- Messages
- 346
- Reactions
- 395
This is a long and sobering read about the changes in chemical composition of meth over the last decade:
www.theatlantic.com
It is overly simplistic to assert that moral degeneracy is why people start or continue to use drugs. People start using drugs for all sorts of reasons, including many in the opioid epidemic who were originally legitimately (or overly-eagerly by docs and Big Pharma) prescribed pain medications. The Sackler family paid $4.5 BILLION to just begin to account for their responsibility in the drug crisis. I have a friend who got hooked on meth in middle school after her mother gave it to her as a "study aid." That's not a moral failing on my friend's part, like many of you commenters above would make it seem. There are deeper societal reasons why people turn to drugs, including PTSD from decades of pointless war in Afghanistan, despondency about the environmental future of the world, the financial impacts of gross income inequality, etc. The pandemic obviously shattered many people's sense of connection and community, things that keep lives stable and keep people sober, as well as made it harder for people to access resources like support groups, chemical intervention, rehab, etc.
The poster above says that "The people who are choosing to consume and might somehow not be restricted from voting tend to vote left" but that's not actually true.
Findings published in the journal of the American Medical Association show that a "cross-sectional analysis of a national sample of Medicare claims data found that chronic use of prescription opioid drugs was correlated with support for the Republican candidate in the 2016 US presidential election." "In the 693 counties with adjusted rates of opioid prescription significantly higher than the mean county rate, the mean (SE) Republican presidential vote was 59.96%, vs 38.67% in the 638 counties with significantly lower rates." "Support for the Republican candidate in the 2016 election is a marker for physical conditions, economic circumstances, and cultural forces associated with opioid use." (https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2685627)
"Survey respondents who identified themselves as Republicans reported drug use at a higher rate than their Democratic or Independent peers. The most significant differences in the rates were between Republicans and Independents." "Reported Republican rates of increase are slightly higher (9%) than their Democratic peers and are 42% higher than the rate of Independents. Republicans were also 18% more likely than Democrats and 40% more likely to Independents to report they had previously been diagnosed with or treated for a substance use disorder."
(https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/professionals/blog/2020-election-stress-substance-use-trends/)
I'm not really trying to incite a partisan politic debate, I think it's tragic all around and I think that some of the comments above are really heartless and/or uninformed.
‘I Don’t Know That I Would Even Call It Meth Anymore’
Different chemically than it was a decade ago, the drug is creating a wave of severe mental illness and worsening America’s homelessness problem.
www.theatlantic.com
It is overly simplistic to assert that moral degeneracy is why people start or continue to use drugs. People start using drugs for all sorts of reasons, including many in the opioid epidemic who were originally legitimately (or overly-eagerly by docs and Big Pharma) prescribed pain medications. The Sackler family paid $4.5 BILLION to just begin to account for their responsibility in the drug crisis. I have a friend who got hooked on meth in middle school after her mother gave it to her as a "study aid." That's not a moral failing on my friend's part, like many of you commenters above would make it seem. There are deeper societal reasons why people turn to drugs, including PTSD from decades of pointless war in Afghanistan, despondency about the environmental future of the world, the financial impacts of gross income inequality, etc. The pandemic obviously shattered many people's sense of connection and community, things that keep lives stable and keep people sober, as well as made it harder for people to access resources like support groups, chemical intervention, rehab, etc.
The poster above says that "The people who are choosing to consume and might somehow not be restricted from voting tend to vote left" but that's not actually true.
Findings published in the journal of the American Medical Association show that a "cross-sectional analysis of a national sample of Medicare claims data found that chronic use of prescription opioid drugs was correlated with support for the Republican candidate in the 2016 US presidential election." "In the 693 counties with adjusted rates of opioid prescription significantly higher than the mean county rate, the mean (SE) Republican presidential vote was 59.96%, vs 38.67% in the 638 counties with significantly lower rates." "Support for the Republican candidate in the 2016 election is a marker for physical conditions, economic circumstances, and cultural forces associated with opioid use." (https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2685627)
"Survey respondents who identified themselves as Republicans reported drug use at a higher rate than their Democratic or Independent peers. The most significant differences in the rates were between Republicans and Independents." "Reported Republican rates of increase are slightly higher (9%) than their Democratic peers and are 42% higher than the rate of Independents. Republicans were also 18% more likely than Democrats and 40% more likely to Independents to report they had previously been diagnosed with or treated for a substance use disorder."
(https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/professionals/blog/2020-election-stress-substance-use-trends/)
I'm not really trying to incite a partisan politic debate, I think it's tragic all around and I think that some of the comments above are really heartless and/or uninformed.
Last Edited:
