
Crushing up pain pills and spitting out lives in West Virginia coal country - samclemens
http://narrative.ly/falls-from-grace/crushing-up-pain-pills-and-spitting-out-lives-in-west-virginia-coal-country/
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Hydraulix989
There's also been a lot of problems with heroin abuse in my hometown in rural
Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, a steel town outside of Pittsburgh.

I am not sure what the solution is, but the War on Drugs approach of
criminalization needs to be replaced with rehabilitation. I've seen my
friends' and high school classmates' lives get ruined by opioids (and these
are good people with tremendous potential whose environment failed them), and
I don't think throwing them behind bars is a solution.

~~~
pstuart
The solution is to legalize cannabis. Lot's of potential for pain management,
as well as to let people get high on something much safer.

~~~
slapshot
Colorado legalized marijuana for recreational use and stores opened January 1,
2014. They are widespread in the state.

In 2014 and 2015, heroin overdose deaths in Colorado continued to increase
over prior years. Among Colorado men, heroin overdose deaths in 2014 increased
31% over 2013. Among women, 16%.

[http://gazette.com/overdosing-on-heroin-use-deaths-surge-
in-...](http://gazette.com/overdosing-on-heroin-use-deaths-surge-in-colorado-
with-few-remedies-in-sight/article/1557043)

Marijuana legalization does not appear to be a panacea to opiod abuse.
Recreational marijuana use has a very different origin than prescription
painkiller addiction (which often begins with usage to manage real pain, but
spins into an addiction that then turns to heroin when the pills become too
expensive).

~~~
Scoundreller
But how did this compare to other states that did not legalize marijuana?
Confounding variables can be quite pesky.

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foltz
Oxyana has some poignant footage of the problem. Even in the short trailer.

[https://vimeo.com/ondemand/oxyana/69045041](https://vimeo.com/ondemand/oxyana/69045041)

------
mattmanser
I've grown increasingly leery of any story that relies on the anecdotes of
three or four people/couples. I thought they'd died out in recent years
because of how easily journalists could abuse the format.

This story relies on the anecdotes of one couple. Who apparently got convicted
of taking down the county's phone lines. If they're real, they're very much an
extreme.

Rather than reinforcing the narrative his entire story relies on them and I
now distrust everything else he's said.

~~~
joe5150
Stealing copper from phone and power lines isn't "extreme" at all. It happens
with some regularity.

