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Alphabet's 'Verily' Plans to Use Tech To Fight The Opioid Crisis (cnbc.com)

"Verily, Alphabet's life science division, is building a tech-focused rehab campus in Dayton, Ohio to combat the opioid crisis," reports CNBC. Verily will join two health networks, Kettering Health Network and Premier Health, to create a nonprofit named OneFifteen. Alexandria Real Estate Equities will design and develop the campus, which will offer both inpatient and outpatient services. There is no single solution to treating substance abuse, with strategies spanning from intensive rehabilitation programs to drop-in meetings. Verily hopes to get a better understanding of what works and what doesn't work in helping people get and stay sober....

Initially, Verily will focus on understanding what works in the clinic and then track patient behavior when they get out to see what sticks, Danielle Schlosser, senior clinical scientist of behavioral health at Verily, said in an interview. Verily will use a "variety of means" to track what works, she said, adding that patients would have to consent to being monitored... OneFifteen CEO Marti Taylor said "Because we will have facilities, an entire ecosystem and data, we'll be able to take a more holistic understanding of a person's health both inside and outside as we follow them long-term."

Verily's blog points out that Americans under 50 years old are more likely to die from unintentional overdoses than any other cause, and that two-thirds of those deaths involve an opioid. "In the face of one of the greatest public health crises the U.S. has seen, we feel compelled to act," they write, saying their company is "focused on making health information useful so people can live healthier lives."

Their blog says their team recognized "the absence of high quality information to guide individuals, communities, and legislators" for picking effective recovery treatements. "Leaning into our capabilities of building health platforms, we are setting out to create a 'learning health system' that aims to address this critical information gap in addiction medicine."

121 comments

  1. Obvious plan by phantomfive · · Score: 2

    Finally a good use for the Google business model.

    1) Make a new product (selling drugs)
    2) Wait until it becomes popular, undercutting the competition
    3) drive competitors out of business
    4) ????????
    5) Discontinue the product
    6) Everyone is off drugs cold turkey and profit!

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    1. Re: Obvious plan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If people are in heroin they will spend all their time and money on the drug and therefore no time searching and buying things in Google

    2. Re: Obvious plan by phantomfive · · Score: 2

      Google has that problem solved!
      Give the drugs away free and make it up on volume.
      ???????
      Profit!

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    3. Re: Obvious plan by rtb61 · · Score: 0, Troll

      Lets be more realistic this is Alphabet so in a nutshell, 'How to use AI to keep addicts from overdosing and continuing to consume'. You just know that is their sick point of view, how to keep addicts alive and buying, once those addicts are broke though, well, they can't buy drugs and the AI does the zero profit analysis and cuts them off the drugs, see they saved them. You know, you just know, it's driven profit and just gets that slimey smear of SJW bullshit to cover over the greed, the far right, fake left.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    4. Re: Obvious plan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      *.* are the root causes of deterioration of my inbred nazi brain, SMOGGA!

    5. Re: Obvious plan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seriously though, build the wall.

    6. Re:Obvious plan by AHuxley · · Score: 2

      7) Detect the users.
      8) Sell the long term treatment plan that only works while buying and using the treatment product.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    7. Re: Obvious plan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Everybody knows that drugs are bad and yet they love to willingly buy them. Google isn't the one asking people to start buying drugs. The problem is the people taking the drugs. They made the choice and they deserve the consequences to that choice.

    8. Re: Obvious plan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seriously enough, if Donald Drumpf gets the wall built from either Federal or NY/CA/FL state prison, he'll be a much more electable figure than his faggot traitor ass is right now, ain't that right hellfire?

    9. Re: Obvious plan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      shut up apk

    10. Re: Obvious plan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Good argument, well done.

    11. Re:Obvious plan by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Well, at least it's a business model they have experience in. They already call their customers users and they have an experience with giving stuff out for free at first, then tightening the screws.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    12. Re: Obvious plan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At least he doesn't muff dirty lesbian salad while giving our top secret information to our enemies like Hillery KKKlinton

    13. Re: Obvious plan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Google collects data on drug users. Google gets a pool of people related to drug users who could become future drug users. Or potential criminals due to whatever metrics they use to identify criminal activity clusters by genetics, location, and socio-finacial status.

      Google sells that dat to law enforcement.

      You get monitored because your girlfriend's/wife's/whatever's second cousin twice removed did drugs ten years ago in another state.

      Google sells data to insurance companies.

      You get a rude awakening when you go to pay a medical bill you thought was supposed to be covered by insurance. And it was ... before it got readjusted to not be any more due to your increased "risk potential".

      You are not and will never be clear of the radioactive fallout of massive data gathering. And so long as data sells, people and companies will find ever increasingly creative and obscure ways to collect it.

      Time to grow the hell up buttercups. It is just as much your problem as everybody else's. And it isn't going away no matter how far up your own backside you desperately try to hide your heads.

    14. Re: Obvious plan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Drugs save lives. Libtard propaganda is the problem. We need to crack down on fake news like they do in Saudi Arabia. :D LOL

    15. Re: Obvious plan by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 1

      This is why we need new drugs to target stupid faggots like the moron I'm replying to. I want a drug that cuts their tongue out and allows me to fry it in butter.

      Ad hominem, homophobia, threat of violence, cannibalism, general insults, and unhealthy eating in the span of two sentences. It's too bad you didn't Godwin this thread as well.

    16. Re: Obvious plan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      With that many Darwin Award winners, surely its only a matter of time before America is Great Again?

    17. Re: Obvious plan by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 1

      Not offended. I just didn't see the point in hurling a bunch of insults. Perhaps you can explain as you seem to be of a similar mind.

    18. Re: Obvious plan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's time to break up Alphabet and make data hoarding illegal.

    19. Re: Obvious plan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Rudely stated but essentially true.

    20. Re: Obvious plan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So it's a slippery slope problem that you're concerned about; Google is predicted to spy on my potential drug habits because of my connection to someone who Google has known to have drug habits. I thank you for this insight, it's not happening now but it is something worthwhile to consider.

  2. Objective #1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Keep APK away from the heroin.

  3. Opioid use ... by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Opioid use is the symptom, not the illness. We need to figure out why the US is the #1 consumer of opioids per capita in the world -- why, in a country of such abundance, people feel the need to numb their pain and escape their lives.

    1. Re: Opioid use ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Economic inequality. The USA has some of the worse Gini coefficient of all developed nations, similar to that of a third world country. So although the country at first clove might appear rich in terms of GDP, in reality all the wealth is concentrated in a tiny percentage of its citizens (the 1%) and the average American certainly isn't rich anymore.

    2. Re:Opioid use ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The assumption here is that the correct way to stop opioid overdose is to stop opioid use.

      But the kind of screw-ups that cause overdose, such as measurement, mislabeling, bad instructions....these could also all be resolved by making recreational opioid use legal and well-regulated.

      Take the production and distribution channels out of the hands of criminals and put in the hands of reputable businesses that are answerable to regulatory bodies, and you will see most of these problems solve themselves.

      Of course, we should *also* have clinics and programs for those who get addicted and need help regaining control. A tax on the opioids is a great way to pay for that.

    3. Re:Opioid use ... by gweihir · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Indeed. Also, why are there _still_ no drugs available that are cheap, safe, have minimal side-effect and provide a similar escape? Even with high-quality opioids, people can lead productive lives and get to a pretty old age. Imagine what a modern alternative could do. The whole thing would not be a crisis anymore. But some people just cannot stand when others have fun from anything but prayer.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    4. Re:Opioid use ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mao eradicated the Chinese opium problem verry effectively.

    5. Re: Opioid use ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      He also eradicated freedomsbvery well (or was that Xi who is doing that)

    6. Re:Opioid use ... by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Profit.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    7. Re: Opioid use ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It was always that way. So does not explain anything. Stop trying to push socialist fantasies it is worse than the opioid and more dangerous.

    8. Re:Opioid use ... by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

      We need to figure out why the US is the #1 consumer of opioids per capita in the world

      Well, ever since Sherlock Holmes died - opioid use in Great Britain has cratered.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    9. Re:Opioid use ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars Trump needs to get China to agree it SHOULD be number 1 and put things back they way they were so the Chinese are doped out again.

      As for Alphabet, it is not hard to teach educated people what is safe, and have a free to use mass spec in the foyer or canteen area, to get supply quality variances removed.

      Also note Marijuana legalization has lowered opioid use/misuse by some 6% odd. Now if cocaine could be lowered and legally sold, Trump could get the money for a beaner fence.

    10. Re:Opioid use ... by Brett+Buck · · Score: 1

      We don't need a research project for that, it's deadly obvious - people hear nothing but badmouthing about how terrible this country is from morning to night, despite the fact that they are warm, safe, wealthy (by world standards), and have things absurdly easy. A bunch of fucking whiners, they feel like everything is absolutely terrible, even though they are living in the greatest country on earth in the best time to be living here.

    11. Re:Opioid use ... by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      Why are you worried about the deplorables dying? Aren't you far left? You hate these people, remember?

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    12. Re:Opioid use ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can have all the fun you want as long as you accept all the consequences. If your idea of fun is opium, then please prepare by digging a burial hole for yourself.

    13. Re:Opioid use ... by gweihir · · Score: 1

      You seem to have a reading problem. What did I just write?

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    14. Re: Opioid use ... by Opportunist · · Score: 1, Interesting

      It was not always that way. Ask your dad whether it was possible to raise a family and build or buy a home at a single worker's wage when he was young.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    15. Re:Opioid use ... by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Ah, that's why alcohol is legal and weed isn't? The lack of a hangover the next day?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    16. Re:Opioid use ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You believe that "safe" access to opiods implies minimal side effects. That is wrong. Have all the "safe" opium you want but don't delude yourself.

    17. Re: Opioid use ... by jeffasselin · · Score: 1

      I was about to reply the same thing. Interesting you were modded troll...

      --
      If he explores all forms and substances Straight homeward to their symbol-essences; He shall not die.
    18. Re: Opioid use ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah that's not a roll at all. The modding here as terrible and getting worse and worse

    19. Re:Opioid use ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Alcohol is probably the worst of the drugs causing withdrawal symptoms that can lead to death.

    20. Re:Opioid use ... by LostMyAccount · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I keep thinking there must be a way to engineer a close-to-optimal recreational drug and wonder why it hasn't happened.

      As for design criteria:

      * Diminishing returns on adding additional doses. Either because the drug itself can't bind to receptors beyond some optimal dose, or because its some kind of binary drug with its own antagonist which isn't potent enough until you take the 3rd or 4th tablet. IIRC, some sublingual buprenorphine formulations include nalaxone, which makes them useless for injection but the nalaxone has weak oral bio-availability, so when taken orally it doesn't take effect.

      * Relatively short half-life, losing effectiveness after about 4 hours. This might help with ancillary problems where a user has poor motor reflexes or where long-term side effects contribute to some of the problems of "drug use". If you could get pretty high and then it went away relatively quickly, it'd be better than getting moderately high but having the effect last 8 hours, at least from a behavior/lifestyle/side-effects basis.

      * No synergistic effects with common other drugs. Try to avoid the problem of taking $engineered_drug and alcohol or other drugs and making a worse or dangerous effect.

      It seems like if we had a *better* drug that was legal we'd solve a lot of problems and perhaps keep a lot of people from bothering with more dangerous, expensive black market drugs.

      Cannabis seems to pretty close to this, but not quite perfect.

    21. Re: Opioid use ... by Cmdln+Daco · · Score: 1

      The post war boom and the middle class economy of the 1950s and '60s was an aberration. A fluke made possible by the fact that the U.S. 'won' WWII and seized control of a vast amount of resource.

      It might be possible to create that kind of widespread prosperity, but 'doing what was done before' isn't the way to get there.

    22. Re:Opioid use ... by Cmdln+Daco · · Score: 1

      Opioids are a death trip. The key to the rush is to cheat death. Sometimes death wins. I suppose you could 'soften' it some, but the addicts are still going to strive to zoom up to that edge and get their experience.

    23. Re:Opioid use ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      why, in a country of such abundance, people feel the need to numb their pain and escape their lives.

      Because a bunch of greedy companies paid lobbyists to bribe a corrupt congress to make it legal to prescribe highly addictive heroin to sick people.
      Stop blaming this on the sick people.

    24. Re:Opioid use ... by kendbluze · · Score: 1

      Cannabis is easily available, much less expensive than heroin, won't unexpectedly kill you, or lead to extremely harmful behavior. I have never seen a junkie transition from heroin to pot, leaving the heroin behind. And I have years of wrenching personal experience with a very close family member who had been addicted to heroin for years, but is now free after a full one year residential program. Cannabis is not near close enough.

    25. Re: Opioid use ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How about I ask my grandfather that question. He had fun in the depression. You are looking at a sample of 1. I can look at a sample of well over a dozen market crashes. The market cycles. The 50/60s the cycle was 'soft' because the world blew itself up and we didnt. High taxes were to pay off the debts we incured during WW2. Buy your war bonds!

    26. Re:Opioid use ... by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Wrong. That is not what I believe or what I said. Opioid addiction is a serious illness with strong side-effects. However it is generally not a lethal one and people generally stay reasonably functional when they have it. The lethal effect comes primarily from unsafe drugs from the black market, high prices leading to crime and inability to maintain reasonable standards of living, including food quality and medical care. In other words (and I am just repeating the relevant and quite old research here), most harm is caused by the utterly immoral and despicable war in drugs and would be entirely preventable. Add a modern version of the drugs (research needed) that reduces negative effects and the whole thing may not be worse than smoking or alcohol.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    27. Re:Opioid use ... by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Wong. You have read the propaganda fueling the insane "war on drugs", but you have not read any actual _medical_ texts on its _medical_ effects. Sure, lethal dose and dose that has the desired effects are not that far removed from each other. But the same is true for Paracetamol, for example. This is not a rare thing in medicine at all and all it requires to fix is standardized quality and general, legal availability (to prevent people from mixing insufficient quantities with other stuff that they normally would not use). There are pretty old and rock-solid studies by the WHO that finds Alcohol much more damaging, dangerous and more of a killer than Heroin. The whole thing is a religious war, not a rational one. There would not be more addicts if the stuff were legal and safer alternatives were under research and available at low cost. That is just a myth spread by the authoritarian religious fanatics that want to decide what people can and cannot have. These that want their addiction will have, the others will stay away. If you cannot prevent it (and there is absolutely no indication that it can be prevented or even significantly reduced), reduce the harm it does. And the cost to society of the war on drugs, in addition to the cost to many individuals, is extreme.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    28. Re:Opioid use ... by gweihir · · Score: 1

      I think the reasons why it has not happened are purely ideological: There is a class of authoritarian religious fuckup that does not want people to have any fun except in prayer. They tried to ban alcohol as well and we all know how well that turned out. And, unfortunately, these people are powerful enough to prevent research globally. Well, for all I know, there are drugs like you describe tested and ready to be manufactured, but they are being kept secret because of the crusade going on.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    29. Re:Opioid use ... by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Incidentally, Heroin of standardized, medical quality will also not "unexpectedly kill you" and if it is readily available and cheap will not "lead to extremely harmful behavior". The thing that may do both is Alcohol.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    30. Re: Opioid use ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree, but alcohol is one of the worse drugs known to man. It's one of a couple drugs that can kill you from the withdraw symptoms. Benzodiazepines being another.

    31. Re: Opioid use ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This.

      A drug that can kill you if you do too much or withdraw from is legal(alochol).

      Yet weed is illegal on the federal level.

    32. Re: Opioid use ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Far right***

      Fixed That for ya, as we know the right hates poor and colored but loves green.

    33. Re:Opioid use ... by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      . We need to figure out why the US is the #1 consumer of opioids per capita in the world

      What do you think?

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    34. Re:Opioid use ... by LostMyAccount · · Score: 1

      I think you're mostly right about the ideological/religious/control reasons historically, but I'd also guess it might not have been possible from a science perspective until maybe the last 20 years to make something truly revolutionary.

      And by revolutionary, something euphoric along the lines of an opiate but nearly idiot proof for the common man -- something that would "work" but not result in overdoses, addiction and be resistant to chronic over use. I'd wager for a lot of the population who were mindful and informed with cheap and trustworthy sources, many *conventional* drugs aren't that dangerous. Unfortunately, though, you have to design for the 20% of the population for whom excessive consumption is the only consumption they know.

      I'm not sure the "psychologically addictive" part can be really solved due to the fuzzy nature of psychological addiction and how even non-drug activities can more or less also be called psychologically addictive. But maybe if one of your successful engineering goals was a drug that wouldn't provide an effect if taken more than, say, 4 times a day, perhaps even psychological habituation wouldn't be that negative since you'd have a hard limit on how much reward could be provided.

    35. Re:Opioid use ... by gweihir · · Score: 1

      I agree. As to the psychological addiction part, that is probably part of the personality and cannot be solved, ever. It also works for sugar, for example. The solution is simple: Just make sure the side-effects of the addiction are still acceptable. If somebody really wants to spend all their time in an altered state, nothing can really be done about that.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    36. Re: Opioid use ... by gweihir · · Score: 1

      And in addition, many alcoholics are dangerous to others, both by direct violence and by things like drunk driving. Alcohol kills and harms a lot of others that have no problem with it themselves. Opioids do not have that effect.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    37. Re: Opioid use ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We already had a regulated opiate market, to an extent. The pain clinics. Then a few years back, we started shutting them down, charging doctors with murder, limiting how many refills they can write, among other things. It was at *this* point that black market fentanyl started killing record numbers of people. Often in the form of counterfeit pain pills, despite all the media focus on laced heroin. People can't get pain pills through legitimate avenues now, so they go to the black market, with predictable results - a wave of death.

    38. Re: Opioid use ... by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Umm... no. Considering that West Germany enjoyed pretty much the same (there's even a word for it, "Wirtschaftswunder"), I guess it has not really that much to do with winning the war...

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    39. Re: Opioid use ... by sound+vision · · Score: 1

      I recall reading about a synthetic derivative of salvinorin that had similar mu-opiate receptor activity as the opium derivatives, indicating they would provide a similar high. But it did not desensitize the receptors in the same way that other opiates do. The researchers speculate this compound could produce a similar high, without the same degree of tolerance and dependence.

      I think it's more likely that, rather than official research continuing, this ends up for sale online somewhere, then gets banned quickly after.

    40. Re: Opioid use ... by locketine · · Score: 1

      The people begging for money on "go fund me" to cover the costs of treating their illnesses and injuries sure don't feel wealthy. The people working 60 hour work weeks so that they don't lose their jobs don't feel wealthy. The people working through their illnesses and injuries for fear of being fired don't feel wealthy. The guy living on my porch doesn't feel warm.

      Look beyond your own living situation to see how maybe you are fortunate but others are not. Then look where all the national wealth is going. That's the root of the opioid epidemic; hopelessness caused by greed.

      --
      Think globally but act within local variable scope.
    41. Re: Opioid use ... by astrofurter · · Score: 1

      "why, in a country of such abundance, people feel the need to numb their pain and escape their lives."

      Because we haven't been a country of abundance for a long time. There is an ongoing 40+ year economic depression in the "flyover". A depression that was engineered and maintained by public policy choices with bipartisan support. A depression which has transformed the once prosperous cities of the heartland into wastelands of despair.

      My brother, open your eyes. And travel west of the Hudson now & then. ;) The America shown in movies, and the America we see in our rich bubble cities, is not the America experienced by the masses of our countrymen.

      Sometimes our mass media public discourse feels like the chatter of 1950s Gosplan bureaucrats. Sitting in their fancy Moscow apartments, patting each other on the back for their brilliant planning skills. While out in the hinterland millions are starving from Stalin's famine. Sure, sure, we're not that bad yet. But "better than Stalin's famine" is faint praise indeed.

    42. Re: Opioid use ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mao was also 15x as smart as the smartest American politician. And 75x as honest. He was ruthless too - but I think our masters are quite competitive with Mao on that one.

    43. Re: Opioid use ... by astrofurter · · Score: 1

      Don't feed the trolls.

    44. Re: Opioid use ... by CoolDiscoRex · · Score: 1

      A lot of people die fresh out of rehab, after their tolerance has been lowered to the floor, and they try to resume use. People often donâ(TM)t OD until they have a period of abstinence. There are 110 year old Chinese people who have been addicted to opium since their teens. Prohibition and the drug war kills far more people than opioids.

    45. Re:Opioid use ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fine by me man, I will accept the consequences of my actions.
      But who are you (or, who are this Totalitarian Government) - to say what I can and cannot ingest? If I want to put some plant sap into my mouth, and it gets me high - why should I be thrown in jail for that?
      How can that be considered a just society?
      (capcha - Warrants. How appropriate. Jackboots invading your home for a plant)

    46. Re: Opioid use ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have been using opiates for 15 years, and have held a job down all that time.
      I am on a very high dose, my dose would kill a normal person.

      If I were drinking the equivalent of Vodka, my body would have rotted away, my liver would have failed - I'd likely be dead by now.
      So why is the far more dangerous Alcohol legal, yet the much more benign Opiates are illegal and demonized? Could it be the elites have much cash in the prohibition game?
      Or are our leaders and most of the proles just that stupid?

    47. Re:Opioid use ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You sound like someone who has never used drugs. There are two reasons people do it. 1: To feel good. 2: To feel less bad.

    48. Re:Opioid use ... by strikethree · · Score: 1

      Well duh. The Jewish (work with me here) bankers insist that controlling payroll costs is the path to great wealth.

      This idea is, evidently, true. The issue is that it is a path to great wealth at the expense of "everyone" else. It is not true wealth.

      So yeah, there is a LOT of wealth here in America, but very very few get to taste any of it. Imagine knowing that the people around you can run off to Tahiti whenever things get too stressful but you can't even afford to go out to eat and NEVER get respite from your stresses. Opiates, here we come!

      Oh, you chose to be poor. You are lazy and lack morals. Anyone who was smart would choose to NOT be poor. ROFLMAO. If only those were true, we could all sleep better.

      TL;DR, the average American is forced to live at a wage that has been calculated to be "just enough"... but it really isn't "just enough" and we see society unraveling before us right this minute because of it.

      --
      "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
    49. Re:Opioid use ... by strikethree · · Score: 1

      It seems like if we had a *better* drug that was legal we'd solve a lot of problems and perhaps keep a lot of people from bothering with more dangerous, expensive black market drugs.

      See? That is the thing. Pleasure is verboten. Absolutely 100% off limits. We are supposed to open ourselves to the suffering, gladly accept it and welcome it into our lives. Pleasure is merely avoiding this suffering which is required to make sure that we are as pure as can be.

      No. Your pleasure seeking is morally wrong.

      (do you understand why there are no legal methods for non-negotiable pleasure?)

      --
      "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
  4. What's the ulterior motive? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Don't be evil my are.

    I don't trust Google/alphabet one bit.

    1. Re:What's the ulterior motive? by Entrope · · Score: 1

      This. It hardly takes any reading between the lines to see that Google, as usual, wants all of the data about all the people. "We will use all this data to figure out good tactics for ... yeah, the opioid epidemic, that's it."

  5. They already figured it out by rsilvergun · · Score: 0

    it wasn't hard, they just asked a bunch of the newer, middle class addicts. Turns out it's blue collar guys who can't afford to miss work. They're popping pills to make it through days at work because they can't take time off to heal. In the old days they'd find less physically demanding jobs but the economy's a lot worse than anyone's willing to admit, especially for blue collar guys, so they're stuck in a rock and a hard place.

    Not sure how it's gonna turn out though. The jobs they can do physically are few, far between and/or pay like crap. But we're gonna cut them off from the opioids either way since the optics are bad. I guess we could do extended workman's comp, but a lot of times these guys aren't hurt on the job so nobody wants to pay for it. Plus like most social programs workman's comp got a bad rap because a few bad apples were trumpeted to the high hills by companies who want to gut the program.

    I think we're sitting on a powder keg there. It's one of the reasons we're about to go head long into a recession. Wish I could get people to get behind doing something about it. It's all just pointless suffering and a pointless waste.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re:They already figured it out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not my problem, they did it all to themselves. Those that truly worked smarter and not just harder are working the less physically demanding jobs while the stupid are stuck in such dead end jobs. They made their bed so they should lie in it like the deplorable lazy moochers they are.

    2. Re:They already figured it out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They made their bed so they should lie in it like the deplorable lazy moochers they are.

      He who is without sin may cast the first stone, but remember that you too shall be judged as you have judged. I wonder how you will fare when your test comes or will you call out for that help in your hour of need that you despise others for asking?

    3. Re:They already figured it out by jwilcox154 · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately this is the attitude that is quite common in America today. Homeless shelters are another example to this. The whole NIMBY crowd is pushing against a homeless shelter here in Richmond, Indiana. The attitude in of itself is anti-Christian when those that have it claim to be followers of Christ as it is hampering the efforts to help others with red tape. We are truly in the last days for sure.

  6. Affordable tests? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What if you would be able to prepare your doses precisely? Have a test that measures concentration of the stuff you acquired.

  7. In Two Years by Cmdln+Daco · · Score: 3, Insightful

    In Two Years when Google decides this isn't something they are interested in anymore, and they pitch the whole thing, what will become of the dependencies they have created in 'clients'?

    1. Re:In Two Years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's because by then, Google would have collected all the data worth collecting.

  8. How is this Googles business anyway? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Are their employees heavy opium users? Or is it just an attempt to maneuver into a position of government?
    "We are a big company, we should control every aspect of peoples lives" - Alphabet

  9. Misleading by VeryFluffyBunny · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Google's track record with managing data related to healthcare is about as bad as it can get. Remember Google's epic failure to predict flu outbreaks? Remember Google's violations of patient privacy & breach of contract with the UK's National Health Service? This is nothing more than a time-wasting distraction from an important issue.

    How about prosecuting & jailing the executive board of Purdue Pharma for their role in creating the epidemic of prescription opioid addiction & abuse? We're supposed to put people who enact dangerous, harmful, criminal behaviour in jail, right?

    --
    Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
    1. Re:Misleading by fafalone · · Score: 1

      If we jail the Sacklers, can we please also jail the evil sadomoralists who were told "if you address excess prescribing by forcing all people (even those who need their dose) down or off their meds with these drug cop written medical guidelines and disgraceful doctor prosecutions, you're going to create a massive wave of overdose deaths as people get street drugs instead, and cause countless more to kill themselves outright when they can't get relief from chronic pain", then proceeded to do it anyway?
      Or is that ok because their motive was punishing instead of helping users and maximizing death, the standard US drug policy, and not making money? The spike in OD deaths and pain patient suicides was not something that came out of nowhere, they were a well predicted and inevitable consequence of cracking down on all opiate prescribing instead of inappropriate prescribing, right as fentanyl was appearing on the street. The DEA, CDC, and various politicians, and have more blood on their hands than the Sacklers.

    2. Re: Misleading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This.

    3. Re:Misleading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I still can't believe the USA just forced patients to go cold turkey, or that they can just boot someone straight out of pain management.
      Here in the UK they will prescribe a taper dose.
      The USA really has gone insane. Is it these Jesus idiots in charge wanting people to suffer? The DEA is such a shitshow, I don't even feel bad when one of their agents gets murdered. One less thug on the streets.

  10. Be evil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How does this fit in with Alphabet's motto Be evil?

  11. Re: Solution :Stop being soft on crime by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dude do you know how expensive federal prison is?

  12. Jailing doctors and big pharma by pablo_max · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Seriously, how are these doctors and phama guys not in jail?
    Why are they prescribing opioids for everything in the US? I friend of mine got her wisdom teeth out and she was prescribed 50 opioid pills?
    When I got mine out in Europe, I was given ibuprofen.

    It seems clear that your doctors are given kickbacks from big pharma in order to get as many people addicted as possible. The doctors, in this case, are government sanctioned drug dealers and pharma is Columbia.
    How is this accepted by you guys? Why is it OK? Something, something freedom?

    1. Re:Jailing doctors and big pharma by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      My, the old "Europe is SO SUPERIOR, AmeriKKKa is SO DUMB" narrative just never gets old. It hasn't been seen on Slashdot for what, a few hours now? Go on, next tell us about how great the metric system is.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    2. Re:Jailing doctors and big pharma by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      On the other hand what I was prescribed in US after my wisdom teeth extraction was vicodin. The vicodin had as much effect on the pain as tictacs (read absolute zero). Luckily I had several (3 years past expired) sachets of nimesulide and an unopened 6 years after expiration date pack of aceffein ( essentially excedrin + codeine) that i got over the counter in Europe.
      I had wisdom teeth extracted in both Europe and USA.
      The one in Europe was smooth, I was awake with just local anesthetic and the extraction took 2:45 (2 hours and 45 minutes). The prepared instruments were the dentist chair drill, a scalpel, and forceps. I had manageable pain during the operation, but during recovery the pain was bearable and lasted 3-4 days. They gave me the teeth to keep and they were in one piece.
      The extraction in USA was barbaric. It was under full anesthesia. The prepared instruments looked like something that belongs in the hands of a wood or stone carver, not a dentist. The doctor was in and out in less than 35 minutes (I noticed the time when I went under and came back and noted both on my phone). It felt like they have punched me, kicked me and so on. The teeth they extracted were all shattered in pieces. The recovery was a bitch. Took more than 2 weeks, pain wasn't bearable or manageable at all without medication, and the one they gave me, while opioid was just plain junk.
      I don't actually understand how people can get high on vicodin, it doesn't work. But from my anecdotal experience, the doctors in USA are just barbaric butchers so they have to prescribe something.

    3. Re:Jailing doctors and big pharma by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are quite correct.

      Thank you for reinforcing that narrative. Only by pointing out the stupidity of citizens and leadershit of the united states (of shit) can their lies and toxic ideology be erased.

    4. Re:Jailing doctors and big pharma by Excelcia · · Score: 1

      It's not big pharma that are profiting after the addiction has started, though. So it's hardly in their best interest to create an addict.

      Maybe fentanyl isn't all bad. Turns it into a self-solving problem, hmmm?

    5. Re: Jailing doctors and big pharma by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What? Yea they are profiting as the person needs to redo their prescription every 3 months.

      You are clueless to this whole situation. Once again, you've probably never experienced addiction in your life.
      I hope you don't have to, but sometimes I wish people like you could witness it. It would change your mind completely if you had to watch a loved one struggle with addiction.

    6. Re:Jailing doctors and big pharma by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Triggered much, snowflake? Where did pablo_max touch you?

    7. Re:Jailing doctors and big pharma by blindseer · · Score: 1

      I don't actually understand how people can get high on vicodin, it doesn't work.

      Genetics, that's why some people get high off of it and others do not. I could not find a citation for this as quickly as I hoped but there's research on this. Vicodin is a semi-synthetic opioid, which seems to make the side effects vary much more among users than natural opioids, like codeine.

      But from my anecdotal experience, the doctors in USA are just barbaric butchers so they have to prescribe something.

      Right, because it had nothing to do with the extraction of different teeth that might have required very different means of extraction.

      I've had wisdom teeth pulled, by American dentists, and the extraction was short and far from "barbaric". Maybe you simply chose your dentists poorly.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    8. Re:Jailing doctors and big pharma by strikethree · · Score: 1

      I friend of mine got her wisdom teeth out and she was prescribed 50 opioid pills?
      When I got mine out in Europe, I was given ibuprofen.

      You would think there would be a happy medium. Pulling wisdom teeth is a traumatic event for your mouth/body. The first few hours, pain should be mediated through opiates (until we find something more effective). After that, ibuprofen is fine for reducing swelling, which is where a majority of the pain will be coming from after those first few hours.

      But no. We get ibuprofen or addictive amounts of opiates. What the fuck is going on here? Why is NOBODY rational about this? Why does it have to be one extreme or the other? (I have theories, but Church control and social manipulation are likely paranoid fantasies)

      --
      "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
  13. Complete bullshit face the truth for a change! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As long as the drug pushing assholes can get away with importing raw fentanyl from Chinese factories the problem will just get worse. The real problem lies in the fact that the Chinese government is not just taking these bastards out and shooting them the way they would if they were supplying raw drug to addicts in China. The opioid crisis is not going to go away as long as an economic terrorist state like China is sponsoring the international drug trade in raw product. Right now you can go on line and order raw product and it seems that no one in the US cares if it comes directly from Chinese sources.

    1. Re:Complete bullshit face the truth for a change! by Cmdln+Daco · · Score: 1

      China's revenge for the Opium Wars of the 19th Century.

  14. Re:Solution :Stop being soft on crime by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You've heard the expression, "there but for the grace of God go I"? Justice without mercy would make corpses of us all. Is that really the world that you want to live in? Maybe you should take some quiet time to reflect upon your life and the choices that lead you that dark place. If you cannot or will not help to make the world a better place then at least stop trying to make it worse.

  15. Re:Solution :Stop being soft on crime by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    Poe's law is strong in this one. Really can't tell if serious or kidding.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  16. Re:Good first step, let's address drug culture nex by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    Yeah, that must be it. We're way too accepting to heroin use. It's practically normal to sit at work and see the coworker push his lunch.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  17. A head scratcher by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sometimes I can't tell if Google are evil or just stupid. Probably both.

  18. Re: Solution :Stop being soft on crime by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Agreed, we should just kill drug dealers and junkies. Kill them all and the problem solves itself.

  19. Trying to "frame me" again, loser? WRONG! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject: I didn't post what you replied to so not even a "nice try" in "framing me" for something I didn't write, you disgusting loser.

    APK

    P.S.=> Unbelievable, lol... apk

  20. To much potential for abuse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No doubt there could be some benefits from such an approach, and they have presented an emotionally compelling use case, but the potential for abuse from the development of a suite of tools that integrates pervasive surveillance with behavior modification far outweighs whatever benefits may come from it.

  21. Don't worry Google exec on heroin... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't worry Google exec on heroin: I do a good job of it myself (never did it) & you'll have MORE to "OD" on https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Hero... !

    APK

    P.S.=> No matter what BS you try? You're LOSING to me & you KNOW it (especially libeling me like you have scumbag)... apk

  22. Re:Good first step, let's address drug culture nex by Cmdln+Daco · · Score: 1

    It's a subculture that gets glorified and promoted.

  23. Re: Solution :Stop being soft on crime by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or make prison a not for profit business.

    But yea let's just kill eberyone you don't like. I hope one day someone you love turns into a junky. I take that back, because it's a serious issue.

  24. Easy Solution: Nuke China by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    China has poisoned the world's opiate supplies with fentanyl as a form of economic terrorism.

    It's time we responded in kind and nuke Shanghai. The ONLY response Poohbear will respect is total war.

  25. Re:Good first step, let's address drug culture nex by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    Really? Care to explain where that would be? What I get to see about heroin users is not exactly on par with the average celebrity bullshit TV show.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  26. companies making profits by bigtreeman · · Score: 1

    the opioid crisis comes from pharmaceutical companies making profits

    --
    Go well