Prescription Pain Killers: The Real Gateway Drug

[_Analytics]

On one of Markk's threads, a few posters mentioned how they think Marijuana ought to be illegal because it is a gateway drug that is the seed to many huge problems in LA and eslewhere.

I beg to differ. I told a little bit about a close friend from my mission. Rather then tell private stories about a third person, I can refer you to his blog:

He begins:

I have often wondered how I went from being a church-going family man, loving father, devoted son, US Marine, LDS missionary, paramedic, fire academy instructor, and overall "good guy", to an addict, felon, and ultimately an inmate surving a near 9-yr State Prison sentence for a "violent" felony.

Hint: it wasn't because he fell to peer pressure and tried a marijuana joint.

https://intothefireofaddiction.blogspot.com/2015/10/

[_Xenophon]

Thanks for sharing that story, Analytics. I consider myself very fortunate that I haven't had a close family member of friend get sucked into this epidemic but I definitely feel for those that do. If you haven't seen or heard of it yet, I thought the Time's Opioid Diaries piece was really well done and captured a lot of what you have been sharing on the topic.

The opioid crisis is the worst addiction epidemic in American history. Drug overdoses kill more than 64,000 people per year, and the nation’s life expectancy has fallen for two years in a row. But there is a key part of the story that statistics can’t tell. Over the last year, photographer James Nachtwey set out to document the opioid crisis in America through the people on its front lines. Alongside TIME’s deputy director of photography, Paul Moakley, the pair traveled the country gathering stories from users, families, first responders and others at the heart of the epidemic. Here, Nachtwey’s images are paired with quotes from Moakley’s interviews, which have been edited. The voices are a mix of people in the photos and others who are connected to them. The Opioid Diaries is a visual record of a national emergency—and it demands our urgent attention.

[_subgenius]

there are several anecdotes that will justify several drugs and several circumstances as being "gateways". Perhaps just remove the personal accountability in any of it and blame it all on the DNA...its just a roll of the dice for becoming an addict - correction - its not a roll of the dice, it is actually the deliberate and inescapable consequence of the environment, of the natural laws as they exist. Water does not choose to freeze at 32F, it simply freezes.

[_Analytics]

Thanks for sharing that story, Analytics. I consider myself very fortunate that I haven't had a close family member of friend get sucked into this epidemic but I definitely feel for those that do. If you haven't seen or heard of it yet, I thought the Time's Opioid Diaries piece was really well done and captured a lot of what you have been sharing on the topic.

The opioid crisis is the worst addiction epidemic in American history. Drug overdoses kill more than 64,000 people per year, and the nation’s life expectancy has fallen for two years in a row. But there is a key part of the story that statistics can’t tell. Over the last year, photographer James Nachtwey set out to document the opioid crisis in America through the people on its front lines. Alongside TIME’s deputy director of photography, Paul Moakley, the pair traveled the country gathering stories from users, families, first responders and others at the heart of the epidemic. Here, Nachtwey’s images are paired with quotes from Moakley’s interviews, which have been edited. The voices are a mix of people in the photos and others who are connected to them. The Opioid Diaries is a visual record of a national emergency—and it demands our urgent attention.

Thanks for the link. I'm a huge fan of Time.

[_Analytics]

there are several anecdotes that will justify several drugs and several circumstances as being "gateways". Perhaps just remove the personal accountability in any of it and blame it all on the DNA...its just a roll of the dice for becoming an addict - correction - its not a roll of the dice, it is actually the deliberate and inescapable consequence of the environment, of the natural laws as they exist. Water does not choose to freeze at 32F, it simply freezes.

I'm all in favor of personal responsibility and not making excuses.

That said, it is an empirical fact that prescription opioids are highly addictive.

Yes, I am sharing an anecdote to illustrate my point. However, it is a biological fact that opioids are addictive and becoming addicted to what your doctor prescribes is the same thing as being addicted to heroin. The exact same thing.

In comparison, marijuana is not addictive at all.

It is possible that something like Marijuana is a gateway in the sense that people try it and get bored with it and want to kick up their rebelious behavior a notch. I don't think that is generally true, but it is possible.

That is very different than getting a bottle of pills from your doctor that in and of themselves cause you to become addicted to heroin.

[_MeDotOrg]

With respect to marijuana and gateway drugs, I'm of the opinion that opiates are the best gateway to opiates. There are studies showing that opiate overdoses have decreased in states that legalized marijuana. It was after the massive influx of oxycontin and other legal opiates that you began to see heroin in parts of the country that heretofore had been relatively heroin free. Fentanyl (much of it manufactured in China) is being mixed with heroin. The resultant spike in potency has led to clusters of emergency room deaths around the country.

The drug manufacturers of the United States are the primary reason there has been such a large increase in opiate addiction.

[_honorentheos]

Interesting thread, Analytics. Thanks for starting it and sharing your friend's experience.

This last summer I experienced an injury from being stupid while recreating that required surgery and physical therapy to repair. I've never been big on pain killers and most of my life have avoided using them including Advil or aspirin-like over the counter drugs. I've had a few decent injuries from sports in my life (mostly soccer, really) but in most cases the use of a pain killer wasn't needed.

So when I went in for surgery and the operating doctor asked which pain killer I preferred I told him none, really. He got agitated and said he had to prescribe something and since I didn't have a preference or a known allergy he said he'd prescribe Oxy (or a type of oxy as I recall) and went off. I wasn't informed as a consumer and at the time just thought I'd end up not filling the prescription anyway so it didn't matter. But either getting older or this particular injury left me in enough pain that I couldn't sleep so I filled the prescription and began using it just to be able to recover.

And holy crap is that stuff scary. I don't know how to describe it but I knew immediately after the first time taking it that I was at risk of addiction. I deliberately tossed the bottle as soon as I could sleep through the night because it scared me how...again, I don't know how to describe it. Maybe like instant success at meditation with a buzzy high to boot.

The lesson I took from it was that I went into it as an uninformed consumer who had external knowledge of the risks of addiction from the wide-spread reporting but very limited professional discussion at the time it was prescribed to me that seems reckless having experienced the effects of the drug. That seems to be a problem that could be easily addressed and would have positive impacts on reducing the potential for addiction from doctor prescribed drugs but I am not sure how typical my experience is compared to others, either.

[_Gadianton]

Maybe like instant success at meditation with a buzzy high to boot.

It's a good thing you didn't take it shortly before reading Moroni 10.

I've never had Oxy, but on the other thread I described my encounters with prescription narcs: doing minor surgeries awake etc. Didn't resonate with me.

[_Markk]

They are both gateway drugs...it is a lifestyle change and a party attitude. I would bet far more heroin addicts smoked pot before they took prescription drugs.

In the 70’s and 80’s, it was beer, pot, then reds and whites, acid, meth then heroin. When I was in Jr high you could get a “rack” of whites, or reds for a buck or two.

I’ll give you today PD are certainly a huge gateway drug. And a growing problem worse than pot in different ways.

Have you ever been addicted to any type of drugs? Have you ever been homeless, or been to jail?

Pot is very addictive mentally to many folks, and some just remain pot heads, other graduate...and others can just be a casual user...that is a reality.

Do you smoke pot? How much have you smoked in your life...just curious.

[_Gadianton]

They are both gateway drugs...it is a lifestyle change and a party attitude. I would bet far more heroin addicts smoked pot before they took prescription drugs.

I'm not sure you expressed yourself correctly, but that sounds pretty ridiculous.

Anyway, I can tell you that my friend who died of a Heroin OD never smoked pot or smoked anything.

Do you smoke pot? How much have you smoked in your life...just curious.

I've never smoked pot, but interestingly, I've recently become acquainted with a retired Hollywood producer who tells me he's smoked pot for 50 years. Barely drinks and does nothing else. Has serious pain but I don't think he takes anything stronger than ibuprofen, he's implied he doesn't take enough of it, although I intend to ask him about it after these threads. He says someone needs to write a book about his various life successes as a defense for pot.