I doubt any addict is going to look at this and go: I didnt think that could happen. I’ll stop now and go on the straight and narrow.
Prince did have family and friends though and on top of their grief they need to deal with a dipshit telling them their recently dead friend was pathetic.
For the hurt thus caused, the benefit of this move has been? Perhaps Gene could have said this was a tragedy and more needs to be done to help those dealing with drug addiction but nope, he decides to drift further into obscurity.
Prince going down as this wonderful guy worshiped as the perfect musician. Without bringing up that he died the most fooliish of deaths. By way of opiates is wno doing any good at all. The truth needs to be spoken the truth his friends died a fools death. Yes thinking of dying that way as a reputation Destroyer would help
Dude, you can’t even construct a complete sentence (subject and predicate), so cease and desist with your asinine pontification about a fool’s death. Trying to construct some dogmatic meaning from the death of a pop icon is a fool’s life. Stop living it.
You’re so right. we need to have somebody come in and carefully check everybody’s grammar. just in case somebody dares to just dictate into a phone. But I’m not going to get too down on you for it. Because generally speaking you’re a pretty cool dude. But if you think making serious discussion out of the death of a POP icon is silly ( a good point) Why are you reading it? That is a serious question. I obviously don’t think there’s anything wrong with having the discussion. So I see nothing wrong with you being in it … but
Do you really believe anyone is thinking “Drug addiction, thats what is missing in my life. I’ll jump onto that”.
It’s not a fool’s death, it’s a sad one that may have been avoided if the right help was sought and provided but let’s throw that burden on the people that survived him.
Exactly, post mortem report was pretty conclusive it was “Accidental Fentanyl toxicity” and zero indicators of suicide. -Seems pretty clear cut now it was a case of poor pain management that got out hand.
ie a million miles away from OD’ing on party drugs
Fuck this. Just stay away from opiates. I’ve been to too many funerals in the last decade to be convinced otherwise. And don’t take party drugs unless you’re in a club and 6 Vietnamese strippers are fighting to give you a handjob.
Being able to communicate in complete sentences is not grammar. It establishes credibility.
However, the point is, you should recognize that your opinion is unwelcome because of a generational disconnect. You still believe drug addiction is a choice people make and that they can choose to change. It’s not that simple and your labeling it a fool’s death just continues a mistaken impression of addiction.
That’s just lazy and if it’s what you do, it shows a complete lack of respect for the community members. Don’t just puke on a page and hit “Reply.” Have some self respect.
Labeling it a fool’s death is not serious discussion of the causes and challenges of addiction that Prince’s death should elicit. It’s silly.
Thank you for your permission to join the discussion. Very benevolent of you.
No offense, but there is a large direct element of choice in drug addiction and drug induced death. And while it isn’t on the same sort of level as the choice of putting a gun in your mouth (like verne claims) it also isn’t exactly on same level as the lack of choice in getting cancer either.
I agree, but perhaps not to the extent that many who have never suffered from addiction would.
People do not choose to become addicted. Often, they are just trying to find a way to cope with what life has thrown at them and are self medicating just to survive.
Because of the shortcomings of our society and the lack of accessible and affordable health care, many resort to self medication rather than seeking out professional help. That is a choice.
But it’s not really a choice, it’s a reaction. Are there better ways to deal with it? Indubitably. But, when you are in such a position, your thought process can become very distorted and decision making isn’t a strong point. Vilifying people suffering from addiction misses the point.
People’s choices directly lead to addiction. And people like prince are intelligent enough to know and understand both that they are addicting themselves and that there are risks. I’m not saying that makes him a villan, but it does make him complicit in his own death to an extent. Yes, that does make it more stupid and needless.
Lets not pretend that Prince couldn’t afford healthcare or that lack of it is what causes prescription drug abuse. It’s largely the opposite, people with more money get more prescriptions and abuse those drugs more. If that’s society’s (my) failure it’s having too much access to prescriptions and medicinal care.
The lesson here in my opinion is that prescriptions are dangerous too, and many doctors will enable their abuse. There are plenty of prescription drug addicts out there rationalizing that doctor prescribed means they aren’t addicts and aren’t at risk when that obviously isn’t true.
You bring up some interesting points that I don’r necessarily disagree with. However, much of the abuse of prescription drugs is not perpetrated by the patients to whom the drugs are prescribed. I live on Long Island which has an opiod epidemic of epic proportion. Most of the abusers are young people who purchase the drugs from someone with multiple prescriptions from many different pain management doctors. That’s the system of which I speak.
These kids start off looking for something to make themselves feel better. It could just be self esteem problems from a bad case of acne, or it can be kids with undiagnosed mental issues trying to cope with a shitty situation.
They do not feel comfortable walking into a counselor’s office and seeking help. Many of their parents are of the same generation as those that consider them drug addicts that have chosen to use because they are weak. Obviously, seeking help from that venue isn’t feasible either. So, they continue to use.
This wasn’t the case with Prince, he was 58. Or was it? His dysfunctional childhood is documented. Maybe you can blame him for not getting help as an adult. Unfortunately, many times the bottom is so low that people don’t get the chance to recover.
It’s impossible to generalize. But it’s important to recognize the ambiguity of any situation and to not paint with such a broad brush. There are certainly elements of choice involved, but to paraphrase Atticus Finch, you never really understand a person until you climb into their skin and walk around in it for a while. It’s probably difficult for many to understand the decisions of an addict because they’re sick; they have a disease. Because you cannot understand them, you shouldn’t judge them.
Then no one can judge anything because no one has been in the life of another. You can’t judge me for judging others doing things I haven’t done for example. I don’t buy that for a minute. Murder is wrong and murderers should be in prison but I’ve never murdered anyone. Even though most of them have things like a history of abuse too that I can’t really understand.
And again guys like prince had all the access the world has to offer and that was part of the problem. Was he buying second hand stuff on the street?
You are also assuming, for some reason unbeknownst to me, that I have no experience with addiction. Why exactly are you assuming that? Because I do have at least some if I’ve never been an outright recreational or prescription drug addict myself. I have seen more than the average abuse of both.
And I find in ungracious to pussy foot around the reality for the sake of a memory and a dead man’s honor.
Let me say this to try to give you a better idea of my perspective. Responding to a medical call at 4 in the morning for a drug OD, or to pull a drunk out of a ditch, or to get the collapsed 300 pound type 2 diabetic to the hospital gives me a very different feeling than when the call is for a young child with breathing problems or an elderly woman with signs of a stroke. Yes, they all deserve and get help as quickly and efficiently as possible, but some of those people are getting a sigh and an eye role after the hearing specifics on the radio and some aren’t.
Oh, please. Then you are being intolerant of me and my life and basically every EMS worker is intolerant. How dare you freaking compare that to racism? Maybe you should stick to your own advice and not judge people in situations you don’t have experience in. Otherwise you’ve just proved yourself a big hypocrite.