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We cant have it both ways.
He made it out alive because people didnt give up on him.
Its about how, if you keep your heart open, there are people who can change your life.
Its about love, about being seen and heard and known.
It doesnt cure everything, but it sure as fuck helps.
Rue is close friends with a local drug dealer named Fezco, a.k.a.
Why would a dealer want to kill off his customers?
Fez wants nothing to do with fentanyl.
The scene grows tense when Mouse offers Rue a gooey glob of fentanyl served up on a blade.
I knew it was strong and that I had to be careful.
Only I went a step further than Rue, spreading fentanyl goop onto tinfoil and smoking it.
Narcan is the brand name for naloxone, a drug that prevents opioid overdoses from turning fatal.
Doctors and experts tend to respond that all naloxone does is switch on the body to breathe again.
We pray to not die.
With naloxone around, our prayer can be answered.
Teenagers are not too young to learn about harm reduction.
Much like Levinson, I went on to have some rocky teenage years and early 20s.
I put my parents through hell.
I often scared myself.
A lot of my friends died.
The media we consume indeed shapes our identity, informing our beliefs, politics, and preferences.
But the media isnt produced, nor consumed, in a vacuum.
Today, we know that treating addiction withmedicine and compassion, not tough love, is what works best.
We know thatstigma, alienation, andincarcerationmake things worse.
For all the hubbub, every teenager watchingEuphoriaat least knows that having naloxone around can save a life.
I had no idea what naloxone even was for during the majority of my time using.
Thats because I had grown up on DARE officers and media depictions like the outlandish heroin-overdose scene inPulp Fiction.
In contrast,Euphoriaseizes the opportunity to educate audiences about the realities of overdose prevention.
I think its crucial that film and television portray addiction in an honest way, Levinson wrote.
That we allow for its complexities to play out.
On full display inEuphoriais the uncomfortable fact that drugs make us feel, well, euphoric.
Theseason finalebegins with Rue after three months off drugs.
A hospitalization and ongoing medication have stabilized her bipolar disorder.
Lets hope shes still alive to hear it.
