#heroinkills

[dopekillzhope]

Let me introduce myself through these words

Ive never been the type that screamed to be heard

Not gonna sugar coat shit, and let me say my story is disturbed

From day 1 I never stood a chance

My birth mother was a junkie, a baby wasn’t in her plans

Born into withdrawal; my skin crawls

No fucks given at all

In and out of foster homes, a little girl should never feel alone

Tough love was all I got, I used to cry a lot

Pissed off at the world for treating me cold

Wreckless & out of control was what I Ben told

Clear to see I was on a dangerous road

My free spirit died way too soon

Right then I knew I was doomed

Chained up to a substance, accustomed to destruction

Cant be trusted, family and friends are disgusted

The day came that I finally got busted

Cuffed up for burglary

The guy needed surgery

It was all just a blur to me

Cant stay out of jail, I never go bail

I was in too deep, making promises I

couldn’t keep.

Rehab after rehab, relapse after relapse

My soul is collapsed, is there any coming back?

Losing weight on the daily, mindset is hazy every morning sweating, shaky yelling

at God like “Please take me!”

I look at my surrounding, dirty needles with

the orange caps, brown cotton on the burnt

spoons, on the table there is residue

Walking the streets, no where to go

Starting to get sick, stealing, robbing, lying

anything to get my fix

That was never enough, I had to start turning trix

How the fuck did I get like this?

Hopeless, headed no where

feeling nothing, not even fear

cant even force out a tear

This is the last of my binge

I hear my heart cringe

As I stick in the syringe,

Over and over again

Till there’s blood flowing in

I see the color red

I push it all In as I sit on the bed

my head falls down,

My mouth turns to a frown

Eyes slowly close as

I overdose, all alone until my demons

are exposed.

[lighthouserecovery]

Sometimes the best thing we can do for ourselves is to step back from the people who refuse to grow with us. www.lighthouserecoveryinstitute.com [phone]

[graffititrainarchive]

[bluerosezen-blog]

Still working out the logistics, so these aren’t in the shop yet. Right now I’m at the “should I” phase.

Ever since my youngest son died from fentanyl poisoning I’ve been looking for somewhere to put my anger and grief; something to do with it besides wallow in my pain. For the first few months after his overdose in February of 2017, I learned everything I could about addiction, overdose, the Opioid epidemic, and fentanyl. I learned how addiction changes brain chemistry, I learned about people mixing fentanyl analogs with heroin, cocaine and pills. I met other grieving parents who lost their children to addiction. I learned everything I could but none of it eased the pain of losing my 27 year old son. I realized nothing ever would, so I looked to channel it. I wrote letters and signed petitions; joined groups of moms trying to keep other mothers from joining our ranks. That only caused more frustration as I felt our voices fell on deaf ears. And fed my anger as I came across people who blamed the addict, blamed my son, rather than the disease. My son was trying to beat the addiction. He was in withdrawal. He relapsed and addiction won the war, but still people said it was his own “choice”. So I stepped back and decided to regroup.

I found established groups who had been fighting this fight for a long time. Groups like Harm Reduction and Heroin Support. Groups who not only lobby the government for changes in how we battle addiction, but who also go out into the streets to help the addicts. Groups that give out clean needles, recovery information, fentanyl test strips and Narcan. Groups that offer support to addicts in recovery and their families and also offer support to grieving families like mine. I found these groups and began helping any way I could, even if it just meant sharing information and making financial donations.

Which leads to the dragonflies.

Purple because that is the color for overdose awareness. Dragonflies because there are beautiful legends associated with the delicate creatures and the souls of our loved ones. I make and sell jewelry. After my son’s death I lost my motivation. But my son was all about business and making a buck and was on me about being more serious about my “hobby”. In the past 6 months I’ve found my motivation again. I’ve become more serious about creating jewelry. I’ve taken all the advice he’d given me and finally put it to work. In his honor, in his memory, to make him proud instead of screaming to the heavens because he’s gone.

My plan is to sell the purple dragonflies in my shop and at the live markets I do. To raise awareness and to donate 30% of the proceeds to one of the groups I follow. I have to work out how much I should charge so that I can pay for supplies and still make a donation that counts. If I decide to do this, the dragonflies will probably be in my shop after the holidays are done.

[dflylover]

I have some amazing people in my life. Tonight, I was treated to an absolutely incredible music event. I laughed. I tried to sing. I saw old friends and new. As the clock has struck midnight, it’s changed the feel of the night. Three years ago, my world was rocked for the second time. In these years, there has been sadness, anger, chaos, sorrow, frustration, and more than I can type. Kelly left a void. Our son struggles with having no memories, so he creates them. Our family has been torn and then drawn closer than before. I’ll figure out this unexpected path at some point. Fortunately, I have my wonderful boy, loving family, awesome friends, and incredible support when I need it most. #widow #gonetoosoon #heroinkills

[nikelox84-blog]

America’s nationwide opioid epidemic is destroying cities and communities every day. In Austin, Indiana, injection uses of the pharmaceutical Opana and street drug heroin have shown correlation with nearly 150 cases of HIV within the very small population of 4,200. Every day we hear continuous ambulance sirens going off.  Unfortunately they’re most likely responding to the most recent heroin overdose.  The number of heroin-related deaths has increased abruptly in every region of America from 2000 through 2013.  Heroin use among Americans has grown by 145 percent since 2007 according to The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.  These statistics are disturbing, heartbreaking and distasteful. Heroin.net states that since 2014, 4.8 million Americans aged 12 or older have reported using heroin at least once. It is sadly disappointing that so many families are suffering because of the irresponsibility of the FDA and the greed of “Big” pharmaceutical companies.  How else do you explain selling 780 million painkiller pills in six years to a single pharmacy in a city where fewer than 400 people live? Either this is absolute negligence, extreme greed or a preposterous attempt at population control. Overprescribing prescriptions such as Percocet, Vicodin, and OxyContin have caused many people to fall subject to opioid addiction.  These companies in my opinion disregarded human life and took it upon themselves to “manufacture” these addicts.  Most people that have become addicted to the prescriptions resort to using heroin once their supply of pills has been cut off.  And because of this, heroin has made its way into the homes of communities that would have never been subject to such, had it not been “dressed up” in the form of a pill first.  

Attorney General Jeff Sessions and President Trump think the best way to combat the heroin epidemic is harsher consequences for traffickers and drug dealers.  Sessions suggests that there be a reimposition of mandatory minimum prison sentences for heroin dealers and traffickers like the ones put in place during the crack-cocaine epidemic of the eighties.  His solution to the nation’s problem is to pick drug dealers and traffickers up, lock them, and throw away the key.  This solution sounds similar to the epic failed attempt in the so called “war on drugs.”  President Trump went even further by seeming to imply that he supports executing people who sell illegal drugs.  This is coming from the same man that supported legalization of drugs in 1990. But back to my point, we’re always focused on cartels and low-level drug dealers when we think about addressing the constant nuisance.  What about the doctors and pharmaceutical companies that ignited the problem.  What about the Federal Drug Administration that approved it?  Anyone that can consciously research, market, and produce drugs knowing the outcome and still disregard the inevitable, has absolutely no respect for human life.  If there is anything such as “justice” left in our broken criminal justice system, we will see to it that these CEO’s, board members, and doctors responsible suffer the consequences for their actions. Just as we push for drug dealers and cartels to face punishment.

The progression of the opioid epidemic has resulted in several different approaches to bring immediate response to the issue.  President Trump declared it a State of Emergency that needs intense attention.  Several states and counties have taken lawsuits out on pharmaceutical companies in attempt to hold them accountable for this disaster.  Most recently a Surgeon General Warning has been advised by the nation’s top doctor.  U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams is bringing the importance of naloxone to the public’s attention, advising that more people get trained to administer it, and keep on their personal in case of emergency.  Naloxone is a medication used to counter the effects of opioid overdose. When a person is suffering an overdose, their breathing slows and then eventually stops due to their brain trying to fit in too many receptors for opioids.  Naloxone is able to counteract life-threatening depression of the central nervous system and respiratory system by knocking the opioids off the receptors for a short time, which gives the sufferer a chance to breathe again resulting in escape from overdose and death.  Naloxone is a non-addictive prescription medication that can be administered by not only emergency response personnel, but everyday citizens that are educated and trained on the use of the drug as well.  It can be injected in the muscle, vein or under the skin or sprayed into the nose.  Naloxone doesn’t work for any other type of drug overdose, only in the case of an opioid overdose. The temporary drug wears off in 20 – 90 minutes.  

According to the Surgeon General’s office, research has shown that when community members are trained and educated on opioid overdose and naloxone, overdoses decrease in those communities.  However, there are still mixed feelings about the second chance, lifesaving “miracle” drug.  Some people feel that it is an enabling tool for addicts to continue to abuse illegal drugs. With respect to these opinions, they should take into consideration that users aren’t the only people subject to overdose.  Children, police officers, and emergency responders can be given second chances at life in case of an overdose from incidental exposure to a high potency opiate. This alone is good enough reason for American people to consider being properly trained and educated on using the second chance, lifesaving medication Naloxone. Thank you Surgeon General.  Your warning will definitely save lives.

References

America and the Heroin Epidemic. (2018). Heroin.net. Retrieved 8 April 2018, from https://heroin.net/think/america-and-the-heroin-epidemic/

 Angell, T. (2018). Forbes Welcome. Forbes.com. Retrieved 8 April 2018, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomangell/2018/03/01/trump-talks-up-death-penalty-for-drug-dealers/#3f7bc6b34c2d

 Cass, A. (2018). Should people carry naloxone? Surgeon General says yes.. News-herald.com. Retrieved 8 April 2018, from http://www.news-herald.com/general-news/20180406/should-people-carry-naloxone-surgeon-general-says-yes

 Sederer, L. (2018). Retrieved 8 April 2018, from https://www.usnews.com/opinion/civil-wars/articles/2017-11-30/jeff-sessions-new-war-on-drugs-is-the-wrong-way-to-fix-the-opioid-crisis

 Understanding Naloxone - Harm Reduction Coalition. (2018). Harmreduction.org. Retrieved 8 April 2018, from http://harmreduction.org/issues/overdose-prevention/overview/overdose-basics/understanding-naloxone/

[therls8guy]

13,000 addicts die the on average every year in America #opiate #lateralus #heroinkills #10000days #aenima #oxycodone #rehab #opiates #vinyl #drugs #recovery #drug #wildpoppies #overtheledge #painkillers #salival #pinaddiction #heroin #opiateskill

[dogbird91]

For all my friends who are affected by the heroin epidemic in our country. Seek help. You matter. And you can do this. #support #heroinkills #fuckheroin #detox #youcandoit