President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed that China would crack down on the production and exporting of fentanyl and the precursor chemicals used to make it, according to media reports.

But while Biden is painting the agreement as a win that will “save lives”, drug policy experts told VICE News they’re skeptical the measure will curb the overdose crisis—and it may make the drug supply worse.

Biden and Xi met Wednesday in San Francisco, where both leaders were in town for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. According to the New York Times, China will go after the exporting of illicit fentanyl into the U.S. and the manufacturing of precursor chemicals, which are being used to make fentanyl and smuggle it into the country from Mexico.

    • SoylentBlake@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I wonder if it’s the higher percentage of Neanderthal DNA.

      Smokers also require more pain meds, not just the opiates but the -caines as well.

      I have strawberry blonde hair and smoke. Any pain meds and me is like, ‘turn it all the way up Dentist’ or ‘yea, Vicodin does nothing. That bottle is like 2 doses.’

      I landed me a debilitating repetitive injury from work, and besides taking a lateral move, I needed pain meds just to function. The pain would spread from my shoulder/back/arm up my neck into my brain. I’m talking rapid onset migraines where I’d go blind.

      First time, I was driving.

      Not fun.

      I didn’t know that could even happen. Regardless, I needed help to work, then without them Id withdraw and be unable to work. Right down the slippery slope I went. Got to a point where I just said no more, idc what happens, took 10days off work, sat at home with 30 boxes of donuts, various one step meals, 20 gallons of choc milk and otter pops. Told myself, and everyone else, i was sick. I refused to make any decisions besides what to eat that was in the building for the entire time as I considered my mind compromised and sus.

      I am exceptionally willful tho and can compartmentalize like it’s the ADHD Olympics. Results will vary. I do not recommended the experience. 0/10. Dengue fever in a foreign land where I speak 0.5% of the language was more pleasant.

      • Hazor@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        What are your thoughts on maintenance therapy and medical detox, i.e. with Suboxone?

        • SoylentBlake@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Honestly? It has a place of it’s the last resort, if for whatever reason, a person’s circumstances necessitate their constant presence and decision making ability.

          Like, if there’s no family the kids can go stay with, or if you’re the last nuclear engineer/ER Dr./bar pilot within 1000 miles and you’re already on call 24/7.

          If you’re presence/agency/rationality is more essential than your immediate health - and those examples could very well be - then, if you’re able to compartmentalize esoteric you from physical you and cede control of the process to the prescribing doctor, ie, you just shut up, take the discomfort, ignore your brains opinion about anything that has to do with it and carry on, then methadone might be an option for you.

          If you can in anyway manuever your life to avoid methadone, I 110% suggest you do that.

          Withdrawal from methadone can last 6 months to a year. Withdrawal from opiates is a matter of weeks, not months. With ibogaine that’s reduced to ~16hrs. Ibogaine is curiously illegal, and rated schedule 1 (no medical value, nothing to see here; look away) in America.

          Sigh. Deep breaths. Here we go

          It’s crucial to know that even tho they are within the same family; Vicodin/Percocet withdrawal ≠ heroin withdrawal ≠ fentanyl withdrawal. The shit is exponential, I am not exaggerating.

          One acre of poppies yields 1 kg of opium. It will take 100 acres of poppies to yield 1 kg of morphine. Expounding;

          1acre poppies= 1kg Opium 100kg Opium=1kg Morphine 100kg Morphine= 1kg heroin 100kg heroin = 1kg fentanyl

          Withdrawal symptoms/intensity are directly proportional. I know this, anecdotally. Your brain in withdrawal will pull out every trick, every rationality it can grasp to convince you to get more of w/e. “Immediate-needs you” is attacking “Overall you”…or COO v CEO, sous v exec chef, quartermaster v captain. You are caught in the middle of a war between your brain and your body. You, what you would call you, your consciousness, is emergent from both. You are not your brain. Your brain is not seperate from your body either, even tho the ego sells convincingly, they both need each other. Recovery requires setting the ego aside ( {DEEP BREATH, HOLD ON!} which it absolutely does not want to do, it will do ANYTHING before it even allows itself to be back burnered, on a fucking timer even. In it’s original, unadulterated form it is insessently needy and unrelentingly demanding. A tick is less demanding and it’s literally sucking your blood. This is why ego death is so transformative. It’s not that you changed, cuz it didn’t you are still you, obviously, it’s that you can now exist outside parameters defined by the ego. It fucking feels like you’re dying too, the ego sells convincingly, but then *pop, * you’re thru. And you’re still you. Just with less weight. And why was that so hard? WTF self? Life is fucking weird).

          Phew…

          I’d argue, bite the bullet and reap what youve sown and get it done with. Cold turkey is like an old neighborhood beat down while structured is a 364 day jail sentence with 5 years probation - but it doesn’t require “esoteric you” to reconcile yourself. The main problem with that, to me, is no matter where you go, there you are. You can’t run from yourself. Many have tried. I’m not aware of any that have survived the attempt unscathed.

          Now we can chemically synthesize fent so the hundreds of millions of poppy acreage, known as Afghanistan, just lost a whole lot of its value. …notice how our military isn’t there anymore. Weird, huh?