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Subscribe to RSSSarah Mayer, 27, and her father Randy, 54, of Hilliard Ohio, share her story of addiction and recovery with NBC News.
LANCASTER, Ohio -- Holly Yates started using painkillers in the ninth grade, at parties and hanging out with friends. The pills were everywhere, easy to get and cheap. By the time she was 18, she was abusing oxycodone, Percocet and other pills every day.
Then they stopped being enough.
“My cousin, she was into heroin and I started hanging out with her,” said Yates, a hazel-eyed 20-year-old. “She told me about it, and I was like, ‘I want to try it.’ The first time that I shot it up, it was like, ‘Where has this been all my life?’”
Experts say Yates and others in this town of about 38,000 southeast of Columbus are on the leading edge of a frightening new drug abuse trend – one that is ironically being fueled by a national crackdown on prescription painkillers. While new regulations and law enforcement efforts have significantly reduced the supply of these drugs, they say, those efforts have inadvertently driven many users to another type of opiate that is cheap, powerful and perhaps even more destructive – heroin.
“It’s an epidemic,” said Dr. Joe Gay, director of the regional addiction and mental health clinic Health Recovery Services, who has studied patterns of drug use in the state.
A flood of cheap heroin from Mexico, which is now one of the leading sources of the drug to the United States, is one reason for the return of the scourge. According to the Justice Department, the drug is showing up in new areas, including upscale suburban towns where heroin was once rare.
In Illinois, for example, researchers at Roosevelt University have found a spike in young suburban heroin abusers. Long Island, New York, has in recent years seen a rash of addiction among the young. A spike in heroin use and related crime has Dane County, Wis., reeling. Even states like Washington, where heroin has a longtime presence, have seen a sharp increase among young users. In King County, home to Seattle, nearly a third of those entering treatment for heroin abuse in 2009 were between ages 18 and 29 -- a sharp increase from a decade before.
With increased availability has come a spike in the number of visits to emergency room visits for issues related to heroin use, including a 13 percent increase from 2005 through 2009, according to the national Drug Abuse Warning Network. The highest rates of admission were for young adults, 21 to 24 years old.
“Twenty years ago, half of the heroin addicts in treatment lived in two states — New York and California,” said Gay. "(Now, in Ohio) we’re seeing it spread out of the cities, into the suburbs and into the rural areas.”
The demographics of heroin addiction are also shifting, he said.
'It's not going away'
Until a few years ago, addicts were overwhelmingly men who lived in urban areas, many of them from racial minorities. An alarming number of those entering treatment programs in Ohio -- a good measure of addiction -- are young, he said. Most are white. They are from poor rural counties and wealthy suburbs. Many are girls and women.
In Ohio, the new face of heroin addiction could be the girl or boy next door.
“Everybody does it,” Yates said. “It’s just here, and it’s not going away.”
***
Sarah Mayer, 27, was an early traveler on the path from dabbling in prescription pills to putting a needle in her arm.
Born and raised in Hilliard, a tree-lined suburb of Columbus, she grew up in what is, by all accounts, a loving home. Her father works at the local bank. Her mother is a nurse.
Derailed plans
In high school, Mayer went to parties and drank occasionally, but she kept her grades up. During her last year in high school, in 2002, she took college classes. After graduation, she started a fully-paid-for nursing program. But her plans were derailed by addiction to oxycodone, an opiate-based painkiller found in many medicine cabinets across the country.
“I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into,” Mayer said. By 2005, she and her boyfriend were taking the pills regularly to get high. But over time, the effects diminished.
One day in early 2006, Sarah and her boyfriend found themselves nearly broke and without the pills they needed. Desperate and sick with withdrawals from the opiates, her boyfriend left the house to try to find pills.
He came back with a bag of powder heroin.
“He knew how I felt about heroin,” Mayer said. “That was the one thing I said I would never do.”
Young recovering heroin addicts Tej Yaich, 20, Holly Yates, 20 and Tara McCormac, 22, and Dr. Joseph Gay share their stories and discuss the growing heroin crisis in Ohio.
Despite her conviction, within 24 hours, she had snorted it. She would spend another three years chasing that first high. “It was almost like all of the wind was knocked out of my chest, I could barely hold my head anymore,” said Mayer. “It was like my whole body just exhaled.”
Soon, she began injecting it. It would take her years, and at least six trips to recovery programs, before she successfully got clean in October 2009. She’s now working toward a degree in nursing, and recently made the dean’s list.
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The addiction was something the Mayer family never saw coming.
“There was never a thought that ever entered my mind that I would ever lose a child through addiction,” said Randy Mayer, Sarah’s father. “Watching this thing grab her and not let go, I mean, it was a horrible time.”
But in Hilliard, where he also grew up, Randy Mayer said he is seeing this happen to others.
“I’ve met some other families, locally here -- they’re dealing with the same kind of situation,” he said. “The fact of the matter is, these towns like this are fertile for this to spread.”
***
Paul Coleman, director at the Maryhaven clinic near Columbus, where Mayer sought treatment, said about a quarter of the nearly 130 adolescents currently getting treatment there have used opiates -- something he’s never seen in his 22 years at the center.
“A few years ago if you would have asked me how many young patients I would have using opiates I wouldn't have said 25 percent,” Coleman said. “I would have said none.”
The White House has called prescription drug abuse the nation’s fastest-growing drug problem. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has officially dubbed it an epidemic.
'Crisis'
In Ohio and elsewhere, however, the beast has two heads. Opiate abuse, which includes both prescription painkillers and heroin, has become a “crisis of unparalleled proportions,” according to Ohio’s Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services. In 2001, just eight of Ohio’s 88 counties reported a significant number of patients were entering substance abuse treatment for opiate addiction. By the same measure, 85 of Ohio’s 88 counties reported an opiate problem in 2010.
The state has taken action. In 2006, it implemented a system to track prescriptions to help prevent so called “doctor shopping,” where addicts move from one physician to the next looking for prescriptions. Last year, it also passed a law to help fight “pill mills,” unscrupulous storefront clinics known for readily dispensing prescriptions.
Similar measures have been taken across the nation. Combined with new pill formulations that make the medication harder to crush up to snort or shoot, the efforts have curbed supply and abuse. Experts agree this is a positive step. But in Ohio, the crackdown has had unexpected consequences.
The pills have become expensive, and often hard to obtain. Prescription opiates now sell for anywhere from $30 to $80 dollars a pill. A $10 bag of heroin offers a similar or better high. Unable to find pills, or afford them, addicts go looking for something else to feed the craving. Heroin is cheap, plentiful and potent.
It is also deadly. In fact, the state saw a record number of heroin-related deaths in 2010, which now account for one in every five overdose deaths in the state. Cuyahoga County, home to Cleveland, recorded 106 heroin-related deaths in 2011 -- an increase of nearly 180 percent since 2003, according to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office. In early May, Loraine County, Ohio, saw five fatal overdoses in 10 days due to a batch of highly potent, or badly cut, heroin. Experts worry other counties may soon follow suit, and that those dying might be among what the Ohio Department of Alcohol & Drug Addiction Services reports show is the fastest growing demographic of heroin users -- young people between ages 20 and 35.
***
It’s an addiction that surprises even those who find themselves in its grip.
“If you were to tell me that I was going to use heroin ... the same week in which I used it, I probably would have laughed in your face,” said Tej Yaich, a 20-year-old from Pickerington, Ohio. “That’s something that I would never have done.”
For Yaich, who has been sober for more than a year, addiction started at home. His parents had prescriptions sitting unused in the medicine cabinet. Yaich said he was 15 when he first tried them, crushing them up at night so his parents wouldn’t hear the noise. The experiment became a habit. Then the supply started to dry up.
“One day I went to call my guy that was selling to me and he said he didn’t have pills at that time, but he had something equally as good,” said Yaich. “He said, ‘You’ll like it.’”
What the dealer had was heroin, and he was right. Yaich started by snorting it, then quickly moved on to shooting up. From one bag, he worked himself up to two, then five. At the height of his addiction, he said, he injected up to 25 bags a day.
***
Yaich’s story is typical of those that Dr. Steven Matson hears from young people coming into his clinic at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus. Matson, who helped Yaich recover, runs a program there that uses a fairly new medication called buprenorphine, a semi-synthetic opioid that when used correctly helps to curb cravings to assist in recovery.
When Matson started this work three years ago, the young people coming into his clinic were “fringe,” he said. Now they are as often from upscale suburbs of Columbus as from poorer, more rural areas.
“Because of the availability of these drugs now, it is not an usual story that we hear, ‘I went to a party, some friends there were doing heroin, so I shot up,’” he said. “It seems like madness that you would go to a party and never have used anything and then use heroin. But that’s what’s happening with some children.”
Matson’s program also helped Holly Yates recover. She’s been sober since Thanksgiving Day 2010. For more than a year, she’s held a job as a stylist at a local hair salon. She saved up to buy herself a silver Honda Accord. In the back seat are two car seats for her young nephews, who her older brothers now trust her to babysit.
But things can be lonely in Lancaster, where she says nearly everyone her age uses drugs, and many are hooked on heroin.
“It’s just hard being young and staying clean,” Yates said. “I mean this town, it’s just, like, that’s all that’s here.”
“I just want kids my age to know that you don’t have to keep using,” she added. “You can be clean, and you can have a better life.”
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This is truly a nightmare, and of nightmare proportions in the Midwest. There are middle school kids and teens who would never touch a cigarette because they give you cancer, and go right to trying heroin. There are really no "gateway drugs" ( cigarettes to marijuana to etc) any more. Needles no longer repel anyone's senses,they are just another delivery system.
And of equal nightmare proportion is the lack of rehab facilities, and either no insurance or very limited insurance coverage.
All those who do pray need to add this huge problem to their prayers
A flood of cheap heroin from Mexico, which is now one of the leading sources of the drug to the United States, is one reason for the return of the scourge
People in this country get really angry when the Government steps in to solve community and social problems. This is an example of why the Government needs to step in and relax some of the rules for alcohol consumption and drug use. People want to self-destroy with drugs. If the State blocks the road to access certain kinds of drugs, drug addicts will always find something else to get high with, regardless of the physical damages that they do to their bodies.
Until people learn self-responsibility, and to control themselves, they will require supervison from the State. I said, let them have them. Let those that want to self-destruct do it, and let those that are willing to exercise self-control survive the ordeal.
The irony is that the people that is in real need of medications for cancer and other diseases is struggling to get those from the pharmaceutical companies.
Bringing up cigarettes on this subject is a little wacked. Heroin and pot are mind control substances and diversions from reality. Just think, legalize those two, and government can make huge windfalls. That seems to be the popular thinking anymore. The world is going mad.
This is truly a sad story. Addiction shatters so many lives, not just the addict but the family as well. Our adult son is currently in a rehab program. He is not a criminal or a bad kid, he just can't stop without help.Of course, without insurance, it is almost impossible to find help. The Salvation Army runs a free program for those with addictions. Please give them your fullest support. I agree that this should be added to everyones prayer list.
@Ken, 10 -15 years ago, cigarette smoking among the 12-17 year old crowd was considered a "gateway" for kids to try other "taboo" substances. They usually then smoked marijuana and some would go on to "hard drugs" after marijuana. It was very rare for those kids to go straight to heroin without even smoking cigarettes or marijuana.
Take away one drug people go to another. FACT. Unless someone has an idea how to eliminate ALL drugs including liquor, pot, heroin and those with medical usage like pain killers & sleeping pills it will be 'can't get this, I'll take that' just like when you need a loaf a bread. Our drug prohibition and enforcement policies are a complete failure. Our money has to go into rehab, not enforcement, and we need to legalize marijuana. We need to make it so our kids and our friends have less contact with the dealers on hard drugs. RIght now the same guy sells pot and every other drug when pot's not available. Look at the statement in this article. Marijuana is bulky, so we've been making a lot of record pot busts at the border. So the importers have turned to heroin which is much smaller and hugely more profitable. Just imagine what the impact might be if we legalized marijuana, took the taxes generated from its sales and the saving from the law enforcemen budgets, and put all that money into rehabilitation centers and anti-drug education.
This explains why the poppy fields have flourished since we invaded Afghanistan. They were almost totally eradicated under the Taliban Regime, then within a year of us being there it supplied 90% of the worlds heroin.. lol. The CIA and DEA are the worlds largest drug dealers. One of my dads jobs in Laos in the late 50's early 60's as a part time CIA sub-contracted SF Soldier was to guard the CIA Liasons as they traded taxpayer cash for pure opium. He also said in 1959 in Laos that the Special Forces in civilian clothes with their own weapons were there training friendly and communist forces at the same time for the upcoming war. He said everybody knew the communists ones because they had 1 less number in their serial number. I asked why they did that, he said they did what they were ordered to do. Nothing has changed. One of his good friends was a CIA Pilot after serving in the special forces and told us they use to drop drugs at Bush's Zapata offshore oil rigs and they would bring them to shore from there in boats. My dad knew Noriega in Panama in the mid 60's and he was our man in Panama and later ran drugs for Bush Sr. thats why the first thing he did as president was get him and put him in a hole. This stuff still goes on every day and worse in the name of "national security". Half the time when the US Coast Guard gets intel on a large drug shipment they just hand the ship over to the Mexican Federalis and guess what they do with the drugs??? lol. Then our young and soldiers get addicted to the pain pills and they crackdown on that and of course supply the heroin on the streets for more profit. Evidently the drug manufacturers have not been contributing enough money lately to the politicians or they would have never cracked down on their "legal" drugs. Or the upcoming defense cuts are cutting into black-ops and they need the heroin money for that. Everyone should learn about Smedley Butler, this BS has been ongoing since the 1800's.
For crying out loud, why can't people stay put? Why get into hard drugs and make your life miserable chasing after them?
Give me Scotch on the rocks, a good movie to watch, have a good meal after that and I'm in heaven. No need to get any more complicated than that, ya' know.
You're full of s h..t! Yeah your dad worked for the CIA and knew Noriega! You don't really think anyone is buying this crap do you? I think you need some drugs.
And AA & NA (Alcoholics Anonymous & Narcotics Anonymous) are FREE, as well as AlAnon meetings for family members, friends who are dealing with addicts. Internet search AA/ NA for meetings or call you local United Way for info. Family and friends...try the AlAnon family/ parent or just regular meetings, you will be shocked at how unusual your experience is NOT.
Minnsurveyor,
I have too many pictures, government doucments, and personal items of my dads for you to bother me. When you have personal letters from Aaron Bank and a book signed to you from this man calling you a gladiator in an unconventional war I'll care what you have to say on this topic. You think SF soldiers did not know Noriega in the mid 60's? They trained him. The 8th SFG was stationed right there genius. It is in the Natinal Archives, use your freedom of information act to get the info instead of calling people liars. Also look up Operation Hotfoot to answer your CIA Laos questions. Google is your friend. You sound very angry.
very good ophotfoot.
Minnsurveyor must have never seen Air America.
I had a roommate who's brother tried to kick herion aat our place and it was a lot of screaming, puking and pissing. It was enough to convince me to never try it.
The illegality and production of criminality regarding drugs is many times more damaging to both the user and society at large than the actual use of the drugs themselves.
What prevents the implementation of a sensible drug policy is the moral panic climate which allowed for the growth of a multibillion dollar enforcement and justice system bureaucracy and the refusal of those still infected with that moral panic to see the solution as a health issue rather than a criminal one.
Until that moral panic and its attendant propaganda is stifled and ended there will be no improvement.
Olias, I will agree with you up to the drinking of the scotch. While I have nothing against people who have a drink now and again, I have no tolerance or sympathy for druggies or drunks. It's something they do to themselves. It's a choice they make on their own.
Ophotfoot
It is really sad that most people won't accept just how corrupt our government really is and don't want to face up to it. The more I research into the more I fonud out. It is very disturbing.
@Culheath, there is nothing "sensible" about legalizing drugs. Denmark has been in the process of walking back and tightening up their liberal laws relating to drug use. "The ongoing Dutch crackdown on cannabis is part of a decade-long rethink of liberalism in general that has seen a third of the windows in Amsterdam's red light district closed and led the Netherlands to adopt some of the toughest immigration rules in Europe" Oct 2011
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/07/netherlands-potency-cannabis-hard-drug
Thanks ophotfoot. I've read too many other things to not believe you. Kind of the new/old opium wars isn't it?
Thank your elected republican lawmakers! This is the direct result of the failed war on drugs and the failed war in Afghanastan.
Keep trying to forcefully legislate the morality of a 3000 year old middle eastern mythology and see how quickly we in fact are turning into a western version of the middle east complete with misogynistic theocratic government.
This article must be a propaganda piece. Everyone knows that you don't go from pills to hard drugs. You must first smoke pot before you turn to cocaine and heroin! Reefer Madness rules!
The Government regulates the Pharmaceutical, now it should regulate our borders and shores..
Its unbelievable to me that after all this time with our technology we cant stop the shipments coming into our country, I think we take it on with a lame approach.
I take Hydrocodone in small amounts for my lower
back and neck disk. My last two doctors have retired on me and couldn't find
another doctor in this state (Arkansas) to take me as a patient. One they won't
prescribe pain killers and second they won't take Medi-care. So they have pushed
me to a pain clinic in OK that doesn't take any insurance, just cash. And I file the claims myself.
And forget alcohol, that's much worse than
marijuana by far. As a life long musician I smoke a little marijuana at times,
but it doesn't stop back or neck pain.
I'm sure this state has pushed many people to
harder drugs just like in Ohio. If a doctor can't tell the difference between a
person who really needs pain pills and a junkie. Not sure they really need to be
a doctor, heck I can tell the difference.
But as long as these private prisons need clients, the laws are not going to change, can you say "lobbyist".
tempusfug...I have to agree with culheath on this one. People are going to use drugs no matter what. Even in nations with very harsh punishment for drug violations still have drug problems.
Either the criminals are going to control the market and profit from it or the government can regulate it and collect taxes from drug sales to deal with the adverse affects. Choose your poison my friend.
While googling ophotfoot's references I ran across this quote and thought it appropriate:
Ji (G): Respectfully, being a lifelong musician has nothing to do with your drug usage. It is always a choice. I am a musician, and have been offered many different things from fans, from buying the band a round of drinks, or wanting to 'roll one' after the show, to exctasy, coke, and meth. All you have to say is no. Don't give yourself an easy excuse, because 1) not every musician uses, and 2) every user has one excuse or another. It doesn't make using okay.
I have a terminal condition and have been on pain medication for 8 years now. I recently had a spine stimulator put in to help reduce the amount of pain medication I take. The problem is one can walk outside a pain clinic and have people ask them for medication in the parking lot. The answer to this is to do what I have done. I have reduced my medication by 2/3, the first half was due to the stimulator and the rest has caused more pain so to help with nausea I take anti-nausea. What most people with chronic pain do not realize is there is a finite amount of pain medication one can get, so they get as much as they can, us what they need and sell the rest, but because they have no control soon they are taking all they have and then looking to buy even more. One needs to teach self control along with prescribing medication. This life is not easy, but being that I have a little one, I have two choices, be drugged up and not get to enjoy the time I have left with him but I am pain free, or live in pain but cherish the time I have. To me the choices are easy, for one with nothing the choices would be much harder, this is where counseling along with medication would help.
Maybe if the drug companies would use some of that monstrous R&D money to develop a substance that would get you high without the harm full physical side effects and the addictive properties, we would see less abuse.
But, they like addictive, it keeps the customers loyal.
And the moral morons in this country would @!$%# bricks if they knew pharmaceutical companies were working on something recreational. Because they are so damn unhappy with their lives, they want to make sure everybody else stays miserable too. Intoxication has been so stigmatized by the religious whack jobs in our society, that we will not even use our modern technology to modernize recreational intoxication and make it safer.
Getting @!$%#ed up is just part of life for alot of people, and just because some folks don't like it, doesn't mean it's going to stop.
Post #1.24 is a self rightious load of horse @!$%#! Must play jazz.
Bring our military home and have them protect our own country. Put them at the border, and keep all this crap out.
(I'm also in favor of legalizing cannabis. Legalize, tax, and use the same sort of laws as alcohol for DUI, use by minors, etc.)
Rico, Keep stupid politics out of this, this is much more then politics. And to use this site as a means to push your political ideology is in bad taste, you might want to deal with people that have nothing more to deal with, they would be more receptive to such nonsense. People in pain do not care about parties unless they are interfering with their health care, the problem today is it is not the political machine doing this but the legal side that has brought law suites until the politicians have gotten involved. Medication and our medical welfare needs to stay out of political hands, they unfortunately have never done anything but screw things up, and this goes for all political organizations.
Education is the best anti-drug weapon. Make them all legal, with quality control and a reasonable tax to support detox and put the cartels put of business. Don't want your kids getting high? Try learning something useful yourself. Can you fix your car? Or anything else for that matter? I have more things that I want to do than I could possibly complete in 5 lifetimes, I don't have the time to waste getting high.
Ken or anyone else who puts marijuana in the same class as heroin, you are so clueless you don't even belong in this conversation or have the right to write here. I am 50, smoked weed all through high school and then off and on after, even to this day would hit on it if passed by. It has not led to anything, I hate alcohol and everything about it. Marijuana neither makes you crazy, sick or wreck-less as does alcohol and it certainly isn't addictive or dangerous nor is it a gateway drug those are all personality traits not indicative of marijuana. Pharma on the other hand is addictive and thanks to the lovely government stepping in now we have heroin addicts instead of someone at least under a doctors care, sure something needed done about pill mills but this is ridiculous and so are your comments about marijuana. You need to understand you were brainwashed by government advertising in the 70's and 80's showing needles next to a joint, you drank the koolaid.
Thousands of lives have been destroyed by just taking a drag off a cigarette called a rail. It was everywhere during the Vietnam War. A rail consisted of half the filter removed and half the tobacco remove from usually a Kool cigarette and then scooping the opened end and putting some herion in it. The first drag on the cigarette would automatically force the person to throw up, but the feeling of euphoria that immediately followed made it all worthwhile. A week of that and you were addicted to herion. With herion being 99% pure in East Asia you can imagine the extent of withdrawal that would eventually come about the day you went home. Many came back to the USA carrying the monkey on their backs and with the 10% herion in the USA the needle was the only solution to maintain the habit. You could drink a gallon of Jack Daniels and it wouldn't do the trick for you. Only another shot of herion would relieve the pain and mental agony you suffered. Now we have people from all walks of life indulging in this monstrous drug that will certainly destroy anyone who dares to take it into their body. What a shame and the recovery from the addiction is so low that many potential successful brilliant people have ended their futures with this drug. My only suggestion to anyone who has yet to make it a part of their life, don't believe you friends or anyone that suggest there is nothing to it and they don't know what they are talking about, this is the worst thing you could ever do for yourself or anyone that depends on you. You may as well jump off a building right away if those are your two choices. Please never use heroin!!!!!!! Not once!!!!!!
Maybe i didn't word that correct, I enjoy marijuana (ha) and hate alcohol. I never leave the house after smoking marijuana, just jam on my guitar or drums. I wish i didn't have to take any pain pills at all, i quit 6 months ago when the doctor retired. But sitting around at night with my neck killing me and some days my back in another dimension. I said no way am i going through life like this not to mention not being able to play golf 4 times a week.
If you can get by with nothing, then good for you. Life is too short to live in pain, period.
enjoy
Lost a couple friends who went from Oxy's to Heroin. Thanks to our lax borders the Mexicans are bringing up literally tons of Heroin. It's all up and down the West Coast. It's reached epidemic level even in Vancouver, B.C.
PASS on the alcohol, that stuff is poison you know.
Give ME a couple of bong hits, a bag of popcorn and a good movie in 3D, and I'M in heaven. No heroin, no X...and NO ALCOHOL.
Dude, if you don't know anything about pot, don't open your mouth and demonstrate it to others. Pot is NOT a 'mind control substance.' That's just ignorant (but exactly what one can expect from those who willingly are spoon-fed the DEA's rhetoric and propaganda). Promise you don't vote these beliefs, ok? Because that's absolute silliness.
Fred Evil
People who drink alcohol don't realize they are the biggest druggies of all!
just because it's legal doesn't mean anything, look at John Bohner (sp?)
Your last line indicates the reason for Denmark puling back on their liberalization of morality laws regarding prostitution and drug use. They allowed themselves to become subject to drug and sex tourists. The indigenous population saw very little increase and in fact saw lowering of drug use.
The current system in place now for 40 years in the US of criminalizing drug use and thereby creating huge black markets profits and all it's attendant violence, the highest incarceration rate on the planet, a gigantic out of control and self-perpetuating bureaucracy costing hundreds of billions of dollars and unbelievable amounts of social damage can hardly be said to "sensible".
Drug use and addiction ARE a health issue and the first step to addressing it as such requires the dismantling of the present system which includes removing the profit motivtive for the large scale dissemination and importation of the drugs in the first place. What the present system does not offer in any respect whatsoever is management and/or control. The present system of criminalization is a complete and utter failure and you know what they say about people who keep trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results, right?
Drug use has to be decoupled from the irrational and self-destructive moral panic climate before we can do anything. Morality judgements about drug use at this stage are very much a primary part of the problem.
I lived in Vancouver for 15 years and heroin was at epidemic level nearly the entire time I was there. Vancouver presently decriminalized weed and instead of just busting and locking up junkies they have opened clinics where they can go and get their fixes, free needles and condoms and counseling for free. has it lowered the crime rate and addicti0n rate4 in Vancouver over a 7 year program. You betcha. Look it up.
I agree with IRESPOND - There should be help for people who want it but we can't mandate or order people to save themselves. I will say the abusers have greatly affected legitimate prescription holders. I have a neighborhood, she's 36 and survived an awful Car accident 2 years ago. She has undergone 2 lower back surgeries and has horrible shoulder issues. She only takes around 12 VICODINS weekly, mainly around bed time. but several weeks ago her she was informed by her Doctor that he wanted her to stop taking them, if she still needed them he would like to refer her elsewhere. Doctors are being put under the microscope because of the idiot abusers and dealers. She has since entered a program sponsored by Our Hospital system that allows her to undergo drug testing so she can keep her prescription, this is out of pocket..
First, during counseling due to a family member's addiction to alcohol, I learned my counselor that treats addictions, was once teaching at our university stoned on pot every day. He too felt it was a baseless argument that pot does no harm. Then his memory began to disappear. He was slow on the take in class. So I mean he was no longer sharp. He gave up pot and slowly climbed out of this pot stupor. BTW, he is a super liberal and so not a born again or finding religion or any extreme philosophy, but realized the damage he was doing to himself and reigned himself in.
Alcoholism is in my family. A drunk killed my brother. Alcoholism killed my sister, severely damaged my father, brother-in-law, nephew, husband and son. I never had the compulsion since I suffered enough watching the destruction around me.
Addiction is addiction no matter the source. Those afflicted habitually lie, steal, have destructive personal relationships and many times do so many damage that life cannot be reversed. We have all seen it. IMO, society looks the other way about drinking and drugs in high school. Parents want to be friends with their kids. They never lay down the law. Boomers were frankly terrible parents and the next generation is even worse. Equally school systems are not helpful. In my case, my child was a top student with a drinking problem. The school refused to believe me, and instead cast me as the one with the issue. They were comparing him to others that were far worse. They had a chance to help and they missed the boat because they had that mentality that "boys will be boys". I could write a book and sadly I see many young adults today that are hooked on drugs or alcoholism and appear to be wasting their lives because their motivation is lacking. It is really so sad. Nothing makes me feel so bad to see youth waste precious time.
You know what we should do?
LEGALIZE HEROIN
Because you know, drugs never hurt anyone but the person taking them.
Yeah, internet hyperbole to make a point. Still a point.
For the whiners in the story and some of the posters above, give me a break. You knew drugs were bad, yet you did them anyway. Selfish. Suffer in silence for all I care, you brought it upon yourselves. You make the world more dangerous and made other people's lives more difficult just so you could play with drugs. You. Suck.
Mother Nature already took care of that, its called Pot.
You cant get physically addicted
You cant overdose
Pot contains anti cancer properties not yet understood that result in no statistical increase in the chances of lung cancer unless you smoke tobacco too. It basically creates a hostile environment for cancer cells.
Tobacco and Alcohol are addictive, you can overdose on them, and there is an endless list of disease and organ/tissue damage side effects from both.
If you still think pot is worse than tobacco and alcohol faced with these verified scientific facts, you simply can not think critically and remain influenced (BRAINWASHED) by people and corporations who benifit from pot being illegal.
as jake2247 thumbs his bible .....................
Tbenton you talk like someone who has been in pain and on pain meds for years. This has everything to do with politics. You need to research drug usage starting with the opium wars then moving on to our troops guarding the opiate fields for supposedly pharmacology usage. Don't forget to include the CIA's involvement.
Read ophotfoot's 1.6 post then click on the following site after you've done all the above. Then tell me it's not about politics. Our medicine and insurance coverage has NEVER been more political than it is today. After all the billions of dollars we've spent on the war on drugs don't you think it could have been eliminated by now?
http://www.opioids.com/opium/history/
By the way...I wish you the best. Addiction to anything is a horrible thing. One of the main reasons I quit everything was that I realized an addicted public is an easy to control public. I wanted options.
Most people who post their sage advice on addiction have probably never been exposed to opiates except for medical need to combat intense pain, in which case it's unlikely addiction will occur. But in recreational situations, you can bet that if you have a genetic key, addiction to opiates will occur. I worked in a rehab facility for professionals (drs, nurses, bankers, etc) a few years, and you'd be surprised how easily opiate addiction can occur. And you'd be surprised at how many people are unhappy with their lives, which is the real gateway to drug use--depression, mental illnesses, grief and pain that the medical community and health insurance just won't address.
The irony is that it costs more to get rehab than it does to stay addicted. Insurance won't pay for that treatment which costs a person out of pocket $20-50K. Senator McCain's wife could afford the treatment; others just don't have those funds.
People are simply ignorant about the nature of addiction. Opiate addiction actually changes your brain chemistry, possibly forever. Once you tamper with your neurotransmitters, it'll take years to restore them. Just like everyone who drinks does not become an alcoholic (simply because the genetic key isn't there), not everyone who uses will become an addict. It has nothing to do with the quality of the person, but more due to exposure. President Kennedy was a speed freak, after all.
"And look at where it's at...middle America, Now it's a tragedy, Now it's so sad to see, an upper class city having this happening" - Eminem.
Didn't see too much in the article about the ridiculous jail sentence Yates would get for possession if she were a he, and he happened to be a young black male.
what people don't realize about pain medication, when you take as prescribed. After about two weeks any effects of being "high" are long gone. The only thing that happens is you don't have the pain and yes you actually feel like doing something instead of rolling up in a ball with pain.
I managed some of the largest furniture stores in the US for years taking a pain pill every 6 hours a day. I can tell you if I was high on something my boss (nick name Stormey) would have kicked me to the curb.
the new Oxy (which i would never take oxy) now turns to gel when you add water. which they had to add water to shoot up to get the high they needed. I'm not stupid, i study everything i do the nth degree.
And look at where it's at...middle America, Now it's a tragedy, Now it's so sad to see, an upper class city having this happening
True even way before Eminiem. In fact, said many times, before Eminim. Which shows you how quickly we are interested in changing our ways...
People are going to do what they want no matter what the law says. I'd be more worried about the supply chain than the drugs themselves. This heroin comes from Afghanistan (poppies) via Iran (where its possessed into heroin ). So this means that Mexican drug cartels (who will do anything for a price ) are dealing with Iran. This means that Iran has inroads to every city in the USA to import through Mexico anything and everything including Bombs, people, guns, bio weapons, chem weapons,and nuke weapons (dirty bombs ). And Iran has a long history of giving aid to terrorist groups that want to attack Iran's enemies. And there's nobody they hate more than the USA. IS IT TIME TO BUILD THE WALL YET !!!!
This is exactly right (coming from a white female) Dr. Ron Paul has been saying this for years, of course nobody listens. Then again I get made fun of for not even wanting to take tylenol
i suppose it's just a huge coincidence that we invade afghanistan (known for the worlds poppy supply, which is what herion is), and suddenly big pharma is flush with opiates (paid for by insurance for the most part) and society catches on and backlashes, and now our streets are flush with big pharma's herion.
/begin sarcasm
seriously, guys - think of all the jobs being lost. think of all the hard workers unable to peddle their pills! think of their children starving! think of all the politicians not getting kickbacks! think of the poor afghan farmers getting paid pennies to dope up the world not getting their pennies! think of Karzai not getting his bribes!
do the right thing, let big pharma deal their drugs and keep the people doped up.
It's the only RIGHT thing to do.
and whatever you do, remember, Marijuana is the MOST EVIL drug there is known to man, and it should NEVER, EVER be legalized lest the moral fabric of society fall apart.
/end sarcasm
Welcome to the new america. The wealth gap will increase (not only in america but globallly). Drugs / alcohol is way for people to deal with their problems instead of family support. Family support usually fail due to poor financial health which of course leads to poor personal health. Usually this affected only the poor however due to a shift in global economic climate it has now affected the middle class (which I would now like to refer to as the 'new poor').
This is not news just reality. Do I expect it to get better?...only for the wealthy....does it matter who you vote for?....NOPE
First off, pot is "mind-controlling", but it absolutely is "mind-altering". If you want to argue that, then you're smoking oregano. Why is it that nobody realizes the fundamental difference between alcohol/cigarettes and marijuana? Cigarettes do not hamper your ability to think, reason, or function. Alcohol (in small amounts only), also does not severely hamper a person's ability to think, reason, or function. Marijuana ALWAYS does that. It's about the intention. I'm a (mostly) former smoker (of both things), and I still drink periodically. There have been many times when I've had 1 or 2 beers, or a glass of wine, or maybe one small drink of whiskey, when my intention was just to relax and enjoy but not get messed up. I have never used marijuana without having the premeditated intention of changing my perception/reality (getting f'd up if you will). Most jurisidictions have some sort of law about public drunkeness (or intoxication) and ask that a bartender not serve anyone who appears drunk (I know it's not heavily enforced in most places I've been), and everywhere has a limit at what constitutes legally drunk (used in DUI cases), which means that alcohol can be consumed without an intoxicated level being reached. If having a single sip of alcohol had the same mind-altering effect as taking one puff of a joint, then I would be more inclined to agree that there is no reason that alcohol is illegal and marijuana is not.
I don't have all of the research that everyone likes to spout out, but I would admit that from a purely long-term negative health effects standpoint (and ignoring the mind-altering components of these 3 drugs), marijuana is PROBABLY the least bad (it's still not healthy). Tobacco is also made worse because it's not pure tobacco, it's all the other crap they put in it that makes it as bad as it is (again, still not healthy either way).
To Mr. LivingintheWoods. This is not a partisan issue. You're blaming Republicans, but frankly both parties have done their share to help the drug problem in this country. Most currently, we had a Republican administration when we invaded Afghanistan and "something" happened to their poppy fields, but go back 50 years and remind me who was running things in the 60's when all the things that ophopfoot was referring to were going on? Oh yeah, Democrats. This isn't meant to be a plug for Republicans, I'm just tired of the mindless idiots on both sides taking every opportunity to spin some tidbit as anti-(other side). Anybody who thinks one of the 2 parties/sides/whatever is all right and the other is pure evil (as its seems), is just a shmuck. Please go troll your soapbox to a different conversation that is more politically relevant.
Zuksam - it didnt occur to you that Big Pharma already has the pure product in the US for opiates, and then converts it to herion (as if they couldnt?) and then puts it on the streets, since they arent selling enough through doctors anymore?
thats a much easier path.
but if it WERE coming through Iran, which is entirely possible, it's entirely BRILLIANT on Iran's part.
hell, it's brilliant on the "terrorists" part...let us destroy ourselves, and go broke trying to fix it.
really, much smarter than using bombs.
I'm not entirely sure the criminality of big pharma justifies illegal drug use, but yeah, let's keep in mind how these kids got started on heroin in the article? The easy availability of 'legal' heroine.
Ironic that the young woman mentioned in the article said she would never have imagined she would do heroin, and yet she had been abusing oxycodone to get high and was already addicted. It's a very similar substance to heroin, with similar effects.
On the other hand, at least with prescription oxy, the addict knows the dosage and knows there are purity and quality controls. With street heroin, junkies never know what they're getting or how potent it is. Nobody ever intentionally overdoses. It's always an unknown hot-shot, "improperly cut" in the words of the article.
I don't see a real solution anywhere, since we are constantly bombarded with ads from Big Pharma for the latest pill that will cure whatever ails you. Even a visit to the doctor to get treated for a genuine illness is mostly about the doctor figuring out the correct prescription to write for you.
We are a nation of drug addicts, and that is the root of the problem that must be addressed. For those who don't believe me, take a look in your medicine cabinet and count the number of prescription bottles of pills in there. Why do you have those, especially the older ones that were prescribed for something months ago? Consider the example of the 15-year-old mentioned in the article, who started with the stuff in his parents' medicine cabinet. Why did mom & dad have a drug stash in their home?
Hey Ji, I'm confused. What's the difference between someone who really needs pills and a junkie? Please don't try to respond with some contorted justification and rationalization.
Some points about illegal drugs:
1) Cigarettes are much more addicting than heroin. Ask anyone who has tried to stop. People who go into reputable drug rehab programs are almost always multiply-addicted --- drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes. The rehab centers do not generally try to stop all addictions at once because of the danger of shock. So they usually start with liquor and support the opiate habit with methadone and leave cigarettes until last. But any good rehab programs all require that both legal and illegal addictions be given up before a success is considered.
2) About 15% of people cannot really be addicted to opiates. The O1 and O2 receptors in their brain are trumped by their immune system which produces histamines instead. These people also get little to no pain relief from opiates.
3) All animals in the wild and man throughout history all seek to alter their mental state through the use of drugs. This is nothing new or unique to humans. It appears to be related to medicinal value of the substances that even cows and horses seek out.
4) Physicians have contributed greatly to some of this by having "a pill for everything" in a convenient one-size-fits-all dosage. They have convinced people that pills are always "safe and effective" when nothing could be further from the truth. For example, physicians routinely dole out one of the most addictive substances known --- SSRI's, far more addictive than heroin --- with little concern for addiction. In Europe, physicians must have a plan to wean patients off SSRI's before prescribing them. In this country, physicians happily opine that it is probably best if the patient stays on SSRI's for the rest of their life.
5) The most successful programs in other countries have had a double focus --- a) provide treatment for those motivated to quit (about 30%) just as you would provide treatment for someone with pneumonia, and also b) to support opiate habits for those who do not want to quit (about 70%.) The catch is that in order to receive support for your habit --- that free shot or heroin every morning --- the addict must be either in school and receiving good grades or gainfully employed and paying taxes. You lose your job or flunk that calculus class and no more free drugs.
6) The whole thing about "gateway" drugs is nonsense. Cigarettes don't lead to marijuana and marijuana doesn't lead to harder drugs. The influences are more cultural than that. Prescription drugs lead to opiates much more often --- ask Rush Limbaugh. And, if anything, marijuana is a small deterrent to the use of harder drugs. Unfortunately the patchwork of criminalization of addictive substances --- some, like prescription drugs, cigarettes and alcohol legal and others like marijuana and heroin illegal --- make it impossible to enforce drug laws. If the solutions were as easy as regulating gatweay drugs, we would have banned milk for babies --- the ultimate gateway drug.
I support decriminalization of marijuana to the same extent as alcohol. I think that both drug companies and physicians need to be held to account for prescription drug use --- there simply is no reason for a drug company to make 40 times as much oxycontin as prescriptions are being written. And I support the dual focus that allows those who want to quit to bet help in doing so and for those who can't quit to be productive citizens.
Why isn't the bigger question being talked about at all? Why are so many kids turning to drugs? I find it hard to believe that permissiveness in a Midwest town is to blame for an entire town of kids to turn to drugs. Instead of moral self-righteousness and looking down noses, perhaps people could actually do something to figure out what is going on.
A study was done many years ago with rats. When given the choice between food and morphine, the rats chose drugs. The condition in which they were existing was a typical lab rat cage. It seemed that the pull was irrestible and the rats simply did not have the will power to say no, even to the point of death. However, the study was repeated, this time with a enormous area in which to roam and explore. The drug addicted rats were given again the option of plain water or drug laced water. They chose plain water. (Google: Rat Park)
There is strong evidence that we are creating an environment that predispositions people to drug use. Of course, there will always be those who have a genetic component of addiction, but when there are epidemics of drug use, something larger is at play. We're supposed to be the smartest animals in the kingdom, let's act like it.
after holder trades guns for drugs, what's he supposed to do, burn the drugs? why not sell them and make a profit, then invest that in something green, like solar energy? if the company goes under, blame bush.
Ophotfoot
you are dead on, the CIa has been using herion and cocaine to fund their illegal operations for years. The DEA is doing exactly the same thing, If you want to see some really whacked druggie agents there are a couple of hangout bars in Houston that the agents frequent and it they know you there is an endless supply of fun....wink wink.
I still don't understand why this is such an issue (except for all the money the corrupted would lose of course...see post #1.6). There is an easy fix to this, just make all drugs legal, tax, and regulate them. The only burden of this would be on public interaction (mostly driving on drugs) and the hospital system. You mitigate both of these by having the hospital deal the drugs because doctors are just legal drug dealers anyway. Then the hospitals make the money from the drugs, while the government makes money off of the taxes. That way the hospitals can use the money to fund drug rehabilitation programs.
EXAMPLE: Someone wants to try heroin with these new laws and regulations fully in place. They go to a hospital (let's say Cleveland Clinic, I'm from Ohio). On the hospitals campus is a Mood Altering Substance clinic. They schedule an appointment there (insurance does not cover this), and they have to sit through Right to Know videos, an ex-heroin addict's life story, and the doctor explaining all the adverse affects. This is much better than just having a mom and pop dispensary where someone could just run in and buy 30 bags of heroin, and it might deflect new users from trying. If they still want heroin, then it is sold to them in a pure, regulated form to mitigate bodily harm. That simple.
Of course, we would then probably have to restructure all intoxicants into this category, including alcohol. This would mean eventually you would have an account with the Beer Clinic down the street and be able to purchase liquor through the medical system. This is the best way I can think of, because like so many have said before, people will choose an easy way out of life. If they are already going to be able to get the stuff off the streets and be a burden on society, have society sell it in a better purer form and put the choice on the consumer. I remember when America was founded upon the idea of choice...what happened to that?
well, let's see before I head off to the golf course. And as they say "thanks, that's a great question" .... oh
If you have never had major back problems (and i hope you haven't) then you might not understand. It's called you can't get out of a recliner without screaming to the top of your lungs. Then later on it was a constant pain in the neck disk which is actually worse as it never stops after being up for 8 hours. The back pain usually comes and goes, it has a mind of it's own. Sometimes it lasts for a couple three days and like last february for me it lasted all month and i didn't have a doctor then.
and don't think a back or neck operation will cure the pain, it won't. i haven't had any operations on my back but have several friends who have. they are worse and tell me to not have any operations unless i have no choice.
a junkie just wants to get high on pain pills, the more the merrier. they have no real pain, just the pain of reality, which at times can be a witch. and a junkie will keep taking more and more to chase the high, like i said before. even if you take a lot for a couple weeks, the next time you take the same amout of the "alot" it won't get you high, it'll just stop the pain of having nothing.
if you take any amount of pain pills for say a month, you will suffer trying to stop. But hydrocodone is not that bad stopping, it's like having a really really bad flu for a week. it's not much fun, i've done it twice. but from oxy on up it's like you see people in the movies trying to stop, i want none of that.
that's why your dentist only gives you like 15 pills when he drills away. as 15 pills will not get you hooked, it'll may you loopy, but no side effects when you quit.
i would go on, but i have a tee time in 1 hour, got hit balls before i play. at 63 i can still break 80, but only if i practice first ................ ha. don't have time to proof read, so deal with it as i can't type either. (a linotype operator when young, complete different keyboard)
enjoy
I'd like to add to tempusfugit1 (1.9) ...
Not only are AA/NA meetings free and highly effective for the addicts, but Al-Anon and Nar-Anon meetings are also wonderful and are geared for addicts' families and friends. There are meetings in every state as well as internationally. Their information can be found on the Internet (Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous -- then search for your location).
There is another organization called Families Anonymous - similar to Al-Anon and Nar-Anon. I'm not sure how far-reaching it is. I know there are meetings in the NY/NJ area. Again, search for them online.
Tempus is right ... You'll learn at your first meeting that you are NOT alone (especially parents). The person sitting across the room from you could very well be your neighbor's child or your child's teacher.
JEN-912751---You hit the nail on the head. The belief that "hard work will bring success" has been replaced by "life sucks then you die"
Get a clue...stop FORCING adults to live your way. If they want to do drugs, like perscriptions, let them. End the idiotic drug war! Who cares if they kill themselves? In a free society you have to be allowed that power. It's more important that we all have that say-so over our own lives than we save a few drug addicted people. There is no greater "collective good" than individual rights. When those rights are gone because of "collective good" or "the good of society", sooner or later it becomes against the "collective good" because everyone's rights will be affected. GITMO was "for your dafety, collectively"...but that sacrifice of individual human rights leads directly to torture, assassinations of U.S. citizens without due process, drine surveillance with no probable cause, TSA molestations for a threat that kills as many Americans a year as bathtubs (literally), and eventually all of us facing possible imprisonment w/o due process or petition.
It's market failure in reverse. Market failure is when individuals pursuing rational individual goals lead to collectively irrational results. For example, we all want free stuff, and no one wants to pay for it, so we end up with a huge national debt. Very individually rational to want free stuff and someone else to pay for it, but the result is collectively irrational for us all (governments who carry increasing debt endlave future generations to higher taxes to maintain credit lines, as well as risking collapse if it continues).
This is market failure in reverse. Collective rational goals ("drugs are bad for society, mmmkay, so let's ban them and the misuse of their legal counterparts") leading to irrational individual results (getting your door kicked in and going to prison when your only a threat to yourself and aren't violent; also, all of our rights being diminished to deal with a relatively statistically small problem).
End the moronic drug war, stop being busy-bodies, and let adults do what they want as long as no one is directly harmed that isn't a willing participant. Anything else will lead to reverse market failure.
And notice, the demand in the drug market doesn't go away when you take away supply. It just shifts to another drug. That will never end. There is no way to stop black markets...EVER. Laws and cops don't work on sociopaths who run black markets. If you legalize it, now non-sociopaths run it and the violence needed to solve disputes in absence of legal pathways of dispute resolution disappear. Child consumption will drop (because pharmacists and doctors card kids, while drug dealers have no such policy or ethics). Addiction will drop (due to uniform content in the drugs which allows users to control dosage better), even if adult usage rises. How do we know all this? It's exactly what happened after Prohibition of alcohol ended, and what happens in every country that decriminalizes, legalizes, or turns a blind eye to drugs.
The demand in the market will always exist. If you limit supply all you're doing is raising the price, logically. That also raises incentives for potential dealers (it makes it more lucrative). You can't win a drug war. The high army is winning...how does that make you feel, as the sober army?
End this madness, and stop being idiots outraged over predictable results of cracking down on perscription drugs. Stop blaming some foreign "enemy" like Mexican cartels...our laws created them and maintain them, like the mafia in Prohibition (which has become manageable since the end of that stupid law). Blame yourselves and your lack of ethics (wanting to force adults to not hurt themselves for some indirect "collective good" is unethical). Blame the laws here. Blame the lawmakers you support (like Romney and Obama). Blame yourselves for not supporting anti-drug war lawmakers (like Ron Paul, Gary Johnson, etc.). Blame the real enemy...our own government stooges. The enemy is right here, folks...and it is us.
Ji
I am also a chronic pain patient and have been for 16 years. The opiates are the only relief for me also. But I am also know that untreated chronic pain can lead to extreme depression and other medical problems. If opiates are taken as prescribed they will do what they are intended it the people that go overboard, shoot up etc that causes the honest patient problems. Pot is not the answer for us heart patients, gives my agina quickly. I tried methodone at the advice of a doctor and after 2 years I found it less effective and then stopped it slowly but holy hell the withdrawal was a freaking nightmare for 2 months, I would wish that on my worst enemy.
Peace brothers and sisters be well.
ProIndividual-3906907 (1.65) - "Get a clue...stop FORCING adults to live your way. If they want to do drugs, like perscriptions, let them. End the idiotic drug war! Who cares if they kill themselves?" -- I, for one, would care about that strung-out adult, especially when the accident s/he causes kills my loved one(s).
Maybe this is too simple of a solution, but check this out;
Ophotfoot
Why as a nation of opiate users, (pain killers morphine etc) dont we contract with the opium poppy growers to buy ALL of their product. instead of fighting a war on drugs, lets own it.
Sounds too simple. Any other suggestions?
There's a difference between dependence and addiction. Someone with chronic pain develops a (legally prescribed) dependence on opiates to function. An addiction occurs when someone uses a substance recreationally, for no medical purpose.
Rehab drs often transfer an addict's addiction from street drugs to so-called opiate-similar withdrawal drugs, the latter creating a dependence and an expensive one at that. In effect, the doctors become the dealers & get more money for it too.
This call to legalize all drugs is a bunch of baloney. Just an out for addicts and other assorted users to make their habit cheaper and more readily available and legit. Believe it, the USA is NOT prepared to deal with the societal fall out from "legal" drug use. Look at the problems we have with alcohol.
(Sigh) Actually Nancy Reagan was correct. Just say NO...the first time. Then you won't get addicted to anything. Doh! No symphathy at all for addicts.. Bad choices in life bring bad consequences. Why do sooooo many people in this country has such a hard time figuring that out? This saying you like to use, "It could happen to anyone" is BS. It happens to stupid, weak-minded people who can't seem to figure out in advance that they need to make the right, responsible choices in life.
any attempt to seal the boarders has been met with a huge resistance from big business. Every package would need to be inspected, but that owuld cost business money.
More money in this nation is used to prosecute marijuana offenders, meanwhile very harmful substances like heroin, cocaine, meth, prescriptions drugs and bath salts are not pursued nearly as hard, yet these are the problem substances
ProIndividual-3906907:
EXACTLY!!! It couldn't have been said any better.
So, I'm supposed to feel sorry for drug addicts who since they can't illegally get the drugs they want are reduced to taking another illegal drug? Sorry. Ain't gonna happen.
All we have to do is make drugs legal, but make it extremely painful for a drug user to negatively hurt other people. All DUI's and drug-related accidents that impact the lives of others should have their penalties amplified by a factor of 10 or even 100. It'll quickly change the perception of drug use in this country when people learn real quick that it just ain't worth it to touch the stuff. It won't happen overnight, but no cultural change does.
And I don't mean longer jail terms. Because that costs too much money. I'm talking torture. Yeah you heard me. Torture. Extreme pain.
One of the biggest reasons people can't get off of addictions (any addiction including gambling and cell phone addiction) is because they are enabled by friends, family and the system. They never are allowed to suffer the full consequences of their actions. Roomate comes home from a night of drinking and throws up all over the house, the other roomates feel sorry for them and clean it up and take care of the person. Family members who gamble away all their money are given loans by friends and family.
Etc. etc. etc.
Start ripping out these peoples' finger nails and cane them a few hundred times and you'll see this drug problem clear up real fast.
I have no sympathy for even cigarette users because they know they are committing prolonged suicide. Freedom of choice must come with great responsibility and the biggest problem in this country is that everyone is completely in denial over the fact that they are shirking responsibility, even down to managing their finances.
@Proindividual - So much that I could retort on your rant, but I'll stick to a few points:
If you think legalizing drugs is going to stop the cartels, you are nuts. The cartels aren't just going to say "OK since our drugs are now legal in the US, we'll just need to pack up and go away for good. Bummer that we will now loose all the gazillions of dollars, but we've got to leave it up to the good legal pharmacists now." Paleeease. Yes, doors are STILL going to get kicked in during the night, just as they are now to get Vicodin & Oxy. And pharmacists, already facing too many robberies for drugs, will totally SKYROCKET. You see Pro, even legal drugs are not FREE, and since druggies have this little issue holding down a real job, they are usually kinda broke, so they STEAL and ROB. Understand?
You say let addicts use as long as no one is directly harmed that isn't a willing participant. What about children in the homes that will be now using in the open. Look at the problem of kids getting into prescription painkillers. You think there won't be a problem getting into Mommy or Daddy's prescription heroin or cocaine? You say child consumption will drop! Good lord buddy, get a clue. What about employers? Workplaces even fuller of druggies, because you know, it's legal!
In short, the US is way too full of way too many stupid, undereducated, irresponsible boneheads who can't see past today what poor choices will bring tomorrow. We have a "gotta have whatever I want now" culture. We are NOT prepared for the societal fall out from making all drugs legal.
I will close by saying I do support medical weed. I think it needs to be managed better in some cases however....i.e. California.
This story is a trick...it's intent is to direct our attention away from the real source of the heroin supply...Afghanistan...our soldiers are standing guard over poppy fields
This drug has been around for years. Unfortunately, when this was mainly a minority issue, it appeared to the minority that the political structure and their stooges turned a blinded eye and allowed it to be sold and used in minority areas; an unspoken containment policy. This policy is so aptly stated in the movie, “Godfather.” A similar approach used with alcohol on another segment of the population. A junkie is only concerned about his or her next fix, not with getting a bigger slice of the pie. One can only imagine the impacts on the minority population. Drugs (including Alcohol) and AIDS respect no boundaries, classes, or skin tones. This scourge was allowed to fester until it boiled over into a national issue. They, who once felt nice, snug and safe behind their white picket fences are now troubled. The plagues that ravages so far away are now quite near, if not, within the locked doors. Wake up; the problems that affect the inner cities travel to the suburbs and in this age at phenomenon speed. Moving and living barricaded behind locked gates do not solve the problems.
Those who cannot understand or have not learned why cigarette addiction has something to do with alcohol and drug addiction are in the majority - and are the precise reason why this country has this new addiction problem. Other things that many proselytize about which they have no knowledge of, concern the chemical differences, such as whether something is a poison or a drug; or whether a drug is really a narcotic.
This ignorance extends into the medical field itself, where the proper use of pain killers, such as type of drug and dosage, are not adequately taught. While many contemplate the benefits of extreme measures like euthanasia, medical schools still do not know how to incorporate pain treatments into their curricula. It has even been found that psychiatrists graduate with little knowledge of their pharmacology's.
The ignorance is profound, and I wonder what can change it. Some are 'pulling their hair out' worrying about the mind-control effects of certain drugs; but are oddly silent (brainwashed?) when the numerous commercials are broadcasted for legal pharmaceuticals that promise miracles plus dozens of side effects!?!
Will somebody please think of the white children.
Is it just me or am I the only person that knows "the Dutch" don't live in Denmark?
This is new? I don't think so!
13 years ago it wasn't new. Perscription pills to powder is nothing new. You do have to be able to afford it. Oxy's went for $55 a pill then and then those pills weren't enough then to powder. I wasn't a taker, simply not my gig. It ruins people.
It is an epidemic for more well off white people? Maybe that's new but I doubt that as well.
What are the News Media's trying to do? What is their agenda?
all the news media's have a new agenda that I will agree with but I can't quite figure out what it is? If its political they really think their bases are blind. Go back to the drawing board. Don't give me Fox News is better. Lmfao!
Cosmetic drugs are new and very very destructive make the big H look like a lollipop.
How do people so easily forget!?! Figures they would report an increase of heroin use as a result of the prescription drug monitoring program or other state intervention programs, and then readers easily absorb the information as a profound fact while blaming the government. The government weren't the true predecessors purposely pushing this epidemic to its peak, the pharmaceutical companies were. People continue to trust the pharmaceutical companies, doctors & other professionals within the medical community, well after the government released the documents exposing the truth. The falsehood revolves around our ignorance of how pharmaceutical companies work & the patents they own. For one the government doesn't own these patents, they only regulate the potential dangers of the medications and determine if the patent falls under the guidelines pharmaceutical companies release to the FDA. The FDA has to approve the advertisement, usage, potential control of the substance, etc.. Oxycodone (Opiate based) drugs like Percocet, Vicodin & Lorcet contain the same addictive properties but they contain acetaminophen to restrict manipulation abuse. They are mostly prescribed for mild to moderate pain, and where correctly represented by the pharmaceutical company that owned the patent to the FDA. After approval the doctors are education about the usage, dosage, potential dangers & pain levels most suited for the medication. NO, not all the pharmaceutical companies have the right to make any prescription drug developed by other companies. They have to purchase the patent from the company that developed the drug. Basically Ford can't manufacture Honda, unless Ford allows them.
The epidemic started with a pharmaceutical company by the name of Purdue Pharmaceuticals (now known as Purdue Pharma) that developed OxyContin. They deceived the FDA on the usage, addictive properties, advertisement & the severity of pain to prescribe. It was developed for cancer patients & a certain kind of arthritis (can't think of which kind off the top of my head, right now). Sever pain, continuous & requiring time management. The FDA approved the medication on a probation period till they received advertisement & training information for approval. Then Purdue falsely represented Oxycontin to medical professionals, and tripled their sales reps to do so as fast as possible. Doctors & hospital received incentives for prescribing the medication, expensive merchandise, paid vacations, paid traveling expenses, etc.. And to top it off doctors started prescribing the medication to patients whom didn't need it. There were medications just as effective for mild to moderate pain, information circulated about how great Oxy was and patients started asking for it, friends shared with friends on the great news & the next thing you know its demand increased. Purdue tripled their sales in the first year. Plus Purdue represented it as a drug that couldn't be manipulated. All lies, by the time the FDA caught on, it was too late.. Purdue lost a huge lawsuit for their deception which took years to circulate in our judicial system, a whooping 634.5 MILLION fined, only then did Purdue correct product labeling, training & advertisement. They still owe the patent for OxyContin, MS Contin which can’t be manipulated (snorted, shoot up, etc...). They just approved another company known for the same fail play to produce a generic version of MS. As a result Purdue now DONATES money to the “war on drugs” or what you want to refer to it. Donations circulate each state, so the state can utilize funds in the way they see appropriate in fighting their pain medication epidemic. Due to OxyContin being profoundly effective for patients, they agreed to continued to allow it to be manufactured, but as it should have been represented in the first place. A large amount of individuals that actually need the drug still receive it but in the amount that is considered medically safe.
Don’t be so naïve in your governmental conspiracy theory as to the reasons they had no choice but to intervene with OxyContin. The FDA screwed up and Purdue purposely jumped on the opportunity to fill their pockets. Don’t confuse it with street drugs; this wasn’t an argument about legalizing illegal drugs. Realistically when any highly addictive drug is developed, street or pharmaceutical, a epidemic will arise. History repeats itself. But when the drugs are created legally on American soil and handed out like freakin candy, then the children will play. People that were prescribed this drug for a factual condition, not knowing the highly addictive nature and withdrawals, are the individuals I have compassion for. But believe me when I say a larger number were manipulating a already manipulated system. They knew exactly what they were doing, and now they are paying the ultimate price. Continuing their addiction, with other alternatives like heroin. They choose Heroin, which basically tells me they really aren’t interested in cleaning up. I know quite a few individuals that are fighting to clean up, and they aren’t turning to heroin. I have lost school friends, associates and family members from overdose with Oxy or/and mixing other scripts. Thankfully I never experimented with these sorts of drugs, but watching people drop like flies was enough of a lesson for me. Who needs heroin if they can get the next best thing at your local pharmacy? I’m sure the Mexican heroin manufactures are extremely excited that their drug sales are producing a profit. When you have Satan in your own backyard (fellow Americans), seems a bit irrelevant yelling across the border. Being a Florida native, I’ve seen corruption first hand but proving it, is the issue. For instance, Rick Scott our wonderful (sarcasm) governor, wanted to stop the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program in our state even though it had already been passed into law. Instead he wanted to invest large amounts of our taxpaying dollars in other alternatives. Ironic, since the PDMP is largely funded by Purdue generous (more sarcasm) donations. Then we find out that Mr. Scott, not deserving the title governor, has already had his fail play with the medical profession & is a large stock holder in an online pharmacy distributor, which advertises natural remedies but also provides all pharmacy needs. The largest amount of profits occurring, of course from opiate based pain medications. Wow, really. After Mr. Scott discovers that his tiresome excuses will not change an already passed law, he claims he has a relative that is addicted to said medication and felt that the PDMP would violate his patient privacy rights. And those of you talking government needs to keep their noses out of fighting the “war on drugs”, as though its none of their business. I just happen to help pay their salary, and the programs that help addicts in recovery and I as a taxpayer elected said officials to fight the fight. Unfortunately today Americans have to pick the lesser of evils and choosing between Wall Street, pharmaceutical companies, the illegal drug smugglers & manufacturers, and the government. The government has my back. Sucks we have to make deals with the devil to get the job done.
This is so gross, how can people inject heroin? I have to be dragged kicking and screaming just to get blood drawn.
ophotfoot - Dead on.
There are plenty of photos of American soldiers walking through the poppy fields. We are told the taliban uses the profits gain from the poppy business to fund their jhiad. The easiest solution would be to light them up and keep lighting them up. Then we are told we can't do that because the locals need their farms to survive. Right.
Cigarettes are proven killers. They're legal because they're addictive and the taxes can be pumped up to just about infinity because they've created so many addicts it's a win / win. Hemp (the word marajuana took the place of the word hemp because it sounded scarier -see Wm Randloph Hearst) has proven medicinal properties, but anyone can grow it, so it's illegal.
The government is very much part of the increasing drug problems we are now witnessing.
Use, abuse and addiction.
Forcing your will on them is obviously working.
You want a very productive war on drugs? Go after every college in America. We need a lot more prisons. Privatize the prisons!
CondemNATION for profit.
It is so funny to hear people say it is the welfare culture. You obviously haven't a clue.
Boehner is directly responsible for passing out checks before a vote on nicotine. He admits it. Plenty of YouTube videos out there on it.
Don't take my word for it! Take Boehners.
Ken-848629
Bringing up cigarettes on this subject is a little wacked. Heroin and pot are mind control substances and diversions from reality. Just think, legalize those two, and government can make huge windfalls. That seems to be the popular thinking anymore. The world is going mad.
This is just false....First of all heroin and pot are not even in the same category. Pot is illegal because of politics. Not because it is dangerous! If being dangerous were an issue, cigarettes and alcohol would be illegal....but then the politicians couldnt get the lobbyists money!!!! Dangeous drugs are pharmaceutical drugs which the govt call medicine...they are legal because of $$$. Listen to all the commercials...."check with your doctor before taking....side effects..can cause death!!" But these are legal?! Alcohol kills over 75,000 Americans a year, Cigarettes kill over 440,000 people a year....marijuana has killed ZERO since it has been studied!!! While i am not advocating for herion, if doing heroine is treated as a crime...there will never be a solution! It must be first be legalized, taking away the power from the drug dealers (and the CIA drug dealers too), Then regulate it, and tax it. Now the most important....treat it as a disease...like alcoholism. Then and only then can this issue be addressed. The act of doing heroin is not a crime and shouldnt be treated as such. However doing heroin and driving a car is a crime. The law itself is flawed, and until it is addressed correctly, it cant be treated correctly. How is putting someone in jail for doing heroin going to cure that person...it wont!
It may not stop the cartels but it will surely put a huge dent in their profits. Marijuana accounts for 80% of the cartel profits yearly. Legalizing pot alone would have a huge impact. But all that aside, how is your argument a reason to continue the failed war on drugs and drug prohibition?
I see your logic but what I don't get is how you think all addicts "have this little issue holding down a real job"??? You are stereotyping for one, and two, wouldn't any job be better than no job? Or would you still look down your nose at someone who doesn't have a "real" job? Your discrimination is showing. And, again, I ask you how does any of this go to support the continuation of a failed drug war and prohibition?
So parents need to be more responsible with their drugs so children can't get to them just like people with guns lock up their guns so their children can't get to them. And I'll ask again: how is any of this a reason to continue with the failed drug war and prohibition?
You are exaggerating and fear mongering to say the least. No one, who advocates for legalizing or decriminalizing drugs, has said it would be OK to get high at work. If and when drugs are legalized/decriminalized doesn't mean everyone is going to go out and get high before going to work. You are reaching at best.
Well, you are not prepared, then, for the societal fallout from the drug war and drug prohibition which is happening right now as we live.
What's worse? A world with drug use and problems with addiction AND a Drug War?
-OR-
A world with drug use and problems with addiction?
I do believe the answer is obvious: a world without a war in it.
i.e. Can't have any of those hippies or pot heads smoking weed, huh? I guess alcohol is OK with you, huh?
Marijuana should NEVER have been made illegal. Legalize, tax and regulate weed and free the many people incarcerated over this benign plant.
In Portugal, all drugs were legalized 10 years ago. Government switched from having people arrested to funding addiction recovery programs, which are much less costly, and drug abuse went down by 50%.
Prohibition does not turn out well. When alcohol was illegal in the US, violent mafia and gangs made profits by selling bootleg alcohol and fighting over sales and turf. The same sort of thing is happening in Mexico. A few weeks ago, 49 decapitated bodies were found along a highway. The US is their biggest buyer.
Currently, the only drugs that are illegal are the ones that can't be patented or are too much competition for the businesses that lobbied for them to be illegal. It makes sense why these drugs are illegal when you look at the outlawing of Sour Apricots in the US. At one point, the FDA tried to claim walnuts are a drug because a company added a label noting that research shows that omega-3 fatty acids reduce the risk of cancer. Meanwhile, Frito-Lay can say on the label that their products are heart-healthy.
About 1/3 of US citizens develop some form of cancer in their lifetime. If government cared about our health, then why allow aspartame and high-fructose corn syrup in most foods and while making some drugs illegal which cannot compare to the amount of deaths caused by cigarettes, drunk driving accidents, or even prescription medications?
One last thing.... The US equals less than 5% of total world population, yet leads with more than 23% of the world's total prison population as well as having the most of privately-run for-profit prison systems. In 2010, there were about 1,800,000 drug arrests in the US. Around 1.6 million of those arrests were of drug Users--a majority of which were arrested without having a history of violent crime. The other 200,000 arrests were of drug manufacturers and distributors. When arrested on suspicion of manufacturing or distributing(or housing someone under those suspicions) your properties are subject to asset forfeiture and freezing of your bank account. Anything that belongs to you(home, vehicle, weapons, etc) is seized and then sold back to the people through state auctions. That money then goes back to those enforcing the war on drugs and is sometimes pocketed. While on trial, you are Not given the right to an attorney even if you've paid for it(which is difficult with a frozen bank account). Hearsay can be used against you and the burden of proof falls on you. Marijuana dispensaries can be established legally depending on the state, but can also be raided because federal law over-powers state law.
Wow! Regarding comment #1.89 from Dodo Avenger I had no idea that persons arrested on suspicion of manufacturing or distributing lost their Miranda Rights when going to trial. That is the first that I have ever heard of that. I looked up an article to see just what the facts are and it didn't quite agree with this.
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/breaking/drug-dealer-loses-challenge-to-miranda-rights-reading-294540/
In this case the accused tried to say that he wasn't informed of his right to request an attorney but the court felt otherwise and said that he simply didn't understand his rights as dictated to him prior to when he confessed to his crime. It seems that the question was whether or not he was reminded during questioning about his right to have an attorney present.
Total BS, people have been smoking opium for thousands of years, people have been using morphine for hundreds of years, In fact, after the Civil war there was a thing called "Army Disease" which was in reality morphine addiction soldiers picked up from its use for injuries or recreation since morphine is readily available to any soldier. Every unit in WWII had morphine seringes at the ready in the field medics bag and sometimes the soldiers carried kits themselves in case they got injured. Abuse was rampant.
These pills are nothing new, just stronger because they are actually NEEDED. After my last operation I was on a morphine drip until I stabilised so they could give me a stronger opiate that would actually control my pain, Roxicet, as the morphine was simply too weak.
ScoMata your response is accurate and to the point. Drugs of all kinds have been a part of civilization since mankind came down out of the trees and started walking upright. In many cultures they are actually part of their religion. Magic mushrooms, peyote, cannabis, poppy, and a host of other herbal drugs have been used medicinally and recreationally for literally thousands of years. They are simply part of the cornucopia of things that Mother Nature, God, or who ever you chose to revere gave to us from the beginning.
It is, and always has been, up to us to decide how to use these gifts or curses as the case may be. As we have evolved we have learned to extract, concentrate, and even replicate the desired elements from these natural herbal substances. Now we are even creating our own variations with sometimes disasterous results. The point is that it just isn't going to go away simply because we shout "get thee behind me Satan" or utter useless statements like "just say no." LOL
Cracking down on prescription drugs in this manner is just another variation of the failed concept of banning the herbal sources in the first place. It is just a continuation of a ineffective solution. It is a little like squeezing the toothpaste tube. If you take the cap off you can control where it comes out and to what extent it comes out. If you don't take the cap off eventually the tube ruptures and you wind up with toothpaste all over everything. That in a nutshell describes our current drug policy here in the United States.
To make matters even worse our legal response to those addicted is costing us billions of dollars in enforcement efforts, trials, and long term incarcerations. Most of the addicts could be treated in my opinion for less than half what we are paying now to catch them, prosecute them, and lock them up. I simply cannot understand how we have continued this insanity for over 70 years without so much as any reconsideration. However our present economic situation nationally will eventually force such reconsideration. That is what did it for alcohol and it will eventually for drugs as well I feel confident. So far we have come to terms with alcohol, gambling, and will eventually do so with the drug issue as well. All that will leave then is prostitution. That will be the final frontier for the unholy devils like myself to overcome. LOL Then we will be able to control the spread of disease, white slavery, and possibly some sex crimes committed out of simple frustration. But that is tomorrow's battle. :=))
Sorry for not being more clear, but i'm not talking about Miranda Rights. I'm talking about going to trial to claim your property back, which can be seized without a warrant. And to contest the forfeiture in court, owners have to pay 10% cost bond.
jac 931625 -
So do we just enforce capital punishment to anyone who uses a substance not on the appoved list ?
Such as the admitted usage at some point of subtances by Obama, Bush2, Clinton Bush1, yada yada, Yep those choices had devastating results for all those "boneheads".
Dodo Avenger I understand what you were saying now. At first if sounded a bit like someone's rights got violated. LOL
"In early May, Lorain County, Ohio, saw five fatal overdoses in 10 days due to a batch of highly potent, or badly cut, heroin".
Oh my God, oh my God, Lorain County, Ohio has a heroin problem??? Oh, wait, Lorain County had an out-of-control heroin and prescription painkiller addiction problem more than 30 years ago too, since Lorain County is immediately west of Cleveland (where both heroin and injectable dilaudid were widely available on the street 30 years ago, and in both Detroit and Chicago too) and was once the home to several large steel mills and auto assembly plants where hard drugs were readily available too.
Another reason that Lorain County has a heroin addiction problem is that the DEA, in its infinite wisdom, forcibly shut down Dr. Leonard Faymore's methadone treatment center, known as the Doctor's Clinic, in Elyria, OH, in Lorain County, over quite true allegations that the doctor was over-prescribing heavy-duty prescription painkillers, twice, in 1979 and again in 1982.
Here is a 32-year old story from Lorain County, OH about the first time that Dr Faymore got busted for over-prescribing pain killers in 1979:
http://clevelandsgs.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/leonard-faymore-article.pdf
And after Dr Faymore reopened his clinic the following year, and began selling pain killers by the case to anyone who wanted them without a prescription, out of his immense profits he tried to build his own medieval castle in the woods to the southeast of his clinic, just off of the intersection of US 20 and Ohio Rt 57 south of Elyria. in Lorain County, OH.
Alas, after the Doctor's Clinic had become a several State magnet for the injection painkiller crowd, between July 29th and August 13th of 1982, undercover DEA agents sold the good doctor 22,000 Quaalude's, 7,500 Talwin's, and 7,500 TBZ's, and upon his 3rd buy attempt, the DEA busted him and shut down his clinic forever, forcing prescription painkiller addicts for many miles around to switch their addiction to heroin 30 years ago in Lorain County, so at least that part of the author's story is true, while the "alarm" over Lorain County's "recent" addiction problem is bogus and uninformed.
Here is another link to some photos and part of the story of Dr Faymore, his illegal pain pill clinic, and his unfinished castle, something that I'll bet that Lorain County was hoping wouldn't get resurrected again by this alleged "news" story.
http://brnation.d2sector.net/rh_2008_2_days_in_ohio.html
Another theory would say that inner-city heroin dealers from some or all of the big cities nearby, have branched-out in the hope of earning greater profit than is possible in the overly-competitive big city illegal drug markets that they hail from, and in the smaller cities named in the article, Lancaster and Lorain, OH, both home to large old mills and factories that have been closed in the last decade, these big-city dealers have found customers ready and willing to purchase their wares.
So just like in big time Wall Street capitalism, supply will always move to fill demand if enough profit is available. Would we rather have hard drug addicts buying prescription pain pills for a reasonable price where quality is assured, or would we rather have them doing whatever it takes, including violent criminal behavior, to satisfy their out-of-control craving for another shot of smack on an everyday basis?
The biggest problem that we have with drugs is the "shame" that some people attach to certain drug use. This shame value makes it more difficult to address the problem in a rational, non-moralistic way.
One guy says that heroin is stupid because he likes his scotch. Morally speaking, they are very similar -- recreational drugs that alter your state of mind, damage your body, and create addictive response (to different degrees). Same with cigarettes.
Actually, cigarettes are morally very similar to heroin -- because the level of the addictive component, nicotine, is controlled by the manufacturer. The only purpose of this substance is to give a "high" and get the customer hooked to the product, which is fiercely branded. Yet the public puts heroin users in the same shameful bucket as pedophiles, while smokers get their own section in some restaurants and airports.
Great strides were made when alcoholism was labeled a disease, in the 50's, which allowed us to treat alcohol addicts with the same dignity as cancer patients, instead of just label them as "morally weak" and forget them in the gutter.
America needs to move toward a rational discussion of drugs that takes the shame out of recreational drug use, so we can compare heroin addiction to cigarette addiction, and then start talking about other ways to control use than to throw them in prison.
Relaxing the rules on recreational drugs would significantly reduce the profitability of foreign drug cartels. Decriminalizing pot and lsd altogether (because they are not addictive, and therefore should be treated like alcohol -- a recreational drug to be used carefully, in a social atmosphere, with full knowledge of the impact) would provide an outlet for people's need for recreation, while virtually eliminating the violence associated with the trade. Our cops can then focus their attention on more damaging drugs. And once the shame label is lifted, we can actually start talking to kids in public about the different drugs that are available -- which ones do some damage (pot, lsd, alcohol), which ones are more addictive and can kill, but have some value if used ocassionally (alcohol in higher quantities, high quality cocaine, codiene), and which ones should be avoided altogether [or used very sparingly] because the damage to the body is not worth the value of the recreation, and the risk of addiction is very high (heroin; crack; cigarettes; chrystal meth [aka "speed]).
.
You made your point as succinctly as possible.
Weed and Liquor is all you need. If you need something harder than that then you have some serious problems.
yow, there's nothing better than having your drunk uncle showing up for thanksgiving dinner. at least his stoned son only says "let's eat" ..................... ha
Needing weed or liquor is still a serious problem in my book.
How does an article about a shifting addiction to heroin totally neglect to explain why it is dirt cheap, why the supply, for the first time in history, has passed the demand making it cheaper then it's ever been.
It's called Afghanistan and before the US invaded, it's poppy production was fairly low, now that the Taliban need cash, they are making farmers grow it to support their need for arms.
So first we invade Afghanistan which results in dirt cheap heroin, then we crack down on prescription drugs which leaves users looking for an opiate alternative. This epidemic that costing us a lot of good kids and is nothing more than a byproduct of imperialism an unrealistic obsession to eradicate drugs. Both of which have been complete failures.
And the grand news is we all are paying taxes to support this non-sense and then wondering why we keep sliding into mediocrity while simultaneously getting into unmanageable debt. And to me, this proves one thing, neither political party is capable of running this country.
There are unlimited forms of addiction....as evidenced by some of the posts on here....hate is one big one.
OK Ji G (post3.2) - that was funny. ;P
Scott
Let's not forget the loss of lives along the way.
Scott, did you even read the article? It says this country is flooded with cheap heroin from MEXICO. Mexican black tar heroin is grown and processed in Mexico. The heroin in this country doesn't come from Afghanistan. Or if some does, it's a very small amount.
Look Ruken, there are plenty of addicts who have abusive backgrounds, terminal shame, and destroyed self-esteem driving their addictions, and plenty more people down on their luck like hundreds of thousands of former middle-income autoworkers or steelworkers that live in the Great Lakes region, who today struggle to live depressed marginal lives of poverty, for whom the temporary bliss provided by alcohol or illegal drugs offers a temporary respite away from the drudgery that many suffer from now.
Usually you offer a liberal perspective on other issues, so why the "problem" understanding that quite a bit of America's alcohol and illegal drug problem has obvious legitimate drivers that many too many of us struggle with? There must be a better way than incarceration to deal with these people, almost all of whom would just love to be productive middle-class citizens if they had half a chance again.
Furthermore, recovery from the debilitating effects of child abuse, spousal abuse, and sexual assault is quite possible, and most victims experience at least some improvement in their lives if they are willing to reach-out for help and try hard enough too, and many victims who enter recovery eventually are able to leave their problems behind too. Perhaps we should fund State recovery programs where such victims are able to move forward in their lives in an encouraging environment where their needs are respected, instead of a policy designed to inflict additional trauma hoping to stomp out depression and the symptom of acting inwards manifested by an addiction problem?
Alcoholism and drug abuse are rather common human issues, and those who moralize or insist on acting superior because they do not have such issues are just as much a part of the problem as the actual addicts themselves are.
Wow can't believe an article actually put the blame on RX drugs. They are so good for everyone according to our govt. In Mich. the latest greatest drug is bath salts & k2. They are on the news morning, noon, & night. No mention of heroin or crack anymore. I wonder if all this new technology is really leading to severe loneliness? No one really interacts in real life, just in the pretend world of FB & messaging. It's all real fake.
you should know how stupid most of the people in our state government are...
Really? The government endorses prescription drugs? You know what? I think you're dumb. Have a nice day.
wow, cannot believe how ignorant these comments are
wish i had the time and/or inclination to educate you idiots!!
you don't the slightest idea as to what is going on. this "epidemic" has been going on for the last 15 years and only now is it being addressed. this is NOT the fault of the pharma comanies and the gov't was SO SLOW to react to all the data showing what was happening in the midddle/high schools. when they finally did it was "say NO to drugs"!! and put everyone in prison for even minor infractions due to minimum mandatory sentancing guides by our big brother in gov't. no discretion.
as far as pot/cigs/alchohol? seriously, legalize pot, make tobaccoless cigs and lower the drinking age for beer/wine, doable and an absolute win/win for everyone concerned
oh yeah, and maybe we should actually EDUCATE are children on these things along with sex so that we raise intelligent well informed young adults capable of making sound judgements and decisions without mommy/daddy doing everything
oh btw I work in pain mngt. with these drug. they are not the problem. certain doctors have decided to make their retirement nest on the backs of unsuspecting patients because they are not trained in pain mngt. internists, family practitioners, ortho, physc to name a few. it is almost never a properly trained pain mngt physician, we actually know what we are doing with htese drugs
so grwo up out here and learn about this before you make such ignorant comments
m.0807,
Your "solution" implies that children who are educated and well-informed and capable of making sound judgements and decisions will actually make sound judgements and decisions. I do not subscribe to this theory.
I'm not a trained pain management physician, but I'm not treating these people to pad my retirement nest....the fifty bucks or so I get from state insurance isn't worth the headache if you ask me. I treat them because the pain management folks around here don't have the room to take them.
I know many adult well educated people who abuse drugs/alcohol. So much for that theory.
Addiction is not an illness. It's a choice. No one forces you to take those drugs or drink that booze. You do it all by yourself.
We've tried punishment(and forced rehab) for drug use, and abuse for 100+ years. Its failed. Lets look into something else.
M.0807,
The best post I have seen on this site. Sadly, as long as we keep antiquated laws in place and demonize canibus as a problem instead of looking at the good sides of it with helping chronic pain, this problem is going to continue. The government should listen to doctors instead of having a organization (DEA) that is filling our prisons with people that sell pot. We need a national rethink on this issue, and keep the people 65+ years out of it, all they do is listen to what the government tells them rather then actually looking into the good verses the bad.
The laws definitely need to be revamped. Decriminalize pot but put the same restrictions on it as those for alcohol and tobacco products. Public education as to proper/appropriate use of these things - backed up with actual medically/scientifically determined facts - should be a key component of any public service campaign. More importantly, people should take responsibility for their own conduct as well as that of their children since using these substances is a choice.
Both of my parents are alcoholics and there is a long history of it on my dad's side. Even though my parents were divorced when I was quite young, I still had to deal with the pain of dealing with both of their dysfunctions. I've witnessed the destruction and misery of watching other people ruin their lives and those of others with substance abuse, and went to way too many funerals of friends or their family members who died (and often way too young) as a result of making the choice to /abuse drugs and/or alcohol.
Did I take the time to teach my now-grown kids about this stuff from the time they were little? You're damn straight I did and I backed it up with plenty of facts. Even then, I had one kid who decided to party hard and who was arrested for DUI. I did not bail him out of jail, offer to help pay his fines, or help him out in any way other than to tell him I loved him and wanted him to learn from the experience so as to make better choiced in the future. I was disappointed in his behavior and told him so at the time, but haven't nagged at him about it.
There are certain personalities who are more prone to addictions. If there is a history of alcoholism or other substance use/abuse in your family you might be more prone to developing an addiction than someone whose family is clean of it. For those who are addicted there should be treatment available at an affordable cost. I agree that substance abuse programs should absolutely be mandatory in jail and prisons whether they are publicly or privately run. I also think it should be mandatory for prisoners to get their GEDs, psychological counseling, and learn a trade/job skills in prison so that they will be better equipped to become productive, law-abiding citizens upon their release... which would be a lot more cost-effective in the long run and is just the right thing to do.
Unfortunately most for-profit prison companies are not interested in anything that will keep people off drugs and out of the criminal justice system. Until society decides that its in our best interest to provide help for those with addiction rather than just locking them up, we're going to keep paying through the nose to have them incarcerated. And we're going to keep paying for the crimes and other harms they inflict upon themselves and the rest of us trying to get their fix.
I can't believe how stupid people are! First, the drug problem, I believe, started with Viet Nam with many young people turing to drugs and encouraging others to do the same. Blaiming the Pharma companies or government is 'naaive'. People who do this will be the same people who critize Pharma for not developing new drugs for strokes, cancer, HBP, diabetes, ect! Finally, I also agree with previous post who comment that it's all about 'personal responsibility'. I'm so tried to hearing about the 'poor young people' who get hooked on drugs. My position, if they make that stupid choice, let them live with the results. No one 'forces' a person to snort/put a needle in their arm. Then the result is broken lives, broken bodies, hugh financial cost to the health care system, ect.
LOL, you dip...the people 65+ a few years on both sides are the ones who mainstreamed pot usage. They also are the ones who first used acid and around that time found the short term benefits of speed. The thing of it is that back then we didn't have the stats to prove what effects these drugs would have on society as a whole here in America. Who knew that peace and love would turn into a killing machine? Who knew 16 year olds would be doing heroin?
NJ John, the drug problem has been with us for far longer than the Vietnam war. Why do you suppose most illegal drugs were first outlawed in the early 20th century? Go back and look at the history of "patent medicines" in the 19th century. Most of those were initially based on morphine, then later heroin. We had a substantial number of Americans addicted to opiates way back then. Many were women and children from "good" families -- farmer's wives and sons and daughters.
NJ John - Please explain your statement that the drug problem started with Vietnam. At it's surface, I'm ready to take extreme exception to that comment, but I want to understand your meaning before I lash out. I really hope that you meant that as a time reference and are not blaming the soldiers who fought in that conflict for our current drug issues.
Tbenton; M.0807 must use K2 and Bath Saltz as their drug of choice. They have the highest rate of brain function deterioration.
Aldous Huxley called it "soma" in Brave New World, a book that's even more accurate than 1984 in its portrayal of modern society.
@Ophotfoot....I love what you wrote and believe it 100%!! Who cares what minnsurveyor says....another sheep!!
I been telling people the same thing for a long time but when we say such things people want to call you crazy! I can take it but it is very hard to hear how so many people are brainwashed by everything our government puts out there.....they have everyone believing there is a war on drugs, a crackdown on the pills etc........and somehow it is a never ending war even with all the high tech security we supposedly have out there. It's all about $$$ and keeping the people down so they can better control us. The government are the creators or most drugs on the streets why else is there a never ending supply??
And as Janie-3890481 says now there are the bath salts out there and it is in the news daily.....it's like the media is advertising these bath salts to try to get the young people to run out to these head shops and start using it. How creepy is that? And where the hell did these bath salts come from? Who makes them? And why are they not banned by now?
MattyG...sorry for the misinterperation! In no way was I saying our brave soldiers who fought and died in Viet Nam 'caused' the drug problem. The point I was trying to make was that many young people at home, got involved with protest and drugs and the drug use here seemed to 'explode'. Also, I fully understand the the drug problem started a long time before Viet Nam; my point again was that I believe the war and resulting impact on our young people had a large impact on increased drug use in the country. As a person who saw first hand the treatment our military people received during that war; I continue to 'apologize' to those brave men and women who should have been given a hero's welcome many times over!!!
Gee — I wonder where all that cheap H is being grown? It isn't the fields of Ohio.
We all know where it is being grown. The real question is why are we letting our tax dollars and our sons travel across the globe to protect it's production.
Very, very intriguing ophotfoot, thanks for posting the info. Edo and inthewoods you got it!
People: think about it? Why would the USSR spend 10 years and trillions of dollars in that toilet bowl rat hole in the '80? And now, the US doing the same? Finding terrorists, bringing the Afgans freedom? If it weren't for poppy production do you think anyone would really care about that dump? If you don't know by now, the world is controlled by money?
As a side note, I worked with a very clean-cut, non-drinker, non-smoker several years ago, and was greatly surprised when he told me that him and most soldiers in Viet Nam did heroin. He said a lot of troops reenlisted because they were so addicted to it. It was cheap and easily available.
I suppose if we really knew what the CIA was up to, we wouldn't sleep very well at night.
nearly99 - Did you forget about 9/11? Al-Queda based their operation from Taliban controlled Afghanistan, which is why the US invaded it. Then we stayed in hopes of not making the same mistake we made in the 80's after we helped push the Russians out but didn't help with any infrastructure, therefore leaving the door open for the Taliban. Perhaps we're getting tired of fighting the very same people that we trained 20 years earlier (again). There's lots of reasons for US involvement in Afghanistan besides poppies.
As for the Veitnam heroin comment, your blanket statement is very misleading. There was a drug and opiate problem among enlisted men in Vietnam (fact), but that didn't start developing until after 1970 when we'd already been there several years, nobody wanted to be drafted, and Walter Kronkite effectively lost the war for us by stating that we couldn't win on national television. MOST soldiers in Vietnam DID NOT use heroin or other drugs. MANY who arrived towards the END of the war did.
The perpetrators were Saudis. What have we done to them? Do you really believe this stuff yourself or are you just trying to get other people to buy it?
Thanks for the clarification Matty. Have a great day in Jersey!!!!!
Bunch of idiots!
You can place me on the list of independant voters. The information I am gathering is that the democratic party has an agenda to legalize all drugs and marijuana is only the opening toward their endeavor. This is the democratic party's solution to america's drug problem. All proponents are democratic politicans, the most recent Andrew Cuomo of New York. He does not take into account that marijuana will be the thing to do in High school. The democratic party is promoting drug use and addiction and working against parents trying to keep their children drug free. After the democrats legalize marijuana, cocaine and heroin will be next. We will become a financially bankrupt nation of drug users.
Legalizing all drugs is the only way to control the drugs. I know this is a concept that is hard to swallow but these drugs are already out there. It's harder now for children to get alcohol than it is to marijuana because marijuana is illegal. I suggest checking out LEAP.com.(Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) In short, tax money from drug sales is used to provide treatment to those who want it. Where now can someone addicted to say heroin, oxy, or whatever just walk in and say "I'd like treatment" regardless of ability to pay? I really don't think that anyone is going to say "OH heroin is legal now? I think I'll have some". People who are going to use heroin will, no matter what the law says, and people who don't, wont!
You are naive and delusional if you believe this.
Minn - So you suggest allowing people to do all the drugs legally? Are you serious? Not sure if you read about it, but a guy did an illegal drug and ate another guy's face off. Legalize it, you say? Then pay for treatment facilities so people addicted to drugs, and can buy them because they are legal, will of their own volition enter into rehab. You are on what you want to legalize. The majority of people who enter rehab have done so at the direction of law enforcement. You mean to tell people that those who have the will power of a field mouse, addicted to narcotics (on a large scale), will voluntarily enter rehab to fix their problems? Wow!
mike, who doesent know, you do realize that cigarettes and beer are also illegal for high school students? It wouldnt be tough to treat drugs the same way. Yes it might be the newest trend, but arent some students prone to any types of legal or illegal drugs?
If you want to solve the drug problem, open up government centers in all the major metropolitan areas and distribute them at no charge. The thrill-seekers will be gone because it is no longer illegal. The experimenters can satisfy their curiosity with controlled doses, and the self-destructive idiots can kill themselves off without having to steal my entertainment system in the process. The cost will be less than the cost of the longest unsuccessful war in our history.
I may be wrong, but I think Ron Paul is republicant, just sayin, and he is in favor of legalizing all drugs... go back to your martini
If you want to solve the drug problem, open up government centers in all the major metropolitan areas and distribute them at no charge.
and yet another way to let Big Brother into our lives. Government is the answer for everything for some people, isn't it? Just gives them an easy way to track - and control - people. Yikes, no thanks.
Tony are you saying that the only thing keeping you and other people from doing heroin is the fact that it is illegal? or just other people? Raping a 12 year old is illegal. is the only thing keeping you from doing that is the threat of punishment? or perhaps something greater?
the truth is the threat of punishment is not a real deterrent for drug/alcohol use/abuse.
Also Alcohol is the first "gateway" drug not pot or cigarettes.
Exactly Andrew. I don't believe for a moment that legalizing drugs will somehow magically control their use or distribution.
Has Legalizing alcohol prevented alcohol abuse or drunk driving?
I don't thing so.
I agree that alcohol starts it all. my dad was a alcoholic from the age of 12. It started with his dad, mom , grandmother, ect the family tree just continues. I made the CHOICE not to follow this family curse . legalizing alcohol did not stop the DUI's or abuse. The pill problem is a profit for so many people who are now selling. The gov is not only paying for the Dr. visit its paying for the drugs that's hitting the streets . Ive even been told the elderly are on board to make the extra fast cash . Why work anymore when the gov will pay not only for the Dr.visit , pills, housing , food, even give you the gas card to get to the Dr. Makes me want to get up every morning and do the honest thing and work just to have taxes held out of my check to keep up this insanity.
No, but we no longer have the criminal activity associated with its illegal manufacture and distribution.
Janine
It sounds like you just want to stop recreational intoxication all together. Well, that will never happen and it shouldn't either.
Just because you don't like something does not give you the right to ban it or destroy it.
Personally, I hate religion with a fiery passion and think it destroys more lives and minds than all drugs put together but, that does not make it my right to destroy it or prevent others from rotting their brain with it. Same thing with you and drugs.
JOEY:
Umm...the drug that they're blaming (yes, blaming, as they have no proof yet) is called BATH SALTS and is LEGAL. Bath salts are similar to cocaine, or meth. People are using them a lot, because hey, they're legal. Why go buy some weed, which can send you to prison and show up on drug tests, when you can go to the GAS STATION and spend $20 for a little bit of white powder you can snort to get a high? They need to crack down on these kinds of drugs. There are some like herion, some like cocaine, there are fake ecstacy and xanax pills. It's crazy. Maybe some of the kids are buying these legal imitation drugs, and they are wearing off, so they're going to buy the real thing. Sad.
Janine -
The point of decriminilization isn't to get people to stop. It's to make it a public health issue instead of a criminal justice one. So much money is being wasted on enforcement that could be directed to helping people get clean which is way way more beneficial to everyone than producing more convicts. The long term effects on a society where huge numbers of people have the stigma of being a convicted felon are massive. Less job opportunities, more relapses, more crime, etc etc. There's plenty of actual data out there for those of you interested that shows decriminilization works and doesn't increase use. More countries than just Holland have it.
Janine subscribes to the 'Nancy Reagan' school of thought....just say no.
Pretty useless, hasn't done anything for those kids that are prone to use/abuse drugs; it only works for those kids that wouldn't have tried them anyway. It just gave them a banner to wave in everyone's faces....and fuel the biggest moneypit failure project in American history.
Janine....if you refuse to be realistic, thats fine. Just don't expect the rest of the world to see things through your blinders.
The Democrats do NOT want to legalize all drugs. Marujuana, yes, but there are a number of GOP supporters who think it ought to be legalized too. You don't think that the pharmaceutical companies and other corporate interests aren't bucking to get drugs legalized when they stand to make billions off of it? And these people own our elected officials on both sides of the legislative aisle at both state and federal levels.
Government regulation of marijuana similar to the regulations already imposed on alcohol and tobacco would be a good thing as it would require on-going medical/scientific research to determine effects upon mental/physical health, public service announcements and warning labels, and would require licensing of distributors. Fees and taxes would be collected from distributors and customers would pay sales taxes. The drug cartels and dealers would be effectively cut out in the pot trade. Farmers would have another cash crop and the often dangerous criminals illegally growing pot in our national forests would be put out of business. After the buds and leaves are harvested the rest of the pot plant can be used to make paper, cloth, oil, and other products. And maybe we could finally remove the ridiculous ban on industrial hemp which contains NO hallucenogenic properties and is a vastly more efficient source of fiber for paper than trees and cloth than cotton.
As far as Big Brother goes, we already have that and have had it for at least a decade if not longer. Thanks to the NDAA and its predecessor the Homeland Security, Act US citizens can be taken into custody, held without the Constitutionally-guaranteed rights habeas corpus, legal counsel, even knowing the evidence presented against us, and trial by a jury of our peers. And if sentenced to life in prison or death, there is no appeal allowed. Rendition of US citizens is already a fact. You saw what police and security forces did to some of the Occupy protestors. Watch what happens in the near future when even more people start protesting the emerging corporatocracy that our government is becoming.
It is so unfortunate that legalizing marijuana is the only good trait I can find in the Democratic party.
Except, they don't even want to legalize it anymore, the democratic party has pretty much reverted to the middle right party in response to the repubs downward spiral into far rightwing corporate/theocratic fascism.
I, along with thousands of others got an email from the Obama White House that firmly stated he has ZERO intentetions of EVER legalizeing marijuana and is in fact completely against the idea.
All I could hear in my head while reading it was,
Who cares what I said when I was running for office? You elected me already so @!$%# you! I don't care if I made it sound like I was open to the idea of legalization, here take some more government raids for your trouble.
Who cares if I pushed public health care as the biggest issue while I was running? I'm here to stay now, @!$%# you! Here have some government mandates that force you to give more money to insurance companies for your trouble.
Who knew change was gonna be more of the same conservative bull@!$%# hiding behind a progressive mask?
The saddest part is that I will be forced to vote for the republican in liberal clothes again this time around, because the only other option is magic underwear mittens.
Can we get some real progressives running for office? Or, has greed ruined this country past the point of no return?
Sadly livinginthewoods you and I think exactly the same about our political climate today. I'm so over it.
Prohibition didn't work the first time, and it's not working now. Minnsurveyor has a point.
Congratulations, I wish I could do the same but this stuff drives me nuts.
It's funny when I was a little kid and would go to my grandparents house I would always laugh a my grandfather watching the news and cussing and getting soooo pissed at Regan. Now, here I am full circle in the same damn spot.
I'm not quite as obbsesed as he was with politics though. He used to keep pictures of regan up on the wall directely across from the toilet as a joke. When visitors would ask why on earth he had that damn mans picture hanging in his house, he would say..sometimes I get constipated and looking at that @!$%#s face just makes me @!$%#.
What makes you think it isn't the 'thing to do in High School' already? My impression (have a kid who is in high School) is that's what kids are doing nowadays, more so than drinking alcohol. You see, if they want to get alcohol they have to either steal it (easiest to do this from your parents) or attempt to buy it. Buying it means they need to look 21 (or 30 as many places require you look), unless they found a store that will willingly break the law, or someone to buy it for them and also willingly break the law. Marijuana, however, is bought on the black market and is easy to get. Nobody on the black market cares how old you are. Therefore it is actually easier for kids to get that than it is for alcohol.
Legalizing it will make it easier to control.
Rob is right. I'm 21, so high school wasn't that far off. A very very large number of students were doing it. & people in every 'clique'...also, I went to school in the country, it's not just students in drug addled cities who do it.
OH, and not "all proponents" are democrats. Ron Paul was libertarian, and was one of the biggest voices for legalization (except he wanted ALL drugs decriminalized on the federal level, leaving the states to decide what they wanted and didn't want).
"Everything comes around again; nothing is completely new" Pythagoras of Samos, 6th Century BC
Exactly, Alex, and excellent application of the famous quotation. Nothing, nothing will change besides laws. People want to get high and they will, despite anything anyone tries to do about it.
In that case then give them something that will get them high and not hurt them as badly, and make it legal, and tax it. Such as the drug people used in the book Brave New World. Not that I like to advocate any drug use at all but someone getting high from Marijuana seems a hell of a lot better than on Heroine or another hard drug, especially if it's being taxed. Of course any drug will damage the body to some extent, I've never heard of anyone dying immediately from some weed.
and when they get bored with weed, or it doesn't get them high enough? On to the next drug. I know - been there, done that. I've had friends who wrecked their lives with cocaine and heroin. Not implicitly saying smoking weed leads to harder drugs - but it can happen, i've seen it.
Eric, you could say the same about alcohol and that is legal. People could just as easily get bored with getting drunk and move on to harder drugs. I've seen that happen as well. Alcohol impairs the brain just as marijuana does and also damages the body yet we continue to sell that.
Eric the "gateway effect" is pure bunk.
I don't think that's true. Not saying that marijuana shouldn't be legal, but it alters your brain in a way that alcohol doesn't, which is more akin to what harder drugs (such as heroine) do.
Water is a gateway drug. Anyone who ever became an alcoholic, a pothead or a heroin addict first drank water.
Rob? What??? Have you ever seen someone going through the DT's (delirium tremens)? Periodical alcoholics take one drink. They are goners after the first drink! They drink until they are so sick they cannot stand up and are in the bathroom heaving after two weeks of getting more and more pickled downing bottle after bottle! They have a genetic predisposition and chemistry that makes it so that alcohol affects them just like Heroin. If you have ever lived with one of these people tell me about what they look and smell like after vomiting for three days until they are so dehydrated they are taken away in an ambulance! Their whole nervous system is a mess, their brain is fried for life, they continue to use chronically, and they die early. They eventually die of dementia or sooner of alcohol poisoning, or suicide.
Have you ever heard of a person who smokes the occasional joint dying this way? I can see a tobacco addiction killing one, or a combo of tobacco and pot leading to eventual lung cancer or emphysema, but the occasional or even the chronic use of weed is not addictive although for some, it may become habit forming and these are people who may have a predisposition chemically in their natural make up for this to happen but this is not very often the rule with Marijuana used by itself - (tobacco is more addictive than pot and harder to stop using!!!) , nor does one have a hang over and vomiting the morning after from dehydration and a poisoned and pickled brain. Also, you do not see them out Jonesing, getting all paranoid and crazy, or getting that desperately needed next BIG fix either! Why do so many think it is so great to get high? Because they can abandon their inhibitions and have better sex? Hmmm. Are we really so hung up? Hmmm?
Also, different drugs affect the physical body and the highs are completely different. Some just deaden the brain and kill all feelings and thoughts like crack cocaine or meth. Others put you into a stupor or a drunken state. Others speed you up and make you all hyper. Others take you to the rainbow movies. You cannot classify either the high, or the addictive or non addictive characteristics or lump any of them together! If kids experiment with "tripping out", let it be a safe experience with a trusted wise and loving kind elder where lessons are learned and there is no temptation to abuse a substance!
As for the abusive and addictive poisons, you are missing nothing but pain! It is just stupid, unhealthy and self destructive, for what? To be cool? Who defined cool to you? Better stop and figure out if that person is really so cool!!! Life is a long song. It is an amazing trip. Life should be celebrated while you can. You will die soon enough some day. Wake up! Liberate yourself and have a longer healthier and happier life by staying away from the poison! When you say no you win the sneaky war - the one of infiltrating and ruining a bunch of naive people by vampire methods - draining and weakening them, temptation and the use of hypnosis and tabu by tempting and then poisoning them (turning them against themselves). No weapons are even needed. These are cult tactics and ancient methods of divide and conquer that have taken down whole empires in the past, oh yes, those pretty little flowers...those toxic liquids...that wafting cancerous smoke, yes indeedy. Either you kill it or eventually, it kills you. Remember that before it grows and gets too strong like the snake it is, and get the Hell outa Dodge. No bigggie...Just my opinion from lots of experience around the crap for years when younger, watching many not make it, and lucky to be here to yap about it, first person. If this can help even one young person from falling into that stupid trap, it will have been worth the effort at sharing these words.
Funny how we always hear about shortages of cancer drugs or immunization drugs but there is always plenty of oxy and other pain killers popular on the street. It's the same reason they don't want marijuana legalized. They won't make money on it!
The drug companies make sure that those cancer drugs are in short supply to justify the insane prices. They also don't want people getting ahold of them too early, before the cancer spreads to some other part of the body. Gotta keep those customers coming back for more!
I have never abused drugs. I don't like the taste or after affects of alcohol. I would like to be able to get some sort of pain medication relaiablly for my back. Went back to the pain specialist yesterday and he did a spinal block that increased my pain and left me nauseated. The greatly regulated pain medication market is due to irresponsible people that do not take care of the medications by selling them, leaviing them within reach of their children, etc. I do not want to be "hooked on drugs". I would like to have an hour or two out of pain once or twice a week so I can do small things around the house or shop for groceries.
However, with things the way they are, it does not appear that there will be even a respite from my pain. I will live with it until I can no longer tolerate it.
Thank you to all that have made it impossible to get real pain meds available for those that need it. Have to love all of the regulations in place now. Please go to hell. Thank you.
Oxy and other pills are extremely cheap to produce. Most are just powders compressed into pill or capsule form and will last basically forever. The same machinery can produce a countless variety of different pills without requiring any refits or extra investments.
Most Cancer and Immunization drugs are not shelf stable and have relatively short lives of effectiveness. Mass producing them is not viable in most cases.
It's kind of hard to make a profit if the patient dies and no longer needs the drug, so to infer supplies are purposefully shorted is inaccurate.
I forget who said it, but its so true. "The money isn't in the cure, its in the treatment..... "
Chris Rock said it, and he is right!
These people are the reason those of us who NEED the strong pain meds for legit medical reasons can't get them.
Yep, leave it to addicts to f**k things up for everyone.
KatGirl, I couldn't agree more.
I have to pass urine tests to get my prescription painkillers because of all of this abuse. I legitimately need painkillers in order to sleep and to work but have to beg my doctor for them to help aleviate my chronic pain which is getting much worse with age. I have to jump through hoops to prove that I need and am not abusing my prescription even though my medical history shows my chronic pain is continually getting worse over the past 25 years. I thank the addicts that abuse these drugs for making it so difficult to legally get what I need.
My wife suffers from chronic pain resulting from a failed back operation, and has also contracted Trigeminal Neuralgia, aka the suicide disease. This year the formulary price for MS-Contin went from a $7 copay to $76, putting the one thing that helped her with the almost continuous pain out of reach for us financially. Percocet and Oxycodone (same thing, I think), are still inexpensive, but the pharmacies have taken to substituting a generic that is weaker and less effective. Add to that the monthly visits to the pain specialist (necessary for urine testing and Rx refill - they will only issue 30 days worth), and it starts to get pretty expensive, and makes it difficult for her to function. Maybe I'm off-base, but it seems like every time our government gets in the game, things become more complex, expensive, and frustrating for the upright citizens. I love America, but there has to be a better way.
Right.....
The corrupt lawmakers and enforcers getting rich off of everybodies pain are not the ones to blame, it's those damn pathetic addicts. Cause they are the ones writing the @!$%#ed up laws that make it hard to get your medicine. Oh....wait, maybe you are both just victims of the same crime.
I would rather see 100 people who don't need it, get it and hurt themselves than to see 1 person who needed it, go without cause of abunch of conservative government bull@!$%#.
I remember when you could buy codein over the counter like asprin. It needs to be that way again. The pain meds that they sell over the counter are a @!$%#ing joke! They are nothing more than liver toxic placebos.
Typical of cowardly conservatives to demonize business and financial regulations as unconstitutional job killers but steadily push any law that walks all over a persons personal liberties. Out of the boardroom and into the bedroom, that is the current conservative agenda for government. @!$%# y'all!
Eat the rich!
you're really upset about this, woodsman.
If you talking about me, yes I am.
I am so sick of victims in the country pointing the blame at the other victims instead of the perpetrators of the goddamn crimes! And, it happens all the time over MANY different issues. Sick I tell 'ya!
All I see are a bunch of self absorbed, condescending, hypocrites!
The real money is in incarceration, which is why there are so many for-profit prisons operating and more on the way.
Livinginthewoods - What the hell are you talking about? The very idea of liberalism is government control over as much as possible in order to protect us from ourselves (because we're all too stupid to live with our own choices). Conservatism is in favor of smaller government. A true conservative, libertarian, tea-partier (whatever else) would agree that there is too much control of pharmeceuticals.
I would agree with IRESPOND, except that if it were legal and 'okay' to do, it would likely draw a very huge amount of our children right into it, since all their other friends are now legally doing it, and now it would be 'legal' and thus okay. I fear for my own child in that respect.
Rather, I would prefer to use extreme measures. Perhaps once, send for treatment. Maybe a second time. Third time, I'd prefer a hanging. Keep them away from our children before they influence yet another child into a life of addiction.
And Matty is right about the governmental controls. The drug laws are the 'liberal' laws out trying to help those poor addicts. Along with the gun laws, and the extra government in California trying to prevent Jewish parents from doing cirumcisions, and preventing soda and candy from being sold in schools, and making laws saying that a happy meal has to have a certain amount of nutrition.
The real money is in incarceration Allison and now judges are allowed to own the "for profit" prisons so the likely hood that anyone is going to treat addicts decreases even more. And the incarcerated can get drugs in every prison in America so there is no sign that anything will change.
You got it Allsion. Think of all the government monies that goes into the many societal facets of drugs and usage of drugs. Think of all the people who would be out of work if drugs were legal and we took a part of that money to build more free or near free treatment centers. There's an entire economy out there making a living off drugs.
Well, first off, I don't agree with your definition of liberalism.
As to conservatives being in favor of smaller government, I agree that many conservative individuals likely do believe in smaller government but, the politicians that you elect do not display any of that in their actions. They pass laws left and right that limit individual liberties while at the same time undoing as much industrial, financial, and environmental regulation as they can get their hands on.
If you think that I am a mindless democrat sheep, please read post#7.18
So it all brings us back to the reality that BOTH parties are in fact in favor of big government regulation and big government spending. They just don't agree on what to regulate and what spend the money on.
And, if you are in favor of drug prohibition, bans on same sex marriage and bans on abortion, then you are in fact in favor of big government.
Don't call it something it's not just because you would prefer the government meddling in your home than in your pocket.
Oh really?
Sure, it's a small government as long as you don't have an abortion, aren't gay, aren't Latino, aren't an Evolutionists, don't belong to a union, aren't poor or on assistance, etc. etc. etc.
The new GOP slogan: "Shrinking government just enough so that it fits in your vagina"
In favor of less federal government. Same sex marriage, abortion, etc needs to be determined by the state governments.
We are full of two things here in Washington State, Illegal Aliens and Drugs, When you have such a large group of Illegals from Mexico in a demographic area (Sanctuary State) this is what you have increased heroin and Methamphetamine Addiction In the last five years we are seeing a thousand percent increase in the use of these two drugs coming from south of the border, As they Economy goes further in the hole, We are seeing more and more every day.
Turning a blind eye to the Illegal Immigration problem in this Country is killing our children and destroying our Economy, We have two plagues Illegal Aliens lowering our wages and taking our Jobs and the drugs that they sell killing our Children, In fact is this not just one problem?
So, you're blaming the fact that these people decided to use drugs on illegal immigration?? What a cop-out. People become addict because they start using drugs. If people offered them rattling snakes, I bet they'd know not to take them. They chose this path. If you really followed the flow of money I'd bet that it would get lighter the higher up you got. Illegal immigrants can't afford to make or ship drugs anywhere if they working for such low wages. These kids in Ohio and Washington state decided to take the drugs because Curt Cobain did. they have no one to blame for their bad decisions but themselves. Stop pushing the blame off on others and examine your own part in this situatioin. And take advantage of any help you can get.
Yea,,U.S.citizen,,when I lived in Yakima,,law enforcement was always busting "rolling meth labs",,up in the Cascades,,in little towns,that you would have never suspected such a thing,,and a majority of those labs,,were being operated by illegals.There more drugs in Yakima,,then there are here in Atlanta,,and that my friend is hard to believe.Down here,,we never,,and I mean NEVER have the number of drive-bys that we had in Yakima,,OH,,we have gangs,,and big ones,,in the inner city,,but you just don't here of that type of shootings at least not to the degree,,that we had in Yak.I have friends that live in some of the little mountain towns,,,Cle-Elum,Ellensburg,Tieton,,and it's scary,,the number of drug related issues that these towns have,,S-C-A-R-Y
ab68
We had the problem in our family, We got him off the Drugs, It has been Two years of hell, We helped bust one of the largest Mexican drug dealer gangs in Wa State, Which happens yearly, All were Brown all the way back to Mexico, So you really do not have a clue about what you are saying except that it was his poor choice.
Citizen,
I agree that the government needs to crack down on illegal immigration. But, do not believe the bull@!$%# about the majority of heroin coming up from mexico. It is coming from the middle east and our tax dollars are paying to import it and our kids are dying to protect it.
I live in TX and we are INUNDATED with illegal aliens and pot is cheaper and easier to get than in any other state in the country but, you rarely see heroin. Don't get me wrong, it is there but, MUCH less common than weed, coke, meth, or pills. And it seems to be coming down from the north not up from Mexico like pot.
Actually a lot of the pot in Texas are grown in Texas by Texans in small towns using greenhouses and in secluded and very remote forests. Everybody wants to point the finger at other people when it comes to drugs but the profiteers from the trade have always been home grown. They are the ones that control distribution.
There is Mexican black tar heroin and then there is the type from the Middle East, All of this was traced to Mexico and from Mexican Nationals.
It really has to be harder for someone to come from another Country like Mexico and get a Ten dollar an Hour Job, Within weeks have a new Ford F-150 pick-up, Have your wife and kids Imported and her driving a New Cadillac Escalade within Months without some kind of second income wouldn't you think?
Seems like law enforcement would pick up on this, But here in Northern TJ they just seem to ignore it.
For the first time in my career, I have seriously considered giving up my DEA license and putting a large sign in the front lobby of my office that says "We cannot prescribe C-II controlled substances" just to keep these people out of my office.
"In Illinois, for example, researchers at Roosevelt University have found a spike in young suburban heroin abusers"
I see what you did there - but couldn't you resist?
i seen that too.....you must know junkie termanology
?
We need to treat the user, not just lock them up. People who are suppliers should be executed. They are profiting from knowingly causing the pain & death of others.
I concur. It's hard to move a supply of drugs when you're dead.
I think even the small time dealers should be. I know a few dealers who's clients have died in my small town area. Of course the drugs killed them, but they got the drugs from someone, the old "what killed them gravity or the ground" saying.
You are ignorant of the fact that every time a dealer is taken down, another will fill thier place. There is an unlimited supply, therefore our war on drugs can never succeed. People who want to use drugs use them, that is a fact! Stop trying to "Save" everyone. We are all born with our own minds and free will, if we want to destroy our own lives then so be it. It is not your bussiness, and you do not have the right to tell other people how to live.
This break this down.
Many young people growing up can be stupid. They are influenced by peer pressure and oportunity.
As long as people are self destructive and or make stupid decisions drug dealers will take full advantage of it.
Nature's way of thinning the herd.
S....Last I looked it was the humans that were thinning out all the herds.
The fact that heroin is so cheap means that the supply is plentiful, in fact it seems most illegal drugs are easy to obtain. Our war on drugs is a colossal failure, it has made criminals out of the users and the suppliers are getting rich. I would also argue that the suppliers are not the type of people we want to get rich, just look at Mexico. This is giving very bad people a lot of power, the War on Drugs has cost us more than any treatment program would have. Cops love this war however, its job security and give a lot of power to them.
During the Bush years, doctors were prescribing vicodin, oxycotin, percocets...too freely.Medicare Part D was the new Gov't Cow... Wonder which president enacted the Medicare drug policy...Was it BUSH? Guess he had to keep a couple good friends happy..
The Presidents are this Country's worst Enemies.
Heroin was introduced into the United States in the 19th Century as a "cure" for the morphine addicts that were created by the Civil War. If you don't like Bush, just say so.
I'd include the legislative and judicial branches, too.
It's time for some action. String the dealers up and make an example out of them. Chain the addicts to a bed in a padded cell for a month and let them withdraw cold turkey. Get rid of this poison by force.
The problem up north is that the jail system is a revolving door. Dealer goes in and comes out a week later and keeps dealing. Hard to deal when you're dead.
You sir are an idiot! The drugs don't make people into criminals, the laws do. If you want to get rid of the dealers, make drugs legal. You don't see alot of black market alcahol sales, do you? The laws force people to associate with drug dealers, who are often dangerous criminals.
Wish I lived in the part of the 'north' you're talking about. The drug dealers where I live get way more than a week in prison....and way more than sex offenders! The drug USERS get more time than some drunk drivers who have caused permanent injury or death. What state do you live in?
Dew has probably never even been up north, but he knows ALL about it cause somebody else told him so. My guess would be his preacher or his boss, that is how most rednecks get their political info. I live in rural TX so I see it all the time.
One might be able to recover from addcition but sadly, the "look" remains forever.
It's actually NOT hard being young and being clean. Not one person I knew growing up has gotten hooked on anything. Yes, if you're LOOKING for it it's there. But WHY would you be looking for it? Congrats to all the folks creating the demand, causing so much loss of life in this ridiculous 'drug war'. However, I'm all for legalizing pot and cocaine, for starters. Americans just HAVE to get high. Alcohol is a hundred times worse and we legalize it. Let's stop our money going across the border, keep it here, and tax it. POOF. No more drug war. Rehab clinics, yes. We've created another industry, and the jobs that come with it. A win-win for everybody.
this is the weakest end of our society. People grew up much poorer in the thirties.. had to suffer much more being that these amenities were not here.. had to survive..how did a portion of our people become so incredibly weak minded..
They have more free time and disposable income .... the very things that are touted as "social progress".
cd - this is my question too. Why are so many driven to getting high? I understand that times are tough right now, but relatively speaking, our standard of living in the US is still very high. Why are we so unhappy that people seek to "escape". I think it is important to uncover the reasons our young people are trying drugs in the first place in order to help those who are addicted and try to prevent others from becoming addicted. It seems the more material items we supply the younger generations with, the more unhappy they actually are.
I think there is just a portion of people, a percentage, that have an addictive mind or personality. They are unhappy people who are looking for something to change the way they feel, and once they find it, they can't stop themselves. Whether it be drugs or alcohol or some other habit, they really cannot stop. They just go from one thing to another seeking something that will make them feel better. Many of them are brilliant. Many of them are super creative people, but they have a flaw in that they are easily addicted. It doesn't have anything to do with how poor or wealthy you are or how much free time you have. I think some of it might have to do with your self esteem and how you view the world, whether you feel people care about you. Children who feel that people don't really care about them are more likely to become drug addicts. So even though you look at a lovely home and wonder how those kids could end up as heroin addicts, perhaps the parents are favoring one child to the exclusion of another. Or perhaps they give them material things but don't communicate with them, don't make them FEEL loved. I think that if you really want to make kids feel loved, you had better think about giving them less and caring for their hearts more. These are just my thoughts.
we created a society where we wanted our children to have better than us, which was a good idea on paper, but poorly executed. instead of actually teaching them what that meant, we instead tried to shield them from anything bad so they wouldn't have to suffer or deal with adversity like the previous generation, we give them more, etc. but don't teach them to appreciate it; and how can they when that's all they know? So as a result, they are totally unprepared for the real world, often spoiled, and don't have the perspective to understand why that doesn't work later in life. All this parental control censorship stuff simply takes the responsibility out of parenting, but doesn't actually teach kids anything. Just like the "Just Say No" campaign. I remember the useless DARE program. They didn't teach us why drugs were bad, just that they were bad; or why we shouldn't use them, just that we shouldn't. And as any parent should know (I'm not a parent yet, I'm pregnant with my first child, but I remember well enough to know based on experience on the other side), when you simply tell a kid no, they want to know why. If you don't actually give them a reason, they become curious. Taboo things simply become temptations, because why wouldn't they? Especially since there are so many parents who operate on a "do as I say, not as I do" theory; and when you teach them that about something harmless, it seems the same about something not so harmless - because they have no comparison and no reason to not think that way.
Orthehighway and JLS, thank you for a sincere and caring attempt to find a solution person to person, not some jaded, skeptical, cool, cute or smart allecky sound bite. Is it a case of societal attention deficit disorder, selfishness, and a lack of love and patience?
You have both brought up some realistic and good points here. Never give up on surviving, on caring, on straight talking and walking the talk. Stop and make the extra moment's effort. Pay attention. Never say do as I say and think your kid is so much a hassle that they do not deserve a why or a how. Take the time to get your priorities straight.
The reason why you do all those important grown up things out there is so that you can earn and have what you work for right? What is in front of your face is your real treasure today, your living resource. Keep it alive. Some parents can tell you they didn't and guess what, their children are GONE! They have lost them while climbing those social mountains. Our children and children's children are more precious than all the mammon in the world. Keep well and safe. Don't use and Don't get used.
JLS congratulations on your first child. Becoming a parent is a trip but you seem to have a handle on being a good parent. What you describe is really nothing more than the most basic child psychology. That is to get a child to do something with any certainty tell them not to do it and not give them a reason. Interestingly we just don't seem to outgrow that little psychological tidbit. Here is an amusing anecdotal story I heard a few years ago.
It seems that there was a fairly popular night club in Las Vegas in the 1950s. Great entertainment and wonderful atmosphere but the owners had a decidedly off color sense of humor. They had noticed for quite some time that the ladies almost always went to the ladies room in pairs or groups and seldom went alone. So they decided to try an experiment. They had an artist paint a full size mural of a really great looking male nude on the wall complete with all of the appropriate equipment in full detail. However they put a discretely placed metal fig leaf over the "package" with a henge at the top so that it could be lifted up. It also had a switch on it that was connected to a set of bells and horns and light flashers just outside the restroom.
Well I guess you figured out what happened. When they went in with another lady or in a group nothing happened. However every now and again a single lady would enter and in better than half of the cases the alarm system would go off attesting to that particular lady's curiosity. LOL The really funny part was watching them try to sneak out of the restroom without being noticed.
That story kind of illustrates the fallacy of a "just say no" approach to controlling the use of anything or the practice of any activity. It symbolizes the degree that we are influenced by our peers. When in pairs or groups they universally avoided peeking for fear of being considered un-ladylike and perverse by their companions. (morality was quite a bit different in the 50s) However when they were alone and thought no one would ever know many of them peeked.
Just as in that case where a peer group brought about proper social behavior of the day also in the case of bad behavior such as tobacco, alcohol, or drug use it can be encouraged by a wild group of peers who are into anything and everything. That is why you must arm your kids with sufficient moral ammunition to allow them to say no with conviction because they know why they are doing so. In some cases their reasons being articulated may even convince someone in their peer group to back away from risky behavior.
Kids don't walk out of the womb with 40 year old judgement and intelligence. Those items have to develop as the child grows. Unfortunately too many parents seem to expect their children to automatically have fully developed adult minds capable of comprehending why they shouldn't take risks. If that were true we wouldn't have kids sniffing glue or huffing aerosol paint or ingesting bath salts for crying out loud. LOL Somehow we have to reverse the notion that the drug culture is something that is cool and hip like it has been depicted in so many movies and television shows.
The hardest part is getting people to back away from the stacks of money that can be made from the illegal drug trade. IMO the best tack would be to simply decriminalize all drugs and implement a plan similar to the one in place in Portugal. That would be a first big step in reducing the influence of the South American and Mexican drug cartels. Of course there is not guarantees but clearly what we are doing now is not working either. This approach is at least producing some positive results and has for some time.
If people want to get high they will, you can ban all the stuff you want but the user is in control, theres always a replacement. When thinking about hard drugs like heroin, it makes it seem silly that pot is illegal.
Interesting that the way society and law enforcement see it is that only minorities abuse and deal drugs so they are the ones most likely to be arrested and jailed for drug-related crimes. When statistics show that drugs are aboused by the majority in vastly greater numbers--by a factor of 10 or more--than minorities but they don't seem to face the same criminal justice effect. They get to tell it on investigative news and get treatment. It is a moral indictment of society.
4luvssake, the statistics you are looking at are for USERS not dealers. Do you think the ratio of dealers is anywhere near the same? Users are not going to face the same criminal consequences as a dealer.
You have to look into it. Drug abuse in small town America, Nebraska, Iowa, Tenneessee, Idaho, Montana, Ohio, Penn, Illinois, etc., is epidemic. In some of these towns, they grow pot in full view of law enforcement. Who deals it to the white community? Mostly other whites that's who. But the focus is on the small pocket of minorities in large cities because they are over-monitored and over policed. While there is hardly any monitoring of these communites where the selling and abuse of drugs is rampant. Who is the dealer in the article? Some of these communites have very low minority population. People never consider that the majority makes up more than 240 million of America's population. But we spend all the money casing 85 million and leave the 240 million to police themselves like in an honor rule.
I was speaking more of the hard drugs like Heroin, Cocaine, and Meth. These drugs are predominately dealt by minorities, since the major distribution channels are run by street gangs (meth is more equal due to the biker aspect, but then again so is the incarceration statistics for that particular drug). Pot is an entirely different story. I don't believe it is policed nearly as heavily for one thing.
I don't think drug addiction is limited by age, race or income. You'll find it everywhere.
I heard from a person who is an addict that if you put oxcy pill form 40s or 80s into the freezer for 1 hour you can still crush them no problem.
I use to be on Percocet 8-10 a day for 2 years and trust me they are very hard to get off.
I now only take T 3s for my back that was curved during a crushing accident at work years ago.
All I can say to those who use pain killers for fun or even if needed, make sure you can handle the width drawl because it's hell trust me.
I stop taking them cold turkey, and for about 5 days I was in complete hell.
Never again I told my DR would I take anything stronger then T 1s or T 3s f---k that other crap.
It will destroy your kidneys, liver, and turn you into a strung out junky with Tolerance and dependency.
amen bro!!! i have a so called dr who constantly wants to give me perks for back pain......i have told him i dont like the after affects constipation..stoned felling.....though i smoke marijauna now to ease the pain........tell ya what it works.........and i dont get the side affects like other medicine........and i dont get addicted to the marijuana......sucks i have to find peolpe to by it but its well worth it.....
And the other side of the coin, doctors are reluctant to prescribe drugs for cancer patients,surgery patients, and others who have severe, debilitating conditions that require lots of pain meds because lawmakers have decided, in their usual wisdom, they are going to legislate control THEIR way. It's absolute hell to watch your love one suffer through unbearable pain because someone is afraid, and rightfully so, that they are going to lose their license it they prescribe pain meds. When someone is dying, what difference does it make it they become addicted? I would bet not one single lawmaker, who keeps piling laws on top of laws, has stood by and watched someone they love suffer this way. Laws are only made for other people
@LadyS*m: total bull@!$%#. Pain management is de rigeur for any acute condition, including cancer treatment and surgical pain management. What doctors don't like is prescribing pain killers for soft tissue injuries ("back pain") and for a good medical reason: they CREATE JUNKIES. But many do it anyway.
Watch Intervention sometime. 75% of the junkies there started out IN A MEDICAL SETTING.
If YOUR doctor is afraid of losing his license, there's probably something else going on which you're not aware of.
Well said Lady!
This is new? I don't think so!
13 years ago it wasn't new. Perscription pills to powder is nothing new. You do have to be able to afford it. Oxy's went for $55 a pill then and then those pills weren't enough then to powder. I wasn't a taker, simply not my gig. It ruins people.
It is an epidemic for more well off white people? Maybe that's new but I doubt that as well.
What are the News Media's trying to do? What is their agenda?
all the news media's have a new agenda that I will agree with but I can't quite figure out what it is? If its political they really think their bases are blind. Go back to the drawing board. Don't give me Fox News is better. Lmfao!
Cosmetic drugs are new and very very destructive make the big H look like a lollipop.