Fewer Overdoses, More Addicts, Our Future?

The opioid crisis still rages, with fentanyl becoming a major cause of death, but there is good news and bad news.

The good news is, there are people who sell these opioids who are very interested in keeping their customers alive.
The bad news is, they want their customers to remain addicted to their product.

I have an analogy, from my experience with LSD.

Before I came along, and LSD experimentation was in it's infancy, people would get liquid LSD, and dose a sugar cube or something else.
The doses could vary, and people were flaking out all over the place. Scarborough Hospital's Tower Ten was full of kids who had a bad trip.
By the time I was using acid, microdots and blotters were the standard, and you could have far more confidence in the dose you were getting.
There were still people who suffered psychosis, but the numbers dropped, even as the numbers of people using acid increased.

Make no mistake about it, they are working on the best way to sell this stuff with minimal heat from police.
 They don't want you dead, they want you in their control. 
 They want your money, not your life, but you'll lose both to your addiction.



Cole Lockie, Fentanyl Patches And A WarningI didn't know Cole Lockie, but I know a thing or two about addiction.
I am not here to praise or condemn him, this is a warning for others like Cole and I,...Rob Ford even...a story I was reminded about by the recent robberies in York Region.
The armed robberies for fentanyl patches, and the police saying the person MAY* strike again, got me thinking about it...
In Toronto, a pair of suspects had just robbed another pharmacy for narcotics.
They'd been robbing pharmacies for a while, but this time their car was being pursued by police.
The driver turned down what was once a through-road, that had been turned into two dead ends.
When they got to the end of their side of the road, with no escape,
 the passenger SHOT his brother in the head, then killed himself.
Both dead.
This happened not far from where I was living...
I was NOT an addict-in-recovery at the time. I was a full blown alcoholic addicted to narcotics.
I was following this in the news, rooting for these guys not to get c A Junkie Nursery RhymeSing a song of Cemeteries
Pocket full of Pills
Four and twenty Junkies
Compromise their Wills
As the junkies start to drop,
the others start to cry.
Isn't that an AWFUL way
To have your friend die.
In Memory of Jeff Hodgson R.I.P 2007 An ADDICT speaks on AddictionBooze and Junk were my drugs of choice, but I wasn't too proud,
to take anything to get high.
I smoked anything that could be smoked, and I injected just about anything you could inject.
I ate handfuls of pills.
For years I abused Alcohol.
For years I abused Narcotics.
Over the years, I tried to quit on my own.
People tried to talk to me about quitting.
I was UGLY, I lashed out at those who cared.
A friend, who had just begun a methadone treatment, asked me "Do you see yourself doing this in ten years?"
"Don't you WANT to change?"
I went to a methadone clinic, to get a steady supply of Narcotics.
I was sick and tired of being sick and tired.
I was diagnosed with hepatitis C.
The doctor calmly told me that I could go on drinking, but it would kill me.
I left his office in tears, a wreck. I swore I would never drink again.
On the way home I bought a big can of beer, and drank it, cursing my weakness.
That was just about the last time I drank .
I have been sober for 10 years, Narcotic fre