Guest Post by Morgan Statt
The new year is here, yet there’s one news topic that prevails in the headlines from years past. America is in the midst of a dire opioid epidemic, leaving no region of the country untouched. According to a recent report from the CDC, opioid overdoses have caused a thousand more deaths in 2016 than breast cancer.
News stories surrounding the crisis are more harrowing than ever; 90 Americans per day are dying at the hands of these addictive painkillers. Thankfully we’re seeing many efforts getting underway to combat it. For one, President Trump declared the crisis a national public health emergency. Additionally, as of last October, all Walgreens are stocked with Narcan opioid overdose spray to help those who are suffering.
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Nevertheless, there’s one effort that may do little to actually beat the crisis. Across the country, states, cities, and counties are suing the pharmaceutical industry for its involvement in the opioid crisis. Among the companies named in the suits are Johnson & Johnson’s pharmaceutical sector Janssen and OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, both of which are being blamed for deceptive marketing practices that contributed to the rise in painkiller addictions.
The unfortunate reality, however, is that Big Pharma’s pockets run deep. Critics point out that lawsuits and their hefty payouts are viewed by the industry as just the “cost of doing business.” They have a history of failing to bring about any real change to the actions of drug companies.
Now, there’s no way of knowing if the current lawsuits to combat the opioid crisis will not effectively change the pharmaceutical industry’s actions for the better. But, there are deeper problems within the healthcare sphere that can and should be tackled head-on to curb the epidemic.
What are these problems?
- Funding for clinical trials often comes from drug companies
Before a drug can be sold on the market, it must go through clinical trials to determine its safety and effectiveness. Funding for these trials has traditionally come from government entities like the National Institutes of Health, but reliance on this source has gone down in recent years. Between 2006 and 2014, a Johns Hopkins study found that clinical trials sponsored by the medications’ specific drug companies have increased by 43%, creating the opportunity for bias and skewed results because of financial interests at stake.
The anticoagulant Xarelto underwent an industry-funded clinical trial that highlights the safety issues that arise from skewed results. In an investigation by the British Medical Journal, it was discovered that manufacturers Johnson & Johnson and Bayer kept data from the FDA during its approval process that would have proven Xarelto was less safe than the traditional blood thinner warfarin. During the trial, a faulty blood-testing device was used that skewed the effects of the medication on participants who received the experimental drug.
Without proper results, the FDA approved Xarelto in 2011, and it hit the market without an antidote to reverse its blood-thinning effects. Since its release however, the medication has caused thousands of severe internal bleeding complications and deaths. Despite 20,000 Xarelto lawsuits being filed against the manufacturers for failing to warn patients of the severe risks, the blood thinner remains on the market today, albeit with a black box warning.
- Big Pharma’s lobbying efforts focus on bottom lines rather than patient health
In the past decade alone, the pharmaceutical & health industry has spent a whopping $2.5 billion on its lobbying efforts. In the first quarter of 2017, lobbying spend increased by $10 million more than the entire spend of 2016. Although this effort that’s focused on influencing a public official is legal, it was traditionally intended to be a tool for citizens to get their concerns heard. When it comes to Big Pharma, lobbying efforts aren’t done on behalf of concerned citizens but are carried out only to benefit their corporations.
Lobbying spend has also factored into the rise of the opioid epidemic. Between 2006 and 2015, a Big Pharma-funded group known as the Pain Care Forum spent upwards of $740 million on lobbying efforts to table legislation focused on curbing opioid prescribing habits. It has been argued that this push of influence contributed to the widespread addiction we’re seeing today.
- Laws & regulations favor drug companies
There are many laws in place today that help boost the profits of pharmaceutical companies. We see this preferential treatment with the 21st Century Cures Act, which critics argue has endangered public safety with a sped-up drug approval process and a weakening of FDA standards.
There’s one law in place that has a direct impact on the development of the opioid epidemic. The passing of the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act has crippled the DEA’s efforts to prevent the illegal sale and abuse of opioids. With the help of lobbyists and certain members of Congress, the bill passed despite strong opposition from the federal agency.
A main reason that the bill was introduced in the first place was that Congressmen, including Marino, believed the DEA was too aggressive in its enforcement efforts. The agency needed to work more collaboratively with the pharmaceutical industry in order to ensure those who absolutely needed pain medications had access to them. However, now that the bill has passed, drug companies have an easier time pushing these highly addictive painkillers into the hands of “corrupt doctors and pharmacists” for distribution on the black market.
Although drug companies likely deserve the lawsuits that have been filed against them for their involvement in the opioid epidemic, it’s important that we all pause to question whether or not a settlement or a verdict will change Big Pharma’s actions for the better. Since hefty payouts tend to be just the “cost of doing business,” clinical trial procedures, lobbying decisions, and current laws in place need to also be placed under a microscope of scrutiny to make sure they serve consumers’ best interests. Only then will we get to the root problem of the opioid epidemic and finally separate big business from the quality of healthcare we deserve.
You can’t fix a problem if you don’t understand the cause.
If your car is making a really bad squeaking sound every time you turn the steering wheel to the right, wearing earplugs or only turning left are not the way to correct what is wrong. You have to look until you find it and then make the proper repair or far greater damage is going to occur.
Opiods do not hunt people down and jump in their mouths when they aren’t paying attention. The vast majority of people will never encounter them in their lifetime. The issue is why do people prefer to feel sedated rather than experience their own life as it is? Why has euphoria and drowsiness become a respite to escape from reality?
Pain is never what people think it is- most people learn to deal with pain in a variety of ways that don’t include drugging themselves unto addiction. The body uses pain as a means of communicating with the rational mind so that it can takes steps to attend to the repair. Much like stress or anxiety, pain is simply a warning that something is out of whack and needs attention. The body does the repairs itself if given proper rest, nourishment and a slow and steady resumption of physical use. Most people simply do not wish to experience the symptoms because they don’t want to make the necessary changes. You ever watch those shows about 600 pound people? Or hoarders? Those people aren’t beset by unmanageable genetic disorders, they simply do not wish to alter certain behaviors and so they suffer far worse fates than someone who tackles the root problems head on. In fact, one of the greatest gifts we’ve ever been given is the mind’s completely inability to recall pain. You may remember a fragrance from childhood vividly, enjoy a laugh at an old story from decades ago, hear a voice of someone you care about after years of not seeing them and be transported back instantly, but pain? Try to conjure it up.
You can’t.
The drug is not the problem, the problem is the frame.
Meanwhile people who need opioids -and I speak from experience – are trapped between dimwitted law enforcement looking for a nail and lawyers looking for that one big score. Thanks to junkies looking for a fix and people who want a government solution to every human flaw, people who suffer real pain and MDs are now being treated like criminals and people in pain have nowhere to turn except the streets and thus become the criminals they never wanted to be.
After two botched spine operations I can tell you what real fucking pain feels like and that rational mind coping mechanism you imagine is total bullshit. You will beg for opioids . The rational mind coping comes later…much later .
I no longer take any painkillers , but thank God they were there -and in the strongest doses possible- when I needed them . And sure they are addictive, but so is sugar which does nothing but make stupid people fat and kills 1000 X more people a year than opioids, yet we don’t see the who-needs -opioids idiots pushing to ban sugar.
Hearing voices of reason is always refreshing.
Defining “addiction” as a disease is a misnomer. Blaming addiction on a “lack of self-control” or calling it a “weakness” is also incorrect.
Addiction to any substance or activity is a “predisposition” which IS part of our DNA. Knowledge of these predispositions can be useful in avoiding the spectre of harmful addiction.
It is no secret that different races and ethnic groups have varying responses to the ingestion of certain substances.
Good examples in the case of alcohol addiction, Russians, Slavic and German people are able to “hold their liquor” and are less susceptible to the adverse effects of alcohol addiction, while American Indians (“feather”–not “dot”) DO have a greater predisposition to alcohol addiction.
Every person needs to be aware of any potential vulnerability to addictive substances that may be a part of their racial and ethnic group because of their genetic make-up.
Research that recognizes that there are differences in efficacy of medications when it comes to race and ethnicity must also extend into the area of addiction research.
Of course, there are some misguided people who will criticize such studies because just because these studies point out differences in race and ethnicity, when it comes to addiction vulnerability, but they cannot be allowed to curtail much needed research in this area.
A person has to recognize their vulnerabilities to addiction and be willing to make changes in lifestyle, as well as developing the “will power” to overcome their “predisposition”. No one can do it for them.
Today’s practice of putting people in cages for mere possession of ANY substance is the epitome of INSANITY.
Yes. But. The frame is solid, ancient. Including ‘consciousness altering’. Including addiction predisposition, genetic level, not willed. Plus, better living thru chemistry, there’s stuff out there that can addict even those w\o ‘predisposition.’
Out of whack & needs attention? This assumes what’s out & how to attend are simply choices to see it, do it – which simplifies all the messages floated by blowing holes in the messenger vessels. ‘Just do it’ is a Nike commercial. Nothing is more overblown than ‘choice.’ I remember a t-shirt from the 70’s: injection is nice, but I’d rather be blown. Another: gas, ass, or grass. Nobody rides for free. But in commonsland, the whole game is one of trying – always unsuccessfully – to subvert-disprove TANSTAAFL. Cannibals are just sure that ain’t true. But wtf can be expected from mad cow brains? Zionism’s nuthin’ compared to prionism. In fact, former oozes outta’ the latter.
What do most people think pain is? Better yet, who gives a shite what people – generally not in pain, or strangers to significant pain – have to say about\to people in pain? This\that particular one’s individual experience of\with pain does not translate, nor should it be imposed-template, on other unique individuals. Yet that is norm in commonsland. Tragedy ensues.
Commons is tragedy because it’s equalitarian-egalitarianism, not only of outcomes, but of inputs as well – if it’s good enough for me, it’s good enough for everybody else, too; e pluribus unum, bitchez – is one of the most prominent cables in the humanimal nervous system.
Coming up on a year, in March, since I had that bout of pancreatitis. Opioids are all the frame had for it. No repairs, not even by the body. I remember that pain. And others. A good read: “The Body Bears the Burden,” by Robert Scaer. Amnesia? Nah. Even if consciousness is too weak to pull it up, the body, including subconscious, remembers.
A friend has been on pain meds for 40 years. Dentists\orthodontists hurt her bad when she was a kid. Her jaw, mandible, has been disintegrating for decades. I’ve “smuggled” her meds into hospitals countless times, because the shitebirds referenced above “can’t believe” – like it’s a freaking religion (& so it is) — she needs the dosages she in fact does need. & so they underdose as a matter of course. And if we don’t compensate for this Puritanism, this Sessionism, these bible-thumped Forest Gumps, she gets breakthrough pain that takes a week of writhing in agony to get back below threshold. And no compassion or empathy for it. Just followin’ orders, you contemptible little jew. Banality of evil, see?
The muse is a redhead. Feels pain more, needs more pain med – but that is routinely ignored.
Etc
Etc
Etc
HSF, “Pain is never what people think it is”. You should have stopped there. “The body uses pain as a means of communicating with the rational mind so that it can takes steps to attend to the repair.” In the best of all possible worlds, that is what happens. Then there are the times where that is not what happens. “one of the greatest gifts we’ve ever been given is the mind’s completely inability to recall pain” I wish! I have had chronic pain for years. I don’t know how many years exactly, but I do remember a time, maybe 15 years ago, maybe more, when I realized that I no longer remembered what it felt like to NOT have pain. I could not even imagine what it felt like to be pain free. The frustrating thing is that there is no physical reason, at least a physical reason the doctors can find, for the level of pain. I took codeine and a muscle relaxant for years and all they did was take the edge off. I had to fight the doctors to give me codeine without Tylenol so that it wouldn’t rot my liver. I finally gave up on doctors, on prescriptions, over the counter, all of it. I stopped the codeine cold without any issues at all and never looked back, so I can’t really understand how people can become addicted to opioids. The muscle relaxant I had to taper because I was physically dependent (I dropped from 3 to 1 a day and I would vomit every day between 4 and 5 pm. When that stopped I stopped taking the last one). Each one of us experiences pain differently. Each one of us reacts to opioids differently and other pain killers differently. I can understand people who need to take opioids for pain to allow them to function, if they work for them that’s great. I cannot understand people who take opioids because they don’t want to be able to function.
Some asshole POS who cares not about his own life, takes zero responsibility, takes the easy way out, likely adds nothing of value to society, dies from an overdose ….. umm, why is this a a crisis??
We need more of these people removed from the gene pool, not fewer. The real crisis is saving these assholes so they can be a continuing burden on society.
Stucky- We could ask Ms. Freud if she knows the percentages but it has been my experience with stories about the people who O.D. that in general they are sociopaths. No conscience about anything they do or anyone they hurt nor the destruction left in their wake.
True story, my niece’s ex-husband O.D.ed and died right after Christmas. He left behind a 8 and a 5 year old for whom he was 30k behind in child support and had just gotten out of a very long court ordered rehab stay. He had a college degree and a supportive family but preferred to check out with a needle in his arm. My personal response was , ADIOS MUCHACHOS YOU POS. Am I wrong?
Many more people die from cigarettes and alcohol related deaths each year. Where’s all the virtue signalling on that?
Flash- I would have had the same farewell salute for the guy if he had offed himself with alcohol, mostly I have no patience with any man who does not support and take care of his children. That includes being a stand up guy that holds down a job, brings home his pay and spends time shaping his offspring into decent members of society who will hopefully excel at whatever they endeavor to do in the world.
Many more people die from properly prescribed non-opioid medications each year. Where’s all the virtue signalling on that?
Roughly 16,000 die per year from non-steroidal meds like Ibuprofen. Don’t hear much about that.
Pain and response to it are multifactorial. Differences in pain levels are associated with genetics, sex, socio-economic, familial history, life experiences, etc. It is incredibly complex with no simple answers. Contrary to popular thought-pain does kill by elevating stress hormones like cortisol, it increases depression, it releases catecholamines (adrenalin) when done repeatedly over long periods has many deleterious effects, etc.
Making broad generalizations on responses to pain and describing personal mental deficits/weaknesses associated with pain avoidance is indicative of a poor understanding of the intricacy related to the topic.
Pain avoidance at all costs is a primal human urge. Probably why banana cream pie isn’t used much in torture settings
I’m with stucky on this one.
And let me point out that opiod problems seem to coincide with our ‘involvement’ in heroin producing countries, like vietnam, and afghanistan.
Martin, who the hell are you? You come out of nowhere, and have been dropping little gems here and there. Well done.
The opioid epidemic is caused by weak people who cannot face the life they have created for themselves and won’t put out the effort to change it.
If you want to try calling drug addiction a disease, keep in mind that it is a deliberately self induced one. It’s not the flu or something that can catch you by surprise even if you’re making efforts to avoid it.
The solution is personal responsibility, not trying to prevent the drugs from being manufactured for those that actually need them for medical reasons.
“the life they have created for themselves”
No, it is a Lot more complicated.
How?
They had choices to make, they made them, they got the results and consequences of them in return.
Sane way it is for you and me.
Let’s use the example above – guy goes through divorce, loses everything because women “win” nearly every divorce proceeding – get custody of the kids, get the house, the car(s), the bank accounts – not only does the male lose everything built over a marriage but is saddled with alimony, child support, and so on to the limit the judge can allow.
Now he has no wife, can’t see his own kids, hard to keep up with all the award payments, and let’s suppose the wife wanted it to take up with a younger man. It happens.
Would you fight on, knowing your wife used the “justice” system to screw you over without appeal or recourse, took everything material you had in order to take up with her lover? Or would you slide out quietly in a drug-induced haze?
There are losers in every divorce, but men are rarely any kind of winner.
Yeah, “Oh, poor little me. Things didn’t go the way I wanted and now I have to use drugs to live with the results instead of making some better choices to create a better life in the future”.
I have somewhere between little and no sympathy for drug users that created a life for themselves they can’t cope with and then think it isn’t their own fault they are in the conditions they are in.
Big Pharmaceutical Companies are ass deep in the River of American History (big tobacco perhaps the granddaddy of them all.)
Hmmmm. Does that image work?
My husband almost died after taking Ambien AS PRESCRIBED. We dealt with the consequences and survived. However, I later learned that Ambien is perhaps a psychotropic drug, which might put you in a sort of altered consciousness rather than sleep. Anyway, he got up from his hotel bed, dressed poorly (one shoe) and got into his rental car and drove a few miles before spinning wildly out of control between Middleberg Hts and Berea, crashing headfirst into a concrete barrier on the Rocky River. Middle of the night phone call to me, thousand miles away.
Did we sue or try to? No. But, we did ask the question of a few people in positions of authority and control why the drug was still on the market when it caused people to literally step outside themselves and go do crazy things while supposedly sleeping.
What did I find out? Well, I found out that the United States Military Defense Contracts buys Ambien by the truckload to give to incoming troops in overseas locations to help them sleep without adjusting for jet lag.
Ambien. Psychotropic Drug. Sleep via altered consciousness. Defense Contracts. Armed troops.
Anyway, I was given opiates for the first time ever when I was in the Air Force and had emergency surgery. I really liked them, but when I asked for a refill after recovery, he gave me three refills. And then, when I went back three weeks later and wanted more (I didn’t grasp why), he gave me the lecture, put me on half-dose for a week and that was that. Life just went on and I GOT IT that using medications for longer than you should or when you don’t need them is BAD DON’T DO THAT. Later in life when I had a few more serious surgeries (Nick should have known I was a lemon that first year), I learned that a whole new attitude and culture existed around the world of “Pain Pills” with a capital P. People who worried about counting them, hiding them for those days and listening closely in case they heard of another doctor who was sympathetic to people with chronic pain.
I knew more than one person who came out of hospital stays addicted and didn’t stop feeding the Demon. I fought it (and won… the thing about gaining power over a drug gives you power over the drug) each time I was released from five major operations and recovery periods. By naming it and facing it, people can actually overcome it. OR they won’t and don’t.
Now, Big Pharma is almost always involved when there is a war. I remember discovering that some of our own pharmaceutical companies trace lineage back to Weimar Germany. Bayer is one of those. So, Big Pharma survives almost every war and we get outraged when aspirin factories get bombed. Red Cross gets a pass to carry whatever it needs to SAVE LIVES into war zones in boxes lined with cash to protect medicines and soldiers stand guard over poppy fields as they cross the battlefields. Humanitarian causes probably cause as much damage inadvertently as inhumane causes with intent.
Suing Big Pharma simply shifts the money from one arm to the next. As long as there is a military contract for the product, enough palms will have been greased to pay the judges and the inspectors in bureaucracy. How many opiates do you think your tax dollars buy for the troops?
I forgot to edit my “expanded” moniker. Shit.
There. Okay, remember when Rush Limbaugh got caught trying to send his maid to Mexico or Central America to get him pain pills? Well, he went into a clinic and life went on. There really is a lot to be said for someone just owning up to a character flaw, addressing it with proactive energy instead of self-pity, and deciding it will not be a flaw anymore.
The DEA has no business being in operation and should be abolished.
There are people in serious need of pain medication that are treated like criminals just because they need opioids in amounts that the DEA deems “excessive”. It is a known fact that people develop a tolerance to these medications and need increasing doses to alleviate their (real) pain. Doctors fear prescribing appropriate amounts of opioids as they have the DEA to deal with. By the way, the DEA should be sued for “practicing medicine without a license”.
In fact, there was a case in Florida where a person with intractable back pain had a legitimate need for increasing amounts of opoids. When his doctor (who was intimidated by the DEA) was unable to prescribe the appropriate amount of painkillers, he went to the street…he was busted procuring his pain meds and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Ironically, he is receiving the appropriate painkillers in prison–something he could not get in the “free world”.
We don’t have an opioid “epidemic”. This is all orchestrated by the DEA in order to keep their “funding” and to justify their existence.
If I had my wasy, the DEA would be abolished immediately. They do much more harm than good…
True. The body builds a tolerance for opioids and over time a pain patients need to increase the does just to get the minimal relief the once received form a very low dose. The real danger with increasing the dose of some painkillers is that some contain acetaminophen , which can cause permanent liver damage , especially if your liver is already weakened.
My doctor prescribed 6 doses of painkiller a day. Each dose contained 500 mg of Acetaminophen . 3,000 to 4,000 mgs a day of acetaminophen are known to cause permanent liver damages , yet the medical genius didn’t bother to warn me. I had to find out on Google. Apparently collecting his fees are more important than caring about permanently damaging my liver . First do no harm , they said.
The government and medical doctors have known for 20 years that acetaminophen is the #1 cause of liver failure in America , yet continue to allow hundred of thousands of Americans to be poisoned by this toxic FDA approved drug every year. But , don’t look over there . Focus on opioids . It’s the whipping boy today.
http://www.utsouthwestern.edu/newsroom/articles/year-2017/lee-acetaminophen.html
“acetaminophen has a narrow margin of safety compared to other pain relievers. It doesn’t take much beyond the recommended maximum daily amount to create a problem.”
Another issue is the drug’s ubiquity. Acetaminophen is the world’s most commonly used drug to treat pain and fever. It’s an ingredient in more than 500 different medicines, from cold remedies like Mucinex to pills for menstrual cramps, such as Midol, according to the website Tylenol.com. It also appears in common prescription opioid painkillers such as hydrocodone (Vicodin) and oxycodone (Percocet).”
It is not possible to be 100 percent pain free with narcotics 24/7 without building up a tolerance. You have to deal with the pain for a while to let the nervous system chemically reset itself. Knew a patient in the hospital once, got to know him a bit. He was a diabetic and dying of abdominal gangrene. A few days before he expired, his morphine regimen was 15 ampules of morphine with 15 mg each and injected into a 250 ml bag of normal saline and changed every two hrs! I could still have lucid conversations with this man.
I think one of the reasons I was able to be dependent without long term addiction is that the Oycontin time-release stuff gave me serious hallucinations, so I never used that again.
Think about television ads for medicines and how they “suggest” the symptoms you need to tell your doctor about. The term isn’t sheeple for no reason.
I had oxycodone after oral surgery. I thought I was going to see whatever seems to have so many people excited about the stuff, but it never did anything special for me. I would pop a pill and sleep for 4 hours at a clip. It didn’t seem all that special and I couldn’t figure out what was so amazing about it. If I didn’t know better, I would have assumed the stuff was just a sleeping pill. I only used it for several days and never completed the prescribed course; it just wasn’t necessary for me.
Anarchyst; You are absolutely right. DEA and AMA now have “guidelines” for maximum dose of narcotics; Regardless of history, source or severity of pain or whether it provides relief. They need to allow doctors to make that decision and individuals who abuse the privilege are only hurting themselves and eventually figure it out.
Maggie, your Ambien story is similar to one my daughter has. Thank God she didn’t get up and sleep walk, but she did have hallucinations. I used to take it with with the only side effect being that you really don’t get restful sleep with it and you run into a tolerance wall. There are a lot of reasons why we have huge drug problems that I don’t have time to go into right now.
I am not sure why people like the opioids. They routinely prescribe them after surgery. I had them after all of mine. I have an aversion to all drugs now so I didn’t want to take them but the pain was so bad after my mastectomy that I was forced to. I didn’t take them for very long. I still have some left over from my surgery last August. They work for the pain but I didn’t get any high or anything from them. Drugs affect people differently and I think doctors forget to warn people. Some docs prescribe a pill for their patients because the patient demands it and they don’t argue, it’s too much trouble and they only have 15 min per patient. There’s a doc in the town north of us who I would actually call a pill pusher.
I think there is a darker explanation for the so called “opioid crisis” and I think Maggie addressed some of it. I am not saying that people don’t need something to address chronic pain. I just think that there is no research to address it in a holistic way because there is no money in it.
On the other hand, when you have terminal cancer, they don’t do everything possible to relieve the pain. I have heard it said that heroine is by far the best way to relieve pain but because of the political baggage no one will legalize it for that use. If you are terminal, what difference does it make?
I gotta go run errands and paint walls.
Humankind has used natural remedies for pain through the history of the world, with varying degrees. If something can be used to enslave a population that is truly the OLDEST civilization with a rich tradition and culture, it can be used to enslave ANOTHER one if need be.
https://www.thoughtco.com/the-first-and-second-opium-wars-195276
“However, early in the 19th century, the British East India Company hit upon a second form of payment that was illegal, yet acceptable to the Chinese traders: opium from British India. This opium, primarily produced in Bengal, was stronger than the type traditionally used in Chinese medicine; in addition, Chinese users began to smoke the opium rather than eating the resin, which produced a more powerful high. As usage and addiction increased, the Qing government grew ever more concerned. By some estimates, as many as 90% of the young males along China’s east coast were addicted to smoking opium by the 1830s.
The trade balance swung in Britain’s favor, on the back of illegal opium smuggling.”
The reason the marijuana industry is imperiled is in front of my face. The resin. The medicine of the poppy is in the resin that can be produced in a process where the pulp of the plant is cured, then immersed in a solvent like pure ethanol, pure naphthalene or another solution which will dissolve the medicines from the plant matter. In that form, the resin can be applied to sore or infected areas or can be eaten for a delayed, but more intense effect on the body. For instance, for a queasy and upset stomach from cancer treatments, a small amount, 1/4 tsp, will calm the acids for hours. Or relieve a headache, such as one imposed by a low-pressure storm system overhead on a pressure-sensitive shunt sitting close to an optic nerve. But, for some reason, in the country where the free and the brave once roamed the range, you may not consume any food or liquid unless it has been approved for internal use by a bureaucratic entity whose existence exists due to the contributions of large corporations producing the food and medicines that agency approves for use.
Big Pharma has been working on getting us all addicted since the 1960s, when the idea of there being a magic Pill for everything was born in a psychedelic world seen in full color in time to see man land on the moon live.
No going back, is there?
Citizens are econ rental units.
That is what commons’ing is & does.
Over time, more & more econ rentiers attach their sucking proboscises to the ‘body politic.’
And over time most of what you see is people proposing to remedy this-that-the other ‘blowback’ with exactly the same thinking & actions that engendered the confounding in the first place.
Along with this comes the more or less constant hue & cry for “education,” “enlightenment,” yadda-yadda.
Pogo-People are their own worst enemies, but psyche defense mechs, along with less subtle, more overt, dishonesty, other character traits, prevent owning up…people, 1st iteration, are owned, not owners.
No surprise that gets projected, spewed around.
So somebody else is responsible for all that nobody’s responsible for.
It’s not my job, it’s never been nor will it ever be tallied in non-farm payrolls – so it must be somebody else’s job.
Just following orders. Like son of Sam.
Going Along to Get Along. Like Lady Gaga.
Long conformity walks on short peers.
Banality of weevils.
Perversity. Incorrigibility. Incongruity in congress assembled.
Everything moves – incl Pogo, mostly self-soothing rocking in place – nothing changes.
The low end of the autism spectrum is the heavy end.
Temple Grandin designs spiral chutes & the domesticated-stunned cattle are pleased to wend their way to the bolt-gunners.
The cattle lovehate each other for their complicity. The gunners lovehate the cattle for their docility.
‘We get what we deserve\want’ + ‘you deserve what we “decide”\want to give you.’
Sadist & masochist.
Wife+beater.
Codependent wrecks queue the roads, 10-under, turn signals always blinking.
“Every piece of this is man’s bullshit. They call this war “a cloud over the land” but they made the weather and then they stand in the rain and say “Shit, it’s rainin’!”
Every day is groundhog day, & “Bill Murray” never figures it out.
What about Bob? Death therapy’s his thing, & he wants to take as many with him as possible.
Sittin’ in a room, quietly, alone, is just not possible (mostly) – give me affinity, divinity, & plausible deniability – or give me death…that’s the brer rabbit self-reverse psyche mantra: briar patch o’ death is what he wants most of all.
Freud & Fear & loathing in the lost vagus nerves.
This is a good how you know gods are made in man’s homage to self, which is to say those psyche defense mechs: cuz any god\s this fucked up could never create anything – not even something as breakage-loving & broken as humanimal.
Forget the seeds. Just mail me the stuff.
You can say no to a doctor. I don’t know why anyone takes any pharmaceutical drugs. The side effects per the advertisements sound horrible. Those side effects are with the pharmaceutical rigged trials.
Anyway my darling, drugged up first cousin puts me in the “just drop dead side” of this duscssion. My suggestion for the opiod problem is decriminalize the illegal ones. Make the users get a prescription for narcon. No carry, bye-bye. I’m sorry, but you should see what that nitwit cousin did to her kids after sucking my Aunt dry. She since at the age of 49 has been getting disability and food stamps, so she’s sucking all of us dry. Sorry for the vent. Still, it’s time to cull the herd.
Don’t apologize Marion to often real help can only come after rock bottom and then it is often to late . Generally any help before rock bottom only becomes a sympathetic enabler
Having Trump declaring a national emergency and placing Kelly Ann Conway as an opiod czar is nothing but a don’t just stand there, do something campaign PR stunt ( even if it is just spinning around in a circle, or worse, create more entities and award contracts for R&D on the matter, with conflicts of interest!) I place about as much faith in that, as I place in the FDA, which is past zero and into negative values. People have to become their own advocates in every aspect of life from banking to medical care. Hit them where it hurts. Their wallets! It’s the only fucking thing that any of them give a shit about.
I’m sure that every opiod addict must have a spare $130 laying around for narcan. Lol. Also, many addicts require more than one dose. Sometimes up to 5! Shelf life of 18- 24 months.
https://m.goodrx.com/narcan
http://www.nchrc.org/programs-and-services/naloxone-101/
The Most Expensive and Deadly “Healthcare” System in the World – Andrea Iravani
I have yet to hear one frikin person talk about being responsible for one’s own actions. is there really a person on earth that hasn’t heard about heroin or drugs being bad for you?
If you didn’t hear anyone say people are responsible for their own actions, you didn’t read the comment section.
Having come to on a needed fentinol IV drip and a follow up for several weeks on heavy opiate pain relievers . I sympathize with any person in severe pain and in need of relief . I also understand the addictive cycle that many fall into and it should be a doctor monitoring and gradually helping reduce the need gradually .
As for those recreational users of any drug from beer to heroin and everything in between grow up . Addictive behavour stemming from recreational users is a self induced issue and not a health care or law enforcement issue . Give it away to those addicts that will not stop . Save our society by thinning the herd of the miscreants . If a family wishes to allow a member to bankrupt them with treatment for addiction good luck the odds are against you regardless how much you spend !
Apparently Tom Petty died from opioids.
http://www.tompetty.com/statement
You know, in a truly free country, you would be free to kill yourself any stupid way you want as long as you don’t hurt others/expect others to pay for your fucking issues.
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Did you know that cars kill 3,287 people a day in the USA?
(According to this random site I found with DuckDuckGo… http://asirt.org/initiatives/informing-road-users/road-safety-facts/road-crash-statistics)
Did you know that guns kill 30 people a day in the USA?
(According to this random site I found with DuckDuckGo… http://heedinggodscall.org/content/pfctoolkit-10)
It’s funny how it shakes out.
30 people a day are killed with guns and that’s sufficient to have morons in arms coast-to-coast to ban them forever. Cars can kill 3,287 people a day and nobody gives a shit, as long as the driver isn’t drunk. Nobody calls for Car Control.
So if pills kill 90 a day either ban them forever or accept the danger and just let people kill themselves and leave them alone. And let’s put the cash earmarked for fucking with pillheads towards recovery for those willing to be responsible for themselves.
Actually, if it only kills 90 a day, let’s make them more potent or easier to get so they can get rid of more. The more idiots we can shed, the better my commute to work will be.
Oh, and the epidemic is government’s fault-they approve the drugs, control their issue, and are the ones really responsible for them.
I brought the pain, to fix or prevent the pain, and the Rx. I would prescribe pain meds daily. Mostly for oral surgery, sometimes for toothaches while the antibiotics did their magic. Because I was married to an opiate addict and attended 12 step meetings in support, for the 8 years I was married to her, I knew many addicts and treated many recovering from addiction. It is an ethical quandary to prescribe medications to some one who has an opioid dependency. First you access the client status. Many tell you they are already habituated to opiates. Some you just know based on their coded messages. A “medical diagnosis” of dependency requires prescribing a heavy dose of pain medication to bring relief from surgical procedures or tooth/gum infections. Yes, because they have diminished pain relief from tolerance acquisition, ethically one should Rx adequate drug to bring them relief. Paradoxical is an accurate statement.
When I had a kidney stone 15 years ago, I became enlightened as to how an addict thinks. I went to the ER in exquisite pain and the second injection of morphine finally brought relief. I was sent home with a Rx of percocet. FYI, a real junkie likes percodan as it can be melted in a spoon and injected. The pain from the kidney stone was searing. As soon as my drug dose began to wain, I was johnny on the spot taking a pain killer. Believe me, I knew every second where that pill bottle was! That thought dominated every waking moment. I passed the tiny stone the next day. I once again had a free mind and body unshackle’d from thinking about how to relieve imminent pain.
Opiates bring pain relief. And more to the point they bring a feeling of well being beyond the analgesic effect. Endorphins baby, endorphins. Many of my pain’d clients had emotional pain written across their foreheads. Massive psychological conflicts radiating from them. A question I would ask when presented with a client’s facial pain of an unknown origin, is when did the pain start? Frequently the answer would be ‘during a period of high psychological stress’. TMJ problems fall under this. The key to addressing the problem was to connect the pain with the emotional injury. At any rate, opiates would allow the client to feel better emotionally PLUS achieve pain relief from the aches and pains they presented with.
The nicest, most unguarded sweetest time I saw my ex is when she was admitted to the hospital for some reason. The docs had prescribed morphine for her pain. She was high as could be and had none of the self worries and insecurities normally present in her personality. Euphoria is a state conducive to agreeableness.
One client, a one time heroin addict cum drug counselor at a treatment center was a patient for over 20 years. He was well respected in the recovery community. I lost him as a patient when he presented with a tooth ache. I did the root canal. A very simple one, one of tens of thousands I have done. He returned several times requesting more opiates for his discomfort. I finally confronted him with his drug seeking behavior. He of course became resentful I “accused” him, a fine upstanding person in good recovery (not).
I have a degree of empathy for addicts. Many are genetically disposed to abuse drugs. Once exposed to their drug of choice they are drawn like a moth to a flame back to that which brings relief. I have heard it described as the reptile part of our brain stem takes over control of the cognitive areas of the brain and aligns all higher thinking to getting more of the DRUG/SEX/SUGAR/ALCOHOL. So thinking becomes distorted and motives becomes surreptitious and consequences become deadly.