When I was young many of us played around with a lot of drugs and some did not make it. Mostly, in hindsight, because they were so focused on themselves they could not see they had responsibilities to anyone else. I read a lot about that now but really people must stand or fall by their own actions and though we may try in the end we can't force anyone to give a damn if they choose not to.
How about anyone who does not know of someone who did OD. This pig is drug and alcohol- free. Most people who are high are trying in vain to self-medicate. They are not trying to be high. They are trying to remove the source of their agony.
Sometimes it is horrid anxiety that does not allow one to think straight.
And sometimes the person is so addled, they don't know they NEED some medication.
Oh GOD yeah. I did not forget. It is just that when you are in physical pain and it is chronic, you are right to say "NO" most times unless life is unbearable and never will be better, simply because they wear off, don't work after awhile at all and leave the body with all kinds of nasty side-effects.
But I hear there are improvements with injections. I listen to clients all day long with back and body maladies. They tell me what they have done. Some are effective for some, of course and others not so much and as a scientist you can appreciate why. We have a mess of situations with each person's individual body and a myriad of options that may have occurred to cause the same pain in a number of people. In other words, I may have a low back pain and there may be a disc, nerve, muscle or all three involved, including the spine. So, I am always listening, including to you right now. Good choice to forgo the meds that don't really heal.
There are cocktails of injections that afford a lot of relief to many. Each does includes nutrients and pain relievers that are not eating your body away and constipating you.
I had a cortisone injection in my shoulder a few weeks ago. I lasted about a week and it is bad as ever. I just use Ibuprofen and only what I need of that. It helps.
I didn't personally know him, but I knew of him and he was a friend of some of my friends, but he OD'd on heroin when he was 18 and died. A waste of life.