YouSaid · the spoken record

Ben Westhoff

lines on the record: 92
first: 2019-10-09
most recent: 2019-10-09
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I would say underrated generally is body of work, but overrated as the forefather of rap music, for example. People are often citing him, but they're, I don't see him being the main creator.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'd have to say underrated. I mean, people are always complaining about her for some reason, but she does nothing but make amazingly great and catchy songs. So I see no problem with her.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, in general, they're not allowed to know anything that the government doesn't want them to know. So, for example, no one knows anything about fentanyl because no one wrote about it. And so I'm sure that there's a complete lack of credible information.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Basically, because I'd be worried of being put in a Chinese jail for my work, when I went there before, I didn't have proper credentialing necessarily. And so that's reason enough.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I have to say, I loved being in China, and it was so exhilarating. Now the State Department has told me I can probably never go back, which is very sad due to all my investigative reporting there. But I don't know. I think of China really like the US. Supposedly people around the world hate the US policies, but clearly we're a force for good in many ways. The US is not one thing. There's extremely liberal people. There's extremely conservative people. And I begin to think of China as the same way. It's absorbed all these other countries around it. It's doing this incredible innovation in so many ways, the food, the culture. is astounding. But at the same time, they're evil in their own ways.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, the fentanyl crisis really has only come to pass in places that had the opioid crisis, starting with the over prescription of oxycontin and all that. So it's the US and Canada, but they never had that problem in China and a lot of other parts of the world too.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's a really, really good question. I've heard stories of people who go on like a crowded Chinese subway car and are smoking weed or hash openly. And, you know, it's an annoying thing to do. Or they're doing it in public and no one even says anything because they're not used to the smell.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm fairly certain that it's going to make some difference because whenever China bans one of these drugs, you see an effect in the US, the seizures drop. So it's a little too early to tell, but I suspect it will have some effect.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I will give Trump credit for making the fentanyl discussion part of his trade war. And he got China to ban all of the fentanyl analogs, which became effective a few months ago. So he's kind of used fentanyl as sort of a carrot and a stick to varying degrees of success.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think it's trying to grow China's chemical industry's exports. So China has the biggest chemical industry in the world. But the problem is they don't make as much money because it's focused on generics mostly. So the US, our industry is smaller, but we do these brand name expensive pharmaceuticals. So China is trying to go up the value chain and they're trying to encourage the export of more expensive chemicals and pharmaceuticals. So that's why all these obscure fentanyl analogs get these export rebates. And I think it's been unfortunate side effect that so many of them are going to illicit uses.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exactly. Anyone. And so ostensibly, this should be for the legal sale of fentanyl, but it's so poorly enforced that there's undoubtedly these subsidies and many more going directly to the cartels. And I reported on this for the fentanyl precursors. So that to me is crazy that the government is offering tax incentives and other grants and subsidies for the export of fentanyl and fentanyl-like drugs.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, the Chinese government, as we all know, is not one thing, right? So there are all these different layers of government. And at the top level, it's crazy because China offers these VAT rebates, value added tax rebates for fentanyl exports.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They are, or something else, and so that's why at these raves, you always hear about someone dying. And in my opinion, this is just crazy law.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There are places like the state of Pennsylvania, which for some reason bans fentanyl testing strips to help people find out if what they've got is pure heroin or heroin mixed with fentanyl, for example. Fentanyl testing strips save a lot of lives. It's crazy that it's illegal places. There's also something called the RAVE Act, which was co-authored by Joe Biden. And what it does is it cracks down on promoters, concert promoters, Rave promoters, and they are not allowed in these big bacchanals with tens of thousands of people at these raves, electronic dance music parties. Everyone's using drugs. And yet, because of this obscure law called the RAVE Act, they're not allowed to check their drugs. They're not allowed to hand out these kits that help people realize if they're taking what they think.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think physiologically, just from my own experience as a human consuming all sorts of psychoactive substances, including coffee, right? I mean, there's no free lunch. You drink coffee. You feel great for a while, then you have a crash. You eat a big piece of chocolate cake. You feel great. There's a crash. I just don't think it's out there.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I've thought about if the end of the world was coming and I knew it was coming, what would I do? Well, I'm a vegetarian, but I would love to have a whopper again. I would want to try heroin. That's what I think in these last few moments. But then really ultimately you're feeling this euphoria, but then coming down is much worse. And so to me, it just wouldn't be worth it.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The only thing that I know that should probably be changed is that to prescribe these treatments, you need to go through this rigorous screening. And I think it should be much easier to prescribe the treatment drugs like Suboxone when it comes to prescribing opioids and things like that. I know the pendulum is way swinging the other direction now and it's becoming much harder to do this. And this is affecting a lot of people who have chronic pain and who are using opioids over the long term. Now, there's evidence to show that opioid use long term is not helpful at all, that you're just sort of creating a new problem, but taking away people's opioids I also think is not the answer. Who are using them for medical reasons?”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There is just really preliminary data coming out of places like Colorado, which was one of the first to legalize. And it's encouraging for the most part. Kids aren't using it in greater rates. The one thing to be worried about is that deaths from driving while stoned are increasing. And so this is something to be worried about. I tend to think, and I think you've said this on your blog or linked to it, that decriminalization is maybe a way to think about it. And in places like St. Louis, where I'm from, they're having more success. They're not locking up people. But at the same time, there's not, you know, stored selling weed on every corner. And so the legalization of marijuana, but I urge a little bit of caution in all that's happening.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think you're sort of deluding yourself if you think you can keep it out, even on a landlocked, you know, even in a place like Singapore that's so hard to have entries. These are synthetic drugs, and that's this revolution is that everything is being moving towards synthetic. And that is what can be made anywhere. And so often the big problem with harsh penalties against dealers is that the dealer is often just an addicted user. These are the same people. Now, it's all fine and well to say we're going to go after the, you know, the top of the kingpin or whatever. But ultimately what happens is you just end up locking up a lot of very low level addicted users, essentially.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, well, that's a very good question because Vancouver was sort of seen as the city who was doing things right with these supervised injection facilities where you can legally shoot up fentanyl and heroin and there's doctors and nurses and clean needles. And so people applauded that. But the overdose death rate has actually gone up since these facilities have come in. Now the supporters of the facilities say death rates would have gone up even more without these sites, but that's sort of a hard argument to make. And so I'm generally very much in favor of these type of facilities and they've worked great in places like Europe, but I cannot explain what's happening in Vancouver.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“By all accounts, they've been massive successes. Portugal had this huge problem with heroin talking like one out of every 100 members of the population was touched by it or something like that. And now those rates have gone way down. In Slovenia, they have no fentanyl problem. They barely have an opioid problem. Their rates of AIDS and other diseases pass through needles have gone way down.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I absolutely think they did. It was an unprecedented thing. Now drugs like marijuana, cocaine, heroin, all the drugs you've heard of are internationally banned. But what New Zealand did was it legalized these forms of synthetic marijuana. So synthetic marijuana has a really bad reputation. It goes by names like K2 and Spice, and it's big in homeless populations. It's causing huge problems in places like DC. But if you make synthetic marijuana right as this character in my book named Matt Bowden was doing in New Zealand, you can actually make it so it's less toxic. So it's somewhat safe. That's what he did. They legalized these safer forms of it and the overdose rate plummeted. Very shortly thereafter, however, they banned them again. And now deaths from synthetic marijuana in New Zealand have gone way up”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“First of all, people are treated like they have a disease, so they're not sent to prison or jail, and it doesn't start the cycle of recidivism again. People are instead given these sort of opioid blockers or these low-level opioids like methadone and suboxone and can figure their lives out. That's the main driver, to be honest, of the opioid epidemic. It's not just that people are taking these addictive drugs. It's at their lives are a mess. And so sending someone to jail just makes their life a bigger mess. And given time, counseling, and help, people can actually beat these drugs.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Legal, that's a little tricky because I wouldn't say it's driven by the legal access, because, for example, decriminalization has had a really positive effect. But I do think that the way we go about the war on drugs is fueling the problem, absolutely.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, well, I don't think it will be that way forever because I think people are starting to kind of start thinking about the problem in the right way finally. So we've always been so focused on the supply side for all these years. And that's right now too. China, you know, my book is about China and how China is feeding the problem. But now that people in power know people who are dying themselves, they've started to think that of drug addiction and whatnot as a disease. We're trying to think about how to educate people, how to give them treatment, how to do harm reduction, which is basically admitting that people are always”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, if we go back through the decades, yes, Krack really did seem to burn out, but that seems to me to be kind of the exception to the rule. Like when you take the meth epidemic, for example, we thought that was sort of winding down and the passage of these laws made it so you couldn't get pseudophed without going behind the counter. So they thought, well, the production is going to stop. Instead, it went to Mexico. Now meth is worse than ever. Cocaine, same thing. It seemed to be on the decline. You know, Pablo Escobar was killed. Now there's more cocaine coming out of Colombia than ever. So I am certainly not optimistic at all that the opioid epidemic is going to wind itself down.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“People have totally different physiologies too, right? And so people have addictive personalities. And I think everyone knows if they have one of these or not. I don't, but other people, when it comes to alcohol, for example, you know, one drink is never enough.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Is due to which factor. Well, it's not actually these drugs which kill people because you can take a safe dose of heroin, you can even take a safe dose of fentanyl. It's all these lifestyle things surrounding the drug use. So dirty needles, for example, crime, prostitution to earn the money to get these drugs. And so these tend to be the problems. If you're wealthy, you have access. You can buy directly from China in a very pure form, for example, and have access to good health care.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's a good question. I've been shocked at the Democrat debates, for example, and there's so little talk about this. There's more people dying than at the peak of the AIDS crisis. And I've got to think that it's because these are sort of marginalized members of society generally. You hear plenty about politicians, kids who die from fentanyl and opioids. But mainly it's marginalized people and they're just not on anyone's priority list, it seems like.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, I believe we definitely are. And even though the people are using fewer pills, people are abusing less heroin now, fentanyl deaths are still skyrocketing. And I heard someone on your message board, someone ask that, you know, all the deaths aside, which are obviously bad, they're still millions and millions of people addicted. And even if they're not dying, how do we quantify the damage to society? And that's a very good question and it's something that's not even close to going away anytime soon.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, it happened in so many little ways because at first, when you heard about the opioid, the narcotics, all these different drugs, it was as like prescription patches, for example. People were putting these fentanyl patches all over their body four or five, or they were abusing oxycontin, the hillbilly heroin, as it was known. And then more in this decade, the effects of people transitioning to heroin, particularly in Sam Kinona's book, Dreamland, really drove it home for a lot of people.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I think it had to do with this sort of reclassification of pain as the quote unquote fifth vital sign. And so doctors began deciding that people's pain was a really serious problem and they deserved to be relieved of it. And so this came to a weird situation because you can't quantify pain in any effective way, right? So I remember being seeing a doctor. And the doctor said one to ten, what's your pain level? And I'd say, I don't know, four or seven. But doctors were coached that if someone said a certain number, I think it was above seven, then that meant they were eligible and should probably receive an opioid narcotic pain pill. And this clearly, this got out of hand very quickly.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Probably it's hard to say me personally, but people have found great success with this stuff. I mean, in general, I don't like opioid prescription pills. I think they get you stoned, but they don't always address the pain they're trying to deal with.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, it was mixed. Yes, it was mixed with kind of a dilutant originally, so it was considered that if a junkie or an illicit user tried it, they wouldn't be a satisfying high. Eventually that dilutant was removed.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, in Europe, fentanyl was immediately legalized for hospital use, for medical use. But the FDA in the US initially balked and it wasn't available here for a while. And I was sort of shocked to learn that the reason they did eventually green light it was because Paul Jansen himself, the inventor of fentanyl, lobbied for it. He called up the guy and said, Come on, rethink this. And then they were like, okay.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, first of all, cocaine comes from a natural plant. It's much easier to make in this era. And it doesn't kill you by having, you know, a tiny amount. So even the DEA as recently as 2015 did not think fentanyl would be a problem because such a tiny amount could kill you. And same with all these scientists. So it sort of baffled everyone when it emerged.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, in a big way because in China in particular fentanyl was illegal, but all the analogs weren't. And so these chemists would make an analog. And then when China banned that one, they'd make another one and on and on and on.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I think a lot of it has to do with the internet. And so initially he and other scientists who were making these new drugs published them in papers and they were in obscure university libraries. And there were some examples of fentanyl appearing on the streets in the 80s, for example. But after the internet, then all of these university papers went online. And so these rogue chemists could access them now with fentanyl. It's not just fentanyl, it's all the analogs of fentanyl, which are made by just slightly tweaking the chemical formula. And then you have something 10 times as strong as fentanyl, for example. And so the scientists who are all studying these analogs, coming up with them, publish their papers and these chemists were able to find them online.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It is now, yeah, and it's not a lot talked about. People think of the opioid epidemic of which fentanyl is a big part of as a white problem. But heroin abuse in the black community has been happening a long time, and now it's almost impossible to find heroin that hasn't been cut with fentanyl and therefore places like St. Louis, Chicago, Washington, DC, it's a big problem.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, everything is local, right? Not just politics. I mean, you're influenced by the people around you and the relative costs. I mean, in St. Louis, it's so incredibly cheap, like $5 to get some heroin, some fentanyl. I don't know how it works in, say, New Hampshire, but I know in places like West Virginia, it's still primarily pill market. So people don't use powdered heroin, for example, for whatever reason. They prefer oxycontin. And so that has affected the market too.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, well, it's because the Mexican cartels are still really strongly in the trade. And so even though it's all made in China, much of it is trafficked through the cartels who buy the precursors, the fentanyl ingredients from China make it the rest of the way. And then they send it through the border into the US. So you can get fentanyl in the mail from China and many people do. It comes right to your door through the US Postal Service, but it takes a certain level of sophistication in the drug dealers to pull that off.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, with fentanyl in particular, in the US, the epidemic is moving from east to west. So it started in New England. It's gradually getting to California. In Canada, on the other hand, it's moving from west to east. And this has to do with all these sort of distribution networks. And so it's actually the heroin distribution network in the US. And for whatever reason east of the Mississippi has always had white powder heroin. And that, since fentanyl, is also white, is very easy to mix. Therefore, the epidemic started in the east. West of the Mississippi, they have black tar heroin, which is full of impurities. It's very dark is the name implies. And you can't mix fentanyl in with that at all. And so it's been... Much slower to take root.”
2019-10-09 · Conversations with Tyler · Ben Westhoff on Synthetic Drugs, Dive Bars, and the Evolution of Rap · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source