Anybody a retirement druggie?

[Scuba]

I have seen YouTube videos of homeless street addicts in Seattle and SF ranting in the street, defecating in trash cans in plain view on the sidewalk, and other manners of lunacy.



It's obvious that they were on drugs, but what was it? LSD, meth, mushroom?

Most of the homeless where we are in So CA are on meth and heroin. There have been pictures in the local paper of them shooting up in plain view on the major downtown street.

 

[RobbieB]

Here it's mostly alcohol. I walk the dog (off leash) on the RR right of way. The ground is littered with 6 oz plastic bottles of White Wolf vodka.

 

[Tetto]

I tried it once in high school. Thought it was a ridiculous thing and stopped. Never did it again as after college I was was in the FAA pee pool and the last thing I would do is tempt fate and lose my certificates by getting caught with drugs in my pee during a random check. No thanks, don’t need it and do t want it. Knock yourself out-literally!

 

[ugeauxgirl]

I'm such a goody two shoes. Never tried illegal drugs. My career required a clean record and a drug test to get hired. Any drug arrest meant termination, so I never even thought about experimenting. I've even cut way back on the alcohol. Just cautious I guess.

 

[1242Vintage]

A couple months ago I picked up a fun part-time job at a rock quarry. Was surprised that employer wanted a pre-employment drug test. I don’t use any drugs so wasn’t an issue. Just felt a little odd having someone watch me pee in a cup.

 

[MRG]

I have seen YouTube videos of homeless street addicts in Seattle and SF ranting in the street, defecating in trash cans in plain view on the sidewalk, and other manners of lunacy.



It's obvious that they were on drugs, but what was it? LSD, meth, mushroom?

Meth, heroin, alcohol are most likely.

 

[Boose]

Here it's mostly alcohol. I walk the dog (off leash) on the RR right of way. The ground is littered with 6 oz plastic bottles of White Wolf vodka.

Here it seems to be nips of Fireball. Maybe because it's colder in the northeast?

 

[Boose]

Meth, heroin, alcohol are most likely.

Or bath salts or spice. When we lived in San Diego, we wound up calling it "bath spice," since the difference between the effects of the two was imperceptible.

 

[MichaelB]

<mod note> This is a thread about personal use. Let’s not turn it into another discussion on the homeless.

 

[Amethyst]

The med people where I worked, supposedly had Ways of preventing whatever-it-is you're hinting at (I am an innocent and have no clue). One was that you were informed of the test just slightly before you had to appear. So if I arrived at my desk at 0700, already having taken care of business (as one does), and got a notice that I must give a sample by 0800, it wasn't always...possible. No matter how much coffee I drank.

I had multiple top secret clearances and plenty of drug tests. There is always a way around all that business. Its probably a bit surprising to a non-user, but for every front door, there is another trap door. It doesn't necessarily need to be your pee that goes into the cup

 

[Gumby]

The med people where I worked, supposedly had Ways of preventing whatever-it-is you're hinting at (I am an innocent and have no clue)......

One of the supposed ways to evade the test is to carry in a bottle of someone else's urine and fill the cup with that. In the Navy, they had positive eyes on identification of the source and the cup to be filled, so you couldn't do that. At the commercial nuclear plant I worked at after that, they just measured the temperature of the urine when you handed the cup back to them. It had better be close to normal body temperature or your goose was cooked.

 

[pacergal]

There are supplies you can buy to place/tape to your body to carry and "pee" from so the urine sample is body temperature.
Being in medical field and having to observe some urine drug tests, you find out things that are available on the drug culture internet to fake-pass a UDS.
We did a lot of exams for truck drivers.

 

[friar1610]

I had multiple top secret clearances and plenty of drug tests. There is always a way around all that business. Its probably a bit surprising to a non-user, but for every front door, there is another trap door. It doesn't necessarily need to be your pee that goes into the cup

Same here with the clearances but my experience (in the Navy) was that they ran a very tight ship (so to speak) with respect to ensuring that the contents of the cup contained the output of correct contributor. And when your number was drawn (last digit of your SSAN, randomly drawn) you definitely got to participate. If there was any switching of cups or contents going on I certainly wasn’t aware of it.

ETA: hadn’t seen Gumby’s post when I wrote mine. His experience parallels mine.

 

[NW-Bound]

Not having used any of the hardcore drugs, nor knowing anyone in real life who does, when I read of posters here describing adverse effects, the only thing I could relate to was scenes that I saw on YouTube. And I wonder if that is the natural result of using these drugs, hence my earlier query.


At work, I was called for random urine drug testing only once in the years I was there. The nurse called me at work, and I was given only a few minutes to present myself at the company dispensary. The short time was to ensure that no preparation to cheat could be made. No, nobody watched me pee.

 

[tb001]

My path went in the other direction. I smoked weed most of my life. However as I got into my late 40’s, things changed. I started getting anxiety attacks and despite the common thought that pot relaxes, it stopped having that effect on me.

The funny thing is that now it’s legal in MI but I can’t partake. I did go into a store and bought some but the effects were the same. All those years of use and now that it’s legal, I can’t even take advantage of it. Oh well, it’s actually one of those things I always knew I shouldn’t have been doing. I have a beer once in a great while, but in retirement, I’m pretty much substance free and at 60, my health is better than it was in my 40’s.

I’ve had the same experience. Every once in a while I’ll go to the store and buy some different strain or formulation to try, thinking I might get that good stoned feeling again, but all I get is heart racing and paranoia/anxiety.

I still have wine or beer regularly, but would prefer pot if I didn’t have a bad reaction. No calories and IMO better than alcohol health wise.

 

[Amethyst]

I had a "watcher" when I was working overseas - no doubt it was the rule for the host country's equivalent service, and we always went by whichever rule was the strictest. In the U.S., they just sprang the test on you, no watcher. The idea was that any sneaky preparations would be too hard to prepare with such short notice.

It was supposed to be random, and average out to one test per person per year. One year I got called in three times! I used to wonder what actual druggie was getting away with it three years in a row.

Not having used any of the hardcore drugs, nor knowing anyone in real life who does, when I read of posters here describing adverse effects, the only thing I could relate to was scenes that I saw on YouTube. And I wonder if that is the natural result of using these drugs, hence my earlier query.


At work, I was called for random urine drug testing only once in the years I was there. The nurse called me at work, and I was given only a few minutes to present myself at the company dispensary. The short time was to ensure that no preparation to cheat could be made. No, nobody watched me pee.

 

[Amethyst]

On the topic of mind-affecting drugs, I had a work friend who took an RX for some controlled substance for ADHD. Naturally she had notified the employer. However, she was shocked to find she'd failed a drug test. I remember going with her to talk to the workplace physician, who was cool - just looked at the Rx she showed him, made some notes and all was well.

I used to think the controlled ADHD actually made her a better worker. One of the few I've known who really can jump from one thing to another to another, without seeming to lose a step. She was more flexible that way than I am. I think it had held her back in her previous org, where the management was stodgy and by-the-book. After she joined my group - where resourcefulness and creativity were needed - she got promoted fast.

 

[BigNick]

I have never placed anything in my mouth that was on fire.

 

[NW-Bound]

It is certain that the mind-altering effects of drugs vary with the person. As mentioned, having seen what happened to my addicted relatives when I was still young, I had no desire to try anything other than alcohol and cigarettes. Not even MJ for me.

I did not even know about the craze happening out in the real world with Oxycontin and Oxycodone. When I went in for major surgeries a few times 8 years ago, I was given Oxycodone, and remembered reading in the news something about addiction to it. I did some research on the Web while still on a hospital bed, and was afraid I might get hooked like some did.

I tried to not take any, and the pain made me take some. I ended up using about 1/2 of the allowed dosage, and it did alleviate the pain. No euphoric effects or anything like that. So, I still wonder what it is all about, what could cause people to go crazy and do anything to get it. It's a mystery to me. Craving for a lamb chop, or a good hamburger, maybe. But a pain killer pill?

 

[MRG]

It is certain that the mind-altering effects of drugs vary with the person. As mentioned, having seen what happened to my addicted relatives when I was still young, I had no desire to try anything other than alcohol and cigarettes. Not even MJ for me.

I did not even know about the craze happening out in the real world with Oxycontin and Oxycodone. When I went in for major surgeries a few times 8 years ago, I was given Oxycodone, and remembered reading in the news something about addiction to it. I did some research on the Web while still on a hospital bed, and was afraid I might get hooked like some did.

I tried to not take any, and the pain made me take some. I ended up using about 1/2 of the allowed dosage, and it did alleviate the pain. No euphoric effects or anything like that. So, I still wonder what it is all about, what could cause people to go crazy and do anything to get it. It's a mystery to me.

I never understood opioids until they gave me dilaudid in the ER for extreme pain. Wow! I had to take a lot of oxy and hydrocodone for my cspine issues over the years. No dosage I was given was close to the euphoria of that medicine.

 

[NW-Bound]

I never understood opioids until they gave me dilaudid in the ER for extreme pain. Wow! I had to take a lot of oxy and hydrocodone for my cspine issues over the years. No dosage I was given was close to the euphoria of that medicine.

Ah, I remember now that for 24 hours after surgery, they gave me Dilaudid intravenously. The pump was automated, and would dispense on demand when I pressed a button, but only up to a certain dosage. No euphoric effects that I could tell. It certainly helped lessen the pain.

The Oxycodone pills were for after 24 hours, and later when I got home.


PS. Even if one craves Dilaudid or Oxycodone, do they cause you to go crazy and bounce off the wall like hallucinogenic substances like mushrooms do? From what I read, they do not, but then what do I know?

 

[Amethyst]

I've read some about it; it's very confusing. I get the impression that people who are in a lot of pain don't get high from the opioids, but then, why is it we always read about addicts who got started because of a bad car accident or the like?

I had some kind of opiate- Percodan?- when all 4 impacted wisdom teeth were pulled. As I recall, I still felt the pain, but also felt "distanced" from it. Was utterly miserable, about as far from high as you can get. "I hurt, but I just don't care...." horrid. Motrin did a better job on the pain.

Then when my back went out a few years ago and I was taken to the ER on a stretcher, the EMTs talked me into taking some morphine. It lessened (but did not kill) the pain, which naturally improved my mood, but I wouldn't call it "euphoria." But it also lowered my blood oxygen to where a nurse grew concerned. The prescribing nurse gave me an Rx for a couple of Valiums, as muscle relaxers, which were actually more effective.

It is certain that the mind-altering effects of drugs vary with the person.
I ended up using about 1/2 of the allowed dosage, and it did alleviate the pain. No euphoric effects or anything like that.

 

[Gumby]

I don't get what's so desirable about it either. I have had surgery twice in the past ten years. Both times, they gave me Oxycodone to take after the hospital stuff wore off. Both times, it made me sick to my stomach and did nothing for the pain. It certainly didn't make me feel good or "high". So each time I stopped after one pill and never took the rest.

 

[CardsFan]

The only opioid I recall taking was hydrocodone (after my hip replacement). It work well for pain, but the big side effect to me was constipation. I weaned off as fast as I could.

 

[rodi]

I had multiple top secret clearances and plenty of drug tests. There is always a way around all that business. Its probably a bit surprising to a non-user, but for every front door, there is another trap door. It doesn't necessarily need to be your pee that goes into the cup

The two pee tests I actually had to do under "random" drug tests I was sent to a room with a dyed water toilet and NO SINK. Since there was no warning, no opportunity to procure clean pee. There was a sink to wash your hands when you came out of the room.

I guess the idea was that you couldn't dilute (or substitute) water from the sink or use the obviously blue water in the toilet.

It reminded me quickly how much I am ingrained to wash my hands immediately after peeing when that opportunity is not there... especially after having to fill a cup (as a woman). I hope they wipe down the door handles afterwards since I'm sure I got a drop or two of pee on my hand.