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Heroin Pain med to street opiates decision

R

RoaminW

Bluelighter
Joined
Jul 28, 2022
Messages
116
I’m new in here. I hope it is perceived that I may be of some use to others as far as advice, history, and perspective is concerned…

I have lower back issues. I developed a dependence on pain meds that became a larger problem than my back problem was. I checked myself into a hospital in 2007 to get off of those meds. This was back when one could go to multiple doctors. At my peak, I was getting 60 40mg Oxycontin's, and 90 10mg Percocet’s from what I’d say was my actual treating physician. I was also going to 3 different “speak easy” doctors and got 120 10/325’s from each of them, and was still running out too early.

When the state created the prescription monitoring program, I had not been taking any pain meds for a few years. I understand that folks went from legal prescriptions, to street opiates, when that change occurred. I feel very confidant when I say that had I been taking them when that change occurred, I don’t think I would have gone to street drugs. I’ve never done heroin, and I’ve never even seen anyone use a needle in my presence. That’s always been something I told myself a long time ago that I’d never do.

My question is this…

For those that went to street drugs, what sort of mental conversation did you have with yourself to start believing that instead of feeling like “well, I guess it is time to clean up” you instead thought “I guess I’ll start using heroin”?

Isn’t that akin to somehow agreeing that it is time to put your first foot in the grave? I have tried for years to attempt to understand how so many folks made that decision. As much as I know how good opiates make you feel, getting worse off, instead of better off, seems like a very decisive move, like agreeing to jump out of a plane without a parachute.

I’m not judging, I promise. I’m just incredibly curious about this one decision that so many folks seem to make, or opt to do.
 
Great question. I was also a pain pill addict ( no physical pain just liked the high ) . Never had any scripts but everyone i knew sold theirs for the street drugs.

So when they dried up and had nothing left to offer they sold their lyrica, gababpentin and baclofen. So I bought them.

Then those quit getting me where i wanted to be so the next step would have been heroin/fent. But I was very fortunate that I have never gone there and never will. I'm 64 by the way and pills were always where it was at for me. Did pills for 40 years............but only pills. And always in my mouth only. So I was very lucky that I'm not 24 or 34 and i know from experience what happened to my friends when they went to the H and the needle. They're all dead. Every one of them. They weren't when they were shooting or snorting H but as soon as it turned in to fent every one of them OD'ed. To be fair i live in a small town so i didn't have that many friends. Maybe 6 in total. But I kid you not..........all of them are dead. And i miss them. They were great people.

So how did i NOT go to street drugs? Because I saw what happened to them. So when the oxy and vicodin and morphine dried up, and the gaba crap wasn't doing it for me..........I just quit. I got on kratom and never looked back. That was almost 3 years ago.
 
I’ve used Kratom. It works! Now that the strongest pill I ever seem to be able to get prescribed is Tyl IV’s, about 3 times a year when my back goes out, I almost prefer Kratom over the IV’s.

You know…that brings up another thought…

Those folks down in S. America use the Coca leaves like we use coffee. A few leaves with a lime wedge, and they never OD. They lose their teeth, but not their lives. It seems like anytime that a natural thing gets concentrated, like cocaine from coca leaves, it becomes terribly addictive and life changing, up to, and including, death. (That’s a pretty big life change)

So I wonder what simple poppy sap would be like to ingest instead of taking chemically concentrated opiates for painful situations. I wonder if that is as benign as using coca leaves. (Is it “leaves” or leaf’s?) 😂

I trust God/nature far more than big pharma. Soldiers on both sides of the civil war referred to opium as “GOM” which stands for “God’s Own Medicine”. That’s truely why it exists. God/nature saw to it that we have opiate receptors in our bodies, and I don’t believe that is a coincidence.
 
jasperkent said:
It seems that things in their natural forms are far less dangerous than concentrated or synthesized versions..
Click to expand...
This depends. 'Natural' doesn't equal benign. There's plenty of naturally occurring compounds that can easily kill you.
jasperkent said:
I like weed but I'm not a fan of "dabs" or "shatter." It's like they took a relatively benign plant and made it into a hard drug. Why?
Click to expand...
More bang for the buck, that's why. Some people always just wanna get totally off their heads on whatever it is they prefer to take, so there's customer demand for this stuff. Plus I reckon if you can sell a stronger product per volume it's more lucrative for the dealer than traditional weed. Like a litre of 40% rum will cost more but also get you much drunker than the same amount of beer.
 
RoaminW said:
I’m new in here. I hope it is perceived that I may be of some use to others as far as advice, history, and perspective is concerned…

I have lower back issues. I developed a dependence on pain meds that became a larger problem than my back problem was. I checked myself into a hospital in 2007 to get off of those meds. This was back when one could go to multiple doctors. At my peak, I was getting 60 40mg Oxycontin's, and 90 10mg Percocet’s from what I’d say was my actual treating physician. I was also going to 3 different “speak easy” doctors and got 120 10/325’s from each of them, and was still running out too early.

When the state created the prescription monitoring program, I had not been taking any pain meds for a few years. I understand that folks went from legal prescriptions, to street opiates, when that change occurred. I feel very confidant when I say that had I been taking them when that change occurred, I don’t think I would have gone to street drugs. I’ve never done heroin, and I’ve never even seen anyone use a needle in my presence. That’s always been something I told myself a long time ago that I’d never do.

My question is this…

For those that went to street drugs, what sort of mental conversation did you have with yourself to start believing that instead of feeling like “well, I guess it is time to clean up” you instead thought “I guess I’ll start using heroin”?

Isn’t that akin to somehow agreeing that it is time to put your first foot in the grave? I have tried for years to attempt to understand how so many folks made that decision. As much as I know how good opiates make you feel, getting worse off, instead of better off, seems like a very decisive move, like agreeing to jump out of a plane without a parachute.

I’m not judging, I promise. I’m just incredibly curious about this one decision that so many folks seem to make, or opt to do.
Click to expand...
Usually it's the price. Once you lose a script the doctors are really reluctant to put you on another one ; if you ask for it it's seen as 'drug - seeking behaviour' (which it often is so I can't blame the doctors, but the current anti - opioid hysteria leaves many pain patients stuck up the proverbial creek without a paddle). So if you're still suffering pain and can't get your meds, or you just have a taste for the drug and run out of supply but want to continue using, then H will simply be cheaper in most places. The price of tabs on the street especially if they are diverted genuine pharmaceuticals tends to be ridiculous by comparison.
 
I loathe trying to go get some pain medication. These pain management doctors (pmd’s) are just too untrusting. Perhaps they need to be these days, but legitimate patients are the only person in that loop of conveyance that isn’t taken care of…AND WE ARE THE REASON MEDICATIONS GET MADE!!! It’s absurd. I’ve tried to find a mechanism in the state medical community where I could somehow get “certified” as a legitimate intermittent pain sufferer. Of course that type of thing doesn’t exist, but it seemingly ought to. As it stands now, I simply get a compliment of Tyl IV’s. My general practitioner has no problem doing that for me, but his office has a policy of not prescribing anything stronger. What you said about drug seeking behavior is true…and at the same time, that’s exactly what I’m doing in an altruistic way. My back went out, so I’m here to get some relief. That double edged sword is bullshit!

I always seem to ask questions that others don’t seem to. In this instance, I want to know how so many doctors were somehow tricked into believing that OxyContin wasn’t addictive. If it is an opiate or an opioid, it’s addictive, and I’ve never sat in a medical class in my life. How could a single doctor, not to mention a country full of doctors, believe what that pharma company told them? Oxycodone wasn’t a new drug, and neither was time released technology, but somehow when you put those two things together, it isn’t addictive?!?! I really don’t have a problem with a company advertising and pushing their product. That’s what for-profit companies do. I blame the doctors, collectively, way more than I blame that company. When I was taking rapid release pain pills, and would run out, I would be just fine after a couple of days. Once I started taking oc’s, the dynamic of withdrawing was on a whole different level. Knowing how difficult that was, and knowing that heroin is more powerful, I know that I have no idea how bad withdrawal can get. Thusly, I don’t act badly towards spike users of street stuff. They have a god damn big ass issue going on. My heart goes out towards them all.

Thanks for responding, and for letting me ramble a bit…
 
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