Misleading facts regarding the so called "Opioid Crisis"

[BeachBum4u]

So, I was watching some tube the other night and saw this fact and found it fascinating. As it turns out, nearly 70% of all opioid deaths are caused by the drug fentanyl! Not bozos stealing their parents drugs from the medicine cabinet or some fool taking too many pills at a party (maybe being macho in front of peers) or whatever. This is what all the hysteria would lead folks to believe. Like doctors prescribing opiates to pain patients is what's causing all these deaths we all hear about on the nightly news.

The problem is "that" story is much scarier and probably hits closer to home to the average Joe. Those stories get people's attention. What doesn't is that folks thinking they're buying heroin and in fact, getting fentanyl are dying due to it's incredible potency! Much easier to scare folks thinking their children could stumble upon some prescription pills, take too many and die.

I really wish the people in charge of these kinds of things would put the correct facts out there for everyone to accurately access the situation for themselves. Now that would be a wonderful thing but hey, what the hell do I know?

 

[Tubbs]

They've also shown that a lot of new users these days skip over the prescriptions and just start with heroin, the pills are just a scapegoat so they don't look bad in the public eye for fighting a pointless "war" that they have no chance of ever winning.

 

[starfish90]

So, the CDC just actually had a press release regarding overdose deaths yesterday. They analyzed the deaths by drug overdose in 2016...

**Keep in mind, this data was only collected from 31 states, so the numbers are likely much, much, higher.

The CDC stated that:
Of the 63,632 Americans that died due to overdose, 66% of those people died due to an illicit or prescription opiate. The overdose rates increased by 21.5%. The overdose death rate from synthetic opioids more than doubled, likely due to fentanyl. Prescription opioid overdose death rate rose 10.6%, whereas the heroin overdose death rate rose 19.5%.


I do believe you're correct, OP. Fentanyl is the new killer. However, I think that they grossly exaggerate the potency of fentanyl and the amount needed to kill someone. Sure, maybe a grain of salt of fentanyl could harm someone who is opiate naive, but for the vast majority of addicts with a tolerance, it isn't going to kill them.

It's all scare tactics. We live in a fear based society, greatly perpetuated by social media, news outlets, and the internet in general.

 

[BeachBum4u]

Starfish - I'm not sure if your figures support or contradict my stated stats. For the record, the percentage I saw on that show was 69%. I don't remember where the stats came from but again, I was surprised to say the least.

From what I've seen on the matter, it seems like most heroin users "want" fentanyl in their dope and have come to expect it. The new scary thing is the ultra-potent carfentanil, which is 100x more potent than fentanyl. Also, from what I just read, 5,000x more powerful than heroin. If that is true, then I could believe that the amount which would kill someone could easily be measured in grains! Now that is some scary shit and much more important IMO to get behind as opposed to little Johnny taking to.many of Dad's percocets. Again, just my opinion.

 

[Tubbs]

I think it's fent is 100x the potency of morphine (give or take) and carfent was something like 600x the potency of morphine.

Don't quote me on that though, my memory is shit.

 

[BeachBum4u]

I got those stats from doing a Google search. I couldn't figure out how to cut and paste it or I would have but those figures are accurate according to that source at least. Truly some scary stuff!

 

[Tubbs]

The scary thing is how widely these sources differ in thier information on these deadly compounds. I mean the shit will put down an elephant, that's truly terrifying.

 

[Captain.Heroin]

The scary thing is how widely these sources differ in thier information on these deadly compounds. I mean the shit will put down an elephant, that's truly terrifying.

So will stuff like PCP, ketamine (can incapacitate and damage other species). However, ketamine is a remarkably safe drug, despite the fact it is neurotoxic to rat brains (Olney's lesions).

We should truly be frightened of are potent ACHE inhibitors.

 

[LucidSDreamr]

∆tell my bladder ketamine is safe.

It just seems safe.


I'm very concerned at what is happening to pain patients as a result of street fent and even more concerned at the lack mobilization to advocate for patients rights. Everyone is too scared to be a proponent of scripted opioids.