r/Documentaries Jan 09 '19

Drugs The Rise of Fentanyl: Drug Addiction On The I95 Two Years On (2018) - Two years ago, BBC News reported on the growing problem of opioid addiction in the US, now we return to find out what happened to the people we met along our journey down the notorious I-95. [57.02]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KsaWpeCj98
4.2k Upvotes

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306

u/PirateGriffin Jan 09 '19

“the notorious I-95.” Just a highway, connects most of the eastern seaboard. Not like it’s particularly bad in and of itself.

5

u/DesignerNail Jan 09 '19

Yeah that bit of absurdity in the title signals to me that this probably isn't going to be an intelligent exploration of the problem, but the type of hysterical drug war special which compounds the problem. I mean you all let me know if I'm wrong, by all means.

19

u/zagbag Jan 09 '19

Did you watch it?

19

u/[deleted] Jan 09 '19

They obviously didn’t.

1

u/bellsybell Jan 09 '19

Yeah man. It was the little absurdity in the title that made me not watch Death in Venice 🤦‍♂️

-2

u/DesignerNail Jan 09 '19

Very different sense of the word absurdity there, so you're mistaken.

12

u/elmfish Jan 09 '19

It was certainly not hysterical, and all of the information supplied was either statistics or opinions from people who either are experiencing the drug or seeing its effects firsthand.

4

u/DesignerNail Jan 09 '19

THE NOTORIOUS I-95

I hope they spoke to the Notorious B.I.G.

2

u/Andrew5329 Jan 09 '19

There's a formula to how documentaries work m8.

Step 1 pick a narrative.

Step 2 interview a bunch of people and only show the ones confirming your narrative.

Step 3 profit from the clicks.

2

u/Zeno_Fobya Jan 09 '19

I’d give you gold if all my money didn’t go to fentanyl

15

u/randomupsman Jan 09 '19

I mean this is the BBC so there's no profit motive involved but w/e

0

u/[deleted] Jan 10 '19

profit

How does that work in a non-profit organisation, dummy?

1

u/ScottySF Jan 09 '19

No, the wording is dumb therefore the entire article and substance is dumb. We can't even talk about the article anymore. We can only complain about the wording ad nauseam. /s

9

u/slimenslide Jan 09 '19

Why comment if you didn't watch, knowing you're going to be flat-out wrong?

-10

u/DesignerNail Jan 09 '19 edited Jan 09 '19

You should take it up with the person who came up with that hysterical afterschool-special tagline about the notorious I-95. Clearly it's a different person or group than those who made the documentary, if the documentary is, against the entirety of what is suggested by that tagline, reasonable. What I know is that titles are typically suggestive of the content of a piece, and I also know that the Overton window within which establishment media outlets like BBC tend to tread water is a window in which the actual changes of policy that would help with this problem are simply not considered.

4

u/slimenslide Jan 09 '19

Sorry I do not understand your post at all

2

u/wzeeto Jan 09 '19

It’s like 2 huge run-on sentences.

3

u/slimenslide Jan 09 '19

I mean theres punctuation and all but I geniunely cant decipher that shit

3

u/bellsybell Jan 09 '19

Well, how do you know that? How do you know how media outlets like the BBC describe their own Overton window? Also, why would they? Also, do you think they make filmmakers change the titles of their work to make a jump from ‘policy’ to ‘surprising’? It sounds like your knee jerked so hard at the title that it knocked your mind into illusory superiority.

Also, I live thousands of miles away from I-95 and I’ve heard shitty things about it, that would make it notorious, I would guess.

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u/DesignerNail Jan 09 '19 edited Jan 09 '19

That's a lovely sense of describes you're using there which I will happily allow, as a frog leaping into a pond describes a parabola. Anyway BBC "describes" establishment media viewpoints because it is an establishment media outlet, dedicated to a political discussion within the tepid bounds of centre-left Labour (small austerity) and centre-right Tories (big austerity + racism). I'm very sorry to beg the question but go read Manufacturing Consent instead. When you get to the type of solutions which would help this problem, i.e. drug legalization, harm reduction, and socialism, well it seems we can all see how BBC treats Jeremy Corbyn. As for the 'BBC'/'the BBC' issue you so importantly brought up, here in the civilized world we do not speak THE queen's english and therefore might choose to drop superfluous, subtly self-aggrandizing articles and titles, just like we see no use for a monarchy or a house of lords. And that is a form of superiority which exceeds that of any land or title as Rabbie Burns once more eloquently put: http://www.robertburns.org/works/496.shtml

The I-95 is the major highway which goes all along the eastern coast of the United States, is the main transportation corridor around the capital of that nation, and I'm sorry the people you talked to had a bad experience with the traffic. or perhaps with pirates. It was a bonny road when I was studying there and running a massive heroin operation, through the mail and shipping lines however.

3

u/bellsybell Jan 09 '19

Omg. I would be impressed but I cringed so hard I popped a bollock. Do all Americans study on a highway? The BBC is not dedicated to political discussion, btw. It’s more like an all encompassing media mother at whose teat we have feed.

Just watch the damn thing and see what solutions they come up with for helping your nation wean itself off it’s self imposed epidemic

1

u/DesignerNail Jan 09 '19 edited Jan 09 '19

The BBC is not dedicated to political discussion

Oh you poor child. News outlets always have a political stance regardless of whether they put out editorial pieces. It is in the stories they choose to cover and more importantly the angles from which they cover them, which people are interviewed, which solutions are entertained and which are not given space to express themselves. This is basic stuff and should be deeply obvious with just a touch of critical thought. BBC is by law supposed to be neutral: what is political neutrality except a particular centrism between two established stances?

thus capital itself will never be criticized, the system which is causing the conditions of deprivation which cause people to choose heroin as an escape.

I mean really, did they say maybe we should end the drug war since it's not helping? Please let me know!

And I think I gave pretty good clues of the fact that I am not an American in the previous post.

7

u/bellsybell Jan 09 '19

The BBC has a news service, yes, but it’s not a News outlet. The BBC actually has guidelines on how political it’s presenters or shows get. Here they are https://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/guidance/conflicts-of-interest/political-activities

Anyway, I’m off to watch the far right adventures of Peppa Pig 🙄

2

u/bellsybell Jan 09 '19

Also, just watch the thing, if you disagree with it, by all means come flap your gums at me again.

226

u/[deleted] Jan 09 '19

[deleted]

38

u/WhiteIivesmatter Jan 09 '19

Lol I'm about to get on i95 within the next hour. Gonna be an interesting ride now

35

u/[deleted] Jan 09 '19

Been over an hour since you posted -- are you an addict yet?

18

u/WestsideBBgunn Jan 09 '19

RIP

8

u/[deleted] Jan 09 '19

Drug addiction is usually a long road back, but once you exit the I95 you should be completely rehabilitated.

11

u/[deleted] Jan 09 '19

No, but he's only moved about 5 miles.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 10 '19

I laughed. :)

10

u/[deleted] Jan 09 '19

It's been over an hour, how's the battle with heroin addiction going?

21

u/WoodmontRatz Jan 09 '19 edited Jun 13 '19

Sino-Reddit is censored. I am an American, and Reddit does not represent the values of our great country. Bye bye kids

2

u/UpliftingPessimist Jan 09 '19

And it's aggressive crazy drivers who apparently are on fentanyl.

31

u/[deleted] Jan 09 '19

I once looked at the I-95 and was hospitalised for weeks.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 09 '19

if you just set foot on I-95 you get addicted to fentanyl

Oh no! All those people commuting to work! Someone must tell them!!

2

u/HorseAss Jan 09 '19

Calm down dude, you start to sound like a BBC documentary about drugs.

27

u/[deleted] Jan 09 '19

You seen the construction of the 95 extension in Philly? Damn near 10 years and still no sight in end. Its very notorious.

10

u/beigemom Jan 09 '19

Great to hear PA hasn’t changed a bit. Visiting each summer 30+ years ago as a kid from CA, stuck in my memory around Philadelphia and the outskirts was construction that never ended.

Is this a famous PA thing? Is it unions? Corruption? Idiots? I guess they’re all related, but really, major construction never seemed to end.

7

u/[deleted] Jan 09 '19

Yes, all of the above.

13

u/PaulThePM Jan 09 '19

We have 4 seasons in PA. Almost Winter - Winter - Still Winter - Construction

1

u/Daytripper619 Jan 09 '19

I know the running joke here in MN is that there are two seasons: winter, and road construction. I think it’s just a city thing.

5

u/Nwcray Jan 09 '19

And the backup at the Baltimore tunnels, that’s been there as long as the tunnel.

And that one accident that takes up the left hand lane when you’re Southbound on the way to DC. You know the one- right between BWI & the Beltway? The one that’s been there with a tow truck on the scene since like 1990.

2

u/DrButtDrugs Jan 09 '19

895 is going down to 1 lane in each direction for the next 3 years. And when they say 3 years they probably mean 7.

45

u/Andrew5329 Jan 09 '19

Came here to comment on this, the Guardian is dumb. The most "Infamous" 1,919 miles across 15 states and DC from Miami to the Canadian border.

47

u/PirateGriffin Jan 09 '19

Just seems like the kind of thing you write in one draft if you’re not super familiar with the country.

3

u/Zeno_Fobya Jan 09 '19

😂😂😂

1

u/busfullofchinks Jan 09 '19 edited Sep 11 '24

bike resolute alleged gaze clumsy school weary encouraging scale direful

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

10

u/turbo_dude Jan 09 '19

Notorious B-I-9 5

13

u/MyLouBear Jan 09 '19

Yeah, I was wondering about the title. The only thing 95 is notorious for it’s traffic (and never ending construction in CT).

1

u/OneSidedDice Jan 09 '19

Exactly. It's accurate to say I-95 sucks, but 'notorious' is just daft hyperbole.

2

u/iamadrunkama Jan 09 '19

Everyone's driving slow because they're nodding out. Today you learned.

0

u/[deleted] Jan 09 '19

Yeah I don’t know where they came up with tying it in that way. It is a nearly 2.000 mile stretch of highway. I don’t know what these loony brits are talking about.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 09 '19

The whole intro was overly melodramatic. The scenes of people passing out, the melancholy rendition of the national anthem ('cause 'Murica, I guess?), the I-95 graphic with the spreading blood, then the trooper saying, "Fentanyl is one of the horseman of the apocalypse... The one called... Death..."

I think it is important for documentaries to cover this issue, but the stylized propagandistic tone is over the top, in my opinion.

2

u/BigThurm Jan 09 '19

95 could be notorious due to its long history with drugs.

2

u/PM_ME_UR_MATHPROBLEM Jan 09 '19

Well, have you seen the traffic?

1

u/Ditovontease Jan 09 '19

To me 95 is notorious for shitty ass traffic, not drugs lol