When a family farm is ravaged by heroin.

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

BLANCHESTER, Ohio — A life of farming taught Roger Winemiller plenty about harsh twists of fate: hail storms and drought, ragweed infestations and jittery crop prices. He hadn’t bargained on heroin.

Then, in March 2016, Mr. Winemiller’s daughter, Heather Himes, 31, died of an opioid overdose at the family farmhouse, inside a first-floor bathroom overlooking fields of corn and soybeans. Mr. Winemiller was the one who unlocked the bathroom door and found her slumped over, a syringe by her side.

Nine months later, Mr. Winemiller’s oldest son, Eugene, who once drove trucks and tractors on the family’s 3,400-acre farm, overdosed at his mother’s home. Family members and medics had been able to revive him after earlier overdoses. Not this one.

Overdoses are churning through agricultural pockets of America like a plow through soil, tearing at rural communities and posing a new threat to the generational ties of families like the Winemillers. Farm bureaus’ attention to seed, fertilizer and subsidies has been diverted to discussions of overdoses. Volunteer-run heroin support groups are popping up in rural towns where clinics and drug treatment centers are an hour’s drive away, and broaching public conversations about addiction and death that close-knit neighbors and even some families of the dead would prefer to keep out of view.

And at the end of a long gravel driveway, Mr. Winemiller has been thinking about the uncertain seasons ahead. His last surviving biological son, Roger T. Winemiller, 35, spent years using prescription pain pills, heroin and methamphetamines, and was jailed for a year on drug charges. He is now in treatment and living with his father.

The son dreams of taking over the farm someday. The father is wary.

“Would I like to have one of my kids working the farm, side by side, carrying my load when I can’t?” Mr. Winemiller said. “Yes. But I’m a realist.”

full article link: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/wh...heroin/ar-AAobpyc?li=BBnbfcL&ocid=mailsignout

 

[David Wooderson]

Our grandparents had opportunity, our parents were in the right place at the right time and we are left to eat the crumbs until everything fails and society as we know it is over.

I feel like my parent's generation has become so parasitic upon my and younger generations, they are to blame for the state of things yet tell us we're the problem and are lazy all the while taking money out of our pockets for social security and other doomed entitlement programs.

They have ruined the real estate markets and made it impossible to live like they had at our ages.

So many "essential" tools of life come with monthly bills that they did not have to pay in our time, it's just very obvious we're getting screwed and it's hard to keep marching uphill in the rain knowing that we won't have anything like they did.

We had 9/11 and the recession mixed with two of the longest wars in American history, that takes a toll on one's psych.

 

[ro4eva]

I'll say the obvious again: A Harm Reduction-based approach, completely free of the meddling of politicians and bureaucrats (and in their place, a commensurate health care plan and reasonable medicine costs) might have saved this father from having to bury two kids. But the corporate whores in D.C. continue to accept more legal bribes from Big Pharma than any other industry. And meanwhile, the likes of Fox News and CNN continues to fill the heads of their audience with partisan-hack misinformation from their shameless pundits. Continue down this road and America will never be "great" again.

 

[Felonious Monk]

Sad for 2 reasons:
1. The 2 dead kids thing
2. THE FACT THAT A 5 SQUARE MILE FARM IS A "family farm" in America--that's some corporate bullshit imo--family means your family works on it...

 

[szuko000]

I am two years removed from IV heroin usage and I didnt do it because of some bleak future I just happened to love opiates a bit too much. I do agree that I am probably more nihilistic then my parents but I can blame that on being into science and finally having a grasp on human society at almost 30 years here.

I do agree that there are more modern issues in these times however, i hold the fact that not much has actually changed. Its just an information overload and people only see bad news. The future is what you make of it and mine is now full of boundless opportunities that i have created since getting clean.

My main point is your view can changed based on the situations you find yourself in. I had thought my life was over and going no where 3 years ago... how wrong i was. We all do have to die at some point but my goal is to be surrounded by stuff that is meaningful to me. Good luck to you my friend

 

[cj]

I'll say the obvious again: A Harm Reduction-based approach, completely free of the meddling of politicians and bureaucrats (and in their place, a commensurate health care plan and reasonable medicine costs) might have saved this father from having to bury two kids. But the corporate whores in D.C. continue to accept more legal bribes from Big Pharma than any other industry. And meanwhile, the likes of Fox News and CNN continues to fill the heads of their audience with partisan-hack misinformation from their shameless pundits. Continue down this road and America will never be "great" again.

Agreed. I'm 28. I graduated high school in 2007 as the great recession hit. I went to college because there where no jobs I didn't graduate because the public school I attended high school at didn't prepare me in math. I have a mental health disorder I can't afford to treat.I often think my friends who died in theregards early 20s where lucky.

 

[PantyRaiders]

Haaa ....the future is too bleak for millenials? That's literally laughable .... take some accountability and stop whining; there is plenty of opportunity in today's world

 

[cj]

Haaa ....the future is too bleak for millenials? That's literally laughable .... take some accountability and stop whining; there is plenty of opportunity in today's world

Sure for a certain sub set of people.

 

[PantyRaiders]

Sure for a certain sub set of people.

True ... you do need to fall into the subset of people who are willing to work

 

[spacejunk]

it's got nothing to do with willingness to work.
the USA has millions of working people living below the poverty line. people that will never know stable housing or employment, let alone own their own property.
economically, the future does not look promising for a lot of people. a lot more people, especially in the USA, than would have said that 20, 30 or 40 years ago.
a lot of things have lead to this; economic stagnation from a recession that never really went away, automation's impact on labour markets, employment that is increasingly contracted, outsourced, casual.
steady careers are few and far between in most industries nowadays.
in a lot of places, for a lot of people, home ownership is an unrealistic dream.
young adults in the developed western world now are the first generation in over half a century that will be less affluent than their parents.

i'm certainly not blaming massive opioid issues solely on generational problems - but there are many factors contributing to the sense of hopelessness a lot of young people feel today (not just in the united states either).

 

[PantyRaiders]

Good points and I have an undergrad degree in finance/economics , so I understand the struggles you mention ..... but to say the future is hopeless and use that as a reason to abuse opioids and feel like ''you gotta die sometime" is ridiculous .

Fuckin whaaaaaa

 

[Burnt Offerings]

^ I mean, the despair is real enough that people are willing to kill themselves, though...it's a powerful force that can override a person's will to continue existing, which is definitely one of the most fundamental drives that animals have.

I'd rather live in today's era than any other in the past. But there are some shitty things that intrinsic to human existence which will always be with us, and i guess some people are just better at dealing with those things than others. It's just such a waste when a young person loses their lives over this ultimately trivial bullshit

 

[szuko000]

Fuckin whaaaaaa

Thats how I feel about it. Thats how i feel about most things though, most people cant leave their comfort zone where as i thrive in adversity and trust myself beyond all others.

I always knew i would get off opiates completely because I am not a slave to no man or chemical, I can find myself in a bad spot but it is never forever. I think part of the issue is people arent willing to put for sufficient work in a sense the path to any type of massive change is fraught with hardships and a lot of people cant surmount that which is so all encompassing. Not only do you have to deal with a complete change of life from friends and normal daily goings about but, your also forced to face crippling emotional regret, the long term consequences of your actions, all while your sick from not being able to get opiates and generally more depressed due to a lack of interest in normality. Its this "hopelessness" that makes people unwilling to quit and stay on opiates or recovery meds its not to say a flaw in character i think it just takes a specific person to handle the literal collapse of their existence and push through the months until its normal.

I dont lose respect for people who cant do it because one of the 4 people i personally know who went on methadone thinks he wont ever get off it. Myself, my brother, and my ex all got off opiates after years of shooting dope and going on methadone (my ex and myself) my younger brother went to prison and got off it there. We have all been off dope for over 2 years and no methadone for over a year. It is possible it is just an extremely hard thing, you have to let the old you die. That is why my ex and i arent together we are not the same people we were at all. If you hate your life enough to want to die then you should do literally anything you can to change it before you try to die. Nothing is forever and we are all in charge of our destinies.

I always thought of quitting as "the allegory of the cave" when the prisoner is forced to leave the cave:

"Plato continues: "Suppose... that someone should drag him... by force, up the rough ascent, the steep way up, and never stop until he could drag him out into the light of the sun." The prisoner would be angry and in pain, and this would only worsen when the radiant light of the sun overwhelms his eyes and blinds him.

"Slowly, his eyes adjust to the light of the sun. First he can only see shadows. Gradually he can see the reflections of people and things in water and then later see the people and things themselves. Eventually, he is able to look at the stars and moon at night until finally he can look upon the sun itself ." Only after he can look straight at the sun is he able to reason about it and what it is"

 

[Rachella666]

Our grandparents had opportunity, our parents were in the right place at the right time and we are left to eat the crumbs until everything fails and society as we know it is over.

I feel like my parent's generation has become so parasitic upon my and younger generations, they are to blame for the state of things yet tell us we're the problem and are lazy all the while taking money out of our pockets for social security and other doomed entitlement programs.

They have ruined the real estate markets and made it impossible to live like they had at our ages.

So many "essential" tools of life come with monthly bills that they did not have to pay in our time, it's just very obvious we're getting screwed and it's hard to keep marching uphill in the rain knowing that we won't have anything like they did.

We had 9/11 and the recession mixed with two of the longest wars in American history, that takes a toll on one's psych.

Excellent points there, both my parents are living in there own house, rent free, mortgage free, I'm paying E600.00 per month raising 2 kids on my own, go figure....& they still fucking complain about money????they haven't a fucking clue what its like living on they breadline????

 

[Foreigner]

I always thought of quitting as "the allegory of the cave" when the prisoner is forced to leave the cave:

"Plato continues: "Suppose... that someone should drag him... by force, up the rough ascent, the steep way up, and never stop until he could drag him out into the light of the sun." The prisoner would be angry and in pain, and this would only worsen when the radiant light of the sun overwhelms his eyes and blinds him.

"Slowly, his eyes adjust to the light of the sun. First he can only see shadows. Gradually he can see the reflections of people and things in water and then later see the people and things themselves. Eventually, he is able to look at the stars and moon at night until finally he can look upon the sun itself ." Only after he can look straight at the sun is he able to reason about it and what it is"

Typical Platonic thinking, which most of my parent's generation subscribe to: that everything can be divided into dark and light, good and bad, up and down. This kind of thinking has brought us centuries of brutally oppressive hierarchies of control which has now been exported on a globally destructive level.

The disappearance of family farms is 100% corporate America's fault. Our systems of government and the environment have been sucked dry by parasitic corporations, leaving nothing for future generations. The world's ecosystems are due to completely collapse by 2040. That's less than 25 years from now.

It's time we stop blaming this or that generation and simply admit that the monetary system in its current form is psychopathic. Nature doesn't care about our human schemes and contrived systems.

 

[szuko000]

Typical Platonic thinking, which most of my parent's generation subscribe to: that everything can be divided into dark and light, good and bad, up and down. This kind of thinking has brought us centuries of brutally oppressive hierarchies of control which has now been exported on a globally destructive level.

So your saying being addicted to heroin is not like living a false life that you have created with few links to real experiences? That is what i meant by it, not some black and white thing about economics. It is literally living a false life that one must drag himself out of and adjust to the real world. At least that is literally what shooting dope and stopping was like for me but maybe its not the same for everyone.

I dont blame anyone for my failures other then myself. I dont care what generation i am from or what one proceeds or which i followed those are not really relevant to my existence and only serve to categorize things i do not care about.

 

[starting_over]

Housing prices are ridiculous... but in general, Canada (and I would assume the USA) is currently in the greatest time period ever.

Wi-fi, streaming media, smartphones, reliable vehicles, tinder, hd porn, skype, online shopping,

Easy and cheaper access to rec drugs, a wider variety of drugs, longer lifespans due to advances in medicine, more international cuisine in restaurants and grocery stores,

Of course some of the above are debatable in how "good" they are.

 

[Cdkman]

When and only when humans realize we are a part of nature and stop using nature as a way to make money will we be able to sustain ourselves on this planet..opiate addiction is just a symptom of the bigger problem..it's a personal problem not the problem of the nation..each addict has his or her own way out of addiction if they so please..the western world is in the duality of good and bad..they use the good to label things that are good for them not everyone..only when u recognize the duality for what it is can u make a decision that is right for human kind

 

[Burnt Offerings]

Housing prices are ridiculous... but in general, Canada (and I would assume the USA) is currently in the greatest time period ever.

Wi-fi, streaming media, smartphones, reliable vehicles, tinder, hd porn, skype, online shopping,

Easy and cheaper access to rec drugs, a wider variety of drugs, longer lifespans due to advances in medicine, more international cuisine in restaurants and grocery stores,

Of course some of the above are debatable in how "good" they are.

Things are better than ever and yet people are unhappier/dissatisfied than ever (or so it seems).

"People are unhappier than ever" is of course highly debatable...I imagine that it would be hard to take precise and accurate measurements regarding social isolation, alienation etc.

It is true that there are incredible things related to the modern era...we all have computers in our pockets that would be unattainable to a billionaire 20 years ago. But....none of that stuff fills the hole in your soul.

 

[psy997]

Yea I'm not sure any of the reasons listed by starting_over are actually in any way indicative of "the greatest time period ever". In fact I could name five negative consequences each of them has had on the individual and society itself.

Technological progress does not necessarily equal progress. There must be growth elsewhere to balance it otherwise imbalance, dis-ease, and the like occur.