Unfortunate father posts photo of his dead son.

iguana · 16-11-2014 11:29AM

Graces7 wrote: »

Clearly you have little understanding of the nature and reality of addiction. As those of us who were made Involuntary Tranquilliser Addicts know only too well, it is an insidious and unrelenting process. Some weird idea of fun here too. Recreational indeed! Russian roulette is said by some to be fun also. A deficiency of character in all who use these drugs including tobacco

Nope. I know all about addiction having lost a family member to it a few years ago and currently fear another is going the same way. In both cases though, alcohol is the drug of choice and both addicts began drinking recreationally. This doesn't make those who drink for fun in anyway responsible for their addictions.

More lives are lost annually to alcohol addiction than to addiction to all illegal drugs combined. Anyone who drinks alcohol but blames recreational drug users for the death of a drug addict is a hypocrite.

Fr_Dougal · 16-11-2014 11:35AM

Wait, what about Kony? And using live dogs as shark bait?

beyondbelief67 · 16-11-2014 05:32PM

For anyone who doesn't believe this is genuine google jeramie Ratliff or mike stollings.

Ray Palmer · 16-11-2014 06:03PM

This is nothing really to do with recreational drug use. The father obviously didn't learn about his sons drug issues and the nature of the addiction.
People are not really taking cough medicine for fun. He could have been huffing glue for all it matters.
Even with heavy drugs addictions only happens to a certain group and it is normally a case of self medication. It seems that is the case here

Laura Palmer · 16-11-2014 06:24PM

I dislike the way casual drug use is deemed the same thing as drug abuse/addiction when tragedies like this occur. It's misleading and unhelpful.

It's like saying having a few drinks at the weekend = being an alcoholic.

That isn't endorsement of drug use - it's simply distinguishing between recreational use and abuse/addiction.

bodice ripper · 16-11-2014 06:46PM

Ray Palmer wrote: »

This is nothing really to do with recreational drug use. The father obviously didn't learn about his sons drug issues and the nature of the addiction.
People are not really taking cough medicine for fun. He could have been huffing glue for all it matters.
Even with heavy drugs addictions only happens to a certain group and it is normally a case of self medication. It seems that is the case here

there are people who take DXM bearing cough syrup for fun. and huffing glue is far, far more dangerous.

Rough Sleeper · 16-11-2014 06:53PM

Thanks for the eye opener. Before reading this I would have thought that taking an overdose of dry-cough medicine was a pretty good idea, but I now see how wrong I was. I've also come to realise that this emotive individual experience has greatly increased the probability of me dying of a fatal overdose from any drug so I'm going to curtail their use entirely.

Ray Palmer · 17-11-2014 01:06AM

bodice ripper wrote: »

there are people who take DXM bearing cough syrup for fun. and huffing glue is far, far more dangerous.

and taking DMX is far more dangerous than cannabis. The father should have educated himself on what was wrong with his child. An uneducated person is no more better having suffered an addicted child. If my child was an addict I would try and educate myself to understand the problem not wait till he was dead to spout a silly story. I still think it is fake.

conorh91 · 17-11-2014 01:34AM

Look over there! Alcohol!

This is a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation:

Are people who cite the legality of alcohol in order to defend ingestion of unverified chemicals (i) rationally compromised because of ingestion of unverified chemicals? or (ii) do they ingest unverified chemicals because they are rationally compromised in the first place?

Yeah yeah I'm a dickhead, but also an adult who stopped putting random substances in his mouth when he was two years of age. I have plenty of bad and unhealthy habits, but eating random pills isn't one of them.

Henlars67 · 17-11-2014 01:37AM

Detached Retina wrote: »

I'd be surprised if anyone comes on here to defend drug use in that context. Aside from the pain it leaves behind for your parents, siblings,friends - My own opinion would be that once you have children yourself, you lose the right to make such selfish and reckless choices

I'll defend drug use. I just won't defend drug abuse

Laura Palmer · 17-11-2014 01:37AM

conorh91 wrote: »

Look over there! Alcohol!

This is a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation:

Are people who cite the legality of alcohol in order to defend ingestion of unverified chemicals (i) rationally compromised because of ingestion of unverified chemicals? or (ii) do they ingest unverified chemicals because they are rationally compromised in the first place?

Yeah yeah I'm a dickhead, but also an adult who stopped putting random substances in his mouth when he was two years of age. I have plenty of bad and unhealthy habits, but eating random pills isn't one of them.

Well I was just using the alcohol analogy to make the point that drinking alcohol doesn't automatically result in alcoholism. It can do of course, but most of the time it doesn't. The same applies to drug use. I'm not saying everyone should do drugs - everyone most definitely should not. But it's not unreasonable to point out that most people who take drugs to get high on a night out and otherwise don't partake of them aren't going to wind up like the poor guy in this case.
That's why it's misleading to say "Taking drugs for fun" is the same thing as becoming obsessed with cough mixture.

braddun · 17-11-2014 01:40AM

Prescription drugs are now killing far more people than illegal drugs, and while most major causes of preventable deaths are declining, those from prescription drug use are increasing, an analysis of recently released data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) by the Los Angeles Times revealed.

The Times analysis of 2009 death statistics, the most recent available, showed:
•For the first time ever in the US, more people were killed by drugs than motor vehicle accidents
•37,485 people died from drugs, a rate fueled by overdoses on prescription pain and anxiety medications, versus 36,284 from traffic accidents
•Drug fatalities more than doubled among teens and young adults between 2000 and 2008, and more than tripled among people aged 50 to 69

Again, these drug-induced fatalities are not being driven by illegal street drugs; the analysis found that the most commonly abused prescription drugs like OxyContin, Vicodin, Xanax and Soma now cause more deaths than heroin and cocaine combined.
Pharmageddon1 is "the prospect of a world in which medicines and medicine produce more ill-health than health, and when medical progress does more harm than good" -- and it is no longer a prospect but fully upon us. Those most at risk from dying from this new drug crisis are people you would least expect; the analysis revealed the death toll is highest among people in their 40s, but all ages, from teenagers to the elderly, and all walks of life are being affected. In fact, prescription drugs are now the preferred "high" for many, especially teens, as they are typically used legally, which eliminates the stigma of being a "junkie."

And even if you don't have your own prescription, drugs of all kinds can be found in the nearest medicine cabinet in most homes.

Yet, these drugs are also now being sold on the black market and on street corners, where people who have run out of prescriptions are willing to pay upwards of $80 a pill to get their fix.

Many become addicted after using the drugs for headaches or back pain, and teens are increasingly taking the pills from their parents to use recreationally, under the false assumption that they are not dangerous.

conorh91 · 17-11-2014 01:47AM

Laura Palmer wrote: »

But it's not unreasonable to point out that most people who take drugs to get high on a night out and otherwise don't partake of them aren't going to wind up like the poor guy in this case.

Most, no. But it's a game of chance. If you go out and buy unmarked chemicals from a stranger, and eat them, the only thing saving you from death or injury is chance.

Risk-taking is a necessary component of living of course. I could get knocked down crossing the road while going for pints, or develop HIV from a freak injury, or die in a plane crash. We all accept the necessity of taking chances, but we generally consent to chance after we have adequate information on risk.

You cannot possibly eat a stranger's chemicals and not assume the risk of injury to be high. You can freely accept a high risk, but you cannot honestly deny it.

Laura Palmer · 17-11-2014 01:58AM

conorh91 wrote: »

Most, no. But it's a game of chance. If you go out and buy unmarked chemicals from a stranger, and eat them, the only thing saving you from death or injury is chance.

Risk-taking is a necessary component of living of course. I could get knocked down crossing the road while going for pints, or develop HIV from a freak injury, or die in a plane crash. We all accept the necessity of taking chances, but we generally consent to chance after we have adequate information on risk.

You cannot possibly eat a stranger's chemicals and not assume the risk of injury to be high. You can freely accept a high risk, but you cannot honestly deny it.

Why would they want to possibly kill buyers though? I accept there's a risk, but I don't think it's as high as is believed by some.

conorh91 · 17-11-2014 02:13AM

Laura Palmer wrote: »

Why would they want to possibly kill buyers though? I accept there's a risk, but I don't think it's as high as is believed by some.

Of course they don't want to. But if your idea of a chemical laboratory is a garage or a grungey bedsit, maybe don't expect a pristine safety record.

Detached Retina · 17-11-2014 02:17AM

Sorry, drug *abuse

Unfortunate father posts photo of his dead son.

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