Mental Health in America

[pnwguy]

Being that I live in Portland, we've seen an explosion of homeless encampments all throughout the city.  Covid19, and the economic slide from it, really accelerated this of course.  But west coast cities in general are magnets for homeless people because our winters seldom have long spells of below freezing temperatures.  You can't live on the streets of Minneapolis, Denver, or Salt Lake City for very long.

That being the case, the economic burdens fall extremely hard on magnet areas, and it's a problem that can easily outstrip local taxes.  It's a state and national problem, but it hits cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle especially hard.  People go to where they can panhandle or find social services, which drives them from rural areas to large cities.  And as you can imagine, Red states and counties don't want to pay taxes for people they see as self-inflicted victims.

But in the past few years, the level of mental health degradation of homeless people now is really scary.  Reports of violent psychotic behavior from people are a regular feature in social media and local news.  This piece just posted today in The Atlantic likely sheds some light on an underlying cause.


www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/11/the-new-meth/620174/

[Bact PhD]

I’ll flip to the article shortly. I can only add that pretty much any burg of decent size along an interstate in Flori-DUH has had an increase in its homeless population, and a decrease in the seasonality of that population, the last 5 years or so. Before then, there would be an uptick in the encampments at the interchanges and in the number of panhandlers at the major intersections during the winter months, but the numbers would dwindle between April and October as (presumably) the homeless snowbirds would follow the same migration pattern as the more conventional ones. Anymore, the homeless encampment at the interchanges and the attendant panhandlers, sometimes 3 at a single intersection, are here year-round.

[Bact PhD]

Chem PhD had read the article already— some aspects hit a bit close to home:

The spread of P2P meth is part of a larger narrative—a shift in drug supply from plant-based drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, and heroin to synthetic drugs, which can be made anywhere, quickly, cheaply, and year-round. Underground chemists are continually seeking to develop more potent and addictive varieties of them. The use of mind-altering substances by humans is age-old, but we have entered a new era.

“Better living through (medicinal) chemistry”…not in this case, at any rate. It makes me wonder just how many “Walter Whites” (some with far more bench experience than the character) are out there.

[goldenvalley]

Yeah Sacramento has seen a huge increase in the last few years. I’ve not heard much about violent behaviors but it may be the media has given up on that in favor of covering mysterious gun related deaths. The city has been struggling to get housing and services to people while hearing people howl about millions spent with no visible result. Of course people want some magic cure or simply to make visible homelessness disappear. It ain’t that easy.

[LFC]

Oct 21, 2021 0:53:11 GMT pnwguy said:

This piece just posted today in The Atlantic likely sheds some light on an underlying cause.

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/11/the-new-meth/620174/

Just finished it and all I can say is, "wow." That's some scary shit.