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Originally Posted by BeardedGunsmith
Most people are embarrassed by schitt like this but I don't give a damn and maybe it can be a learning lesson to others. I'm an ex heroin addict. I've been clean for over 11 years and was surprisingly a functioning addict that worked a job because I had a family that I had to provide for and I knew that I needed money to support habit and wasn't willing to steal like other people. Nobody just wakes up one day and decides to be an addict. It usually starts with opioid prescriptions like it did for me. I was on vicodin for a legit medical reason and it escalated from there in a long drawn out process that once into, you look back and finally see how far you're in and it's consumed your whole life. Nothing is fun anymore without being high. Hobbies have no value. You sometimes can't even enjoy your current high because youre worried about where the next one will come from. There's no goal to look forward to except to get high. Aspirations no longer exist. I'd be a liar to say that it's not an amazing feeling. It's almost magical and you don't care how you look to the outside world because when you start to judge yourself or reflect on your own life, you can always spend another $20 and make it all disappear. That's why I empathize with people in this situation. I don't believe it's a disease like some do, but once you unlock that part of your brain it's hard to close the door. One day I didn't recognize myself in the mirror when I was higher than a kite and decided I was done so I made a pact with myself that night and stuck to it. I went to work the next day in full blown withdrawal and told my boss the deal and asked if I could have a week off and if I'd still have a job. He said to take all the time I needed. That was a rough week but I got through it and really glad that I did and I changed my life around and consider myself a better person for it. It's easy to look at a person and just call them a junkie without knowing their story or their demons that they hide from.


Holy Smoke
THAT has got to be one of the strongest testimonials I have ever heard. Congrats to you my friend... now get back to your lifelong recovery... KUDOS !!!!

RAEFORD - so sorry for the loss.

Last edited by Sasha_and_Abby; 08/12/22.

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Originally Posted by Steve
My son's half brother (ex-wife remarried) died of an overdose about a year ago. My son set him up in a travel trailer at his house as a last resort to get him clean. My son had struggled with drug issues earlier in life and wanted to help his kid brother.

One night he woke up to police/emergency lights in his front yard. His brother had called 911 after injecting some junk saying he was having trouble breathing (think George Floyd). By the time they got there his brother was dead.

Cops told my son to stay out of the trailer as it was probably fentanyl.

Told my son that he didn't 'Not do enough' and that it's not his fault. And that I was profoundly sorry for him, his mom and her husband. That I couldn't be more proud of him for what he tried to do.

Please (and I'm sure you will) tell your friend something similar.

In Nashville, detectives regularly bust street level dealers for coke laced with fentanyl. I’m sure it’s on purpose. Scary stuff


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When young enough to perhaps be vulnerable, I was fortunate because in most aspects of my life I encountered almost no alcoholics and zero of the habit forming drug users. But, in one particular aspect I encountered a growing number of drug users.

Most of those were using pot (Mary Jane), but some talented folks who were trying to break some sort of new ground and be inventive were using heroin. They spoke of getting into an "alpha state" where creative ideas flowed more readily and they were able to execute the physical demands more freely. Saw that quite a bit - but did not grasp the phenomenon and never was even tempted to try it. But, those experiences enabled me to more easily recognize the symptoms.

As time passed, I realized that many who became very good in the field and who gained recognition for that also were ridden by some serous habits and the ongoing need for the fix. Almost always a dead end street. To this day I am deeply impressed by, and grateful for, those who quit such habits and make it stick.

What has really become alarming over time is the growing number of people - especially young people - using heroin and/or whatever simply to escape the realities of their lives, or for some similar purpose. Apparently heroin and other drugs have been cheap enough to manage that. But, the drugs undermine almost every good thing in their nature and they are hollowed out. It has gone on to crazy levels since those early days and many of you probably understand the extent and effects far better than do I. Somehow we seem to accept alcoholism as less onerous, but it definitely is not.

What is the cure for such problems? Although somewhat knowledgeable of users, I am not smart enough to propose a good answer. On the individual basis, healthy and heavy self-respect, strong core values and sense of self-worth seem to be the best bet for avoidance of the plague, but a deterrent or cure for the larger social problem escapes me. Maybe those who take the position of Pugs have it right.


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Ever watch that miniseries on Hulu called Dopesick? Pretty fugged up what the pharmaceutical companies (particularly Purdue) did and how they did it. Lotsa hard working blue collar folks got hooked on oxys prescribed by their docs for legitimate issues, which started their spiral into cheaper heroin.

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Originally Posted by BeardedGunsmith
Drugs aren't victimless when it comes to the family and friends having to deal with the wake of destruction that addiction causes. But even so, prison isn't the right thing for these people. They need mental health services or something because throwing them into the system does nothing but fuel the urge when you start losing what little you already have. I also forget to say to the OP, im sorry about your friend and thank the rest of you for the kind words.

Kind words? You sir, are a badass. Thank you and stay the path. Good boys have never, ever, made really good men.


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Originally Posted by BeardedGunsmith
Most people are embarrassed by schitt like this but I don't give a damn and maybe it can be a learning lesson to others. I'm an ex heroin addict. I've been clean for over 11 years and was surprisingly a functioning addict that worked a job because I had a family that I had to provide for and I knew that I needed money to support habit and wasn't willing to steal like other people. Nobody just wakes up one day and decides to be an addict. It usually starts with opioid prescriptions like it did for me. I was on vicodin for a legit medical reason and it escalated from there in a long drawn out process that once into, you look back and finally see how far you're in and it's consumed your whole life. Nothing is fun anymore without being high. Hobbies have no value. You sometimes can't even enjoy your current high because youre worried about where the next one will come from. There's no goal to look forward to except to get high. Aspirations no longer exist. I'd be a liar to say that it's not an amazing feeling. It's almost magical and you don't care how you look to the outside world because when you start to judge yourself or reflect on your own life, you can always spend another $20 and make it all disappear. That's why I empathize with people in this situation. I don't believe it's a disease like some do, but once you unlock that part of your brain it's hard to close the door. One day I didn't recognize myself in the mirror when I was higher than a kite and decided I was done so I made a pact with myself that night and stuck to it. I went to work the next day in full blown withdrawal and told my boss the deal and asked if I could have a week off and if I'd still have a job. He said to take all the time I needed. That was a rough week but I got through it and really glad that I did and I changed my life around and consider myself a better person for it. It's easy to look at a person and just call them a junkie without knowing their story or their demons that they hide from.

Good for you and for having the courage to tell your story…only by the grace of God there go I.

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Very sad story which happens many times a day in America and now the Rinos and Dimocraps, some of which are on the Fire, support it by supporting the pukes in Govt they do.

Chyna now is making billions off their fentanyl also with the open borders BS . Crap like Houston, Gayghost, Northmam, Lostofftrail, WadeinBrown, Jell0, Sickermore and Gooschiet would, if decent people, give a schiett. They don't.

AFAIC its another reason to support Trump. It sounds to me like hes gone from playing defense to playing offense and is pushing the camels nose under the tent about doing as Chyna does with their rare drug pushers.

Its coming.

Last edited by jaguartx; 08/12/22.

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Originally Posted by BeardedGunsmith
Correction, clean since Dec 2nd, 2009.
Congratulations on your being clean.
My sister was functioning too on prescription oxy. She had kind of a hack job back fusion and then a revision. She knew where she was and told the doc after the revision she couldn't go home addicted. She went to a facility for PT and her pain management doctor helped her get all the way off at the same time. It took a month. Been about 5 years for her. She will never touch anything other than tylenol now.

My wife had toe surgery and was given oxy. Right when she was getting over it she blew out her back and back to the oxy. She new it wasn't a good thing though she will tell you that the feeling of drifting off when she went to bed was hard to replace. It took a couple rounds of epidurals to get away from it and it wasn't easy but was headaches, restlessness and irritability for a couple weeks. She won't touch that anymore either. Her back isn't great but she manages it with tylenol, stretching and gabapentin.


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Sad at times to see people win the stupid prize, even sadder to watch the gooberment continue playing the same stupid game for decades and always getting the same results, over and over, and over.......

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Raeford: Sorry for the loss of the friend.
NOTHING good comes from drug use (and that includes pot!)!
Hope calm comes to your friend soon - keep an eye out for him also.
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Sorry for your friend's loss...

Drugs (any drug) masks pain... or despair... or depression.

NO ONE IS IMMUNE.

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I know of no cure except to labor at the things that bring you joy instead.

I am a maker... I make chit.

I hold on to that tightly.

I also throw in a bit of Goodwill when I see an opportunity in my community.


If you are not actively engaging EVERY enemy you encounter... you are allowing another to fight for you... and that is cowardice... plain and simple.



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My condolences Raeford, I'm very sorry.


"Chasing the Dragon" They never catch it.


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Trump Won!, Sandmann Won!, Rittenhouse Won!, Suck it Liberal Fuuktards.

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Originally Posted by BeardedGunsmith
Most people are embarrassed by schitt like this but I don't give a damn and maybe it can be a learning lesson to others. I'm an ex heroin addict. I've been clean for over 11 years and was surprisingly a functioning addict that worked a job because I had a family that I had to provide for and I knew that I needed money to support habit and wasn't willing to steal like other people. Nobody just wakes up one day and decides to be an addict. It usually starts with opioid prescriptions like it did for me. I was on vicodin for a legit medical reason and it escalated from there in a long drawn out process that once into, you look back and finally see how far you're in and it's consumed your whole life. Nothing is fun anymore without being high. Hobbies have no value. You sometimes can't even enjoy your current high because youre worried about where the next one will come from. There's no goal to look forward to except to get high. Aspirations no longer exist. I'd be a liar to say that it's not an amazing feeling. It's almost magical and you don't care how you look to the outside world because when you start to judge yourself or reflect on your own life, you can always spend another $20 and make it all disappear. That's why I empathize with people in this situation. I don't believe it's a disease like some do, but once you unlock that part of your brain it's hard to close the door. One day I didn't recognize myself in the mirror when I was higher than a kite and decided I was done so I made a pact with myself that night and stuck to it. I went to work the next day in full blown withdrawal and told my boss the deal and asked if I could have a week off and if I'd still have a job. He said to take all the time I needed. That was a rough week but I got through it and really glad that I did and I changed my life around and consider myself a better person for it. It's easy to look at a person and just call them a junkie without knowing their story or their demons that they hide from.

You're a Bad Ass Bro!!

Glad you made it to the other side.


Paul

"I'd rather see a sermon than hear a sermon".... D.A.D.

Trump Won!, Sandmann Won!, Rittenhouse Won!, Suck it Liberal Fuuktards.

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I have a Texas friend 70 years old, always held a job and then started and retired from a successful lawncare and landscape business. Had no idea he was an addict until he told me a few years ago. It started when he got badly hurt in a motorcycle wreck in the 1970s.About 5 or 6 years ago he got put on a program to get him off opioids after the crackdown on doctors began. He was getting a dose of morphine once a day and methadone as they tried to break his addiction. He has told me there is no way to describe the hold that stuff has on you. He got kicked out of the program when they caught him cheating. He swears he tried but he was going crazy and pacing the floor all hours of the night craving his drugs. Needless to say he gave up and last I heard he found a doctor (black lady) that would prescribe his drugs. Been a couple of years now since we talked, he may be dead or on heroin. At 70 years old and that badly addicted I say what the heck.


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I was good friends with a kid in Atlanta, Marc was really smart and he wound up Valedictorian of Emory Law School. Marc got a job at a hotshot Atlanta law firm. At age 35, Marc was knocking down $500K annually.

On Friday night, he was driving down Peachtree in the turbocharged Porsche with a stacked redhead at his side.

Marc let me drive the Porsche one afternoon, Good God what a car!
On Saturday nights, Marc was driving down Peachtree Rd in the Bentley with a stacked brunette.

At age 40, Marc got on the cocaine. He made so much money, he could buy all the coke he wanted and pay cash. In a few years the law firm got wise to his coke problem, offered to send him to the Betty Ford at no charge, he would have none of it. By age 45, Marc had lost his job and his condo. Both cars were repo-ed. Unbelievably at age 46 he was homeless and sleeping under a pine tree on the Buford Highway. Marc died in Cave Springs Ga. in a rehab clinic of a stroke at age 56.

His sister wrote the obit. It said, "Marc was a brilliant lawyer but he had addiction problems..."

"I've seen the needle and the damage done,
But every junkie is like a setting sun
Oooh, Oh, the damage done..."

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Originally Posted by ltppowell
Originally Posted by BeardedGunsmith
Drugs aren't victimless when it comes to the family and friends having to deal with the wake of destruction that addiction causes. But even so, prison isn't the right thing for these people. They need mental health services or something because throwing them into the system does nothing but fuel the urge when you start losing what little you already have. I also forget to say to the OP, im sorry about your friend and thank the rest of you for the kind words.

Kind words? You sir, are a badass. Thank you and stay the path. Good boys have never, ever, made really good men.

Care to explain this ?

LOL


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Her-o-in
It’s my life and it’s my wife.
Because a mainer to my vein,
Leads to a center in my head.
And then I’m better off dead.


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Originally Posted by AKCHOPPER
Originally Posted by ltppowell
Originally Posted by BeardedGunsmith
Drugs aren't victimless when it comes to the family and friends having to deal with the wake of destruction that addiction causes. But even so, prison isn't the right thing for these people. They need mental health services or something because throwing them into the system does nothing but fuel the urge when you start losing what little you already have. I also forget to say to the OP, im sorry about your friend and thank the rest of you for the kind words.

Kind words? You sir, are a badass. Thank you and stay the path. Good boys have never, ever, made really good men.

Care to explain this ?

LOL
Is it not self explanatory?

He went through hell but managed to hold a job and got clean on his own.

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Been down this road with a daughter, she's been clean 6 years, hope she stays that way.

Sorry for the loss Raeford.

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Originally Posted by TheLastLemming76
Originally Posted by AKCHOPPER
Originally Posted by ltppowell
Originally Posted by BeardedGunsmith
Drugs aren't victimless when it comes to the family and friends having to deal with the wake of destruction that addiction causes. But even so, prison isn't the right thing for these people. They need mental health services or something because throwing them into the system does nothing but fuel the urge when you start losing what little you already have. I also forget to say to the OP, im sorry about your friend and thank the rest of you for the kind words.

Kind words? You sir, are a badass. Thank you and stay the path. Good boys have never, ever, made really good men.

Care to explain this ?

LOL
Is it not self explanatory?

He went through hell but managed to hold a job and got clean on his own.

No it's not dumbass....this question wasn't directed at you, duh. " Good boy's have never,ever made really good Men" This is the question for Pat.


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