The Overtaken

The Overtaken

2012, Drugs  -   100 Comments
5.98
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Ratings: 5.98/10 from 234 users.

Aaron's story was typical - a young man, successful high-school athlete, and a talented football player. Aaron overdosed on Oxycontin and prescription pills in 2005 and he was in a coma for three weeks. His parents were planning his funeral and because of the overdose he's now a quadriplegic. He understands everything and he communicates by using his hands and fingers, one finger for yes and two fingers for no.

Asia Armour almost died in 2009. She attended private high school, she was a cheerleader but when she was 18 she overdosed on Ecstasy. She was in a coma for two months and had complete organ and respiratory failure and she couldn't walk, talk and do simple things. She was in a wheelchair for 5 months. She is two years into her rehab and she's still going through rehab. She can't dance, can't run, and her speech is slow. Her entire life was changed because of that choice she made... she swallowed a tablet of Ecstasy.

One of the girls that testified in this documentary was extremely involved in high-school, she was on the student's government, she graduated high-school with very high GPA and scholarships, and with honors and leaderships she had a great future. She found about alcohol and Ecstasy when she was 17 years old and it took about three months until she was doing Heroin. Her disease escalated quickly, she wanted to try everything and anything, they all had different effect, they all allowed her to feel and do different things, she was very curious, very under-educated about drugs, and she didn't know what she was getting involved into.

Other girl at first was just smoking weed, drinking and taking pills when she could get them and ended up overdosing multiple times, ended up in rehab when she was 14, and ultimately she got hooked on Heroin and she was shooting it for two years. She was able to maintain college for a year and once her problem got serious she basically lost control. She was failing on all her classes, she wasn't showing up on family events, she lost all her jobs that she had had, she was in an abusive relationship with her ex-boyfriend who she used with, and to her the biggest thing she lost was herself.

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Janie
Janie
6 years ago

This was awful. None of these dolts were believable and they were all still playing the blame game. It was this that made me do it. No you idiot you chose to do the drugs. I'm sorry but I don't buy that these kids didn't know how unsafe ecstasy &/or oxy was when they doing it at the height of both of these drugs, not to mention the deaths from these drugs all over social media, television and the internet. Same goes with the heroin denial. Typical 'I live in the south orange county bubble babble'. I guess if you ignore all the bad things they won't happen to you or your children? Well this just proved that wrong.

gaboora
gaboora
9 years ago

Okay kids, this vid feels like a commercial, sort of. I get that. But take the true stories seriously. And learn this lesson: drug use is not a disease, but a decision. Some of these persons have quit; you can't quit a disease. One person quit after getting hit with a crowbar; a hit from a crowbar will not get rid of a disease. If you get addicted after taking drugs willingly, it's your decision. Don't blame it on a 'disease.'

KEN DAVIS
KEN DAVIS
10 years ago

i am a former crack-cocaine user and i have not used for 3 Yrs now but i had both of my knees replaced with steel and now i am on hydrocodone and methadone,and i don't know if i am still am an addict because i am using legal drugs now or what,my counselor says i am not because they are not street drugs but a drug is a drug,but my opinion is that i am because i have surpassed the need to take them because of pain, i take them now because i have become addicted to them ,and i am afraid too tell someone for fear they will take me off and then what am i gonna do about the pain when i do need them,should i say something about this ,i know that i should but i am afraid to,i would really like someone who has been in this situation before to give me some input on this,i am going to tell my therapist ,but i don't know when,i have been with this guy for over 15yrs and i know him pretty damn well and i know he is gonna to say get off of them,but now just like when i got off of crack i was scared i am feeling the same guilt now about this, that i felt then. this was a very good film thanks for it and yes it did help me some and i know that with God's help i will make the right choice

LITOSWEED
LITOSWEED
10 years ago

As F'd up this world has become ... who can blame anyone for using drugs. The best way to handle Drugs is the one way that works, Portugal has the best solution because it works better then any other.

ddaba
ddaba
10 years ago

"Her entire life was changed because of that choice she made... she swallowed a tablet of Ecstasy." She took a hell of a lot more than a "tablet". Ecstasy itself will not kill you. It's the failure to hydrate and rest that does it.
By the way, many of the criminal "issues" depicted in this documentary would be remedied by legalizing drugs.

Karl Lindström
Karl Lindström
10 years ago

I'm generally against drugs but I can't help to think the people talking is acting, like reading a manuscript. Somehow it does not feel authentic, I get the same feeling watching a TV commercial.

Lawrance Jones
Lawrance Jones
10 years ago

When watching this documentary, it is important to realize that all the people speaking were born with addictive genetic predispositions. They would have abused anything. to claim that Marijuana was the gateway is misleading. most of us do not have addictive personalities and get along just fine regardless. In some cases, Marijuana can help overcome alcohol abuse.

CapnCanard
CapnCanard
10 years ago

I agree drugs are bad. Or they can be bad when done by youngsters who are trying to mimic "adult" behavior that they see around them. These kids all looked like the bright and shinning examples of the "promise" of American youth. BTW, it isn't a promise, it's a lie. Being overly praised, reinforced at their school's is the drug that sunk them. Put these little shits in a real situations instead of the toxic world of safe suburbia. "Suburbia" that false world of social acceptance and herd mentality that easily inflates their egos. It is the old 19th C. paradigm of school, where school is a conditioning system to make automatons meant to work in factories. The message is "Don't question authority, just do your job." We need to have kids be independent of authority and removing authority is the only way to learn independence. BTW, marijuana is a no more a gateway drug than coffee. And an "overdose" of coffee can kill, but an overdose of marijuana has never killed anyone or even severely harmed anyone. And alcohol kills far more than any of the illicit drugs, meanwhile prescription drugs kill more than all the illicit drugs as well. This little film just continues the mistake of ignorance. And ignorance kills more than all drugs. Ignorance is the problem and this film has the pretense of help but it is like the point of the spear that will increase more societal misinformation.

Terry "OldFox" Seale
Terry "OldFox" Seale
10 years ago

I applaud the filmmakers for trying to do something about this tragic problem. Once someone becomes a drug addict, it is really too late without a spiritual miracle to regain their innocence and promise. We've been robbed of so many talented and beautiful people because of this stupidity: Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Edie Sedgewick, Belushi, Dorothy Dandridge, Elvis Presley, Whitney Houston, Kennedy children, and on and on. Sickening.

Alv V
Alv V
10 years ago

I haven't seem this after I skimmed trough the comments, but had to comment that films like this probably do more harm then good, when rebellious youth are told not to do something...

Personally I'm an opiate addict. I really recommend it! The rest of my life I have to take two pills of Subutex every day that taste like **** and makes me gag some days. I get no effect from it whatsoever, I just have to keep using it to prevent getting sick. I know by now that I'll never stop wanting "just one more shot", but at the same time nothing can make me want to return to the life as a drug-abuser with everything that follows that lifestyle.

And overdose on (one) ecstasy, is that even possible? From what I know, there's only been overdoses on water, because people have been told that the drug makes people forget to drink anything, but just dances until they collapse from dehydration.

Mads Djervig
Mads Djervig
10 years ago

Not a very informative documentary. Focuses more on the emotional aspect of drug abuse, than on actual facts. Makes a lot of claims about drugs, without ever really providing any data to back it up. I suspect that there is a religious organization behind this productions. Perhaps scientology. Either way - I call BS.

bringmeredwine
bringmeredwine
10 years ago

I don't agree that weed is a gateway drug. I do agree that oxys will devastate you and yours if you miss use them.

FERENC CSICSERI
FERENC CSICSERI
10 years ago

this is a propaganda and a very bad one I' tried opana not once and I'am not addicted to that because the first time ,and i' can stop anytime I' want gradually and never had a problem.These kids just acted and said what been told to Demonized the drug yes overdose happen yes peoples die from these drugs it's clear because they don't know how to take them and you don't need opana when you 15 and healthy but don't blame everything on the pills blame it on the government who manufacture these so called dangerous drugs everything can kill you these day's it was legal before so what are these jokers talking about

Damien
Damien
10 years ago

These people are actors. Everyone was told to say weed first. They all have lines they have memorized. This is psyops.

Nikita Kade
Nikita Kade
10 years ago

Oh, honestly.

I feel for the people in this film who were damaged by their drug use. But the film itself was about as relevant and informative as reading tea leaves--especially if the tea leaves spell out DRUGS ARE BAD!! We are not spared a single cliche here: A) Marijuana is a "gateway drug," Take one puff, and the next day you'll be Joe Junkie wrapping a Walmart bag around your bicep in the store bathroom, to shoot that rat poison-laced dose of heroin into your vein. B) All opiate drugs are terrible and should never be used by anyone but dying cancer patients, preferably after they're dead. C) Pot is worse than alcohol (I might just have been falling asleep from boredom or Xanax by then, but I don't recall hearing alcohol mentioned in here at all) and tobacco put together. D) Your life experiences before drugs have nothing to do with your eventual involvement with drugs; the fact is that all drugs are the work of Satan and will possess your soul, even though your existence was undoubtedly perfect before you took that first sniff, puff, or swallow.

These are the kinds of films that do nothing to educate people as to the real and complex issues behind drug use and the actual dangers of specific drugs; they are extended versions of sanitized public service sermons, and do zilch in terms of providing relevant knowledge and sensible advice that people (especially young ones) might actually listen to. Instead, they demonize certain drugs (like pot and Oxycontin) without explaining the science behind them, leaving the impression that the drugs themselves, rather than how they are taken and how they can be used safely, are at fault. They seek to frighten rather than enlighten, and their tactics haven't changed at all in the years since "Reefer Madness" was shown on the big screen. It's all still just that silly.

Surely, if we want to inform a younger generation about the pros, cons, and realities of drug use, we can do a lot better than this.

rodrigo
rodrigo
10 years ago

If someone is going to make a documentary make sure you use references to real information and not just urban myths. Also it needs to be truthful. Marihuana is NOT a gate way drug, It could be for SOME, a very little % but the truth is not for all! As with everything in life there isn't such thing as one size fits all. So if you put a testimony of some one that happened to have marihuana as a gate way drug, fine but also say it is their case and is not and absolute truth for EVERYONE!

Alan Baca
Alan Baca
10 years ago

Shows how worthless American education is, and how religious interference makes it even stupider.

Louis W Polo
Louis W Polo
10 years ago

Seriously, if you're going to publish something, have it proof-read first! Otherwise, it may take away from your credibility as being a source for good information.

a_no_n
a_no_n
10 years ago

prohibition is the cause behind these lost lives.
If prohibition was gone today, overdoses would drop by tomorrow, because people would be more educated on just what an overdose is.

In portugal where all drugs have been decriminalised, the rates of hard drug users have actually fallen, because the stigma of being an addict has gone and so people are much more open to getting help which is more widely available.

the Gateway argument is also a complete fallacy.
"x smoked weed, now x uses heroin therefore weed is a gateway drug"

well X probably drank orange juice at some point too...In fact you could probably prove that most heroin users also drink orange juice...by this video's logic we should therefore ban orange juice too just to be on the safe side.
I don't know a single person who is a heroin user, and i hang around almost exclusively with other cannabis smokers...the gateway doesn't exist, and if it does, it's on unfair society road not cannabis street.

dewfall
dewfall
10 years ago

Ride horses, bikes, skateboards and quads, skydive, wing walk, surf, drive fast cars, bungee jump, bridge swing, paraglide, zorb, sit on white plastic garden chairs, tightrope walk across the Grand Canyon, climb trees, and cross roads. It's ok to damage or kill yourself doing any of the above, just a tragic accident whilst doing something you loved ;)

Guest
Guest
10 years ago

Wow First time I've had a comment removed!?

Seriously though the doc does have some value to it.

jaberwokky
jaberwokky
10 years ago

My god, that was just awful. 27 minutes of people saying "Just say no" and then it was over. No reasoning, no story, bad acting, questionable motives, crap music, frightening make-up and not one single fact in the entire thing. I don't think this belongs on TDF to be honest, this is youtube fodder.

Edit: I stand corrected. I forgot about the guy in the lab coat telling us how pealing the skin off oxycodone capsules guarantees a better hit. Yep, there's a single fact for you kids.