When I met the friend who taught me about heroin, I figured she was "high as a kite" because she chattered from topic to topic like a butterfly. She called back a few days later, and started to invite me into her world. I didn't know anything about the street pharmacy, except that cannabis had been helpful for another friend to get her alcohol use under control.
She was going to the methadone clinic daily when we met. If she couldn't get to the clinic by the 11am closing, she'd have to order heroin from her street pharmacist. It was almost as if the clinic had contempt for its clients -- their business was to be their clients' legal dealer.
Four months after she'd begun to teach me about her world, I decided she didn't actually like it that much, and began to express disapproval at her self-medication strategies. She tried sticking with her old drug world, but she liked me more than the drugs. At about six months we had a nice time frying donuts (coconut oil is a treatment for compulsive alcohol use, and makes for tasty donuts). Two days later she called to say that she "wished [she] wasn't a drug addict". The next day, "I SHOULD ONLY USE SUBSTANCES WHICH ARE LEGAL! Alcohol is legal, [tcj_phx]..." (me: doh! progress, I'll take it), the following day, "I hate methadone, I hate everything about it..." Essentially what I did was a months-long pace... then lead (hypnotic technique).
The most important interventions to end the present "opioid epidemic" (artificial) is to provide a legal supply of clean heroin, safe injection sites, and protecting addicts from the criminal justice system.
She said she'd relapsed on cocaine because of severe depression, then shortly later on heroin -- supposedly to treat her high blood pressure (from smoking cocaine). I think really she was just lonely. A chapter in Gabor Maté's book is titled Through a Needle, a Soft, Warm Hug [0].
She was going to the methadone clinic daily when we met. If she couldn't get to the clinic by the 11am closing, she'd have to order heroin from her street pharmacist. It was almost as if the clinic had contempt for its clients -- their business was to be their clients' legal dealer.
Four months after she'd begun to teach me about her world, I decided she didn't actually like it that much, and began to express disapproval at her self-medication strategies. She tried sticking with her old drug world, but she liked me more than the drugs. At about six months we had a nice time frying donuts (coconut oil is a treatment for compulsive alcohol use, and makes for tasty donuts). Two days later she called to say that she "wished [she] wasn't a drug addict". The next day, "I SHOULD ONLY USE SUBSTANCES WHICH ARE LEGAL! Alcohol is legal, [tcj_phx]..." (me: doh! progress, I'll take it), the following day, "I hate methadone, I hate everything about it..." Essentially what I did was a months-long pace... then lead (hypnotic technique).
The most important interventions to end the present "opioid epidemic" (artificial) is to provide a legal supply of clean heroin, safe injection sites, and protecting addicts from the criminal justice system.
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16023802
(Yesterday's post about adoption-trauma is relevant too: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16443667 )