MEDIA IGNORES: Fentanyl Leading Cause Of Death For 18-45 | Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar

Krystal and Saagar examine the data showing that fentanyl overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18-45 surpassing covid and all other possibilities

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[JM-ysvx]

I'm 28 and know of 10 people from my graduating class that have died from fentanyl. I only know one person my age that had covid and actually got symptoms.

[fulanichild]

I met a Dutch man 20 years ago who had been a heroine addict. He told me that in the Netherlands at the time, there were drug clinics where addicts could get their fix under medical supervision, and get rehab when they were ready. He had been clean for some years when we met. The drug war has been a monumental failure. Time to make some drastic changes.

[samrye]

The unreported death from ODs is probably higher than you think. Speaking to an undertaker at a funeral home in a high use community during my father's funeral he said that many of the deaths he deals with are from ODs but the family lists another reasons to hide the fact because of the family's shame.

[paulweeldreyer]

I'm a recovering opiate addict. Fentanyl is a new ballgame (it's been around for year and years but not found in heroin years ago). This is an emergency that need to stop ignoring. Many of these people want to get clean but they don't know how so eventually they give up trying, they feel like they've lost too much. Deaths of despair is a proper term. We need to figure out a way to help them.

[nancyk]

Yesterday, at work. I had a woman with roughly 8 young teenagers come through my line to pay for their purchases. They were only a portion of all the children she and her husband fostered. All of these young adults were well behaved and quite beautiful. All their parents were mentally ill with drug addictions and had their children taken away. These teenagers looked clean and healthy, they were calm and seemed to be at ease around one another. What a site to see first hand. The woman fostering them was amazing, a truly gifted beautiful individual. The kids all listened to her when she spoke. I marvel that I got have this experience, and to hear the stories she told me, it truly made my Christmas.

[slm]

My son has been participating in the opioid crisis for over a decade now. There are dozens of topics I could talk about watching his journey. But to this story In April of 2020 he bought what he thought was Xanax. That Xanax was laced with fentanyl unknown to him. He overdosed while driving totaled his car running into a wall. Thank God he didn’t kill someone else.
They revived him with narcan at the scene. He broke his sternum, two vertebrae and is now in jail for felony DUI. Yes he is an addict and his choices are his own. But fentanyl has increased the dangerous consequences of addiction to insane levels.
Thanks for your story.

[cannibalvegetableyt]

I was prescribed high dose Fentanyl patches for ten years after going through pretty much all other pain control methods.. it is a nightmare. I had full on hallucinations eventually and overdosed at least three times taking the drug as prescribed.

It took eight doctors to find one who would take the responsibility of discontinuing; despite threats that the next doctor would only "write one month" they still wouldn't help me stop. I HATE the way opioids make me feel, that decade was torture and the chronic vomiting I developed cost me my teeth before my mid 30s. I also lost my gal bladder likely in part to this drug.

It's not morphine. It's not oxy. When you feel that something is wrong, it's already too late.

PS: I stopped almost all my drugs for medical cannabis. It has worked so far. Had I stayed in TX ie on Fentanyl or with a morphine pump, I would be dead. I have been completely off Fentanyl since 2016 and the withdrawals lasted months. I'm still recovering neurological function.

[phillipkarpowich]

"Only safe drugs come from the pharmacy." Makes perfect sense, they won't stop it until we're all strong-armed into big pharma customers.

[inctru]

Honestly, I can't blame people for wanting to self-euthanize and/or self-medicate. We live in a society, culture & economic system today that seems to cultivate, promote & reward sociopaths. Remove all hope & quality of life & this is what happens.

[janessagrant]

I did my own calculations here in BC Canada last Dec. 2020- IT"S HUGE!!. I used news blurbs from "health ministers" to find out these numbers because they would never put these stats side by side or use the same timelines to easily correlate. But when there were 72 COVID deaths, in that same time there were 384 Overdose deaths.... 72 compared to 384.... In the "height" of the pandemic....

[thomasminarchickjr.]

I’m almost 45. As a kid that grew up during the height of the “Just Say No!” propaganda, it’s shocking to see how the United States has become addicted to OPIATES (and plenty of other drugs) and people don’t seem to care. The politicians are making too much money from their “donors” to actually do something helpful to change the drug epidemic. Souled out

[anthonytwohill]

That's because everyone under the age of 45 (ish) has taken the biggest portion or damage from the last 40 years of neoliberalism.

[Desertsol]

I am a nurse that works in recovery, and I can tell you that the majority of the patients I take care of are there for fentanyl. I used to think that fentanyl was just something used to lace drugs with but that is not true. People are 100% seeking out and using fentanyl. I had one guy tell me he was smoking up to 50 pills per day. I have also been told by patients that heroine is pretty much non existent now, so the people that once used heroine are turning to fentanyl and it’s so sad. Glad you guys are covering this!

[kroomk]

My best friend died last year from Fentanyl. He had a major anxiety disorder, there was a mix up with his prescription, he got a couple Xanax off a guy at work and never woke up

[TheKatieLea]

Politicians aren't typically aged 18-45. Decent chance there's a correlation there somewhere

[Meatsweats_o_O]

I'm a introvert with little to no social circle and I know 4 close people to me who have died from it. I spent the 10 yr anniversary of my bestman's death at another childhood friend's funeral cause of fentanyl.
And don't forget, drug companies want to have something even stronger than fentanyl on the market. Fentanyl is already damn WMD, crop dust a large city and there it goes, just like that.

[yevin]

"The only safe place to get drugs is the pharmacy"... was that a joke?

[johnbemery]

950, 000 Americans have died from tobacco in 2020-2021. That's more than Fentynal or Covid over the same time period.

[iversonmatthew]

It would be nice if people also talked about patients that commit suicide because they were legitimately cut off of their pain medicine because of this war on pain medicine.

[theoutcrowd]

It's sad that this barely gets coverage. This would be why I have no trust in leadership. Leadership pretending they care about citizens but quality of life has on the decline my whole life.