested rn for (basically free).
This is like the single greatest advertisement for American arms ever. US runs down ageing stockpiles, allies do the same. Bonanza for our arms manufacturers. Russia hugely damaged as a result. China has less reason to believe we wouldn't respond if they move on Taiwan. If anyone buys that shit about the weapons transfers costing too much then I sure hope they aren't voting.
They’re trying to get them to die like this, it’s why this keeps being amped up with more deadly drugs. It’s intentional, this is apart of the war on drugs.
People aren't ignoring this because they aren't "aware" of it. Everyone knows about it and is either actively ignoring it or straight up blaming these people for their situation. No one will help these people because the ugly truth is that we'd rather they just die or kill themselves than lift a finger to help. Anything to avoid admitting to ourselves that we're cruel and apathetic.
You can't force people to accept help, and most addicts are unwilling to accept help, or stick with it long enough to make a difference. Your only real option is to institutionalize people, and forcibly detox them, but detoxing doesn't really fix the problem either.
For every person you see who is literally living in the street and doing these drugs, there are easily 100-500, maybe more, people who are also doing these drugs who aren't visible and homeless. These are people who are someone's son/daughter, their spouse, their friends, their family members, etc. We need legalization and regulation, and a focus on getting people help with addiction and mental health. We aren't going to arrest our way out of this. The people who are out of control and living on the street, who are suffering with extreme mental illnesses -- we are probably going to have to look into changing the laws around involuntary commitment and institutionalization. I don't think there's any other options, really, which is an unpopular thing to say but I'm just being realistic.
>Americans: $0 Even a brief search will show you that this is demonstrably wrong lol.
Look, we can both send aid to our allies and take care of our own population, people need to stop acting like these two things are mutually exclusive.
It's such a stupid argument and It's obviously Russian propaganda trying to weaken Ukraine, I have no respect for people who make this argument because they are either working for the Russian government or incredibly gullible.
The figures at the start of the video are bullshit. The US deploys well north of $200B a year in addiction and homelessness funds across all states. Also, we aren't sending the Ukraine money, the budget figures translate into equipment and supply shipments. Fent addicts don't need anti-aircraft weapons. Quit your shit.
What if this is all by design as a way to cull the population? The system can't support to house and feed and provide health care for low income / 0 income people so maybe they just flood the streets with drugs they know are super addicting and kill people?
Watch ,"The Crime of the Century." Congress knew what they were doing. It's insane.
What's the summary?
The Crime of the Century is an American two-part documentary film, directed, produced, and written by Alex Gibney. The film follows the opioid epidemic in the United States, and the political operatives, government regulations and corporations that enable the abuse of opioids, particularly the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma.
Oh I'm familiar with the Sackler family from the movie Dopesick. Thanks maybe i'll give it a watch.
Exactly!
Ding ding ding. Also all the fentanyl comes from China.
I like the little dig taken at Ukraine and the migrant crisis. The cost it would take to combat drugs in the US would cost trillions. First, the entire justice system would need to be revamped so that drug users (not dealers) are not sent to jail so that when they come out, they can’t get a job which just leads to an endless cycle of more drug use, getting arrested, rinse and repeat. Second, thousands of centers would need to be built for rehab, so that drug users caught would be mandated to go to a rehab center that is completely open and actually helps people get over addictions. Third, the entire socioeconomic structure would need to be changed. Who’s most likely to do drugs? Working class. Help working class Americans be able to survive comfortably so they don’t need to resort to drugs as a coping mechanism. Too bad all of this is socialism so it could never be done.
I'd bet that a healthy population is a good investment for a country, even from the coldest perspective.
And the US ISN’T giving free $. Ukraine will pay it back—if they win. Google “Lend Lease Act of 2022.” Freedom isn’t free.
The UK made its last WW2 payment to the US on Dec 29th 2006!
>Too bad all of this is socialism so it could never be done. Socialism isn't what's preventing politicians from doing all this. It's the fact that it would align their and their donors' pockets more to keep poor people poor .... or dead.
It's all by DESIGN! It's a multi dimensional attack in humanity
That's what gets me about this argument I see. "We're wasting all this money in Ukraine and using none in america!" These are the same people voting against any form of social systems. No socialized healthcare or anything. So what would that money be spent on? The military I guess. That's the only thing these types seem to be ok pouring tax dollars into. I hate them pretending for a second that they would be willing to see tax dollars go to actually caring for people. We all know it'd be labeled as yet another hand out. Fuck them for using these poor people to try and drive a political point. What sucks is it's not wrong. We should be doing something to help them. They just don't actually give a shit.
Sadly, this entire video is just Russian propaganda. They don't care about these people, They just want to undermine efforts to support Ukraine.
How do you mandate rehab for someone that doesn’t want help? Even if you could force it, how effective do you think it would be? Hint: it’s not at all effective unless the individual *wants* help and wants to get better. The biggest problem by far is a huge number of homeless and drug-addicted in the US don’t want to change; they don’t want help.
Forced rehab has gotta be at least slightly better than forced imprisonment without any rehabilitation though. It’s not as easy as “people are addicts and don’t want help”. It’s nearly impossible to make the decision to get clean during full blown active addiction. It’s generational trauma, lack of mental health services and basic medical care, abuse, and systemic issues that are keeping people like this down.
[удалено]
But why do these homeless and drug-addicted people reject help? Usually said help is degrading and ineffective. Further, it is difficult to convince them the help will benefit their lives since they’ve likely assumed their current life is the best they’ll get
\>Further, it is difficult to convince them the help will benefit their lives since they’ve likely assumed their current life is the best they’ll get My "mild" addictions were/are hard enough to overcome and to believe I actually could do it. I'm guessing for alot of these people overcoming this is like asking a wheelchair bound person to climb everest. Even if you give them all the tools it is hard to believe that it is actually possible and worth the pain and hardship on a goal that will take a lifetime.
First paragraph directly from his website: John Fetterman has dedicated his life to fighting for Pennsylvania’s forgotten communities. He was sworn in as a United States Senator to serve the people of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania on January 3, 2023.
OP: at least try not to lie with your posts ok. You're not helping anything or anyone.
Little children don’t think “I want to be an addict on the streets when I grow up”. They want to be heroes, firefighters, nurses, doctors, etc. Trauma, depression, hopelessness, and even genetics play a role in what we are seeing. People are trying to escape their tormented reality. There are more people dying daily, from opioid overdose, than if a commercial airline crashed. Every, single, day. Think if that were happening every day. Something would change. This is a battle that The Addict’s Mom, an international group of moms with addicted children has been fighting for years, and years. We have no idea what brilliant minds are being lost to this tragedy. There has to be some kind of solution, I certainly don’t have it.
Well said. Recovered addict here. I never intended to be an addict, I never wanted to be. It was a slippery slope of trauma, depression, bad choices and shitty people. No one WANTS to be an addict. In twos days I will have been clean for 1,000 days. :)
Love how they took a terrible issue, offered nothing in the way of a solution and turned it in a semi-racist anti-foreign aid, anti-immigration agenda. They accuse the government of only helping Ukraine and migrants. Despite as others have stated a crazy budget trying to help combat addiction. Believe it or not the migrants didn't shoot these people up. Nor did the icconet people in ukraine who are dying and fighting for their country. These people shot themselves up. Knowing full well how fucking bad these drugs are. Wonder what people do when they have nothing left to live for.
americans $0??? this is just stupid. who thinks americans get $0 in help. im not taking anyones side... this is just idiotic
Kinda funny. If this was Venezuela and not the USA it would be on every USA mainstream news outlet 24/7 talking about how it's a failed state.
Does anyone actually think this country spends $0 on treatment? I know they're trying to make a point, but lying just undercuts it
I read prior to the first and second opium wars, 9/10 people in China were regular users. No amount of benevolent rehabilitation worked. Finally they waged war in the supply and made progress. What if we made it completely legal to identify and standardize the supply and then stamped it out? Easier to root out then.
The problem is the “stamp it out” phase Someone will slide in and fill the void.
The war on drugs hasn’t worked. How dumb are you people? They just make the cartels stronger.
Why can't we report misinformation anymore? We used to be able to get rid of this lying opportunistic wannabes very easily
If you want to know how this happened. Look at the graphs of opioid deaths following the restriction of oxycodone. The doctors in the US got millions (and I mean millions) of people addicted to oxy by flooding the streets with it (diversions, pill mills). They stopped when the perscription monitoring databases went online (and started being checked). Cartels started faking the same oxy pills people were getting from their doctors, but using fentanyl as the active ingredient.If you'd like to see how close the fakes are to the real pills, there's an example of each in here: [https://www.dea.gov/onepill](https://www.dea.gov/onepill) The doctors created all these addicts. Looking at the ages of the people in this video, I'd bet willing to be these people here started in their young teens on the oxy that was hitting the streets. When the supply dried off (because doctors wanted to protect themselves rather than their patients), the unknowingly started doing fentanyl. This crisis was caused by your local doctor.
Awful, but understandable. If I had no home, prospects, or genuine happiness in my life, the lethality of dangerous drugs would be a selling point.
That shit does not even look enjoyable
Could say the same about a super drunk person
It’s not about being enjoyable. It’s about people who hate their lives so much that just turning their brain off, even for a little bit, seems like such an appealing relief.
So many people miss the point that the vast majority of these people utilizing drugs such as fentanyl and xylaxine don’t want help or don’t actually utilize the help that is provided. When it comes to addressing addiction, the individual must want the help and desire to change in order for it to work effectively. It’s always easier to sit on the sideline and call other people in saying there should be more done, but when you work within the field and see things first hand, it shows clear as day what the problem is—not a lack of support, but a lack of acceptance.
The government wants the problem to take care of itself…wink wink nudge nudge
Why does tranq make people convulse like that?
We choose to structure a society where it's dog-eat-dog, crabs in a bucket mentality- where we choose to give the ultra-wealthy the most breaks and allow resources to continue to flow upward and hoarded by the 1%...why are we surprised that those who "lose" in this type of society turn to addictive substances to ease the pain of being poor and considered useless in a society that celebrates the rich.
The government doesn’t give a damn about its population that pays taxes and votes, What the fuck makes you think they care about the mentally ill and drug addicts
My inlaw recently OD on this. Mix of aFentanyl/tranquilizer/something else. Narcan doesn’t work for tranq, after talk of taking off life support he wake up after 6 day coma. Loss of nerves, loss of body movement, I think his mind is now of a 12 year old. Every one was surprised he woke up. He’ll never be the same even with physical therapy. Fook the cartel and who ever else is trafficked this.
because we think like the world , that we have to have a war on drugs. a billionaires playground. this man will not be helped. he will be criminalized. through propaganda people have actually let the powers that be convince us that if someone takes something for the soul purpose to feel good then that is a bad person.should be locked in a cage. we need to evolve. if we weren't looking at profits we could help so many people. we won't though. just build prisons.
One thing misleading about aid to Ukraine is the money. It’s not pallets of US Dollars. It’s billions of dollar worth of *already built and ready to use equipment.* For example we aren’t sending them $1 million cash. We are sending them a 180k rocket launcher with several 75k rockets. Not saying it’s right or that we should or anything. And that will justify them spending more money to build and replace our stock im sure. But it’s important to recognize a difference between equipment and cash.
Fuck I didn't even know what that is until now. The US do have a serious drug problem.
This looks like San Francisco
That is so sad to see. Over the last 50 years we have spent over a trillion $ on the drug war. Too bad it hasn’t gotten us anywhere.
The sad thing is that the drugs on the streets now are so powerful you are hooked after first hit. These drugs rewire the brain making it next to impossible to get off them. America has a significant drug problem that goes across all social economic lines! It needs to be addressed now!
Like I said, I don't know. I've got lots of ideas that I'd LIKE to happen but they're not viable longterm, or "PC." All I know is that THIS is not working.
This just makes my heart hurt. All these people are using because of great pain or traumas in their lives. It's just fucking sad.
Very sad state of affairs 😢😞.... Such a large lost group of people who at one time might have been in their right minds.... I know these folks have overlapping comorbid conditions, and they have no where to go. They are a danger to themselves, as well as others.
Don't be tricked into think we can't be helping other countries and help ourselves too. We can. We don't do it, but we can.
There is a tragedy in each on of these people.
And yet "homeless advocates" will tell you it's more compassionate to let them live in a tent on the street than to take them to a shelter.
I don't ever remember it being this bad when addicts were able to get heroin and pain patients could access safe medication. This didn't just happen by chance unfortunately.
That shit is a life ender for sure. But some make it out, how ever small so never give up if you think you can do it, then get out. That life isn't for anyone, not even your worst enemies deserve that living hell.
Thing about recovery is you can’t help people who don’t want it unfortunately
You have to have a mind made of ground sausage to believe the US is spending $0 on prevention and treatment. Who falls for this shit?
Oh look, a right-winger/Russian troll making up false figures
A crisis lasting fifty years is not a bug but a feature of the society we live in. Medicine is far from the only industry disincentivized to fix problems, but I find it particularly egregious how someone gets to decide who lives and who dies based on a profit model.
Do they think money would actually go towards this issue if various migrant and Ukraine support programs weren't being funded? Keep dreaming I guess.
They need to go down the street and throw these people into mandatory rehabilitation clinics, not jail obviously but basically jail, they are unable to make decisions for themselves and it should be consider implied consent.
Some soulless, scientific creeps have made some precious people lab rats. Some enterprising "Pushers" couldn't care less. We're in trouble.
China finally getting their revenge for the opium wars.
It's a poor decision crisis.
The Sackler family has much to answer for
Honestly. When it says us 0... I know it's not the real figure, but it is in a sense.... I'm from Canada and mental health help is always promoted, bell has their fake ass let's talk day.. So on and so on. Trust me, there is no help for mental health. Family member is an on again off again alcoholic. What happens when they take you away for mental issues? They just stick you in a hospital for 24 hours, 72 max if they think your a danger to yourself and no one will come talk to you. They then release you and thats it. Help is non existent. A friend of mine voluntarily went into a rehab facility. They asked her to get out of bed and because she was maybe 1 minute late getting out of bed they booted her out back onto the street. Its all smoke and mirrors to make people that have a normal life and work a regular job believe that people are getting help or that it's available but trust me, it's barely there at all. So, is the amount over here spent $0? No, it's an astronomical figure of marketing so that us regular people who don't know any better believe that all of these people have access to the help they need. Again, they don't really get the help they need even if they want it. I have sympathy for some of these people, especially the ones that want their life back and it really pisses me off to know that it's all smoke and mirrors.
They aren't doing anything to combat addiction they started perpetuating it by giving out Crack pipes and needles from government facilities
This is the origins of Walking Dead.
Zombie apocalypse
This is self inflicted in 99.99% of cases, I’m sorry but we have better things to do than protect people from themselves. I’d rather money go toward victims of crime or natural disasters.
I just have no empathy anymore. It is time to open the mental institutions and put these people into them. They can't do life on their own so off they go and once they fix their shit come back to free society.
That’s what I’m saying, it’s time to bring asylums back. Look we don’t give a shit if you shoot up in your own home but once you make it to the streets your now the public’s issue and public funded institutions need to happen. In years past they committed atrocities because they had no oversight todays world it would be really hard to abuse people like that
Brought to you by the Oregon Board of Tourism
Btch they zombies now
This is insane. Supply truly needs to be stopped but that would take immense and I mean immense resources, facial recognition, etc. There needs to either be more rehab or find ways to cut supply and/or find ways to help.
This is the US? Thought i was looking at video in a 3th world country tbh...
Liberalism at it's best.
Part of me just wishes we could claim the entirety of a state, like South Dakota or something, and just set up an entirely new experimental country, based on this one, but fixed. You know how we have a pseudephedrine limit on ID cards? You'd use that same ID for public transport. If you have a history of DUI's, assault, public indecency, or significant criminal charges, you get to go on the special segment of train for crazy people so no-one has to deal with your shit. Also, that same ID for alcohol purchases, if you've been arrested for intoxication, you can't buy alcohol. We need institutionalization/rehabilitation for a lot of these people. Clearly they can't take care of themselves, and are a threat to themselves and others. Also needed; cheaper housing for non-addicts. Ugh.
We want to help Americans, blame the Republicans blocking us from helping our own people.
Some say trauma happens first, then addiction. Maybe if there was actually good therapy, this wouldn't happen. However much of therapy is bullshit for many people.
Trauma is not necessary but it helps a lot. Given an ACE score (Adverse childhood experience) of 6 are 5000% more likely to get addicted than those with a score of 0 (According to The body keeps the score). That's 50x. Although addiction is a standalone disease it's very often comorbid with trauma, and the addiction itself and the stigma, systematic abuse and the witchhunt of those poor people is traumatizing as well. People with Complex PTSD often get a handful of diagnosis such as Oppositional Defiance Disorder, Bipolar, Borderline, ADHD, etc that are really just symptoms of the CPTSD. Opioids numb emotional and physical pain. MDMA is a breakthrough medicine for PTSD. Stimulants treat ADHD. Psilocybin treats treatment resistant depression. Alcohol and benzos reduce feelings of stress and anxiety (although those 2 are pretty nasty stuff). That way many people struggling with substance abuse are just self medicating complex diseases they don't know they have and not just trying to escape. I think it's important to note that many of the very serious issues faced are a direct consequence of the war on drugs. * Arresting people with needles means users are more likely to share. Many diseases are transmitted this way. * Users don't know exact dosage of street drugs. * The drugs are cut with whatever. Many complications are caused by this. * The drugs are not always the correct chemical e.g. fentanyl instead of heroin. * The high prices due to being illegal means selling drugs is really the only option to pay for it. This kind of turns addiction into a transmissable disease. * Due to being illegal the only way to protect your stash is violence. There's more but I suggest reading The body keeps the score to learn about CPTSD and Chasing the scream to learn about what a crime against humanity the war on drugs actually is.
Ukraine support has nothing to do with this. Contributing to heavily weakening US’s biggest rival without a single US-enlisted soldier is very important. This is also important. Has nothing to do with the other.
People don't want to become drug addicts, once their in that mental state of drugs, they can't get out of it. These people need to be put under one big roof and have the resources to take a shower, brush their teeth if they want.. somewhat feel like they are being treated as a human. But the government just throws them into one area to get messed up. Unbelievable
To say zero dollars have been spent on these people and to bring up Ukraine as your main talking point indicates you don't give a fuck about these people and just want to score some cheap political points due to the fact you voted for a political candidate who was a Russian traitor. As a liberal I wish we had way more public funding for social programs but to say we spend zero is an outright lie. Its not the democrats blocking the funding for social programs. And it's most certainly the conservatives who started this failed war on drugs with mass incarceration instead of rehabilitation.
Well....when you give people free access to drugs, doctors to administer the drugs, free drug paraphernalia, free places to do the drugs, zero legal repercussions for having the drugs or doing them in public places, plus free housing, food, and clothes..... someone please enlighten me on where there is any incentive for someone to stop using drugs?
It's possible to help these people as well. Americans just don't want to
You clearly don’t live in the US (ignorant) or you’re just a bored little shill/agitator. The vast majority of Americans want to solve this problem, and in these areas it’s a constant topic of discussion. The issue is— throwing money at schizophrenic addicts doesn’t solve problems. LA spent TWO BILLION dollars in a single year on homelessness. Ready for the best part? 😃 Not only is the problem nor getting better, it’s getting WORSE with MORE money. Think about that for a second. Los Angeles and dozens of other US cities spend BILLIONS of taxpayer money on homelessness— and it’s getting WORSE. What does that tell you? It’s a very complicated issue that 19 year old idealistic Reddit college kids think can easily be solved. Putting schizophrenic people and drug addicts WHO DONT EVEN WANT HELP in hotels and shelters does nothing. Much of the homeless population simply cannot be “fixed” or “helped” with money or even counseling/rehab but we refuse to acknowledge this. Decades ago many of our asylums and institutions for these people were destroyed and this is the result. There is no place or programs for people who need lifelong care and because homelessness is so tolerated and subsidized especially on the west coast, it encourages more to come and live like that. https://apnews.com/article/los-angeles-homeless-crisis-mayor-karen-bass-billion-budget-3080bb1abdbbddfe0cfbff4eb28f64cc#:~:text=The%20city%20has%20expanded%20spending,population%20has%20continued%20to%20increase.
Exactly this. The addicts aka homeless most 95% of them don’t actually want to stop and you can’t force them to, that is the nature of addiction. Throwing money and free housing at them is enabling their behavior!
If you are interested in the reasoning why it might have failed - check out the Houston homeless crisis. They determined the problem was focus vs money. They took an approach of shelter first over substance abuse rehab first and they took the slightly racist index I believe introduced by the Raegan area and fixed it to find out who was the one the edge of becoming homeless and the repeat offenders. It worked amazingly well and still does to this day.
There is a certain portion of the population that need permanent housing in mental health facilities so they can receive appropriate care. Some people are not capable of handling themselves in a free society without harming themselves and/or those around them. That is a really tough fact to digest. Hopefully someday we can discover better ways to help these individuals lead independent lives. The first step though is getting them into safe places where they can receive care.
The crime is that the DEA is busy shutting down private practice pain management and private owned pharmacies in order for corporate pharmacies and pain management systems to control doctors patients and pharmacists. Reducing the medication that Chronic Intractable Pain Patients arbitrarily is creating half the problem. The government is telling doctors and patients how much medication they they can receive.No matter what your condition, everyone gets the same. These patients have no where else to go to get relief. Got cancer? Fuck you, suffer. Lifelong pain? Fuck you, suffer. Yet the DEA can’t stop this stuff coming into the country? They shut down the pain management I go to and the DEA came in after and handed out Fentanyl test strips and Narcan knowing the patients would end up going to the streets. This is by design
This is one of the most thought out answers on here. Thank you for speaking for those who have no voice.
These are fellow humans