Hi, Folks -

FWIW: In hospital earlier this year, Percocet was readily available if I'd wanted it. Each day a nurse would ask me what my "pain level" was that day, and would offer Percocet or another painkiller if it seemed I might benefit from it. I did accept it a time or two, but soon found that the constipation it induced was worse than tolerating the pain. :)

They wanted to control my pain because rehabilitation exercise was what was needed, following surgery. I understand that thinking though I'm not sure I agree with it - the pain was there for a reason, after all, and perhaps overriding it isn't the right idea. And the thought was expressed, "If you're taking Percocet for pain, you're not addicted." Not sure I agree with that either :) even though the same idea had been put forward on the popular TV series "House MD".

Since returning home from hospital there have been perhaps three or four occasions when a sense of depression came upon me from out of nowhere. I strongly suspect it was the effect of some drug - possibly Percocet or possibly even surgical anaesthetic - that had been administered in hospital, now working itself out of my system, even though by medical measurement it may have been believed that "clearance" had occurred much earlier.

From ForbiddenKnowledgeTV:

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My cousin's husband is a fireman-
medic in Central Florida. He tells
me that he spends most of his
working hours administering

Narcan to overdosed kids in their
20s.

Narcan is the brand name for
naloxone, an opiate antidote,
which rapidly blocks the effects
of opiates.

When taken in massive doses,
opiates, including painkillers can
cause the user to stop breathing
and die. If a person who's
overdosed is injected with Narcan,
the opiates are immediately knocked
out of their brains' opiate receptors
and the user quickly begins
breathing again.

The most common route to the
virtually inescapable trap of opiate
addiction is via prescription
painkillers, such as Percocet and
oxycodone. Everyday people,
recovering from routine surgeries
or sports injuries can easily become
addicted to the painkillers that
they've been medically prescribed.

These highly-controlled drugs are
expensive and difficult to obtain,
both legally and illegally. Meanwhile,
heroin is available everywhere and
is very cheap in its purest and most
powerfully-addictive form. In 2012,
an estimated 2.1 million people in
the US suffered from substance use
disorders related to opiate painkillers
and an additional 467,000 had
become full-blown heroin addicts. In
2014, the latter number had grown
to 587,000 - and it's on the rise.

The numbers are especially
frightening when one considers
that only 1 in 10 heroin addicts,
actively seeking treatment will
succeed in beating their addictions.

Heroin addiction has little to do
with the stereotypes of the 1960s
and '70s. It is not an "Inner City"
problem associated with "ethnic
minorities". The crisis today is
most often seen among middle
class whites in suburban and
rural America.

Opioid addiction is a chronic
brain disease precipitated by
fundamental, long-term changes
to the structure and functioning
of the brain. While the initial
choice to use opioids may be
voluntary, once opioid addiction
develops, use is compulsive, not
voluntary.

The neurological changes that
produce opioid tolerance and
physical addiction are well
understood. Tolerance corrects
itself within a period of weeks
following cessation of use. By
contrast, the neurological changes
that cause addiction are wider
ranging and much more complex
and do not reverse themselves
shortly after opioid use has ceased.
These neurological changes often
persist for extended lengths of
time.

The uncontrollable drug
consumption seen with opioid
addiction is primarily driven by
opioid cravings, which are typically
the most persistent symptoms of
opioid addiction. This persistence
is attributable to the comparatively
prolonged time required for the
opioid-dependent brain to restore
some degree of pre-disease
normalcy. Patients may be vulnerable
to drug cravings and relapse for
months and even years after their
last opioid use.

I watched several documentaries
on this very pressing subject and I
chose this one to show, despite its
failure to emphasize how
criminalization is clearly impeding
many from any hope of recovery from
addiction and it is definitely causing
more unnecessary deaths.

Heroin is so ubiquitous that addicts
can usually maintain their addictions
while in prison, without any interruption.

The overdose death rate in 2008 was
nearly four times the 1999 rate.
Although this program claims that
most of the heroin that enters the US
comes through Mexico, it fails to
mention that 90% of the world's
heroin supply comes from Afghanistan.
15 years after the US invasion undid
the work of the Taliban, who'd nearly
obliterated poppy cultivation prior to
2001, today, 35% of Afghanistan's
legal GDP is derived from raw opium.

Opiates have been used as a weapon
between nations for hundreds of years.
If the situation in America is epidemic,
Russia has less than half the population
of the United States and more than
four times the number of heroin
addicts.

Video: (40 min):

Breaking Point: Heroin in America
http://forbiddenknowledgetv.net/breaking-point-heroin-in-america-27669

- Alexandra

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