Philip Seymour Hoffman Actor, Dies at 46

**Zacha341** · February-02-14, 05:24 PM

Very tragic. What a talented actor.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/03/mo...t-46.html?_r=1

**Honky Tonk** · February-02-14, 11:33 PM

Originally Posted by Zacha341

Very tragic. What a talented actor.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/03/mo...t-46.html?_r=1

No one, [[but me) seems to remember his preacher role in Cold Mountain. [[pre Truman)

**Zacha341** · February-03-14, 12:48 AM

I loved his small but powerful role in Boogy Nights.

**Pam** · February-03-14, 09:26 AM

Tainted heroin has led to more deaths on the east coast recently.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/0...-hoffman-died/

**noise** · February-03-14, 10:49 AM

I can't verify this claim, but I read he was found with a needle in his arm after not picking up his children from school.

I had a hard time caring much about him after that. Very sorry for the children, however.

**rb336** · February-03-14, 12:28 PM

Heroin is a harsh master. Other than nicotine, maybe the hardest drug for an addict to quit.

**NickCharles** · February-03-14, 09:06 PM

Originally Posted by rb336

Heroin is a harsh master. Other than nicotine, maybe the hardest drug for an addict to quit.

Word Up, rb. If folks feel themselves to be in a position to judge, then so shall they judge, but you just told a barrel's worth of truth.

**noise** · February-03-14, 09:14 PM

I actually lost a friend to the stuff, for what it's worth. He wasn't a parent.

**NickCharles** · February-04-14, 07:31 AM

Originally Posted by noise

I actually lost a friend to the stuff, for what it's worth. He wasn't a parent.

Well, maybe try to open a softer place in your heart, then.
Nobody wants to be in such an awful place.

**noise** · February-04-14, 10:19 AM

Originally Posted by NickCharles

Well, maybe try to open a softer place in your heart, then.
Nobody wants to be in such an awful place.

Why? For appearances on a forum? What good will it do the deceased, who made horrible choices? What good will it do for the children who had a junkie father who died when they were under 10 years old?

Being easy on my friend wouldn't have helped, either.

**NickCharles** · February-04-14, 12:06 PM

Originally Posted by noise

Why? For appearances on a forum? What good will it do the deceased, who made horrible choices? What good will it do for the children who had a junkie father who died when they were under 10 years old?

Being easy on my friend wouldn't have helped, either.

I wasn't bothering to think of it in terms of its potential pay-off, so if that's an essential component, for you, just forget it and carry on as you were.

But it wouldn't have cost you a thin dime, either.

**noise** · February-04-14, 01:56 PM

Originally Posted by NickCharles

I wasn't bothering to think of it in terms of its potential pay-off, so if that's an essential component, for you, just forget it and carry on as you were.

But it wouldn't have cost you a thin dime, either.

I disagree. I think showing understanding or compassion only helps people make those horrible decisions. Which can end up costing all of us a lot.

**NickCharles** · February-04-14, 03:09 PM

Originally Posted by noise

I disagree. I think showing understanding or compassion only helps people make those horrible decisions. Which can end up costing all of us a lot.

I prodded you to consider opening a softer place in your heart. I never suggested, nor would I suggest, that you practice any type of "enabling" behavior, although neither understanding nor compassion automatically manifests as any such behavior.

Seriously, it was merely a passing thought. I dialed the wrong number. Do as thou wilt.

**Lily** · February-04-14, 11:00 PM

so on occasion, I feel the need to step up on my soapbox.........

Stop wasting our dollars trying to get kids to not try smoking pot. the arguments were weak when I was in school in the late 60's, they are no better now. legalize it at 21. it isn't heroin, coke, meth, LSD....list goes on and on...as a rule, people are not crazed robbers when the smoke a joint. if we could spend the money that is so wasted on trying to teach teens that all pot is bad and all pot smoking leads to
their od'ing on heroin, then maybe we could do something about the heroin, coke, meth, LSD and other controlled substances that kill everyday, every frigging day, whether it is the well know actor with heroin, or the singer with multiple prescription drugs in her hotel room. it hasn't got better in the 50 years I have been around and unless regular folks don't starting screaming even louder, it won't be any better in 20 more years. climbing back off soapbox. lily

**NickCharles** · February-05-14, 06:27 AM

That's a good point, Lily, and we can figure on some new action soon, because while the truth is that nobody in power gave a good goddamn when it was only effecting minorities in urban ghettos, now the opiate epidemic is hitting the white folks out in the once-pasteurized suburbs.
Yes, those pain-killers that Mr & Mrs Farmington have in their medicine cabinets & purses are far more related to heroin, and are waaay more likely to "lead to" heroin, than marijuana ever was.
Now the entire set-up has been turned around, and when White Folks With Money suffer, when it's not just the you-know-whats in the depressed urban areas who are dying, you can damned well bet that some real action will be taken, and it won't be merely some cheese-whiz "initiative" fronted by a bored First Lady, either.

**noise** · February-05-14, 09:49 AM

Originally Posted by NickCharles

I prodded you to consider opening a softer place in your heart. I never suggested, nor would I suggest, that you practice any type of "enabling" behavior, although neither understanding nor compassion automatically manifests as any such behavior.

Seriously, it was merely a passing thought. I dialed the wrong number. Do as thou wilt.

To be honest, I'm not sure I see where you're coming from. What does "opening a softer place in your heart" mean in this context?

**Jimaz** · February-05-14, 03:06 PM

Originally Posted by NickCharles

... Yes, those pain-killers that Mr & Mrs Farmington have in their medicine cabinets & purses are far more related to heroin, and are waaay more likely to "lead to" heroin, than marijuana ever was.

Especially legal, regulated marijuana.

Yeah, I hear you. I know of two recent surgeries where they prescribed waaay too much Vicodin [[a semi-synthetic opioid) for recovery. Neither patient took any of it. It just wasn't necessary. One patient had 60 tablets. It sounds suspicious to me but I haven't quite been able to figure out how the scheme works — if it is a scheme.

They were disposed of properly.

**NickCharles** · February-05-14, 07:35 PM

Originally Posted by Jimaz

Especially legal, regulated marijuana.

Yeah, I hear you. I know of two recent surgeries where they prescribed waaay too much Vicodin [[a semi-synthetic opioid) for recovery. Neither patient took any of it. It just wasn't necessary. One patient had 60 tablets. It sounds suspicious to me but I haven't quite been able to figure out how the scheme works — if it is a scheme.

They were disposed of properly.

Yeah, 60 is quite a bundle. That's a 15-day supply [[at the least,) and even that's damned well long enough to develop a hazardous fondness for them, especially for those who are more genetically predisposed toward addiction.

I don't know what you mean, re: a scheme, and I'm in no position to judge any part of the Rx, but it does sound a bit irresponsible.

**Jerry Van** · February-10-14, 04:58 PM

Originally Posted by Pam

Tainted heroin has led to more deaths on the east coast recently.

Yes, as opposed to the much safer untainted heroin.

Well, at least he died doing what he loved to do: Heroin.

Ya, I know I'm being an insensitive jerk, but folks he did this to himself. 100% unnecessary waste of life.

**Django** · February-10-14, 05:17 PM

Originally Posted by noise

Being easy on my friend wouldn't have helped, either.

So we should just ignore the person and the problem? Thats kinda cold man, Im assuming you turned your back on your "friend" when you found out he had the disease.

Theres been a rash of ODs on the East coast from heroin laced w fentanyl. There was a rash of it here some years back and it caught my friends grandson of 18, he lingered as a vegetable until this year, I think he was about 30. That stuff is much more potent than any heroin on the street and street dealers don't know what the hell they are doing when they cut. It all needs to be regulated and dispensed properly, taxed whatever, as all drugs should be. There will always be a certain number of addicts but legalizing it is not going to make people go out and start bangin dope.

**rb336** · February-10-14, 05:56 PM

Originally Posted by Jerry Van

Yes, as opposed to the much safer untainted heroin.

Well, at least he died doing what he loved to do: Heroin.

Ya, I know I'm being an insensitive jerk, but folks he did this to himself. 100% unnecessary waste of life.

Yes, he did it too himself. No, you are not being an insensitive jerk, you are being a jackass.

i don't know how he first became addicted. I had opiate-based pain killers when I had a severe back problem. When I noticed they were becoming ineffective at the prescribed dose, I decided to live with the pain. Over-prescription of those potent drugs is a huge problem. Just ask Rush.

Heroin addiction is vicious. I have seen what happens to otherwise smart people who get hooked. When I lived in NY, two girls I knew - NYU students - became addicted. Treatment programs - especially out-patient programs - are often ineffective. They came to me asking to borrow money. I told them to meet me at my apartment. When they got there, I had the cash on a table, and told them they had two choices - call their parents and get their help or become prostitutes with me as their first client [[there was no way I was going to let them pick option 2) They called their parents, and I refused to let them leave until the parents came to get them. I never heard from them again, and just hope they got help. It is brutal.

We need far better mental health care in this country, including addiction recovery.

**NickCharles** · February-11-14, 08:20 AM

Originally Posted by Jerry Van

Yes, as opposed to the much safer untainted heroin.

Well, at least he died doing what he loved to do: Heroin.

Ya, I know I'm being an insensitive jerk, but folks he did this to himself. 100% unnecessary waste of life.

Oh, of course he loved being horribly addicted to heroin.
An insensitive jerk expresses offensive thoughts because his insensitivity prevents him from realizing that he is being offensive. Expressing offensive thoughts while knowing that they are offensive places you in a lower category, ironically one involving lower regions of the anatomy.
And I'm calling bullshit on your "100% unnecessary waste of life" grumble. Given your nasty attitude, it's apparent that "waste of life"-- his life, anyway, what's it to you?-- is nothing more than a propped-up, false justification for harboring such an attitude, a justification that you wouldn't reach for if you didn't know that your attitude is crummy.

**noise** · February-11-14, 10:42 AM

Originally Posted by Django

So we should just ignore the person and the problem? Thats kinda cold man, Im assuming you turned your back on your "friend" when you found out he had the disease.

None of this is true.

**noise** · February-11-14, 10:45 AM

Originally Posted by rb336

I never heard from them again

You are a saint.

**Jimaz** · February-17-14, 06:23 PM

From today's Free Press: 'Killer heroin' causing fatal overdoses in East

As the number of people who use, and fatally overdose on, heroin has skyrocketed in recent years, authorities are seeing the return of an alarming development: heroin that, often unbeknownst to the user, is spiked with fentanyl....

It is considered 80 times more powerful than morphine and can kill by inhibiting breathing....

After actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead with a syringe in his arm this month, investigators in New York tested the heroin found in his apartment for fentanyl, but found that it did not include the additive....

[The Drug Enforcement Administration] urged first responders to “exercise extreme caution” when coming into contact with any heroin because fentanyl can be absorbed through the skin....