Because people dont like to admit but TMZ are really good at journalism, just not in a good way usually.

They pay a good price and are perhaps the most well known source for ethically questionable news. People know them and go straight to them. Also, they are very reliable in breaking news.

They got people everywhere and are willing to report on things other websites are reluctant to. Like they had half of the Vrabel Russini photos lol

They pay well for info and literally anyone can send in pics/videos, you don’t have to work for them to get paid. It also means no celebrity is safe anywhere.

they pay cash. Never seen it addressed, but I believe they will make judgement calls and go with single-sourced stories while the “traditional” media companies require two, so they are still trying to get confirmation when TMZ runs it.

They are the best in the business wether you like them or not

There was an article that came out a few years ago, they literally have people inside hospitals, police stations and hotels on their payroll.

Edit: found the article

they arent afraid to report news like this. The same anonymous sources that reported his death hours ago (our sub were takking about it for like an hour before confirmation) also said it’d overdose, but I dont think sources like Shams or Grizzlies wants to state it.

I remember watching the vice documentary on it when i was in high school and was terrified lol

Pretty rare, ever since major changes to the availability of codeine tablets used to synthesize it in Russia. There was a fairly recent seizure of some in Michigan though, so it ain’t fully gone (and given how ludicrously cheap it is to make, probably won’t ever be.)

Not anymore. That’s why I mentioned x to y to z. And it’s really y being mixed with z that’s killing even more people

Maybe in like Eastern Europe or something. Not in the US though, no.

I was gonna say I haven’t heard that one in forever

Weirdly coincides with Oxycontin production beginning in 1995-96

One may even say that they’re right 

For real its all fentanyl. Ecstasy, meth, “Bath Salts”, cocaine, heroin alllllll fentanyl. Ive been clean for 9 years but even back in my heyday when I’d test party drugs like LSD MDMA and ketamine, the amount of it that came back as Fentanyl was mind boggling even a decade ago. Its only gotten worse since.

I think they mentioned somewhere else they were listing it chronologically (krokodil -> fentanyl -> xylazine) and didn’t mean to imply it was still around. I will say though, I interpreted it the same way you did.

And the stats on this are even worse than fentanyl with xylazine. Just terrifying

That’s crazy for a number reasons. One being shit is not cheap, a 10ml bottle of dexdom is like $250

Absolutely!! Please listen to this

Also, be aware that your area may have a needle exchange program that will take dirty needles and give you clean ones.

I know it’s controversial, but we really need to accept more of the harm reduction model

This is a nice sentiment, but half the country prefer that people die

You should still use it if you think they were using opiates. The issue is that these tranquilizers that are being mixed with opiates are incredibly potent and aren’t opiates.

Decriminalization only works if there are actual things in place to help people get better.

Oregon stopped its Decriminalization after 4 years because all it did was make way more drug addicts without ever addressing any problems. Police barely trained, no programs in place for treatment, it was pretty much destined to fail.

I’m for decriminalization/legalization but the argument that it will wipe out black market sources hasn’t panned out. In CA where weed is illegal plenty of people still buy it “black market” because the legal stuff is way too expensive. Unless there’s enough market supply competition the black market will always win. Like if heroin was decriminalized or even legalized, you’ll still have a massive imbalance between suppliers. Legal suppliers will naturally follow the regulations. Black market ones will cut the drug with 0.0001% fentanyl and sell it at 10% of the legal drug price. Guess what will happen?

Decriminalize or legalize?? Decriminalize doesn’t mean you’re gonna have store open selling meth or cocaine or whatever. It just means if you get caught with it you won’t get arrested or prosecuted. And I think Oregon did that a few years back, tbh don’t really know how it’s going

Legalizing it would be what you’re saying.

Yes I’m a lions fan too and watched him at Michigan state he was fucking one of the best I’ve ever seen. I believe him or his circle said they didn’t want to go to Detroit because he’d be too close to home.  If you ever seen the documentary on Chris herren it’s kinda the same thing. Went to college in Boston where he was from got kicked out went to Fresno stayed clean then got drafted by Boston and was the worst thing for him

Thanks for correcting that. It seems like a lot of people try to blame the sports organizations when 99% of time, these guys had many issues before they even signed.

I just commented in a thread about Michael Beasley something similar. Dude got kicked out of the damn rookie seminar for smoking weed. Shocker, his career did not go well..

Yea I had wrist surgery and found out i was allergic to Oxy. Probably a good thing cause when I got tramadol I enjoyed it. Those 2 aren’t even on the same level.

USA healthcare is crazy, you have some surgery and they immediately prescribe oxy and other shit

meanwhile a friend of mine blew his knee, had surgery and all he got was some ibuprofen-paracetamol combo and was told to take max 3 per day and put ice pack on it

i had back surgery a nd by day 4 of taking the oxys I couldnt take it anymore because of how nauseous it was making me. fuck those things

Kratom has literally saved my life. That 7oh shit is another story but pure leaf kratom is a god send. Fixes my physical chronic pain (from a lifetime of problems stemming from a birth defect) without the horrible dangers of prescription pain killers and has completely annihilated my cravings for alcohol, which could have killed me, itself, the way I was going. Kratom allows me to be a sane, happy, productive member of society with absolutely minimal side effects. It is egregiously and sadly misunderstood.

We spent too much on the war on drugs to admit we were wrong. If we keep banning drugs and arresting more people, we will end drug abuse!

Whoa, just watched the recent John Oliver piece on this. The whole gas station drug situation is wild.

I only got oxy after my back surgeries ended my career.

People here saying don’t do (party) drugs is all well and good but CVS was literally sued by a cancer patient for illegally denying her pain meds.

They also filled fraudulent RXs, and lost that lawsuit as well, but hurting the disabled isn’t the fix, though people rather do that than try to reform a complicated system

15 years ago when I first heard about it, kratom was legal in most of the world (but Thailand) and sold as a natural plant that could deal with chronic pain or depression. It does work but the way you get used to it and build quickly tolerance is crazy. After a few years the relief you first felt with a small dose will require 10 times the amount and once you are hooked you are fucked. Quitting is hell on earth and the craving symptoms are basically the same as those you get from opioid craving.

It has been legal and popular long enough for a whole demographic to get hooked and continue using it once it’s been outlawed.

The tolerance building is fast and the craving terrible which is surprising to the users because of how little its usage affects their ability to be efficient in their lifes (unlike most drugs that really are incapacitating just like alcohol is to driving and so on)

At the end of the day a heavy kratom user is just another drug addict and once hooked onto something it doesn’t need much convincing to give a go at something else and accidents are common when almost anything could be fentanyl laced in the US…

More blocked shots than missed FGs for the entire season. Dude was a machine.

Well written excerpt. And then there’s the average Joe like you and I who work 9-5s in an office setting but look forward to after work freedom. I can’t imagine having my whole identity tied to do what I do professionally.

I doubt he died from laced party drugs. Probably was given a bunch of opiates to help with pain during his long and gruelling rehab. Pretty easy to spiral from there, he was also arrested with kratom recently which a lot of people use to get off of opiates.

We don’t even know what the drug was. He was arrested for kratom a couple of months ago, which is illegal to possess in Arkansas. People OD and die on that shit, but it’s still sold in gas stations across the country.

yeah kids bring around drug testing equipment everywhere you go, that is more reasonable than abstaining

Doing drugs in 2026 is wild. Kinda glad I’m old.

What % of people are testing shit these days? Is that a reasonable pov? Out of all the users I knew there was one mad scientist kid that would test stuff, and that was only sometimes.

I’m 37. When we bought Molly 15 years ago, shit was Molly. If we bought weed, it was weed. Shit, even the pill heads had confidence in the product being the actual product. Nothing was hot or laced or stepped on like this.

The pills at the gas station. The delta 8, 9, kratom- Whatever the fuck shit. That’s wild to me that’s been normalized as shit people use.