[libstripper]

Here's a totally unscientific Wa Po article that indirectly attempts to exonerate Patrick Kennedy by giving credibility to the "Ambien sleep driving" defense. With the millions of Ambien doses safely prescribed and taken, I have an alternate explanation: people, Patrick Kennedy included, are using this defense as a way to blame the drug for their conduct and, hopefully, to participate in a big class action settlement against its maker. The same thing happened before with the allegedly defective cars that would supposedly go automatically from park to reverse or drive on being started.

[petkus]

This is unbelievable.

The Kennedy's are above the law but they expect us mere mortals to be subject to the laws that they make!

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Yesterday's excuse: "I got drunk and didn't know what I was doing."

Today's excuse: "I took Ambien to go to sleep and didn't know what I was doing."

[Hot Tabasco]

I have yet to hear anyone in the MSM question the pain killer statement by asking which ones he's taking. Ambien isnt nor that other one....

[coconutt2000]

"I used Ambien and damaged a yacht at Martha's Vineyard. I did it again, but this time it was a car accident. Then, a few mights ago I did it again and got into another accident. Fortunately, nobody was hurt - and now that I've gotten caught in public with my pants down, I think I'll go into rehab. Ambien... It makes you do stupid things."

As the pattern emerges, it is obvious that Ambien is as dangerous as a firearm. Ambien forces you to take it against your will, and then forces you to drive or operate a motor vehicle. Just like a gun is self-loading, self-aiming, and self-firing.

[Joann37]

Didn't Ambien's manufacturer put out some type of notice a year ago or so stating that the drug's effects were still prevalent many hours after ingestion? I had a discussion with someone a few months ago about this; I thought everyone knew by this time that the drug is VERY potent, and that users should not drive or operate machinery until much later after taking the drug.

And if Kennedy actually went to a bar drinking, with Ambien in his system, he should be locked up instead of in rehab.

[Cvengr]

Yes, there were vehicles that would slip gears automatically without human control.

Yes, there are a number of unexplained sleepwalking episodes for those using Ambien. One of them is the family of a neighbor who had returned from a hospital stay for heart disease, then several weeks later after recovery was found a block away, naked in a Jacuzzi in the early morning hours having only gone to bed with his wife several hours before. They were both in their 80s and level headed. The family is also

[William Terrell]

Does anybody know if he actually had and cashed a script for Ambien?

[Rte66]

It's called "Ambienesia."

[altura]

I love the stories about the Ambien taking eaters.

They gain weight. They don't know why.

There are a few clues. Peanut butter on the sheets. Fridge door left open. Mass quantities of food remains on kitchen counter and table.

But at least they aren't driving.

[gondramB]

>>I took an Ambien, Americans are saying, and then I don't know exactly what happened.<<

Apparently 4% of Americans sleep walk without Ambien and that percentage is not measurably different with Ambien according the Fox's talking head M.D.