It looks like they're including Northern Kentucky in the numbers for Cincinnati, but there was 50 overdoses in two days in this area.

It blows me away how people are even still trying heroin when these deaths keep piling up. Drug dealers are giving out "testers" and then saying "contact me if you like it," but I still don't see how people can't look around and see how bad it's gotten.

People are overdosing in cars, ice cream shops, and McDonalds bathrooms.

This area seems to be struggling lately.

Quote:First responders were reeling in Cincinnati after a mid-week spate of more than 50 heroin overdoses from Tuesday morning to Wednesday night.

Even in the midst of a drug epidemic that has made opioid overdoses an increasingly common feature in towns and cities across the nation, the wave of emergencies reported in Cincinnati took police, emergency responders and medical professionals by surprise, WCPO, a local ABC affiliate reported on Wednesday night.

The 911 calls came from all over the city, WCPO reported, including one from the bathroom of an ice cream parlor, another from a McDonald’s, and yet another from the scene of a car crash caused by a man who had overdosed while driving.

Several of the overdose victims had to be revived, but one was not so lucky, turning the scene outside a local restaurant grim as authorities carried away the individual in a body bag.

“I am very disturbed about it,” area resident Richard Henson told WCPO. “It really saddens my heart.”

Police suspect a batch of heroin mixed with fentanyl, carfentanil or even rat poison may be to blame for the wave of overdoses.

Each of these ingredients is known to produce a greater high and a greater risk of overdose and death than pure heroin, said WCPO.

The deadly drug cocktails have even proven resistant to treatments like Narcan that have reduced overdose death rates. In at least one of the Cincinnati overdoses, the victim had to be given two doses of Narcan.

"I've got to say to whoever pushed this out on the street, this was the wrong thing to do," Newtown police Chief Tom Synan, head of the Hamilton County Heroin Coalition, told WCPO.

“You now have the full and undivided attention of the Hamilton County Coalition Task Force, which includes local, state and federal agencies, and I can tell you we'll all be working with the Cincinnati Police Department to see who pushed this out on the street."

Police suspect the involvement of multiple street-level dealers in the extremely dangerous batch, with at least one giving it away for free, said Capt. Aaron Jones of the Cincinnati Police Department.

"Of the victims (Tuesday) that would talk to us and were honest in telling us where they received this heroin from, it’s from several different people ... from several different areas," Jones told WCPO. "Some of those were given almost as what we call testers -- 'Try this out and if you like it, you can get a hold of me.'"

Cincinnati is not the only area dealing with a sudden surge in overdose rates. A West Virginia town saw 27 heroin overdoses within 4 hours a week ago.

More than 47,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2014, with opioids like heroin and fentanyl accounting for nearly 60 percent of that total.

The number of heroin users in the United States reached one million in 2014, a 20-year high, while heroin-related deaths have increased five-fold since 2000, according to a United Nations study published in June.

Sad part is that some people will see this as a sign that they can get the "good shit" in Cincy.

Are folk that do illegal drugs aware of the news media ?
Or just sadly overwhelmed by the addiction at hand ?

(08-25-2016, 01:35 PM)BFritz21 Wrote: ...It blows me away how people are even still trying heroin...

(08-25-2016, 02:21 PM)Sabretooth Wrote: Are folk that do illegal drugs aware of the news media ?
Or just sadly overwhelmed by the addiction at hand ?

Some may contest the fact I cut off Brad's follow up of "when these deaths keep piling up" but it isn't relevant to the fact people keep getting addicted AT ALL.

What is truly shocking is the complete misunderstanding of what addiction is, how it happens and the two "competing" methods of overcoming addiction.

Not long ago I found myself in a situation where I was talking to 2 people who were fresh out of treatment. Both were abusing heroin. I told them the last time I directly talked to an addict in any depth meth was still the big thing. One of those two actually started with meth. Now, anyone who has experimented with a variety of types of intoxicating substances knows those two drugs are on opposite ends of the spectrum as far as the type of high a person gets. But both can accomplish the same goal. Escape and/or a sense of belonging.

I've seen a commercial multiple times for a treatment center claiming addiction is NOT a disease and the "cure" is to treat the underlying issues first. This ruffles some feathers in the mental health industry but the truth in this needs to be accepted.

The other place it ruffles feathers is the claim that 12 step programs do not work. As a blanket statement I'd have to say that is wrong but it does have truth in it. The step programs have the serious flaw of giving up control and not relying on the self for overcoming addiction, which does not work for most (but definitely not all) people I've ever known to have drug problems. (For more on the negatives of 12 step programs Penn and Teller did a good piece on them in their old show "Bullshit". No, my name has nothing to do with them at all.)

I hear statements like the ones quoted and all I can think is this clueless knowledge of addiction is an impediment to society overcoming new fad drugs becoming epidemics. Look at the anti-drug propaganda previous the the hippie movement. The clueless nature of the people pushing that propaganda in the form of distorted imagery and sounds mixed with all those psychedelic images actually turned people on to trying the stuff.

TLDR - In many cases they do see the news and are aware of the death but in many of those cases they either don't fear or would even welcome death due to underlying issues which our society ignores when speaking about addiction.

(08-25-2016, 02:00 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Sad part is that some people will see this as a sign that they can get the "good shit" in Cincy.

sounds like someone didn't cut it enough

Legalize everything and Darwinism will solve the problem.

I'm not saying it had anything to do with it, but motorcycle gangs have been "getting rid of" people in this manner, for the past 6-8 years.
No more bullet to the head, just an overdose to the vein.

Sent from my SM-S820L using Tapatalk

(08-25-2016, 02:21 PM)Sabretooth Wrote: Are folk that do illegal drugs aware of the news media ?
Or just sadly overwhelmed by the addiction at hand ?

Im sure they are aware of what is happening, but sadly they probably cant help it. Addiction is no joke. Im sure they want to stop, but its not as easy as seeing a news program talking about 50 heroin deaths over a weekend and saying "ok, thats it! Im giving this stuff up!" 

Why you would start messing with the stuff in the first place is another question. Obviously these individuals are either uneducated about the effects of heroin or they have some kind of deep emotional issues at hand and heroin is their choice for escape.

This is scary stuff. The scariest part being I have no idea what the answer is to solving the heroin and prescription opiate problem. What do you do to combat it? Stricter laws, decriminalize, education, more money, what do you do? Does any of it help?

Obviously, a lot of people got hooked on prescription pain meds and migrated to heroin as a cheaper alternative. That I understand the pattern of addiction. But I'll never quite get why others, who didn't make the transition, would ever try a drug like this to begin with. Prone to addiction or not, how does one decide to try heroin? That's something I can't really understand. I have a hard time wrapping my brain around and feeling sympathy for anyone dumb enough to decide that experimenting with things heroin or meth is a good idea.

Fwiw, I live over in Anderson. I've grown up in this area my whole life. What has happened to Mt. Washington is almost unbelievable. Big time heroin problem. What used to be a nice middle class neighborhood has now been destroyed by housing vouchers. All those people who used to live in government subsidized projects and high rises have now migrated to smaller buildings around town. And being that Mt. Washington has a ton of rentals coming up Beechmont hill it's been filled up with it. There's needles all over the place and seems to be stories of people getting robbed every other day. I won't even go into that Kroger anymore, I strictly use the one in Anderson. It's a sad thing to watch a neighborhood decline so quickly.

Get all the people in prison for weed out of there. And start filling it up with these heroin people. I dont get why we are babying these people. Safe spaces to shoot up, needle exchanges, teams of tax payer funded professionals going around and reviving people.

Start laying the smack down. Busted with heroin drug paraphernalia 3 years minimum. Heroin at least 5 years minimum. Catering to these people has made it worse.

(08-25-2016, 03:02 PM)Penn Wrote: TLDR - In many cases they do see the news and are aware of the death but in many of those cases they either don't fear or would even welcome death due to underlying issues which our society ignores when speaking about addiction.

Seriously, though, there is so much truth in this. It's one of the reasons why we need to stop incarcerating users and get them help.

(08-26-2016, 02:57 PM)NATI BENGALS Wrote: Get all the people in prison for weed out of there. And start filling it up with these heroin people. I dont get why we are babying these people. Safe spaces to shoot up, needle exchanges, teams of tax payer funded professionals going around and reviving people.

Start laying the smack down. Busted with heroin drug paraphernalia 3 years minimum. Heroin at least 5 years minimum. Catering to these people has made it worse.

This is a horrible idea.  Putting all these people in prison for years would be a HUGE waste of taxpayer money.

Prisons should be for people who are a threat to other people, not for people who are a threat to themselves.

(08-25-2016, 06:14 PM)BigPapaKain Wrote: Legalize everything and Darwinism will solve the problem.

Sounds like it already is.

(08-26-2016, 04:15 PM)fredtoast Wrote: This is a horrible idea.  Putting all these people in prison for years would be a HUGE waste of taxpayer money.

Prisons should be for people who are a threat to other people, not for people who are a threat to themselves.

Heroin turns you in to a criminal. Robbing and stealing to get your fix. It hurts their family especially if they have kids. And it is a danger to everbody who uses roads because they think shooting up and driving around is a good idea.

A bunch of heroin addicts repeatedly arrested and allowed to go back on the street is a threat to society. 

We are already wasting money pandering to these people. Making sure they have tools to use drugs. Safe places to shoot up. And police officers wasting hundreds of hours babysitting junkies and reviving them if they die.

(08-26-2016, 07:30 PM)NATI BENGALS Wrote: Heroin turns you in to a criminal. Robbing and stealing to get your fix. It hurts their family especially if they have kids. And it is a danger to everbody who uses roads because they think shooting up and driving around is a good idea.

Many times people go into prison or jail for lesser crimes and come out hardened criminals who have actually learned to be more efficient at committing crimes. Robbing and stealing usually starts with petty stuff. Put the person in prison for stealing $50 and getting loaded on smack and they might realize if they are going to commit a crime it needs to be worth the time. What will that escalate to? They aren't going to lift that small of a cash amount when they get out. They may then be willing to really do some major shit.

The prison systems aren't set up for teaching people to stop being criminals. And they also aren't set up to actually punish people. Really, jail and prison is just an adult version of timeout for people who are not going to learn lessons from timeouts.

Quote:A bunch of heroin addicts repeatedly arrested and allowed to go back on the street is a threat to society. 

We are already wasting money pandering to these people. Making sure they have tools to use drugs. Safe places to shoot up. And police officers wasting hundreds of hours babysitting junkies and reviving them if they die.

Second sentence is true and the first sentence is the reason it is true. We keep locking people up and spending the money to keep them imprisoned with absolutely no reform so they come out worse in most cases.

Netherlands legalized drugs and started putting money into rehab instead of imprisonment. Results seem to be less drug related crime and a decrease in debilitating addiction.

But if you insist on a heavy handed approach that is fine since one country did nearly rid themselves of a major drug epidemic in a heavy handed way. The Chinese used to find opium dens then go in and just simply KILL everyone in them. It was effective. But was it civilized? As I alluded to before but didn't directly state the approach of putting fear in people backfires. If a kid keeps hearing heroin, meth or whatever other drug is the lates fad is going to kill them then they see people doing it and living they start to think it isn't as bad and scary as the BS fear tactics made it sound so they figure all the warnings on danger are bogus (and I saw that happen a lot growing up). But hey, the Chinese didn't do the scare tactic of "the drug will kill you". They made the promise that if you use the stuff and get caught "we will kill you".

I already said it but it can't be stated enough. Putting more money into tracking down and imprisoning people for non-violent drug crimes has not helped since the war on drugs initially introduced by Nixon and meant only for drugs in the military and later expanded to all of society just simply doesn't work. It is just a never ending cycle of spending more money.

In Green Bay we have a meth and pills problem. Drugs are getting worse year by year not only here but everywhere.

(08-26-2016, 04:15 PM)fredtoast Wrote: This is a horrible idea.  Putting all these people in prison for years would be a HUGE waste of taxpayer money.

Prisons should be for people who are a threat to other people, not for people who are a threat to themselves.

Another wreck on the highway yesterday. Thanks to the good ole people driving around on heroin. I consider that a threat to other people. I also read an older article that was saying the majority of of people who OD and get medical attention dont end up speaking to police. So of the 100+ that ODed the last few days. Many have zero legal repercussions to fear. Does that really make sense?

(08-26-2016, 04:15 PM)fredtoast Wrote: This is a horrible idea.  Putting all these people in prison for years would be a HUGE waste of taxpayer money.

Prisons should be for people who are a threat to other people, not for people who are a threat to themselves.

Another one of your Democratic ideas of "help the individual" instead of punishing people and "trying to help them."



When he tries to report me, mods please realize that I'm only keeping this about the forum and his ideas on things that he has made public.  Actually, as you'll see, it's really only about this post.

Maybe you live in a sheltered world in your community with no internet access, but there has been 174 heroin overdoses in six days in Cincinnati, and that's not including the fact that there's been people killed by people who were driving and overdosing.  I'd say that's a pretty big threat to other people and not just themselves.

You can't just treat everyone like they're the victim and like everyone deserves to be pampered, which is a common theme for you because you need to start holding people accountable, which jail is about the only source of hope for that and a place that can keep drugs out of their hands.

(08-29-2016, 01:18 AM)BFritz21 Wrote: Another one of your Democratic ideas of "help the individual" instead of punishing people and "trying to help them."



When he tries to report me, mods please realize that I'm only keeping this about the forum and his ideas on things that he has made public.  Actually, as you'll see, it's really only about this post.

Maybe you live in a sheltered world in your community with no internet access, but there has been 174 heroin overdoses in six days in Cincinnati, and that's not including the fact that there's been people killed by people who were driving and overdosing.  I'd say that's a pretty big threat to other people and not just themselves.

You can't just treat everyone like they're the victim and like everyone deserves to be pampered, which is a common theme for you because you need to start holding people accountable, which jail is about the only source of hope for that and a place that can keep drugs out of their hands.

Good reasonable post in segments BFritz21

(08-28-2016, 10:57 AM)NATI BENGALS Wrote: Another wreck on the highway yesterday. Thanks to the good ole people driving around on heroin. I consider that a threat to other people. I also read an older article that was saying the majority of of people who OD and get medical attention dont end up speaking to police. So of the 100+ that ODed the last few days. Many have zero legal repercussions to fear. Does that really make sense?

The reason they don't end up speaking to police is the fear of incarceration. That is why many users don't seek help because they fear they are just going to be thrown into jail/prison because that is what our system has a history of doing. The fear of it keeps them on the street and using, and actually doing it makes them harder criminals. I'm not going to sit here and say we need to just leave them be, but maybe taking a look at the mental health care they could use that could actually help them kick an addiction. Our current corrections infrastructure doesn't rehabilitate criminals at all, so why would throwing drug addicts into the mix be any different?

As for those driving while under the influence, they should face the same consequences as a drunk driver, same for any intoxicant. I would just rather see us actually getting people to kick the stuff rather than perpetuating the problem, which is what the war on drugs has been doing.