Addicts in the Wake of a Major Disaster

[CoastRange57]

Kinda.

A real concern would be organized gangs. The ringleaders wouldn't be addicts likely, but provide the fix until it runs out. The followers would be doing any deploraeable bidding just for the thought of there fix. Brainwashing etc comes into play heavily, akin to "child soldiers" seen in many genocides over history.

Gangs in urban areas will present a threat locally, although it will take them a while to equip up to be an effective forces. The modern day criminal element outside of urban gangs lacks any kind of cohesive structure that will provide any kind of sustainable force, and even urban gangs will not have the staying power that more law abiding groups will have.

The criminal element cannot have the ethos or character that you will find in military trained, law enforcement , fire and ems services or even social and fraternal groups that have a brotherhood mentality of having your brothers back and watching each others 6.

The criminals are all about themselves and getting over and fu*-ing over anybody they can to get what ever they can. Such mentality does not lend itself to a group effort very well, when they start screwing the ones next to them, they will begin to feed on each other and that is a good thing.

 

[billdeserthills]

"The drug addicts will, naturally, first go to the drugstores and clinics. The alcoholics will ravish the liquor stores. Skid row will move uptown." — How To Survive the H-Bomb and Why (1962), page 80, by Pat Frank.

"You have drug addicts that are now walking around this city looking for a fix, and that's the reason why they were breaking in hospitals and drugstores. They're looking for something to take the edge off of their jones, if you will." — Mayor Ray Nagin following Hurricane Katrina (Friday, September 2, 2005)

"Never trust a junkie." — Nancy Spungen, Sid & Nancy (1986)​

This is sort of a tangent from this thread. While uncomfortable topic to discuss, being prepared involves thinking about some unpleasant realities. One of the sad facts about the human species is the pervasive nature of drug use and addiction. From the decaying inner cities, to the suburbs, to the rural communities, it is there. Where we are, for example, there is a serious problem with methamphetamine use and it isn't uncommon to see individuals in various states of the horrid chemical. The last time I had fingerprints done for an NFA transfer, I asked the young officer what their biggest crime problem was and he replied without a second's hesitation "drugs."

Have you considered this factor in your preparedness? If you are involved with community preparedness or are a first responder, how have you been trained to deal with this? Are you prepared to evade or apply force to those that are not thinking clearly due to addiction? Has this factor impacted your preps or equipment in any way?

Maybe you're right & I should start stocking illegal narcotics along with the food & guns & ammo

 

[AMProducts]

Drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) require communication and transportation to work. If I-5 bridges for 500 miles dropped from an earth quake, the meth/coke/heroin pipeline would be severed, at least temporarily.

If the PNW was effected by catastrophe, and cash was not available for export (to Mexico) they would just continue to flood other markets. After the current supplies of drugs run out, The DTOs are not going to want to barter your tin of Coleman fuel and box of .22 shells for a gram of dope.

An example: I know they sell a lot of iPhones and Starbucks here in the PNW but not many in North Korea or Somalia. Hard to get the product in, and there is no cash to get out.

I largely agree... but this means an immediate boost to the price. Even then, drugs are not strictly an import item. At the moment most of the meth in the PNW is courtesy of mexican superlabs. However, after a natural disaster, I think there's going to be two effects: Drugs that can be produced locally will, with the profits being taken by locals. There will still be a market, and those who are not street junkies will probably still have some ability to pay. So I consider it unlikely that the supply will be cut. Even if I5 is completely destroyed from SFO north to the canadian border, there are a limited number of other routes, and with the added traffic bringing relief supplies, it will be easy for drug traffic to blend in with that.

At the same time, somalia and north korea still have drugs, they're just produced locally for export. It's unlikely that the current demand base will suddenly switch to something else. However, since recreational pot is legal in both OR and WA, it's easy to image these business may see a jump, either in business or in break-ins and robberies, most likely all of the above.

For the most part, people who are going through withdrawl aren't face eating zombies, most of them will be completely debilitated after a few hours. They may recover enough after a few days to go looking for another fix, however depending on their drug of choice, and how many times it's been stepped on to meet the new price structure a spike in overdoses is possible (heroin is notorious for this).

It's also likely the government will do anything they can to keep banks operating, if that means flying in more cash to keep the local economy flowing, it's quite likely. If comms and electricity are knocked out, no one can use a credit card, so keeping banks both stocked with cash so people can do the things they need to will be a big deal, maybe less so in the heavily impacted areas, but certainly in the periphery.

 

[Certaindeaf]

This is why I keep a goodly amount of bath salsa on hand.

 

[Camelfilter]

This is why I keep a goodly amount of bath salsa on hand.

& Guac?

 

[IronMonster]

I think many of you guys give dope pushers too much credit.

If there really is a planetary SHTF situation I think the vast majority of dope dealers, cookers, producers or what ever are going to be too concerned with feeding themselves and their families to worry about making chemicals to ship to other countries with no practical way to transport actual goods back for payment. The reason why the drug trade works now is an abundance of wealth in the US which is easily transferred back via the US dollar. If the dollar is just firestarter it's unlikely the drug trade will thrive.

I have no doubt there will still be drugs produced and had but wide spread production and distribution like what is going on today just couldn't work, it's all about economics, 97% of drug users are not addicts. If the supply goes away they just quit. The 3% that are really junkies are the psychos who you need to worry about but with just 3% of the previous demand and that demand coming from those least able to pay I don't think you will see big cartel action worried about creating a supply and going through the trouble to get it here when it would be so much trouble to get anything back worth doing it for.

For the drug trade as we know it you need money, banks and infrastructure AND lots of people willing to give up wealth to pay.

The vast majority of drugs sold are sold to users who are not addicts, and that's the key. I really think most junkies are simply going to go cold turkey as supplies dry up.

 

[Diamondback]

Just the same, I better add a supply of powdered caffeine to my COMWEC stash... just to make sure that *I* don't turn into a brain-eating zombie and stay in shape that if I find myself needing to ask one of you guys for help with my rels that I have some skill/labor ability I can offer in return to make it worth your while.

 

[Camelfilter]

I think many of you guys give dope pushers too much credit.

If there really is a planetary SHTF situation I think the vast majority of dope dealers, cookers, producers or what ever are going to be too concerned with feeding themselves and their families to worry about making chemicals to ship to other countries with no practical way to transport actual goods back for payment. The reason why the drug trade works now is an abundance of wealth in the US which is easily transferred back via the US dollar. If the dollar is just firestarter it's unlikely the drug trade will thrive.

I have no doubt there will still be drugs produced and had but wide spread production and distribution like what is going on today just couldn't work, it's all about economics, 97% of drug users are not addicts. If the supply goes away they just quit. The 3% that are really junkies are the psychos who you need to worry about but with just 3% of the previous demand and that demand coming from those least able to pay I don't think you will see big cartel action worried about creating a supply and going through the trouble to get it here when it would be so much trouble to get anything back worth doing it for.

For the drug trade as we know it you need money, banks and infrastructure AND lots of people willing to give up wealth to pay.

The vast majority of drugs sold are sold to users who are not addicts, and that's the key. I really think most junkies are simply going to go cold turkey as supplies dry up.

Meth.

 

[Diamondback]

Meth.

What the cops I used to shoot with told me--it's not the potheads that are the real danger, it's the Fully Loaded Tweakers. Unpredictable, fast moving, high pain tolerance from being high out of their minds... you basically have two choices to stop them and neither are easy shots, between disrupting their locomotion and structural support with a pelvis-buster or disrupting command-and-control at the Central Nervous System.

 

[Camelfilter]

What the cops I used to shoot with told me--it's not the potheads that are the real danger, it's the Fully Loaded Tweakers. Unpredictable, fast moving, high pain tolerance from being high out of their minds... you basically have two choices to stop them and neither are easy shots, between disrupting their locomotion and structural support with a pelvis-buster or disrupting command-and-control at the Central Nervous System.

The cookers would take the opportunity to steal the components in bulk, making an allready cheap drug even cheaper. Thered be addicts on "super highs" for days at a time...

 

[Diamondback]

The cookers would take the opportunity to steal the components in bulk, making an allready cheap drug even cheaper. Thered be addicts on "super highs" for days at a time...

Hopefully most pushing things into OD territory and becoming a self-solving problem.

 

[Camelfilter]

Hopefully most pushing things into OD territory and becoming a self-solving problem.

Sadly that would be better. They could turn a "normal" regional disaster into an unimaginable nightmare for some survivors...

 

[Diamondback]

Yeah, I'm gonna have enough to deal with if it's a nationwide because of once I have my mom and aunt bunkered up with somebody, having to do a solo reenactment of Sherman's March to the Sea to go extract the GF and her parents, then do it all over again the other way to get them back here... (Now consider that this is one guy, Seattle to Toronto and back with two very-elderly senior citizens and one ornery but iron-infusion-dependent and heavily-restricted-diet in tow on the return leg! O.O Probably wouldn't make it, but wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't try unless I knew they were already toast before I could leave...)

 

[IronMonster]

Meth.

And you think the cold pills, chemicals and everything else required to make meth are going to come from where?

There might be a months worth in existence they could steal, then it's over

 

[Camelfilter]

And you think the cold pills, chemicals and everything else required to make meth are going to come from where?

There might be a months worth in existence they could steal, then it's over

Warehouses & bulk stores.

I agree, it will be short lived...but the cookers will be cranking it out even faster, taking advantage of the lack of typical law enforcement.

 

[IronMonster]

For a moment, then it all goes dark.

Natural stuff like Opium will stick around but it actually wouldn't be a bad thing to have during the apocalypse since it will be about the only effective pain killer available

 

[Certaindeaf]

Just the same, I better add a supply of powdered caffeine to my COMWEC stash... just to make sure that *I* don't turn into a brain-eating zombie and stay in shape that if I find myself needing to ask one of you guys for help with my rels that I have some skill/labor ability I can offer in return to make it worth your while.

With your purty lips, you won't have anything to worry about.





just kidding!? lol

 

[Certaindeaf]

I think a much greater calamity will be when toilet paper runs out, which will be approximately three days.
Streets filled with bowlegged and cranky stinky people makes crazed dopers pale in comparison.
So gas masks and a sunny disposition for the win!

 

[IronMonster]

The other thing about tweakers, once there is an interruption in the dope supply they will sleep for a week, get up and be pretty normal. It's when they can't find or get dope that they will be a real issue

 

[CountryGent]

What the cops I used to shoot with told me--it's not the potheads that are the real danger, it's the Fully Loaded Tweakers. Unpredictable, fast moving, high pain tolerance from being high out of their minds... you basically have two choices to stop them and neither are easy shots, between disrupting their locomotion and structural support with a pelvis-buster or disrupting command-and-control at the Central Nervous System.

Agreed. It is this meth mutants that I think would be the biggest problem for the individual/family, business owners, medical personnel, LEOs, etc. They already are a problem now, but with no rule of law, and a dwindling supply of their junk, it could get even more ugly.