Two-Year Drop in U.S. Life Expectancy Linked to Opioid Crisis

[applegrove]

https://www.democracynow.org/2017/12/22/headlines/two_year_drop_in_us_life_expectancy_linked_to_opioid_crisis

"SNIP.........

For the first time in over a half a century, life expectancy in the United States has dropped for the second year in a row, as the nation’s opioid crisis intensifies. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, over 63,000 died from drug overdoses in 2016. Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 55. In October, President Trump declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency, but he did not request any money to address the crisis.

..........SNIP"

[duforsure]

1. That's nothing...

Intelligence dropped 5 years according to the last election from trump voters from listening to trump.

[Freethinker65]

2. As more Americans lose (or decide to opt out of) affordable healthcare, it will continue to decline

Too few people will seek out preventative care, and instead will gamble with their lives often only seeking care when medical problems become unbearable. Unfortunately by the time they seek help many will find treatment options, if available, will be out of their reach. Perhaps this is the “Great Again” people voted for.

[Aristus]

3. But the allegations will continue. We medical providers are ghoulish sadists who enjoy seeing our

patients in pain, because we refuse to treat chronic issues with very powerful, addictive medications meant for acute issues only.

Expect to see lots of replies using the words 'limo', 'yacht', or 'I'll bet you're not a real (insert title of medical provider here) '

[maxsolomon]

4. I'm trying hard to care

It's not like they don't know they're playing with fire.

Maybe I'm just dealing with too many on the streets of Seattle. The Walking Dead are everywhere here.

[applegrove]

6. Addiction is a medical issue and then fentanyl came on the market. Many of those addicted were

being treated for pain and got addicted. Many others were kids when they got addicted. In Ottawa they are talking about giving those addicted prescriptions for clean opioids until they can get them into treatment.

[maxsolomon]

9. i hope it works. it feels like a war zone out there.

and we have suburbanites fighting tooth and nail to stop clean injection sites that would save lives. providing "clean" narcotics is a pipe dream in the States.

fentanyl's been available for decades, BTW. I know a doctor that was hooked on it. do you mean the illicit market?

[applegrove]

11. Opioid addiction can start legally. Then become ilicit.

[maxsolomon]

15. yes, i'm quite aware how it works. i'm alive in america in 2017.

I don't need addiction 101.

you said "then fentanyl came on the market".

I asked if you meant the BLACK market. because it's been on the legal, medical market for a long time.

[aikoaiko]

19. That's probably what s/he meant.

Fentanyl entered the black market and dealers started to fortify their heroin in dangerous ways.

One of my old school classmates started to do this to boost his income. At least one kid died from it. The maker was raided (HS classmate), held in prison, and then killed himself.

Sad story all the way around:

http://mahwah.dailyvoice.com/police-fire/usr-man-charged-in-fentanyl-death-of-ramsey-teen-dies-in-federal-custody/724933/

PPER SADDLE RIVER, N.J. -- An Upper Saddle River man charged in the fatal drug overdose of a 19-year-old Ramsey man died in federal custody.

Darius Ghahary, 48, was found dead in a cell at a federal transfer center in Oklahoma City on Friday, three days after a grand jury in North Dakota named him in a sweeping pair of indictments targeting Chinese manufacturers of fentanyl and other opiates, authorities confirmed.

It was the first case of its kind brought by federal authorities, who noted that more than 20,000 Americans died last year from fentanyl-related overdoses -- including musical icon Prince.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

8. My office building has a 24/7 security guard to keep them out of the parking garage

Back in the summer it would be a slow day if ambulances only came half a dozen times and multiple people who work in the building have been assaulted. It is incomprehensible to me the degree to which this is being tolerated.

[maxsolomon]

12. it's not just black people this time.

that's my take. but I am one of those rare middle aged white guys that thinks #BLM.

[applegrove]

21. Which is why republicans mentioned it during the election. Because

It was white people whose lives were being destroyed by drugs. Note: opioids are now ravaging African Americans lives too.

[tavernier]

5. Im a nurse, daughter an ER nurse

and instructor at IU. She told me of a colleague of hers who was known to all in the hospital where she taught as the “Wonder Nurse,” young, brilliant, tough, caring, etc. Long story short, a hip injury and months on opioids, legally prescribed, spiraled her existence into living hell. Despite all efforts by friends and family, she and her family are now on the streets, and she is unrecognizable. They’ve sought help everywhere, but recognize that they can no longer help her.

I guess I never realized what kind of hell this opioid mess was until I actually personally knew of someone who was caught in it.

This epidemic doesn’t just effect “druggies” or “junkies”...We are all just one treatment or one prescription away from this horror.

[applegrove]

7. Yes. This is it exactly.

[tavernier]

17. My daughter cried when they loaded up her home

contents, the stuff that hadn’t been already legally confiscated, just to get them into some type of housing, a trailer that was the property of a relative. She said her friend was in excruciating pain, unable to help. The kids were walking around like zombies.

Her husband has left, no one knows where he is. She had to be transported.

As much as I or anyone of us say we would never let that happen to us, that’s apparently what is happening to multitudes of people.

I remember as a hospital med nurse in the seventies, I had two bottles of meds on my cart which were to be routinely given to everyone on the floor. One was a vitamin, the other, a Valium. I also remember at that time having some mild postpartum depression after childbirth, and being given a prescription, as it turned out, a large brown cylinder of Valium. I took one, zombied out the rest of the day, and flushed the rest, probably the wisest choice of my life.

I later learned that that Valium addiction is harder on your body to eliminate than an addiction to the hardest drugs.

[Skidmore]

10. This past year I have

had nine different surgeries following an acute case of compartment syndrome. I told my medical team that I would take narcotic pain reliever for up to two days after surgery then wanted to be switched to non narcotic pain relief. They did this for me. I have another surgery ahead. Currently, I take a non narcotic medication for nerve pain in my hand. I believe that adjustments in protocols can be made to prevent medical treatment of pain from becoming a descent into hell for so many.

[applegrove]

13. Good on ya. Putting safety first. And vibes on the new surgery.

[Egnever]

16. Thanks is a little over the top

Every one who uses narcotics does not become addicted.
And pretending that is the case is ludicrous.

I have migraines occasionally and when I do I take narcotics because it works. Some times they last a few days and I take the narcotics throughout.

I have never felt the need or desire to take them when I am not in considerable pain.

I am however highly suceptible to addiction. So if ever there was a candidate for opiod addiction one treatment away I should be the poster boy for it.

Instead I take them when I have migraines then don't think about them again to till the next time. Meanwhile I have a bottle of 100 sitting in my medicine cabinet.

People clearly get addicted to them but by pretending they are this supper addictive thing we are harming a ton of chronic pain sufferers.

I have tried damn near everything. And on my list of things that are high in addiction narcotics are way down the totem pole.

[tavernier]

18. Well, thats hugely part of the problem.

Our friend developed further problems due to misdiagnosis and wrong meds (severe sweats on only one half of her body... strange as this sounds, absolutely true)...
But once they blanket discontinued all of the meds, the condition worsened.

[TheFrenchRazor]

22. word. the anti-opiate prohibitionist hysteria is not helping anybody. nt

[maxsolomon]

24. this is my experience as well

I've had 3 surgeries in the last 10 years, and got 30 oxy or hydro for each of them. I got off them as fast as I could - I get constipated and that doesn't work for me at all. they're still there.

opiates are not being handed out willy-nilly any more, in my experience. my niece recently had bunion surgery, and they doled the oxy out 4 or 5 at a time. she was in serious pain as a result.

[Sneederbunk]

14. That and a GOP majority.

[ileus]

20. There's one kid in my Son's class that's lost a parent and step parent

to overdoses.

His life has gotten a little better since his mother has went to Jail.


In my area, there's not a single person that doesn't know at least one victim of an OD.

[TheFrenchRazor]

23. do you know at least one person who has died in a car crash? i certainly do, but nobody is calling

for a state of national emergency about that, even though the numbers are comparable, and no one is calling for a nationwide crack-down on alcohol use, which is certainly as harmful as other drugs. my point is that the current hysteria is out of proportion with the actual problem, and it is hurting people who have medical conditions that necessitate them at least having the option of effective pain relief.