Congratulations on your recovery OP!

I’m in social work and we deal with the consequences of addiction every day. It’s a genuine problem in our country, and there are a lot of people who actively put their hearts and souls into preventing people from having to experience the kinds of losses you had in your life. I’m all for fun and creative names but I don’t enjoy seeing drug use glamorized either. I’m not about watching someone get rich off of that. I think it’s exceedingly childish, tasteless, and one of the cheapest possible ways to build a brand identity.

One thing worth remembering is this subreddit is mostly younger adults under 25 or so. Another commenter didn’t know the definition of “mainline.” Often people in this sub will say the UD names went over their heads. On one hand, at least they’re not mainlining anything themselves, so that’s good. On the other hand, the drug epidemics are still hidden epidemics in many ways, which is part of why we don’t allocate more resources to prevention and treatment.

And the very fact that people will say they don’t know what the names mean tells me that UD should choose a different marketing strategy.

I’m in my thirties, and I’m not at that stage of life anymore where I have to try to gain some independence, carve out a sense of identity by rebelling, or show how tough I am or “too cool to care.” I think it’s actually kind of sad that whoever’s in charge at UD is still inspired by drugs.

There are countless ways to become your own person by doing something constructive and positive for yourself or others. Stand out and build connections to others by building something new, or work on solving a local problem in your community, or gain some leadership skills, or leave a positive mark on the world in your own imaginative way.

I’m glad to see UD being more creative by referring to music or other sources of inspiration, and I hope they keep that up.