View Full Version : Heavy drug use in your neighborhood?
Had a medical call this week. At a nice very expensive house only 5-10 minute walk from my home.
My normal calls are for falls, auto accidents, heart problems, strokes. This was a bit different. A 20-something female, heroin overdose...
I arrived in moments with the nearest other volunteer fire/EMT fellow, my usual partner, just as our on-deck paramedic and his driver pulled up in the ambulance. Lucky they'd been driving very nearby when the call went out.
The guy who called it in, her boyfriend, is stoned out of his mind too, and pretty wild and crazy. She's been convulsing, is unconscious, has almost no pulse. Nearly a goner. Lucky for her, his fear of arrest finally gave way to his fear of her dying. (Had he waited another 2-3 minutes, I'm pretty sure she'd not have made it.)
The boyfriend comes charging out to greet us, all hyped up. My partner, our high school football coach, and I ..."calm him down"...and keep him away from the scene while the medical people get to work.
At one point in the conversation the young lad asks "Coach, what should I do next time to deal with this? I turned her on her side, and called 911, but there must be more..." Coach ponders a moment, responds in his characteristic slow drawl: "Well, son, I'd start out next time by not doing the heroin..."
I'm going to put some more duct tape in my little EMT kit I think, so next time I can duct tape this sort of fellow to a chair properly until the Sheriff arrives. The way he was thrashing about, I was pretty sure we were going to have a serious problem with him, until Coach recognized him as a former student and started talking sports with him.
Bottom line: inside of this nice house in a nice neighborhood: complete filth and squalor. You'd never know, walking down the street. I'd been to the house 2 doors down a dozen times this year, and never suspected a thing was going on inside the Druggy Palace.
On investigation, I've found out that the house was being rented out for the off-season, and the renters had just gone...feral.
So, keep an eye on all your neighbors, and even then, be prepared for surprises.
You just described my nephew in my sister's home. Addiction is an equal opportunity illness, and many of us have addicts in our families. They are people we love and hope they survive long enough to get clean. I am glad you helped save the life of this young woman.
I'd like to recommend this book, which several addictions specialists recommnded to me. It's a physician's experiences serving addicts, and his take on the brain science. I think you'd find interesting, Bae.
http://www.amazon.com/Realm-Hungry-Ghosts-Encounters-Addiction/dp/155643880X
Here is an interview: http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=oZ-FAX4Pz8I&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DoZ-FAX4Pz8I
iris lily
4-11-13, 11:08am
EMT responders are often victims of brutality, in exactly situations like this.
catherine
4-11-13, 11:27am
I'd like to recommend this book, which several addictions specialists recommnded to me. It's a physician's experiences serving addicts, and his take on the brain science. I think you'd find interesting, Bae.
Amazon One-Click is a blessing and curse--I just downloaded it onto my Kindle. Thanks for the recommendation. I'm always looking for fresh insights into addiction.
HumboldtGurl
4-11-13, 3:41pm
Wow. I commend you for keeping cool in situations like this, I don't know how you handle it.
rodeosweetheart
4-11-13, 4:49pm
Just want to say God bless you, Bae, for doing what you do. Paramedics saved my life twice when I went into anaphylactic shock and respiratory failure--and ironically, I was slow to call because I kept not wanting to have them come, not that my house was a druggy palace, lol, but it is so embarrassing and the lights are flashing and it is NOT want I want to do--present the big emergency--but wehn the paramedics did come, they were were welcome. But I was still embarrassed--probably be embarrassed to the end, I guess, just a shy person.
Thank you SO MUCH for what you do for your community, for making the world a safer and better place, and well, for SAVING LIVES!!
:( can happen anywhere to anyone. I was blind sided 4 years ago, when the cops stopped me and said they needed in my house......a Heroin dealer was in my home with 6 warrants, she was with my son. I had prided myself on being perfect in so may ways, perfect neighbor and the Trash was in my home. I felt I let the trash into our neighborhood :(
poetry_writer
4-11-13, 6:42pm
Its epidemic. A doctor who gave me a prescription for a controlled substance cautioned me, saying there is now a data base "watching" who gets what . Like he was trying to scare me (there is such a database for controlled substances in our state, Big Brother is watching....an issue for another topic).......but he said he had been a psychiatrist for 30 yrs and the problem has gone out of control in the last few years...and this is just pills...not counting illegal drugs. I've seen family and friends struggle with unimaginable problems due to drug abuse. It used to be "those people out there" who had such problems. Now its in our own back yards...or homes! Its a nightmare.......
ToomuchStuff
4-11-13, 6:55pm
It is a little surprising EMT's get defibrillators, but don't get tasers and the training around them, IMHO. But this is why I hear a lot of LEO's that also will respond to EMT calls, when they hear them.
bae,
along the lines of "you never know", I was friends with a female senior citizen who was upper middle-class, well-dressed, well-educated, and - unbeknownst to me and even to her husband - a prescription pill addict.
She started slurring her words one day in a meeting, and after that we didn't see her for months. Turns out she went to rehab after a friend recognized what was going on.
I'm sure it's frustrating to first responders and other medical providers that so many of these people even deny they do drugs, and in some cases, it's easy to believe them because they don't fit the druggy profile.
:( can happen anywhere to anyone. I was blind sided 4 years ago, when the cops stopped me and said they needed in my house......a Heroin dealer was in my home with 6 warrants, she was with my son. I had prided myself on being perfect in so may ways, perfect neighbor and the Trash was in my home. I felt I let the trash into our neighborhood :(
Addicts are not trash & they do not fit a "druggie profile", they are human beings with a life threatening illness. Addiction is a medical issue, not a moral one, as these terms imply.
Addictions are endemic, and a long part of human history. Do you include legal drugs, like nicotine & alcohol, in your worldview of addictions?
In AA they say... "from Yale to jail"
Addiction is one of the most non-discriminating entities out there. It makes the ACLU look like a Klan meeting.
Addiction doesn't care how great your family is or isn't, it doesn't care how much money you have or don't, it doesn't care how religious you are or aren't --- if you have the predisposed genetic makeup in the right conditions... it is going to take you to down to the gates of hell if it doesn't inadvertently kill you first.
I say this as a person with 15 years alcohol & drug free, 10 nicotine free and currently fighting my behind off to get out of a nasty compulsive overeating issue after being bulimic in high school/college and never shaking my core issues with eating junk to numb myself.
Am I a trashy person - no.
But when I was in the hey-day of my booze/drug addiction, I sure looked like I was doing some serious research to appear on the Jerry Springer show!
My mom was completely enslaved by alcohol & ended up dying from addiction. I split my time between parents - very often my mom's home was squalor-like. It was mortifying growing up - all the secrecy when you are just trying to be a kid and fit in.
Re: Oxycontin
Everyone is so concerned about Marijuana being a 'gateway drug' ... these pills are bad news for anyone with the genetic makeup for addiction... they are essentially synthetic heroin from what I understand. My hometown is just infested with the problem of pills. Between that and meth - it has made areas of my town that didn't used to be on the wrong side of the tracks complete crime ridden places.
I have taken some oxy-related meds 2 different times in the hospital - and they ran all over my body/mind like wildfire. I am a million % committed to my sobriety so I tell all doctors about my alcoholism & give any prescribed narcotic medication to my husband to dole out to me.
Bae, you are doing an awesome thing. I admire you so much for giving back to your community as you do.
Mtnlaurel, congrats on being clean & sober. It's huge. Opiates are so awful... I was given a small dose of Percocet last night and ugh. I am not susceptible to opiates as is my nephew, and there are some interesting studies that point to different brains being ore or less addict brains. I view addiction as a neurological disease. Compulsive overeating is also my battle.
Miss Cellane
4-12-13, 8:44am
I live in a quiet little New England town. It's been described as "quaint."
On one of the nicest streets, in a lovely old Victorian house, the police found a meth lab.
One town over is the state university. Constant drug busts there, usually for possession. But a lot of the college kids live in my town, because the rents are cheaper, and there's the occasional drug bust here. But it's usually just pot.
However, last year, in two separate incidents, someone from my town and someone from one town over were both caught bringing heroin from out of state to sell here.
Yeah, it's pretty much everywhere.
decemberlov
4-12-13, 10:05am
My town too and the surrounding towns are infested with this epidemic also. Off the top of my head I can think of 7 people from my HS that have died from heroine (my brother included). I'm about 15 mins from Philly and about 10 from Camden, making it very accessible (and cheap).
The way these doctors dole out percocests and oxycotton like tylenol is only feeding the fire. I have a friend that has back problems she went to a doctor that prescribed her 190 oxy pills a month! Once she built up a pretty high tolerance to them she went to a 2nd doctor that also wrote a script for 100 more or so pills, again her tolerance got higher and she started snorting them, now she sells them to buy heroine instead. It's a sad, sad downward spiral. I haven't talked to her in months - I had to distance myself because it hurt too much to watch. She has 5 kids and I've offered to let them stay with me so that she can check herself into a rehab and get help - but she does not think she has a problem :(
iris lily
4-12-13, 11:34am
Sure there's drug use along with drug sales in and around my neighborhood. I think that's one of the advantages of living in the urban core, we aren't lulled into thinking it's "them not us" when in fact we live in the midst of it all.
Bae's post reminded me of a case some years back which shocked everyone in town. In a beautiful, snobbish, upscale, old money neighborhood they busted a major growing operation and pot ring out of a million-dollar mansion. The homeowners possessed furs, grand piano, luxurious furniture and furnishings. You just never know. The courts put the people away for years.
redfox,
in using the term druggie profile, I was thinking of the stereotype of an obviously addicted street person. I agree that addiction can happen anywhere to anyone.
I also agree it is a medical issue, and, I've often thought that if I was called to be on a jury for someone charged with possession, I would admit to the court that I would not criminally convict them.
Of course, if their addiction led to them committing a violent crime, then that's another story.
We have our share of drunk-driving accidents (occasionally fatal) and arrests, once in awhile someone is found with "paraphernalia," and I'm sure prescription drug abuse is common, but there's nothing overt--not like in a friend's neighborhood where they once pointed out a fellow walking down the street as "the local meth dealer."
Redfox, After attending all the addiction recovery lectures and therapy and living through it for being a loved one of an addict, Yes I do consider all of the above mentioned. And yes it is a medical issue after it takes ahold of a one, just as high blood pressure or diabetes is. Yes I drank the kool aid so to say from all those meetings. Yes the rehab visiting day parking lot looked like a luxury used car lot I joked every time we pulled in. Having said that, I will stand tall and never let it in my home again for trash is trash and I can not save the world or anyone. The three Cs, is what I follow now or someone else's addiction would have killed me and Enabling was my issue. I did not cause it, I can not control it and I can not change it. But believe me I sure thought I could!
My son after 8 years(?) of addiction choose to save himself and is now clean since 10/19/11 and takes one day at a time. His doctor hugged his last month and said he was proud of him, my son is proud of himself which is the most important thing. :
My son after 8 years(?) of addiction choose to save himself and is now clean since 10/19/11 and takes one day at a time. His doctor hugged his last month and said he was proud of him, my son is proud of himself which is the most important thing. :
That is wonderful, ctg492! So happy to hear your son is finding his way out of addiction..
And refox, I want to thank you profusely for the book recommendation, In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts. It is amazing.
Ten years ago (approx) it was discovered that a home down the way from us was home and headquarters to a grow-op. Always comes as such a surprise when news such as that strikes a small community such as ours, but it just goes to show that no matter where one resides, drugs and abuse are still very much alive.
Addicts are not trash & they do not fit a "druggie profile", they are human beings with a life threatening illness. Addiction is a medical issue, not a moral one, as these terms imply.
Addictions are endemic, and a long part of human history. Do you include legal drugs, like nicotine & alcohol, in your worldview of addictions?I didn't think that ctg492 was talking about a heroin addict but rather a heroin dealer - one who apparently was wanted by the police for 6 warrants and may have been a criminal. I can see not wanting a fugitive in their house and feeling that a drug fealer would be a very undesierable character. And while it's true that many heroin addicts deal to support their habit - along with a whole host of other criminal activities, some very violent - not all are. The international, multi-billion dollar a year heroin trade isn't run by addicts, but by greed and hardened criminals who engage in every sort of violent crime imaginable - child porn, sex slavery, weapons trafficing, human trafficing, murder, etc.. as well as involing every criminal group from outlaw biker gangs to organized crime to terrorist groups to shady governments (you oldsters remember the Golden Triangle in S.E. Asia and now Burma and Afganistan) even some large international corporations are involved with heroin trafficing and distribution. So while I agree that the addict needs medical treatment and support, the dealer may be a whole different animal.
So, keep an eye on all your neighbors, and even then, be prepared for surprises.Ha! Well I live in the largest vietnamese community in the world outside of Vietnam and drug trafficing (although not so much using) is a problem here. Especially opiates (heroin). Every now and then walking thru the very family oriented working class 'hood, you'll see dealers and the line of cars in front of a house. but only one night and then they move on. With so many people in each house (many multi-generational families but many just a whole bunch of young people) it's hard to tell which house is the drug house and which isn't. For instance, the last week there has been one house (very nice house) with 15 cars parked in front on the driveway and lawn (which is against codes here) and a whole bunch more parked and double parked in the street and a whole bunch of young guys milling around. Car enthusists? Car dealers? Family and visiting friends? Or drug dealers? Who knows!
poetry_writer
4-16-13, 2:28pm
Addicts are not trash & they do not fit a "druggie profile", they are human beings with a life threatening illness. Addiction is a medical issue, not a moral one, as these terms imply.
Addictions are endemic, and a long part of human history. Do you include legal drugs, like nicotine & alcohol, in your worldview of addictions?
Someone I love very much CHOSE to put drugs up their nose and down their throat. They CHOSE to hang around people who used it and sold it. They then lost the ability to control, or even the desire to. Stealing grandmas jewelry to pawn it (and everything else not nailed down) , stealing pills from sick family members, lying constantly, losing all sense or morals and not caring what is right or wrong....... towards even beloved family members. I myself dont call it an illness. Whatever you call it..it is devestating to the addicts and their families. Some like the lifestyle and do nothing to get out of it. Some have no way to get out of it (lack of insurance or money for rehabs etc). It is a nightmare....
ApatheticNoMore
4-16-13, 3:30pm
I don't know why we coin new terms to apply to addiction: it's a disease or it's a choice, when the term addiciton far more perfectly captures the heavily weighted choice it is. Besides there seems a lot of impetetus to diagnosis it as a disease without recognizing what would be perfeclty obvious and consistent if we exend that metaphor: there is no known cure. So as long as everyone who says "it's a disease", follows with "and there is no known cure to it", I can kind of accept that. Science does not understand all aspects of addiction at present. There is probably much more going on psychologically and biologically than we understand.
Drug experimentation is a choice, using it initially to deal with emotions etc. may be a choice, pretty soon there's heavily physical dependence in addition to psychological habits. The initial physical dependence can be broken after withdrawal. But the medical authorities seem to believe your brain chemistry has probably been messed up (at least for awhile, it woudlnt' surprise me if some of it was permanent) due to the addiction (any natural pleasure chemicals burned out), so they usually treat with anti-depressants etc..
And then there are the habitual aspects. So you're depressed (meh who doesn't get somewhat, as if that impresses me much, stand in line and take a number) but you also know (and not just intellectually but with your whole being) there is this stuff that makes you feel like everything is right in the world, like a baby in it's momma's arms, or something not recapturable in ordinary adult existence. That's how it has been described to me. And I can understand how that might be a hard knowledge to live with, just knowing it's always there. And so the slightest increase in distress can make that seem so tempting. So an addiciton is a really strong temptation. Yea, I can see some merit in that langauge. And I get very angry with addicts for not trying harder to fight against that temptation more, if only they could understand, like an observer does, what this all is externally in the real world, how destructive, etc..
Sigh, in my life I don't know how much hope I have for some people's sobriety, like maybe the best that can be hoped for is managed addiction (treating with prescribed non-habituating versions of the substance).
It seems the authorities just busted a "known problem house" a few miles from me. I guess it's more overt than I thought...
The data I have read is that less than 20% of those who try heroin get addicted. No one knows why those who do become addicted, do. Mind altering substances have been around for as long as human beings have. We all experiment with them, even if just drinking too much coffee or eating too much sugar. We will never stop drug use.
Moralizing this normal human behavior I has gotten us nowhere; in fact, it drives this common human behavior underground. Making drug use illegal does not help either, quite obviously. This is a biomedical & public health problem, and needs to be addressed in these domains.
The data I have read is that less than 20% of those who try heroin get addicted. No one knows why those who do become addicted, do. Mind altering substances have been around for as long as human beings have. We all experiment with them, even if just drinking too much coffee or eating too much sugar. We will never stop drug use.
Moralizing this normal human behavior I has gotten us nowhere; in fact, it drives this common human behavior underground. Making drug use illegal does not help either, quite obviously. This is a biomedical & public health problem, and needs to be addressed in these domains.
I'm glad you posted this. I've certainly used my share of licit and illicit mind-altering substances and will always think fondly of certain psychedelics.
ApatheticNoMore
4-16-13, 8:51pm
I find it amazing that only 20% of people who try heroine get addicted. I'm pretty darn certain if I took heroine, I'd be a goner. So no I just don't.
Moralizing this normal human behavior I has gotten us nowhere; in fact, it drives this common human behavior underground. Making drug use illegal does not help either, quite obviously. This is a biomedical & public health problem, and needs to be addressed in these domains.
But biomedical and public health do not have the answers at present. Their solutions don't work very well either. Their AA, and rehabs, and sober living houses and on and on. Isn't the failure rate greater than the sucess rate even long term? Maybe the medical-addiciton-complex that has no real cure either (though it it a massive industry).
I find it amazing that only 20% of people who try heroine get addicted. I'm pretty darn certain if I took heroine, I'd be a goner. So no I just don't.
But biomedical and public health do not have the answers. Their solutions don't work very well either. Their AA, and rehabs, and sober living houses and on and on. Isn't the failure rate greater than the sucess rate even long term? Maybe the medical-addiciton-complex that has no real cure either.
I do not think we've deployed the research and treatment capabilities we could to address addictions. The resources you cite are not research based. It would be quite something if a corollary to the so-called War on Cancer was engaged on behalf of research & treatment for addicts & addictions.
I have gotten stellar care through my HMO for cancer. My nephew has gotten bare bones, disrespectful, shabby care for his illness. Same HMO, same city. Night & day differences, and he has a mom who is in the health care system, and advocating for him when he cannot advocate for himself. The treatment he is getting is consonant with our societal attitudes towards addicts, and it is not only shameful, it's profoundly ineffective.
ApatheticNoMore
4-16-13, 8:59pm
What resources do you think should be deployed to save a drug addict that on any given day may or may not want to be saved (and it may change tommorow)? What would you recommend?
To yes, as often as not, save someone from themselves, because the actual desire to get off drugs (which to their credit does exist) is constantly competing with what is often an even stronger desire to take them which is expressed as deep love of the drugs (though of course that's the addiction talking). And if I can't save them from themselves by recommended some program or therapy or something (Al Anon would agree I'm sure), then why assume that anything could?
I LOVE these questions, and am sadly in no state to engage with them, being only 5 days out of surgery, and quite exhausted. Plus having a small amount of narcotics in my bloodstream... My thinking is pretty bad. I'd love to hear what others say, and beg off for perhaps next week when I am more cognitively functional.
Briefly, I believe that addictions are a neurological disorder. Brain science is in it's infancy, and I have hope for this area of research to bear amazing fruit regarding addictions. I have a good friend who is a brain imaging physician, and his wife is an addictions psychotherapist. We've had some very robust convos over the years about this area of medicine.
In the meantime, Dr. Gabor Maté's book In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts addresses the from a medical standpoint. Here are some interviews with him:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ-FAX4Pz8I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-APGWvYupU
http://addictionmanagement.org/2010/05/living-hero-podcasts-dr-gabor-mate-interview/
ApatheticNoMore
4-16-13, 11:00pm
I LOVE these questions, and am sadly in no state to engage with them, being only 5 days out of surgery, and quite exhausted
Yes of course, get well.
Gardenarian
4-17-13, 7:12pm
I think that I am so far removed from the drug culture that I wouldn't even see it if it was across the street. I know that there have been some arrests of meth dealers, but most of them are from out of town. The users - well, my town is a real mix of bikers, old hippies, new hipsters, and middle-class families, along with a new population of homeless that are living on the outskirts. Who knows?
When I was in high school I knew all the "druggies" and dealers in town and could tell in a second when someone was stoned - and when I think back, it's surprising how many people used a lot of drugs - almost everyone I knew. (I've never been tempted myself - having epilepsy is a long, strange trip in itself, and I've no wish to have my brain anywhere but normal.)
awakenedsoul
4-17-13, 9:00pm
The data I have read is that less than 20% of those who try heroin get addicted. No one knows why those who do become addicted, do. Mind altering substances have been around for as long as human beings have. We all experiment with them, even if just drinking too much coffee or eating too much sugar. We will never stop drug use.
Moralizing this normal human behavior I has gotten us nowhere; in fact, it drives this common human behavior underground. Making drug use illegal does not help either, quite obviously. This is a biomedical & public health problem, and needs to be addressed in these domains.
We don't all experiment with them. I don't. My mother was addicted to prescription drugs while pregnant with me. She was seeing three different doctors, taking three different prescriptions. I came out of the womb with an aversion to drugs and prescription pills. People who get high think everyone else does it. I decided very young that I would not do that to my body. My parents are both alcoholics and I have found other ways to deal with negative emotions and pain. This assumption that it's normal comes with drug use. It changes your brain. Even if you quit, there's an expansion that still happens involuntarily. Everyone has to take responsibility for their actions. It takes strenth, self discipline, focus, and self respect to make healthy, positive choices for your body and emotions. Art, music, dance, percussion, yoga, and exercise can all do wonders. There are options. It's up to you.
Of course "people who get high" include lots of folks sipping red wine and taking advantage of easily-obtained prescriptions.
I enjoyed social drinking and using recreational drugs back in the day--while I was busy working my way through college and afterwards--and don't feel a bit apologetic. Any more than the birds getting high on my fermented Madrona berries do. As Redfox pointed out, enjoying psychoactive substances is normal--people and animals have been doing it since time began. Pass the coffee.
And of course we now have all sorts of electronic addictions we didn't have 100 years ago. TV, computers, video games, etc... plus gambling, sex and any other thing that one does to obsession. I don't know if those kinds of things change brain chemistry and/or physiology in the same way as drinking caffine, snorting coke or shooting heroin does, but I imagine that there are at least some changes. But while moralizing about drug addiction (or any addiction for that matter) doesn't do much good after the fact, it may do some good before the fact. Placing moral judgement of certain risky behaviors (or potentially risky behaviors) may disuade some people from even trying things in the first place.
awakenedsoul
4-19-13, 5:11pm
We have an unbelievable drug problem here. Kids are dying of heroin overdoses. Many of the parents on my street smoke pot, are alcoholics, and take prescription drugs. They teach the kids how to deal drugs. Most of these kids on my street have been in jail for drug related charges. It's getting worse, not better. I'm so glad that I had work, dance, and a positive peer group at that age. We have a lot of meth use here, and their brains are just mush after that.
I waver between being in anguish with regard to the uptake of addictive substances, and accepting it as a reality. I get angry when I hear about young people succumbing to drugs and alcohol. Then I really have to absorb Byron Katie and tell myself that what is, is. I must accept certain things, as hard as it is. Having been kissing cousins with alcoholism, I have to say, it's hard.
I have known several of my kids' friends and peers who have died and/or committed suicide as a direct result of substance abuse. It makes me so sad. One died just two weeks ago--27 years old. She was in my DD's class--I knew her mom from PTA, and she was very vibrant, involved mom. When I asked my daughter about the girl, she said that she had been "involved with druggies" all through high school. It truly makes me angry--not angry with the kids but with the drugs. I love the scene in Mommie Dearest where Joan Crawford yells at her maid because there's dirt under the plant pot in the hall. When the maid fumbles and apologies, Joan says, "I'm not mad at YOU, I'm mad at the DIRT." That's exactly how I feel about addictive substances.
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