Suddenly Visible: Illicit Drugs As Part of Silicon Valley Culture

The recent death by overdose of Google executive Timothy Hayes has drawn attention to the phenomenon of illegal drug use (including abuse of prescription painkillers) among technology workers and executives in high-pay, high-stress Silicon Valley. The Mercury News takes a look at the phenomenon; do the descriptions of freely passed cocaine, Red Bull as a gateway drug, and complacent managers match your own workplace experiences? From the Mercury News article: "There's this workaholism in the valley, where the ability to work on crash projects at tremendous rates of speed is almost a badge of honor," says Steve Albrecht, a San Diego consultant who teaches substance abuse awareness for Bay Area employers. "These workers stay up for days and days, and many of them gradually get into meth and coke to keep going. Red Bull and coffee only gets them so far." ... Drug abuse in the tech industry is growing against the backdrop of a national surge in heroin and prescription pain-pill abuse. Treatment specialists say the over-prescribing of painkillers, like the opioid hydrocodone, has spawned a new crop of addicts -- working professionals with college degrees, a description that fits many of the thousands of workers in corporate Silicon Valley. Increasingly, experts see painkillers as the gateway drug for addicts, and they are in abundance. "There are 1.4 million prescriptions ... in the Bay Area for hydrocodone," says Alice Gleghorn with the San Francisco Department of Public Health. "That's a lot of pills out there."

Comments

Red Bull

[BitZtream]

Did you seriously just call Red Bull a gateway drug?

Tim Lord, you're a moron. Stop posting stories, this isn't your personal blog. And no, writing them and then having Roblimo or another slashdot editor post the stories doesn't make it any better. Just stop, we don't want your thoughts.

Re: Red Bull

[Type44Q]

Not to mention you're missing out on the free chlorine and fluoride...

Re:The only good thing

[BitZtream]

Yes, it is, takes some fucking responsibility for your own actions.

Re:Real life is complicated

[The Evil Atheist]

Furthermore just because someone made a bad decision doesn't mean we simply abandon them. Maybe you are the one person who has never made a bad choice in life but I doubt it. Sometimes people make bad choices and a civilized society tries to a reasonable degree to help them through it. We're going to pay for it one way or another anyway so why not do the humane thing and help those who are willing to be helped?

I'm all for helping people who are addicted. Just don't expect me to help them AND feel sympathy. I can perfectly help people and still feel no sympathy for them. I feel sympathy, even empathy, for those who don't get themselves into trouble but find themselves there.

If you take drugs and get addicted, that's your responsibility. Not anyone else's.

You really think that a wounded veteran who gets unintentionally addicted to opiates while trying to control pain is solely responsible for his situation? If so you are a very cold hearted person.

If they're in great pain and they down painkillers, it's not really addiction, because they're in pain, or PTSD. If they somehow manage to mentally and physically heal and no longer require painkillers but continue to do so, then it's a choice.