Mother’s Little Helper Has Become America’s Big Problem

Townhall.com ^ | March 21, 2018 | Bob Barr

[Kaslin]

Is tonight’s dinner giving you heartburn? You’re in luck; there is a pill for that. Do you have high blood pressure? There’s a pill for that, too. How about going bald? Restless legs? Help in bed? Thinning eye lashes? Yes, yes, yes, and…yes – all maladies solved with the help of prescription drugs. In modern medicine today, there seems to be nothing that cannot be cured with prescription or over-the-counter remedies. Simply turn on television during a big game or an evening news program, and you’ll catch the latest drug ad from Astrazeneca, Merck, or Pfizer, hawking a treatment for whatever ails you.

While the expansiveness of today’s treatment options is good for clinical care, we as a society have been conditioned to expect that all of life’s problems are solved with a small pill and a sip of water.

Is it any wonder then, that we have an opioid epidemic?

The Rolling Stones presaged America’s obsession with pharmaceutical “therapy” in songs such as “19^th Nervous Breakdown” and “Mother’s Little Helper,” recorded in the mid-1960s; decades before today’s crisis. “Mother needs something today to calm her down,” the song goes; “and though she's not really ill, there's a little yellow pill; she goes running for the shelter of a mother's little helper.” The pill referenced in the song is thought to be Miltown (meprobamate), a precursor to Valium and Xanax; a psychotropic drug with properties of a tranquilizer, and once used to treat everything from alcoholics to stressed-out housewives and Hollywood’s elite. According to Andrea Tone, a pharmacology historian, Miltown “normalized the notion that people who didn't have serious illnesses, who are just riding the roller coaster of the vagaries of life could pop a pill,” and be cured; a cultural mindset Tone says has become “enduring.”

Enduring, indeed. Today, the pharmaceutical industry spends an estimated $6 billion a year marketing its products; with roughly two-thirds of that on television advertisements. As a society, we have gone far beyond simply accepting prescription drug treatment as normal; it is now relentlessly pounded into our heads everywhere we turn. Paired with today’s cultural demand for instantaneous gratification and impatience with even momentary delay, the opioid epidemic was a perfect storm just waiting to finally break.

Clinically speaking, opioids are a popular treatment option because of their low cost and effectiveness in pain management; decreasing pain transmission along nerve fibers, while providing patients a relaxed feeling. Unfortunately, the very reasons that make the drugs a legitimate treatment option for pain management, have given rise to its illegitimate use as an escape mechanism for people not suffering from physical pain but rather, as Tone mused, from “the vagaries of life.”

This psychological dependency on opioids to take a break from life’s problems, coupled with the physical changes to the brain’s chemistry that makes them so potentially addictive, means opioids do represent a dangerous recipe for chronic addiction if not carefully monitored by a physician. As a result of the government’s recent crackdown on opioid abuse, they have become both harder to obtain legally and more expensive on the black market; thereby causing addicts to turn to a far more dangerous substance -- heroin.

Enduring, indeed. Today, the pharmaceutical industry spends an estimated $6 billion a year marketing its products; with roughly two-thirds of that on television advertisements. As a society, we have gone far beyond simply accepting prescription drug treatment as normal; it is now relentlessly pounded into our heads everywhere we turn. Paired with today’s cultural demand for instantaneous gratification and impatience with even momentary delay, the opioid epidemic was a perfect storm just waiting to finally break.

Clinically speaking, opioids are a popular treatment option because of their low cost and effectiveness in pain management; decreasing pain transmission along nerve fibers, while providing patients a relaxed feeling. Unfortunately, the very reasons that make the drugs a legitimate treatment option for pain management, have given rise to its illegitimate use as an escape mechanism for people not suffering from physical pain but rather, as Tone mused, from “the vagaries of life.”

This psychological dependency on opioids to take a break from life’s problems, coupled with the physical changes to the brain’s chemistry that makes them so potentially addictive, means opioids do represent a dangerous recipe for chronic addiction if not carefully monitored by a physician. As a result of the government’s recent crackdown on opioid abuse, they have become both harder to obtain legally and more expensive on the black market; thereby causing addicts to turn to a far more dangerous substance -- heroin.

Ultimately, however, America’s drug crisis – with opioids and drugs more generally – will continue so long as we as a society believe popping a “little helper,” is a normal response to the non-medical problems in our lives.

[thoughtomator]

> The Rolling Stones presaged America’s obsession with pharmaceutical “therapy” in songs such as “19th Nervous Breakdown” and “Mother’s Little Helper,” recorded in the mid-1960s; decades before today’s crisis.

Pretty sure King Crimson had them beat in the predicting-the-future-with-classic-rock department with “21 Century Schizoid Man”.

[billorites]

There are pills that make you happy.
There are pills that make you blue.
There are pills to kill our streptococci.
There are pills to cure your cockeye too.
There are folks whose pills have made them healthy.
There are folks whose pills have cure their chills.
But the folks whose plls have made them wealthy
Are the folks who make all the pills.

[heights]

Let’s just go back to Neanderthal days, problems solved

[bennowens]

What about the fact that most of the recent mass murderers have recently been on psychotropic medications? The media says nothing...

[txnativegop]

How long before we relearn which plants have pharmaceutical properties?

Not Sarcasm, just a realistic question.

that level of technology, every one dies before 40 no thanks.

18th or 19th century perhaps, but not 30,000 years.

[Boogieman]

Neanderthal medical ad:

“Club to head fix all problems!*”

*May cause dizziness, slobbering, uncontrollable bowel movements, stuttering, shortness of breath, blurred vision, seizures, lack of motor control, internal hemorraghing, numbness, slurred speech, facial tics, and premature death. Consult your local witch doctor before any course of treatment.

[Socon-Econ]

To hear Trump talk, our problem with pills is not caused by shrinks and a receptive public, but by street hoods and Mexican illegals. Execute the hoods but leave the psychiatric profession free to peddle its pill-for-everything approach.

[jonno]

One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don’t do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she’s ten feet tall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIyMBuM5AVw

[Colinsky]

Let’s just go back to Neanderthal days, problems solved

[eyeamok]

a result of the government’s recent crackdown on opioid abuse, they have become both harder to obtain legally and more expensive on the black market; thereby causing addicts to turn to a far more dangerous substance -- heroin.

And the truth of the new war on Opiods comes out!! The Legal Pills have been cutting into their Action in the illicit Drug Trade.

Seeds of Terror

How heroin is bankrolling the Taliban and al Qaeda.
http://failuremag.com/feature/article/seeds_of_terror/#ixzz35QhbgQ8K

Drug shipments off of Africa have “significantly increased since 2009”
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=data/international/2014/June/international_June26.xml&section=international

Drug trafficking, kidnapping fund al Qaeda By Rachel Ehrenfeld, Special to CNN -May 4, 2011
http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/05/03/ehrenfeld.al.qaeda.funding/

Qatar used as transit point by drug traffickers: Expert 2013
http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/news/qatar/253421/qatar-used-as-transit-point-by-drug-traffickers-expert-

Obama secretly released high risk Taliban terrorists to the care of Qatar. (Qatar is where the US established for Taliban headquarters in 2011.)
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-us-offers-the-taliban-a-new-mideast-headquarters-2011-9

Islamic Revolutionaries under any name you google are tied to the Heroin trade along with most other drugs, as well as human trafficking.
http://www.newsweek.com/2013/06/12/talibans-new-role-afghanistans-drug-mafia-237524.html

Heroin production hits record levels in Afghanistan - study
http://rt.com/news/156128-afghanistan-drugs-usa-heroin/

Drug War? American Troops Are Protecting Afghan Opium. U.S. Occupation Leads to All-Time High Heroin Production
http://www.globalresearch.ca/drug-war-american-troops-are-protecting-afghan-opium-u-s-occupation-leads-to-all-time-high-heroin-production/5358053

Terrorists in “Americas Back Yard”

State Department Reports Hezbollah Increasing Drug and Terrorism in South America 2013
http://interamericansecuritywatch.com/exporting-terror-in-americas-backyard/

“There has indeed been a “marked resurgence” of Iranian state sponsorship of terrorism over the past 18 months. But as the new Nisman report drives home, here’s an even more disturbing fact — Iran has run intelligence networks in the United States’ backyard to “sponsor, foster and execute terrorist attacks” for decades.”

“Criminal plans” by Iran could be under way in Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago, the report said.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/03/world/americas/iran-latin-america/

Mexican Cartels Buying Afghan Heroin
http://www.banderasnews.com/1101/nr-afghanheroin.htm

Obama’s America:

“The horrific toll of America’s heroin ‘epidemic”
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26672422

America’s Heroin Epidemic -BBC 2014

The SEC sees no evil while Wall Street banks launder $BILLIONS in cartel
money. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/03/us-bank-mexico-drug-gangs

Hedge Fund Manager, Banker, and the largest Individual donor to Obama’s coiffeurs, continues to pour $Millions into thenDrug Legalization Campaign, made to look like citizen activism. George Soros 2/2014
http://www.hightimes.com/read/how-one-percent-will-legalize-marijuana

As “medical marijuana” legalization spreads across the country, police and other industry warnings about the dangers of legalizing marijuana ignored by media
http://www.flsheriffs.org/newsroom/entry/florida-sheriffs-pass-resolution-to-oppose-the-legalization-of-marijuana

DEA has been caught laundering money as well, “Agency officials declined to publicly discuss details of their work, citing concerns about compromising their investigations.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/world/americas/us-drug-agents-launder-profits-of-mexican-cartels.html?_r=3&pagewanted=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&;

Mexican Diplomat Says America Pretty Much Invited The Sinaloa Drug Cartel Across The Border
http://www.businessinsider.com/stratfor-the-us-works-with-cartels-2012-9#ixzz36vAJbBpS

Obama shut down the NDIC in 2012, the itelligence agency dedicated to tracking terrorism funded by drug trafficking.
http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/tag/national-drug-intelligence-center/

“Mexican cartel violence is at an all-time high along the increasingly porous southern border yet the Obama Administration has shut down a critical intelligence agency dedicated to identifying, tracking and severing the nexus between drug trafficking and terrorism.”

CONFIRMED: The DEA Struck A Deal With SINALOA Mexico’s Most Notorious Drug Cartel (They claimed feds agreed they could traffic into Chicago) JAN. 13, 2014 more:
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-us-government-and-the-sinaloa-cartel-2014-1#ixzz30wXEcHSl

U.S. Government and Top Mexican Drug Cartel Exposed as Partners Written by Alex Newman Jan. 2014
http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/north-america/item/17396-u-s-government-and-top-mexican-drug-cartel-exposed-as-partners

The link between drugs and crime, including violent crime, would be hard to overstate in Chicago. Eighty-six percent of adult males arrested in Chicago last year tested positive for drug use. Chicago, with a population of 2.7 million, had 506 murders in 2012, the highest per capita among the four most populous U.S. cities.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-17/heroin-pushed-on-chicago-by-cartel-fueling-gang-murders.html

The Truth About Chicago’s Crime Rates (cooking the books)
http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/May-2014/Chicago-crime-rates/

Dirty doctors, Russian mafia fueling prescription drug and heroin abuse in N.J., investigation finds
http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/07/nj_state_commission_of_investigation_prescription_drug_heroin_abuse.html

Opiates are now the leading cause of accidental deaths, surpassing car crashes and alcohol.
http://elitedaily.com/news/world/prescription-painkillers-overtake-car-crashes-leading-accidental-death-us/

Banks Laundering Cartel Drug Money -Rampant
http://www.globalresearch.ca/money-laundering-and-the-drug-trade-the-role-of-the-banks/5334205

BORDER CRISIS: CONGRESSMAN SAYS FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ‘CAUSING HUMAN TRAFFICKING’
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/07/05/Congressman-Illegls-Aliens-Rise-Obama-Advertises-If%20you-Come-You-Can-Stay

Cartels Exploit Immigration Crisis To Smuggle More Drugs Across Border By Frank Diez July 03, 2014
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2014/07/03/cartels-exploit-immigration-crisis-to-smuggle-more-drugs-across-border/

Mexican Cartels are Behind Border Crisis -2014
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/23/how-mexico-s-cartels-are-behind-the-border-kid-crisis.html

Drug dealing, informant get border pass -2014
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/informant-gets-free-border-pass-675432

EXCLUSIVE: Photos Show Drugs Pouring Over Southern Arizona Border as Agent Resources are Overwhelmed Jul 08, 2014
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2014/07/08/exclusive-photos-show-drugs-pouring-over-southern-arizona-border-n1859982

The Obama Administration’s Human Trafficking July 11, 2014 by Arnold
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/arnold-ahlert/the-obama-administrations-human-trafficking/

[ichabod1]

well duh. No disrespect to the author but that wasn’t very incisive.

[SamAdams76]

Here's a minor hit from the late 1970s...

20/20 "Yellow Pills"

[heterosupremacist]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28ka77SJA6o (2:45) W/lyrics - Mother's little helper - Rolling Stones...

[heterosupremacist]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28ka77SJA6o oops!

[Red Badger]

SOMA........................

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

I still remember the good stuff! DRISTAN! Hexeclorphene! Cyclamates! Miles nerve tonic!

[utahagen]

“What about the fact that most of the recent mass murderers have recently been on psychotropic medications? The media says nothing...”

I don't think there's a connection, beyond proving that psychotropic meds don't help some people. Read the book Columbine by Dave Cullen. Those two murderers would have shot up that school even if they hadn't been on meds.

[Celtic Conservative]

Xanax is the gen-x version of Valium.

CC

[alephnull]

I have worked directly or indirectly in the pharmaceutical industry since 1991. I have read all of the documentation on the products and seen the legal papers from inside the companies. I wouldn’t take an aspirin unless I was convinced I would die in the next 12 hours if I didn’t take it.