A Surge in Meth Use in Colorado Complicates Opioid Recovery | Hacker News Reader

A Surge in Meth Use in Colorado Complicates Opioid Recovery

npr.org

28 pointsDoreenMichele15 comments

This strikes as correlation not causation.

As someone in denver since before the legalization, i believe these stats are related, but i think the bigger cause was pot legalization in so few areas at once. By legalizing in CO and not nationally, my story is that we attracted a number of people looking to move for a lifestyle, not knowing that at the same time housing prices were skyrocketing due to a blooming tech scene and gentrification. The influx of smokers only added fuel to the fire.

The two ongoing trends create hard times for the un/underemployed. It is well documented that crimes rates correlate with hard financial times.

RE: Pot legalization - it could be you are correct.

I lived in Denver pre-/post-medical legalization. I now live in Northern CA where we just legalized.

Basically I've seen the same thing happen both places: Cannabis is legalized, and there is an uptick in violent and petty crime in the areas where cultivation is. It is anecdotal, but I am sure if I dug up the FBI crime reporting stats there would be something to it.

What will be interesting over the next 20 years is how legal weed will impact addiction rates.

Colorado's governor is having second thoughts about legalization.[1]

[1] https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/20/us/colorado-marijuana-and-cri...

Is this a propaganda piece pushed by entrenched alcohol industry interests?

As someone who thinks marijuana should be legal, I thought it was a reasonable article.

The video embedded in the article pretty much made the point that legal weed brought transients to the state, and they are in turn people that would have committed crimes regardless of what state they are in. Legalizing nationally would negate the issue.

Looking at the chart in the article, heroin overdoses have grown by about the same amount as meth.

The speedball (stimulant+depressant) has long been popular. In the mainstream, that would be coffee plus alcohol, and often tobacco. For the hard-core, that would be cocaine or methamphetamine, plus morphine, heroin or eucadol. But without medical supervision, the risk of overdose is too high. Because opiates tend to wear off faster than stimulants, and titration is nontrivial.

Comparing the mix of moprhine and cocaine with coffee and alcohol is both misleading and inaccurate.

Even cocaine and amphetamine are apples and oranges, despite both being classified as stimulants.

Well, all combinations of stimulants and depressants are speedballs. And in my experience, they differ mainly in intensity. And of course, in risk of death. Which I did make very clear.

Anyway, it's basically that stimulants prevent falling asleep, passing out, or (ideally) dying at high depressant doses. Which allows users to experience more intense effects from said depressants. And that depressants reduce anxiety, relax, and (ideally) prevent dying (usually from cardiac arrest) at high stimulant doses. Which allows users to experience more intense effects from said stimulants.

And re cocaine vs methamphetamine, I've used both a lot, albeit many years ago. And sure, they're quite different. But they both made me happy, and kept me awake. As I recall, cocaine was much better for play, dancing, and sex. And methamphetamine was better for working, driving, and just slogging through emergency situations.

For a few years, I basically lived out of a bicycle, and I always carried methamphetamine and morphine, in case of emergencies. It was standard issue for most all military services, so hey.

Speedballs are a special kind of horrible. The follow is just a list of major celebraties that have died from it:

John Belushi, Chris Farley, Pete Farndon, Mitch Hedberg, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Brent Mydland, River Phoenix, Eric Show, Layne Staley

Yes, I totally agree. Many have died. It's very sad.

And Edgar Allen Poe.

> when her parents gave her pain pills for a toothache. Just like that, she was hooked.

I call B.S. The next paragraph reveals the cause ...

> Both my parents were addicts

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