Just based on bluelight posts alone that seems accurate to me. There have been a few reports in EADD of 'heroin' ordered on the darknet testing positive for nitazines and it's coming up more and more in mainstream media.
www.bbc.com
That's from the beginning of this month.
The way I understand it is thaf once it became a misdemeanor tor theft under 1000$, eventually alot of retailers gave up on calling the cops for it, because an already stretched-thin police force would not show up in a timely manner or would not show up at all for a misdemeanor crime.
calmatters.org
It could well be the beginning of something bad, but the difference here is that the proportion of the population who engage in problematic opioid use is absolutely tiny. We don't have the legacy of mass over-prescription of opioids to regular Joes, so whilst things could get very bad for the IV heroin using community, it's pretty unlikely that there will be much impact beyond that (not suggesting for a minute that this makes it any less of a concern, but it's important context).
Sure, this absolutely makes sense. The drug problem in America is unlike any other country, so this does have to be taken into account. Americans love their drugs and there is no denying this fact. The thing that needs to be addressed is the root cause of that issue rather than the drugs themselves, but that's another story entirely. I was just trying to guage how accurate it was to say the nitazenes are taking their toll big time in the UK right now among the drug using population which you did well in answering for me. I always try to keep in mind these factors that you mention when determining the overall situation (being mindful of drug users to say non-users, and what percentage of drug users are affected versus non-drug users and such.) Sadly, this is not the take many have due to misrepresentation of these things in the media and even in mainstream academia to some extent from what I am finding as well the more I learn about the current paradigm we live in in terms of our understanding and treatment of addiction.
Why do you suppose its the East of England that is being most affected? I know when it comes to wealth that the city of London, for example, is divided in terms of such between the North and South regions. But, is something similar causing this situation to disproportionately affect the East versus the rest of the country? Just wondering you thoughts on this matter.For example:
Nitazenes are spreading like wildfire, drug charity warns
Grieving siblings in Essex are raising awareness of nitazines after their father's death.
That's from the beginning of this month.
Couple of potentially salient points here - as with elsewhere in the world, problematic drug use in the UK is highly associated with areas that experience high levels of deprivation. The east of England contains some of the most deprived places in the country, so that's one factor.
Trust me, people in the UK love their drugs as well! But the vast majority of drug users over here will never take opioids - we had our heroin epidemic earlier than the US, so for the most part members of the opioid taking community are approaching middle age, with very few younger users coming along to replace them, due to the stigma associated with heroin/IV drug useSure, this absolutely makes sense. The drug problem in America is unlike any other country, so this does have to be taken into account. Americans love their drugs and there is no denying this fact. The thing that needs to be addressed is the root cause of that issue rather than the drugs themselves, but that's another story entirely. I was just trying to guage how accurate it was to say the nitazenes are taking their toll big time in the UK right now among the drug using population which you did well in answering for me. I always try to keep in mind these factors that you mention when determining the overall situation (being mindful of drug users to say non-users, and what percentage of drug users are affected versus non-drug users and such.) Sadly, this is not the take many have due to misrepresentation of these things in the media and even in mainstream academia to some extent from what I am finding as well the more I learn about the current paradigm we live in in terms of our understanding and treatment of addiction.
Thank you for sharing the information
Is it really tiny? There's a lot of heroin users. Oxycodone and DHC used to be incredibly easy to get here ~10 years ago, DHC was essentially free and Oxy was very cheap. From what I've heard, DHC was prescribed pretty freely in the past
Even using the higher end estimates of problematic heroin and crack users across the UK (a decent number of which will only use light and not dark), you're still talking around 0.5% of the total population. I actually think this could protect us from some of the worst effects seen in the US, as there's not much sense in dealers killing off their clientele, when there's only a finite number of them in the first place. I live in area with lots of housing for people with multiple complex needs, so there is a lot of heroin addicts around here, but it's hardly typical of the UK as a whole.
Sounds very similar to the situation in the Netherlands in those regards that being said.
Fair enough, but what are the numbers on crack and heroin use in America? I'd doubt it's even 5%
When looking at all cause mortality data, Americans have a 1 in 55 chance of dying from an opioid overdose. It causes more deaths out there than car accidents or cancer. During the pandemic, more people were killed by opioid overdoses than Covid.
Given that opioid overdose is a bigger cause of death in America than car accidents or cancer, 1% - 2% is almost certainly an underestimation.
It's absolutely a factor, but even if fent took off over here and the rate of death from drug poisonings increased rapidly, we'd still get nowhere near the US's figures due to much lower per capita opioid usage across the population
That is what we are talking about, and approaches to drugs that North America is doing in relation to drugs to Europe
We did become off topic though which I mentioned a couple of times at very least, and I attempted to reroute the conversation back to the main topic which did not work.
