Hip Hops promotion of pill abuse and other hard drug abuse

Remember that when it comes to opioids and how we hear about them, we have selection bias. We only hear about them when people or groups of people use too many, combine opioids with other drugs or when the opioids are being used to mask a deeper problem like poverty or depression. Since the public's imagination only sees opioids as being associated with death and crime and social dysfunction, the majority of opioid users, the casual and/or high functioning users, do not advertise their usage in the way that cannabis and alcohol users do.

Ultimately, we have to learn to live with opioids, the same way we live with alcohol. Remove the stigma, educate people about dosages and end the black market for opioids and let there be a cheap down market alternative and you'll have an imperfect but much better alternative to a prohibition model. Also, let small dose suboxone be sold over the counter. When a casual users feels that he or she might become slipping into addiction, let them preempt it by being able to get maintainance therapy cheaply, discreetly and without criminal, familial and legal "intervention." It would save many lives but the cops, the rehab racket and church ladies would all have much less action so the cycle of dysfunction will continue.

It is also surreal to see the black community's youth and street culture lagging behind white suburbanites. Usually, its white suburbanites who look to hip hop culture for inspiration, not the other way around. Black America, you got skinny jeans, skateboards and prescription drug abuse, it's like the summer of '06 in suburbia. What's next, inappropriately touching your friends after having just two rounds of Jaeggermeister?
 
703 Hwy said:
Fixed
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What did he pioneer?
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GetBack said:
What did he pioneer? :lol:
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I don't know about pioneer, but Lil Wayne was the first popular rapper I heard that sounded straight up like a fiend. Of course, he wasn't always incoherent, but around 2007-8, he just started sounding like a cracked out goblin, and eventually other rappers started following that sound
 
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IronStark said:
 
Well in all actuality, pioneer just means the first to do something. Not necessarily something positive.
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I know, but dude fixed Rusty's post so I was just wondered what he though Wayne pioneered...because it was definitely nothing positive.
 
Peep Game said:
Famous Dex and Lil Uzi are very close. I would say Lil Yachty, but he's not a fiend, he just clearly had some type of disability.
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I'm not a fan of his music, but dude is just on some troll **** and is actually pretty smart. I think he's funny.
 
these guys t up for the camera, booth, ect. 

cant say these guys real life addicts just off the music n interviews ish entertainment no matter how real it seems.
 
So I found out that my cousin overdosed on xanax and rocy. What is Roxy?
 
illmatic34 said:
:rolleyes
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Destruction of the family unit is the true curse for dependency imo. Chronic substance abusers typically come from broken down homes where neglect, malnourishment, child abuse..etc occur. I went a too far with the feminist bash and take it back but I truly feel that women don't nurture their boys/men like they use to.

Side note: did not know that third eye blinds "semi-charged life" is about snorting speed and getting blow jobs.
 
Wayniac211 said:
Destruction of the family unit is the true curse for dependency imo. Chronic substance abusers typically come from broken down homes where neglect, malnourishment, child abuse..etc occur. I went a too far with the feminist bash and take it back but I truly feel that women don't nurture their boys/men like they use to.

Side note: did not know that third eye blinds "semi-charged life" is about snorting speed and getting blow jobs.
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My cousin had 4 kids. His family is destroyed.
 
Colombia said:
Isn't that what's happening right now?
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For decades now really.

Rexanglorum said:
Remember that when it comes to opioids and how we hear about them, we have selection bias. We only hear about them when people or groups of people use too many, combine opioids with other drugs or when the opioids are being used to mask a deeper problem like poverty or depression. Since the public's imagination only sees opioids as being associated with death and crime and social dysfunction, the majority of opioid users, the casual and/or high functioning users, do not advertise their usage in the way that cannabis and alcohol users do.

Ultimately, we have to learn to live with opioids, the same way we live with alcohol. Remove the stigma, educate people about dosages and end the black market for opioids and let there be a cheap down market alternative and you'll have an imperfect but much better alternative to a prohibition model. Also, let small dose suboxone be sold over the counter. When a casual users feels that he or she might become slipping into addiction, let them preempt it by being able to get maintainance therapy cheaply, discreetly and without criminal, familial and legal "intervention." It would save many lives but the cops, the rehab racket and church ladies would all have much less action so the cycle of dysfunction will continue.

It is also surreal to see the black community's youth and street culture lagging behind white suburbanites. Usually, its white suburbanites who look to hip hop culture for inspiration, not the other way around. Black America, you got skinny jeans, skateboards and prescription drug abuse, it's like the summer of '06 in suburbia. What's next, inappropriately touching your friends after having just two rounds of Jaeggermeister?
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Completely agree. The US is so behind when it comes to its perspective on drug use.
 
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I notice whenever I bring this conversation up with people I get the "can't blame rap", "it's their choice to use, not my problem", or people bring up big pharm/another aspect that wasn't being discussed. I'm not gonna ask like I don't care what people do because it actually bothers me. I've seen first hand what it does to people. I'm not going to judge my friends, just know I'm gonna be that guy that you want want to use around cause I will be preaching lol.

This specific topic, hip hop promoting is true. Growing up I wanted to be like rocafella, ruff ryders, etc. They were the cool rappers at the time. There were kids wearing bandaids on their face because Nelly did it. I'm not sure why people can't focus on the specific topic of how hip hop helps promote this ****. If you have less popular rappers talking about using, you'll have less impressionable kids using.

I've been working in drug treatment for about 4 years. Last year, had this young black kid from MY come in. Normally I don't care to ask what got them started but he looked like he could've been my younger brother. He told me Wayne introduced him to sipping but Future is what really made him do it. You can argue, where were his parents but how many of us listened to everything they told us to do or not do.
 
I wish all these rappers would rap about their erectile dysfunction too. I bet a lot of these young boys would stop using.
 
I mean, I'll admit, if it wasn't for Chances Acid Rap, idk if I would have ever mingled with Lucy.
 
I prob wouldn't have started drinking Henny and Patron if it wasn't for hip hop.
 
Rexanglorum said:
Remember that when it comes to opioids and how we hear about them, we have selection bias. We only hear about them when people or groups of people use too many, combine opioids with other drugs or when the opioids are being used to mask a deeper problem like poverty or depression. Since the public's imagination only sees opioids as being associated with death and crime and social dysfunction, the majority of opioid users, the casual and/or high functioning users, do not advertise their usage in the way that cannabis and alcohol users do.

Ultimately, we have to learn to live with opioids, the same way we live with alcohol. Remove the stigma, educate people about dosages and end the black market for opioids and let there be a cheap down market alternative and you'll have an imperfect but much better alternative to a prohibition model. Also, let small dose suboxone be sold over the counter. When a casual users feels that he or she might become slipping into addiction, let them preempt it by being able to get maintainance therapy cheaply, discreetly and without criminal, familial and legal "intervention." It would save many lives but the cops, the rehab racket and church ladies would all have much less action so the cycle of dysfunction will continue.

It is also surreal to see the black community's youth and street culture lagging behind white suburbanites. Usually, its white suburbanites who look to hip hop culture for inspiration, not the other way around. Black America, you got skinny jeans, skateboards and prescription drug abuse, it's like the summer of '06 in suburbia. What's next, inappropriately touching your friends after having just two rounds of Jaeggermeister?
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I believe overprescribing is also one of the main factors in the opioid crisis that desperately needs to be tackled. Prescription painkillers are relatively easy to acquire in the US right?

I know loads of Americans who have received very strong opiates for something as simple as wisdom teeth removal.

Here in Belgium we've had similar issues with overprescribing as well. Codeine used to be available over the counter only several years ago for example. Nowadays your odds of getting an opiate prescription for something like wisdom teeth removal are slim to 0%, much less a strong opiate like oxycodone. Same goes for most surgeries. In the overwhelming majority of cases the patient receives no painkiller prescription after they've been cleared to leave the hospital. While you're in the hospital recovering from a surgery you get all sorts of pain medication to reduce the pain as much as possible, but that is immediately stopped when you're about to leave. After my partial lung removal I had half a dozen opiates in my body at the same time in the hospital as it was extremely painful due to the chest tube between my ribs but a couple days later I was sent home with some paracetamol. 10 years ago I would've been given an opiate prescription immediately.

Unless you are in a truly awful amount of pain when hospitals release you, you're getting 0 prescription painkillers from the hospital itself.

General physicians will prescribe an opiate for people recovering from a surgery if they feel it is warranted but either way they're generally not gonna prescribe anything stronger than Tramadol, which is a bit stronger than codeine. There are still "pill doctors" out there of course; there's one I know of in a neighboring town whose waiting room is literally filled with junkies most of the time. But I believe the steps the medical community has taken to reduce overprescribing has had a significant impact.

As a patient with a chronic disease that has resulted in nearly 4 years of pretty awful chronic pain, I can personally attest to how hard it is to legally obtain a prescription for stronger opiates. I've been asked numerous times by various doctors if I feel like my current painkillers (400mg of Tramadol per day) are adequate and I have answered no every time, but each time I have been categorically denied from anything stronger due to my age. "We're extremely hesitant to prescribe these kind of opiates to a 23 year old, even though it may be warranted" has been the common response from all sorts of specialists.

The balance between overprescribing and adequate pain relief can be frustrating to some patients, myself included, but overall I believe it is for the best. At the end of the day my chronic pain is mostly bearable with my current dosage. I understand that achieving that balance is tricky and if I have to endure more pain than I would like for the greater good of reducing overprescribing, so be it.

Those kind of steps to reduce overprescribing need to come from the medical community itself though. Aside from a ban on selling codeine over the counter, there was no legislation to force the medical community to tackle the problem. There was pressure from the government of course but it's something that the major hospitals and many doctors gradually did on their own, and the progress has been quite remarkable considering how easy it used to be to obtain almost any prescription painkiller. 

I think the steps to limit opiate prescriptions to Tramadol for the most part and leaving everything stronger than that for extreme cases is also a good step. Tramadol is certainly sufficient to take care of most pain that can't be effectively reduced enough through non-opiate means. Nobody needs oxycodone after wisdom teeth removal, that's simply way too strong for such a procedure. Tramadol is slightly stronger than codeine but quite a bit weaker than oxycodone, morphine, ... etc. The only people I personally know with oxycodone prescriptions for example are cancer patients, adults with MS and fibromyalgia and some elderly people in retirement homes with a lot of pain.

All opiates are strongly addictive and are nothing to play around with. Even at regular daily dosages, your body can become physically addicted within a month or even 2-3 weeks in some cases. That risk is increased significantly the stronger the opiate. Oxycodone is one of the worst in that regard.

There is also the mental aspect too. While I don't want to glorify it, I can say from personal experience that the euphoric high from an opiate like Tramadol is wonderful, almost heavenly. But that is where the danger lies. You can easily get hooked to that feeling, and that can devolve into physical addiction and requiring more opiates to counter the tolerance you build up from continued use. I've been prescribed the maximum dosage of Tramadol for over 2 years so I experience no kind of high, just the pain relief. I still let my mom lock my pills away in a secret spot with the key hidden somewhere else because I know that the temptation would likely be too strong for me to ignore. Even now I sometimes have to remove the thought of looking for the pills from my head.

Canada recently started an initiative to prescribe pharmaceutical grade heroin to severe addicts for which conventional treatments have failed. It's a controversial treatment but it reduces the use of dirty needles, dealing with shady drugdealers, ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...d-prescription-heroin/?utm_term=.55284b6e945b

Another 2 initiatives that I believe can improve the opioid crisis is clean needle programs to reduce the use of dirty needles and lower the risk of health concerns resulting from that. The state of Indiana had a program like this and when VP Mike Pence, governor of Indiana at the time, shut the program down it resulted in an outbreak of HIV around the area of the program.

The second initiative is legalizing over the counter naloxone (Narcan) everywhere. Naloxone is used to immediately block the effects of opiates in the body within 2-5 minutes and is therefore commonly used to revert an opiate overdose. Allowing it to be sold over the counter everywhere would likely prevent many overdoses that may have been fatal if medical assistance arrived too late. 
 
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narcan lol savin hella lives these days. im stayin outta gas station bathrooms tho it seems thats where everybody go to OD 
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. i aint tryna discover no corpses
 
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