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0 pointsdandotway4y ago0 comments

> I’ve rarely seen a normal able-bodied able-minded non-drug-using homeless person who’s just down on their luck

This right here. Nearly all homeless I've worked with were non-neuronormative and/or drug abusers. They're almost never just normal folks who have fallen on hard times. The reason they aren't rooming with a family member or friend is because their behavioral outbursts and/or stealing things to buy drugs has exhausted all the goodwill of those who would help them.

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s1artibartfast4y ago

Author and journalist Sam Quinones hypotesizes in his book, The Least of Us, that a significant part of the increase in homelessness is due to a change in methamphetamine quality.

Prior to about 2010, meth was manufactured in Mexico using high quality precursors. The government cracked down on imports, and cartels started using a much more dirty P2P manufacturing methods, which is anecdotally associated with vastly higher levels of disruptive psychosis.

He talked about it in an episode of Econ Talk.

https://www.econtalk.org/sam-quinones-on-meth-fentanyl-and-t...

refurb4y ago

It’s an interesting theory but P2P meth was the standard meth prior to ephedrine being used in the 90’s.

Did we see the same level of homelessness back then?

swearwolf4y ago

This is completely anecdotal, but contemporary accounts of the Haight Ashbury following the Summer of Love tell the story of a movement that started out on acid, moved on to speed, and became far more violent and filled with squalor because of it. Much like what is happening today.

“[1] Even among drug-using Haight-Ashbury subcultures, the high-dose methamphetamine abuser was marginalized, but became increasingly visible and unavoidable because of violence associated with dealing methamphetamine and because of the users' hyperactivity and paranoia.”

1.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02791072.2011.58...

truffdog4y ago

In this telling, there's also a huge increase in supply since then- 1980s biker meth was relatively artisinal, but the current situation involves large and professional factories in Mexico.

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s1artibartfast4y ago

Good question and frankly idk.

Could be that that biker meth was also as bad. Could be differences in recipes/precursors/equipment as p2p can be made from hundreds of different ingredients.

I wonder if there are data sets tracking drug impurities that could test the hypothesis.

aqme284y ago

> They're almost never just normal folks who have fallen on hard times

Why do those have to be two distinct types of people? It seems to me that normal people who fall on hard times might have a tendency to become "non-neuronormative and/or drug abusers"? I wonder how strong that conversion is.

pseudalopex4y ago

Worked with in what capacity?

dandotwayOP4y ago

Became friends with a number of homeless, bought them meals, gave them money, gave them clothing, heard their life stories in their own words, etc. There used to be a lot near where I used to live.

pseudalopex4y ago

How did you meet? On the street? At a shelter? Most homeless people are homeless under a year in the US. Many have jobs. Many sleep on couches not streets. Or in cars not shelters. And they try to avoid the stigma of homelessness.

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s1artibartfast4y ago

Author and journalist Sam Quinones hypotesizes in his book, The Least of Us, that a significant part of the increase in homelessness is due to a change in methamphetamine quality.

He talked about it in an episode of Econ Talk.

https://www.econtalk.org/sam-quinones-on-meth-fentanyl-and-t...

refurb4y ago

It’s an interesting theory but P2P meth was the standard meth prior to ephedrine being used in the 90’s.

Did we see the same level of homelessness back then?

swearwolf4y ago

1.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02791072.2011.58...

truffdog4y ago

In this telling, there's also a huge increase in supply since then- 1980s biker meth was relatively artisinal, but the current situation involves large and professional factories in Mexico.

1 more reply

s1artibartfast4y ago

Good question and frankly idk.

Could be that that biker meth was also as bad. Could be differences in recipes/precursors/equipment as p2p can be made from hundreds of different ingredients.

I wonder if there are data sets tracking drug impurities that could test the hypothesis.

aqme284y ago

> They're almost never just normal folks who have fallen on hard times

pseudalopex4y ago

Worked with in what capacity?

dandotwayOP4y ago

Became friends with a number of homeless, bought them meals, gave them money, gave them clothing, heard their life stories in their own words, etc. There used to be a lot near where I used to live.

pseudalopex4y ago

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