Meet the New Meth - P2P

[GrantM]

It has everything to do with the issues. Here in Oregon, the "progressives" have decriminalized all drugs. As such, we are now a destination for drug addicts. In Portland, the mayor, Ted Wheeler, early on was marching with the likes of BLM and Antifa, offering encouragement for anarchy. The police have been defunded, and homeless camps are rampant. Just yesterday, one of my friends was in a shoe store close to PDX, when four men entered the store with a giant trash bag, and proceeded to clear the shelves into the bag, filling it up and then leaving, unchallenged. The police are often fearful of responding to calls because of possible blowback. Portland has basically become a parody of itself... "Keep Portland Weird" indeed. Their chickens have come home to roost.

There are places in Canada and Europe far more "progressive" than the kooks running those policies you cite. Being "progressive" has nothing to do with defunding the police.
I think the label you are searching for is "American corruption and incompetence".

-g

[Clean39T]

"american corruption and incompetence".

-g

We're number one! We're number one!

[johnnyace]

And I'm moving back there at the end of the month! Bracing myself...

Yikes, good luck with that. The same friend I mentioned that saw the shoe store robbery is trying to get out, after recently returning to Portland after several years absence. Him and his girlfriend can't take it. He's been commuting here to Salem for work as of the beginning of this month, so they are looking for housing here.

[GrantM]

The same friend I mentioned that saw the shoe store robbery is trying to get out.

It's more effective to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps in a new pair of shoes.

-g

[johnnyace]

There are places in Canada and Europe far more "progressive" than the kooks running those policies you cite. Being "progressive" has nothing to do with defunding the police.
I think the label you are searching for is "American corruption and incompetence".

That may be the truth of the matter, but they clothe themselves in progressivism, and the voters eat it up like ice cream.

[beeatnik]

I don't understand what the political labels have to do with any of the issues. Have you got conservative coalitions fighting to get local power so they can finally get in there an solve the problems?
Or do they just move away? These are hard problems to solve, that most people aren't the slightest bit interested in solving.

-g

That's exactly it. I'm in a liberal town (85% for Biden) which has zero tolerance for encampments or visible homelessness.
While across an artificial boundary a few hundred feet down the Arroyo, the City of Los Angeles, next door, deals with the public health issues and most of the crime.

[Clean39T]

Yikes, good luck with that. The same friend I mentioned that saw the shoe store robbery is trying to get out, after recently returning to Portland after several years absence. Him and his girlfriend can't take it. He's been commuting here to Salem for work as of the beginning of this month, so they are looking for housing here.

I'll be on the other side of the hill but still technically in "Portland" - number of confounding factors are driving us back there (family, work, housing, etc.) - probably not for good, but maybe a couple few years..

My folks couldn't take it anymore either. After 20 years in a close-in NE neighborhood, they cashed out and moved to LO.

[spopepro]

Thanks for that. I may have misrepresented things in my opening post as far as the history and "newness". But I think the takeaway that the most popular version of meth out there now is having a different human impact than before is still valid. Maybe I'm wrong. It just seems like the level of psychosis among the addicted is different than it was... and maybe that points to different ways of dealing with the situation. I know that it is influencing choices I make, or will be making, when I'm back cycling in Portland, or really doing anything in an area where people under the sway of those influences are present.

I don't think you were responsible for misrepresentation--the article is not great on a scientific side. It is however excellent on the economics side talking about how the factors of opioids, cannabis legalization, cartel politics, and enforcement have conspired to make a perfect storm of cheap availability, and it did connect some dots for me that I hasn't seen (but had lived in the neighborhood with all the outcomes), so thanks for posting.

[beeatnik]

The guest on the (cringe) Joe Rogan podcast makes a counter point. That places like Portugal and the Netherlands are actually not that progressive when it comes to the criminal aspect of drug use, ie, shooting up in public or living in a dangerous encampment.

There are places in Canada and Europe far more "progressive" than the kooks running those policies you cite. Being "progressive" has nothing to do with defunding the police.
I think the label you are searching for is "American corruption and incompetence".

-g

[rwsaunders]

Rampant drug use and drug transactions take place all around my office in Belltown (Seattle), where the city attempted to make the block pedestrian friendly, by limiting access to cars. We now have a woman camped in a Jetta for the past 6 months with a tarp over most of the windows, blatantly moving “product” via bike runners, but the Police have responded that they have more important issues to address. I’m to the point that I can tell whether someone is on heroin, crack or meth and I really don’t see an end to it and I’m not in the position to offer a solution.

While walking down the street and while riding the Light Rail, I have also noticed a marked increase in public outbursts, confrontations and threats. So much so, that I limit my time walking in certain areas and I will not take the Light Rail to SeaTac after 9pm. Even this morning at 7am in a fairly full car (Light Rail) of commuters from Cap Hill to Westlake, a gent violently started bashing a newspaper against the handrail claiming that we weren’t allowing him to read in peace and that he would dissect us all if he could. I think that the term progressive needs to be applied to mental health care services and public security…in a hurry.

[Peter Polack]

Since many of you are interested in this topic, may I suggest a couple books.

I'm currently reading "Dopesick, Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America" by Beth Macy. Not just about Oxycontin, but also heroin and the drugs used to treat opioid addiction. The wrecked lives portrayed in the book are shocking. If I understood the book correctly, 80% of opioid addicts started with a legal prescription. However, when I read about teens and college aged people hosting "pharm parties" and the O.D.s and addicts that result, I start to wonder; WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!

The other book is Methland, The Death and Life of an American Small Town, by Nick Reding. The link explains it better than I can.

I read both and they were eye opening.

[GrantM]

The guest on the (cringe) Joe Rogan podcast makes a counter point. That places like Portugal and the Netherlands are actually not that progressive when it comes to the criminal aspect of drug use, ie, shooting up in public or living in a dangerous encampment.

well yeah. But the "progressive" position would be harm reduction. Places like Portugal and the Netherlands didn't decriminalize drug use so that
people could OD or fall even further from society, the point is to integrate them back into their lives, and not empower the criminal justice system
to manage the negative externalities. It seems like the failures of American drug and social policies is to remove the criminalization guardrails
and not replace it with anything. I wonder if anyone on the political spectrum really thinks that's an effective policy framework.

-g

[Clean39T]

Since many of you are interested in this topic, may I suggest a couple books.

I'm currently reading "Dopesick, Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America" by Beth Macy. Not just about Oxycontin, but also heroin and the drugs used to treat opioid addiction. The wrecked lives portrayed in the book are shocking. If I understood the book correctly, 80% of opioid addicts started with a legal prescription. However, when I read about teens and college aged people hosting "pharm parties" and the O.D.s and addicts that result, I start to wonder; WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!

The other book is Methland, The Death and Life of an American Small Town, by Nick Reding. The link explains it better than I can.

I read both and they were eye opening.

Any podcast or documentary recommendations? My attention span for books is unfortunately not what it used to be..

[Octave]

Any podcast or documentary recommendations? My attention span for books is unfortunately not what it used to be..

This may not be your vibe, politically, so apologies if this is off the mark, but I found the Free Thoughts podcast episode with Carl Hart was a really interesting perspective on the morality position regarding drug use and how we treat drug users, and why that has lead us down this dark path to some degree. Last week's episode with Maia Szalavitz, who spoke from the perspective of a recovered/recovering drug addict, was also on point, in my opinion.

[claritycycler]

Dopesick series on Hulu about oxy, Purdue Pharma, corruption and Sackler family. Really disgusting people with a sociopathic business plan.

[bigbill]

I had a cardiology appointment on Wednesday. The medical assistant was reviewing my info and asking about prescription drugs I take. She asked me if I was taking Vicodin for pain which confused me before I realized that she was seeing the Vicodin from my August emergency appendectomy. I took two pills out of a bottle of 24 in the first 12 hours after surgery. What struck me odd it was that the Vicodin was assumed to be something I still took. The new normal?

[johnnyace]

My folks couldn't take it anymore either. After 20 years in a close-in NE neighborhood, they cashed out and moved to LO.

Yeah, funny how the problems disappear quickly a few miles down the road, in communities that have a zero tolerance for such bullshit. Lake Oswego is to Portland much like Keizer is to Salem: no homeless camps, less crime, drug issues, etc.

Spent some time in both Idaho and Montana this past summer. Saw little to no issues like we have in Oregon and Washington in both states. So apparently there's some truth to this being more of a problem in "progressive" blue states, than in "conservative" red states.

[GrantM]

I realized that she was seeing the Vicodin from my August emergency appendectomy. I took two pills out of a bottle of 24 in the first 12 hours after surgery. What struck me odd it was that the Vicodin was assumed to be something I still took. The new normal?

Add up all the excess prescribed meds from medical procedures - dental, accidents, minor surgeries, there is a nice little side business for teenagers selling pain meds
or having some weekend fun from their family medicine cabinet!

[cny rider]

Assuming your Doc has one of the widely used EMR's it's just something that populated into your med list at the time the prescription was written.
The MA just reads down the list, she's not looking at how many were prescribed or if it was for long term use.
The problem is it doesn't come off the list until your physician takes it off, and that's one of the thousands of clicks expected of us daily, so it gets forgotten and can live on there for a long time..

[theflashunc]

Yeah, funny how the problems disappear quickly a few miles down the road, in communities that have a zero tolerance for such bullshit. Lake Oswego is to Portland much like Keizer is to Salem: no homeless camps, less crime, drug issues, etc.

Spent some time in both Idaho and Montana this past summer. Saw little to no issues like we have in Oregon and Washington in both states. So apparently there's some truth to this being more of a problem in "progressive" blue states, than in "conservative" red states.

Counterpoint: West Virginia.

Homelessness and the attendant issues that lead to it are one of the more complicated domestic policy issues to solve since there's no one root cause. It's a hideously complicated multi-factor problem that ranges from economic distress to lack of affordable housing to addiction issues.

Welcome to late stage capitalism and byproducts thereof.