Social Stigma One Reason the Opioid Crisis Is Hard to Confront

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From NPR: “Hope and Pete Troxell live in Frederick, Maryland. Last year, their 34-year-old daughter Alicia died after overdosing on fentanyl – a synthetic form of heroin. She was seven months pregnant. Hope says before Alicia’s death, they often felt the weight of judgment.

‘So many people look at these [people] that are addicted to drugs, they call them every name in the book. They’re junkies, they’re thieves.’ […]

Researchers say one reason there is so much stigma around drug use is that many people view addiction as a moral weakness. Leo Beletsky, a public health researcher from Northeastern University, says stigma enters the political discourse ‘around personal responsibility versus coddling and enabling.’

He says the argument over whether drug users should simply ‘just say no’ distracts us from what needs to be the top priority: saving lives.

‘Look, if you want the person to take personal responsibility, you have to give them the tools to do that. And unless you revive the person who is dying, they are not going to take personal responsibility for anything.'”

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8 COMMENTS

  1. Since it decriminalized all drugs in 2001, Portugal has seen dramatic drops in overdoses, HIV infection and drug-related crime Read More https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/dec/05/portugals-radical-drugs-policy-is-working-why-hasnt-the-world-copied-it

    “Portugal’s remarkable recovery, and the fact that it has held steady through several changes in government – including conservative leaders who would have preferred to return to the US-style war on drugs – could not have happened without an enormous cultural shift, and a change in how the country viewed drugs, addiction – and itself.”

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      • Its so evil,

        For people struggling with addiction using drugs to deal with anxiety and problems getting caught being sick getting caught up in the injustice system multiplying there anxieties and problems by 100 causing the urge to use drugs to multiply along with it.

        I could sell the conspiracy theory that “they” are just trying to kill off all the addicted people at this point, they didn’t make mistakes miscalculate and accidentally make the problem worse and worse pushing pill users to heroin then bringing in fentanyl.

        Think about it, if you deliberately wanted to make the problem worse could you do anything different to do a better job then the government has done ?

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  2. Here it is Steve, did not take me long.

    “Pete still feels angry at the legal system that completely removed his daughter’s access to her children, and laws that — in his opinion — fail to adequately punish dealers.”

    “That combination of factors — especially the loss of her daughters, whom she loved dearly — took the fight out of Alicia.

    “I think she just gave up,” Hope said.

    https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/continuing_coverage/heroin/frederick-agencies-add-family-support-structures-as-loved-ones-mourn/article_a4aa1c96-e121-5894-a59d-62675a427307.html

    Been around this long enough to know that wicked system pushed this woman over the edge.

    That’s what they do, they give people what we call in recovery the “F its” well F it I will never crawl out of this hole, all these problems the system piled on, I am getting high so I just don’t feel it for a wile.

    Again if I was an evil psychopath and wanted to covertly create a suicide and overdose epidemic to rid society of burdens I could not think of a better plan then what the government has in place already. I would certainly have them add family support structures as loved ones mourn to create the illusion I cared and to control the narrative and make headlines blaming “social stigma” for my planned holocaust.

    I would also have the big tech companies shut down 1000s popular alternative news sites on both the left and right side of politics that call out the system for what it is…

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