Interesting article linking homelessness with meth and fentanyl

[FuzzyLumpkins]

the link with poverty is curiously underemphasized in discussions on this board

Homeless are by definition are impoverished and the population level is directly related to socioeconomics.

Most homeless are mentally ill particularly the long term homeless. Heroin addiction in the homeless population is meme at this point.

I am not sure what new information is here except the fentanyl fearmongering.

[leemajors]

I have heard, albeit on a podcast with a convicted dealer, that the Mexican cartels aren't putting fentanyl in anything they bring to the border (which allegedly they don't even bring stuff across anymore since lockdown, it is americans bringing it across entirely). They have also gone so far as to compress all the fentanyl they make into pink tablets so people can tell they have not mixed it with anything, and all the cutting is being done here. You can probably take that with a lot of salt considering the source, but apparently they also forbid the sale of fentanyl in Mexico itself.

[Spurs Homer]

There are three types of homeless: economic, mentally ill, and drug-addicted. There is overlap, but the categories hold. The first two can and should be helped, and even places in heartless red states figure out how to connect those people to services. If there is a failure to do that on the West Coast, then it’s a condemnation of their so-called liberalism. NIMBYism is a thing out there. So-called “liberals” are throwing a fit in Colorado because Jared Polis stripped away local authority to block new housing.

The third group, the junkies, can only be helped with coercion.

Obviously part of the issue on the West Coast is the insane cost of housing, but it’s not as though housing is cheap in New York or Boston. The difference is political will to do something about it. NIMBYism isn’t as much of a thing back East. Affordable housing is possible.

some part of it is just practicality…

i mean, have you ever been stranded outside in horrible weather, like when your a/c breaks down or like when our heating went down due to the genius Texas Governor choosing to enrich his buddies and himself instead of addressing the grid issue AFTER it had been recommended to be addressed during the previous blackouts?

if you have- you KNOW that it is ing hard to be outside without protection from the elements


this is a big reason why the west coast has a larger share of homeless people- THE WEATHER

i lived there 20 years and if you want me to tell you generally what the weather was like for those 20 years-
here it is:

it was 70 degrees and breezy all day and nights got down to a bone-chilling 55 degrees almost
350 days in the year…

homeless people know this and if you have to risk your life in any city being homeless- it might as well be someplace where the weather wont kill you in the first 6 months of your homeless life.


we used to joke about the weather during the xmas holidays..like…
”man, i sure miss the seasons…it doesnt feel like xmas ..i miss snow….wait- what the am i saying?”

yeah- it is always perfect weather and when there was a little rain- even a little downpour that lasted half an hour, id switch on the evening news and the leading story was

”a storm hit the southland today…”

[RandomGuy]

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022...elessness.html

it is a good read.

I know a social worker who deals with this stuff all the time. It may shock you, but we don't have enough of a social safety net to keep people functional when they get on drugs.

Wealth has been so concentrated and wages have been so flat that your average person is a lot closer to homelessness than they used to be. One bad month, an illness etc, and the housing unstable become homeless, and drugs are a way that happens.