RIP Seymour Hoffman

Sad to see this, he was good as Plutarch in Catching fire, but my favorite role of his was Dusty in Twister thanks to his "Suck Zone" story.

Apparently found in the bathroom with a needle in his arm. Goddammit, berkeleying heroin took another one. :(

I used his death as a teachable moment for my kids who just saw him in the hunger games.

I can muster zero pity for junkies

Back in '87 or so I was in Portland generally being a nuisance with other skateboarding and BMXing punk rockers and we went to pick up a friend from the squat he was supposed to be at. We went in and my 16 year old self saw his first dead junkie. Just sitting in a chair with his paraphernalia in front of him.... all but the junk of course. Someone had helped themselves to that a day or two earlier.

From that moment I associated Heroin with death and that is how I still feel. Every time I hear "It is so sad, so and so just died from an OD" I just think. Yep. That is what happens. It isn't sad, it is stupid. It is a pretty direct progression and if you don't see it coming you are kidding yourself.

Apparently he had been clean for about 23 years and relapsed. I agree though that Heroin is a sure fire way to kill yourself and that getting started with it is just pure idiocy. Worse, kicking the habit seems to be nearly impossible for many people.

Opiates are HELL. If I ever have to get put on painkillers again, I do NOT want to be on anything opiate based. Coming off of prescribed opiate based pain killers is some of the worst pain I've ever felt.

Good actor, but screw junkies.

I never thought both Brandt and OD'd would be used in the same sentence.

beans wrote: Opiates are HELL. If I ever have to get put on painkillers again, I do NOT want to be on anything opiate based. Coming off of prescribed opiate based pain killers is some of the worst pain I've ever felt.

I can understand how people become addicted. Several years ago I was at the hospital in the worst pain of my life, and after a shot of morphine I just didn't care anymore. It's not that it made it stop hurting...it just made me not care.

My question is why does anybody in this day and age even START taking heroin? Other drugs, you might be able to convince yourself are manageable. But almost nobody comes back from smack.

Is vicodin opiate based? I never had luck with that stuff. Everything still hurts, but it makes my head feel fuzzy. Maybe I wasn't taking enough, or I was expecting too much, but I'd rather be legally able to drive a car than feel a little fuzzy. It did help me sleep after my hand got pinned back together, though. My dad says the same thing. It doesn't work too well for him, so maybe it's genetic?

After my car accident I was on a lovely drip of morphine and then OxyContin in rehab. They were fantastic drugs and with the pain I was in I could easily see myself servicing truckers in rest areas to get more. Luckily I was able to walk away no problem but like the sticker on the rehab doctors drug cart said, "Rush Is Right", that was some good stuff.

Rufledt wrote: Is vicodin opiate based? I never had luck with that stuff. Everything still hurts, but it makes my head feel fuzzy. Maybe I wasn't taking enough, or I was expecting too much, but I'd rather be legally able to drive a car than feel a little fuzzy. It did help me sleep after my hand got pinned back together, though. My dad says the same thing. It doesn't work too well for him, so maybe it's genetic?

Yeah, I know what you mean, recently been prescribed vicondin and percoset and neither of them do a darn thing for me. I usually E36 M3can them and take some asprin instead. Could indeed be a genetic thing.

I just rewatched 'Red Dragon' where he played Freddy Lounds and did a damn fine job, he rivaled Anthony Hopkins. Such a great talent gone...

Some people have an enzyme disorder where they don't process many opiates effectively, usually codeine or things that metabolize into codeine.

RIP Brandt.

I am an opiate addict waiting to happen. I've hurt myself a few times and had minor surgery a few times and opiate based pain killers are.......simply amazing. I can take them for about a week and then I have to flush them down the toilet because I wake up in the morning and immediately want one.
I understand my experience is like comparing walking on a 2x4 laying in the yard with tight rope walking, but I totally get addiction and see how it could run your whole life, even years after being clean. I also understand that not everyone reacts to opiates like this and that taking them recreationally isn't a death sentence for everyone. It's not so much that I feel bad for addicts that OD, but I feel terrible that they fell down the rabbit hole in the first place.

And once again we have an instance of paying more attention to the method of demise instead of the accomplishments.

I still think this could all be over Jennifer Lawrence refusing to sleep with him.

When the cause of death is as sad, pointless, and avoidable as this, it tends to steal the limelight.

He was a great actor even when he was playing creepy characters - maybe even mostly when he was playing creepy characters. That's what makes the addiction and overdose an important part of the story.

One of my favorite actors. I will miss his talent, and I'm sorry for his family. I am sorry he made the choices he did.

Teh E36 M3 wrote: RIP Brandt.

Strong men also cry.

Hell of a talent. berkeley addiction.

Duke wrote: My question is why does anybody in this day and age even START taking heroin? Other drugs, you might be able to convince yourself are manageable. But almost nobody comes back from smack.

I was going to say the same thing. I don't get it. Who doesn't know that heroin, crack, and Meth. aren't highly addictive. I've watched several episodes of "Drug's Inc." recently and I do think it's sad that the individuals they focus on have given their lives over to the madness that comes very quickly to the user.

I found out that a guy who worked for me about 18 years ago was a crack smoker. He described in detail what happened to him the first time he tried it. He said "at first he thought he was going to have a heart attack, and he knew he was in trouble because he wanted that feeling again almost immediately".

I'm just glad I've never been inclined to trade my mind and my life for a rock or a powder. The truth is the smoker or the shooter never really knows what's in that rock or that powder. He also never knows the actual strength of it.

Wally wrote: After my car accident I was on a lovely drip of morphine and then OxyContin in rehab. They were fantastic drugs and with the pain I was in I could easily see myself servicing truckers in rest areas to get more. Luckily I was able to walk away no problem but like the sticker on the rehab doctors drug cart said, "Rush Is Right", that was some good stuff.

Wally, you absolutely crack me up.

Kenny_McCormic wrote: I never thought both Brandt and OD'd would be used in the same sentence.

Balls, we just watched that again on Saturday night. He nailed Brandt

yamaha wrote: I still think this could all be over Jennifer Lawrence refusing to sleep with him.

She won't sleep with me either, thankfully I haven't turned to drugs yet but it may only be a matter if time. She didn't even answer the last few e-mails.