Posted on 05/22/2017 8:10:51 AM PDT by Hojczyk
We have a lot of problems in this country to be sure, but this particular problem is one of the biggest ones out there that is not talked about enough. As you notice, Salena writes from Pittsburgh. Southwest PA has so many overdoses now, everyone knows someone or is linked somehow to someone od’ing.
In part, I blame doctors. As a kid growing up, if you broke your arm, etc... you got motrin, not anymore. We are over prescribing now and people need to reject getting these heavy drugs. At some point, you may have to live with some pain, that’s far more preferable than getting addicted to opiods. Drugs like Oxy and Hyrdo were originally created to treat cancer patients at the end of their life to give them a little pain relief. The key is, they were dying so getting addicted was the least of their worries. Now, it’s prescribed for so much more.
Good graphics.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/01/07/us/drug-overdose-deaths-in-the-us.html
Not in Maine, not since Governor LePage made it legal for any citizen of Maine to hunt down and kill drug dealers.
You can tell, by what the left has to say, that a prime source of political funding for the left, drug dealers, is drying up.
That isn’t it.
It’s the 24 hour news cycle that has turned this world on its head.
I’ve been given many of those drugs and some actually healed my condition. I take nothing today but the government has no right to say I cannot have it when I am in pain.
I have a half-million bucks on my head, would they rather I cash out?
(Some of you FReepers need not answer that last one)
“Boy is he strict.”
—ditto—heard it for sixty years-—
Racist bitch!
In terms of political and moral principles, it’s very hard to generate a lot of public interest in addressing an “epidemic” that is largely based in self-destructive behavior.
Balderdash. That's a decision entirely between a doctor and his patient, and one that the government has NO business interfering with. There are obviously trade-offs involved.
People who are on pain management aren't the ones OD'ing, in general. OD's occur to extremely irresponsible abuse by people in the black market.
I personally know of several OD deaths here in South Florida, and they have ALL been due to street drugs like heroin laced with fentanyl, etc.
Very rarely do people "accidentally" overdose on pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceuticals are known quantities, and it takes effort to overdose on such drugs.
Even in the world of opioids and pain management, the vast majority of patients are responsible. One reason the numbers seem higher is probably because they are seriously underestimating how many people are using the stuff.
But in any event, the government shouldn't be involved in anybody's health care. That is a sacrosanct relationship between doctor and patient.
People who overdose either are either uninformed about the medicine they're taking, or they're OD'ing on street drugs, or they're doing it on purpose.
I’m sick of this crap
It’s just sensationalism and hysteria promoted by scolds
We have a seriously aging population with maladies and it hurts
Invariably this will deprive in time those who need pain relief like myself at almost 60
Righteous do gooders
The pharmacopeia in my youth was exponentially greater for abuse than today yet we had little of this hysteria
1974
Quaaludes
Placidyls
Nembutal
Seconal
Amytal
Tuinal
Soper
Parest
Bimethedrine
Black molly
Dexedrine
Benzedrine
Benzodiazepine family
Dexamyl
Paregoric
talwin
Preludin
Many more varieties of opiates than now
And that’s just off the top of my head
Today it’s just s few pain killers and Valium and xanax and klonopin and soma muscle relaxers
That is about it today maybe a half dozen drugs to get high legally
The nanny state won’t stop till there’s none
Same mindset a 19 year old Afghan vet can’t come home and buy a drink legally
It’s bullshit
Absolutely. This victimless crime takes up way too many resources.
How many dealers, I wonder are themselves addicted?
I think ultimately we have to hold the users responsible.
I just drove by the Hartford County MD Sheriff office where they post an overdose count. YTD overdoses 179, fatalities 37. Last years total was 59. Yea, it’s a problem
Totally agree. If you’re going to work in that line of business, you shouldn’t expect to live very long doing it. The justice system has our own kind of needles for dealers. They can spare themselves the death penalty by giving up their suppliers.
This is in Lawton, OK. Middle America Fly Over country. It's a military town (Ft Sill), so it has always had a reputation as being a bit seedy, but only in areas just outside the main gate. The landscape has changed there dramatically over the past decade. Lots of homeless street people, drug addicts and increased property crimes now. Her home used to be in one of the more affluent, well kept neighborhoods. Not anymore. I have witnessed lots of homeless wandering through her neighborhood, found drug paraphernalia laying on the playground at the nearby elementary school. I have witnessed several drug deals going down in the parking lots of local businesses on the town's major thoroughfares in recent months- in broad daylight.
It is pathetic that so many of our citizens have to drug themselves to get through the day. I guess they don’t have much in the way of grit. Perhaps they should be allowed to drug themselves until the eventual overdose, leaving left the mentally fit and strong to populate the country. It may sound very harsh, but I, as everyone else has, have faced some very terrible life situations and you betcha I didn’t need to assume a chemical fetal position with drugs. Those problems would simply wait out the chemical escape and be there when you came down. I think having to drug oneself to get through the day is along the same line as “safe spaces” and all that drivel. It certainly degenerates a society.
“Very rarely do people “accidentally” overdose on pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceuticals are known quantities, and it takes effort to overdose on such drugs.”
Worth repeating.
Heroin deaths are an unintended consequence of making the much safer prescription opioids harder to get.
Before I started my medical training in 1972 I worked at a rural ER as an orderly in the suburbs of Deetroit. There was a heroin “epidemic” then too. I saw lots of dead junkies with the spike still in their arm. Nothing new is ever really new.
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