Posted on 12/06/2018 8:19:17 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Not everyone has the strength of will and social support necessary to get off the drugs. When these things are prescribed en masse, that a percentage of people will become seriously addicted needs to be a factor in determining whether and how to use them.
The addictive properties of many modern drugs are far and beyond that of many substances considered highly addictive. The number of people so affected are going to be very high, and this is a known factor going in.
I don’t support relieving any party of their responsibility for these poor outcomes. It’s easy to bash on the addicts, but how is it that the suppliers who are making incredible profits from these poor outcomes get away scot-free? According to established law and custom, the “kingpins” who are dealing the drugs are the worst culprits. Now that our kingpins are listed on the S&P, that ethic seems to have dissipated - and it shouldn’t.
Even the jihadist cult that is Islam is not culturally or civilizationally suicidal like the modern Left too frequently is (witness that these intersectionality nitwits define being a Muslim as bring a victim ... despite 14 centuries of clear history ... that takes an extra special kind of stupid, one you can’t attain without a lot of bad education).
The lunatics are now running the asylum these days..
Addiction to crack is a choice.
Addiction to meth is a choice.
Addiction to opioids is a choice.
And they are all very bad choices, made by intellectually inferior people.
Matter is made up of protons, neutrons and electrons.
But dark matter ... we can’t see it but it’s everywhere and it’s influence will either cause the universe the expand endlessly or collapse in on itself .,. so I say we should dub the first dark matter particle discovered “morons”.
I assumed the author meant in the emotional sense, which of course -- like all abused substances -- it is. People get stoned to avoid the psychological pain inherent in life.
Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America
Everyone with kids should read this book...
People were getting addicted from doctors and dentist..
In 2012, author and investigative social journalist, Beth Macy began writing about the worst drug (heroin) epidemic in world history. “Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and The Drug Company That Addicted America” began in the hills and valleys of Appalachia, the mid-western rust belt, rural Maine before rapidly spreading throughout the U.S. In 2016, 64,000 Americans perished from drug related causes and overdoses— outnumbering the total of those killed during the Vietnam War. Macy explored the terrible destructive impact on society, those who have helped and harmed, and the brave individuals sharing their own stories of tragedy and loss, casting aside stigma and shame to alert and help others.
In the late 1990’s, Appalachian country doctor (St. Charles, Virginia) Art Van Zee M.D. was among the first to sound the urgent alarm how OxyContin had infiltrated his community and region. Patients were admitted to hospital ER’s in record numbers from drug related causes. Rates of infectious disease including Hepatitis C, along with petty and violent crime had increased substantially, a police car was fire-bombed—addicts were desperate for cash to support their drug habit, an elderly patient had resorted to selling pills from his nursing home bed. Van Zee called public meetings to advocate and alert others of the opioid health crisis, and didn’t hesitate to file complaints against Purdue Pharma for aggressive marketing campaigns promoting OxyContin. By 2001, he and Sister Beth Davies were attending two funerals per day of the addicted dead.
In 2007, with over $2.8 billion USD earned in drug profits, Purdue Pharmaceuticals was found guilty in federal and civil criminal courts for their role/responsibility for creating the opioid epidemic, for “misbranding OxyContin”: with aggressive marketing techniques that downplayed and minimized the potential for addiction. The $600 million USD fine was worth the risk for Purdue; the executives charged were forced to listen to victim impact statements, and were compared to Adolf Hitler and the mass destruction of humanity, yet these men served no jail time. Both Doctor Van Zee and Sister Davies were outraged that none of the fine was allocated for drug recovery and addiction programs. Instead, it was appropriated for Medicaid/Medicare reimbursement and for criminal justice and law enforcement.
Macy documents the vast suffering, heartbreak of the families, friends, medical staff and first responders, the foster parents, clergy left behind to carry on after destruction and death had taken its toll. The closed down factories, lumber mills, furniture manufacturing warehouses and stores, coal mines— jobs that had once sustained the middle class were grim reminders that for the average American— life would never be the same again. Some desperate families impacted by “the disease of despair” had lost life savings attempting to pay for costly drug rehabilitation programs for loved ones, only to realize addiction was a lifelong process and the likelihood of relapse might be a day away. Providers of rehab facilities were not in agreement over MAT (medication assisted treatment) though medical experts contend that MAT is absolutely necessary to battle the intense cravings of addiction and increase the rates of successful treatment.
Many of the stories were harsh and brutal. Too many politicians and policy makers believe addiction is a personal moral failing and criminal offense rather than a treatable disease that robs victims of their dignity and freedom of choice. Macy’s book easily compares to Sam Quiones outstanding award winning book “Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic” (2015). Macy is the author of the bestselling “Factory Man” (2014) and “Truevine” (2016). ** With thanks and appreciation to Little Brown and Company via NetGalley for the DRC for the purpose of review.
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For sure... if “dark matter” were the physical instantiation of elemental stupidity, it would make a lot of otherwise-mystifying things make sense.
They are all very bad choices, made by emotionally weak people of all intellectual levels.
Enjoy your binary world.
Values such as growing cannabis! Even the Declaration was drafted on it.
Tobacco is the real gateway drug, just try to criminalize it and watch the monkeys dance!
Rejecting God in our lives and embracing the idols of abortion and homosexuality, neglecting acts of charity, electing politicians who will steal from producers to buy votes from the lazy. (gov’t handouts are NOT charity, but theft at the point of a gun)
The author does not seem to be referring to marijuana as an anesthetic for physical pain, but as a way for people to forget their spiritual and psychological pain or emptiness.
In my experience responding to drug addicts and pot heads, this is not generally the issue. It is usually just lazy, impatient, spoiled people who just want instant gratification. Along with a bunch of people who have screwed themselves up by keeping themselves almost constantly intoxicated with various substances for years on end.
I don't feel like going round and round with the pot proponents here today. But as I have said many times before from my observation... long term heavy marijuana use easily causes as much damage as many other substances especially to people's psychological well being. This has become more obvious to first responders since it was legalized here several years ago and usage has gone through the roof.
Cannabis vs. opoids is like your car not starting vs. the engine bursting into flames at 75mph on a crowded freeway. The scale and time frame of the problems involved are of dramatically differing orders of magnitude. Opoid addicts don’t have a long term.
Yeah right... There is nothing more absurd that pot head revisionist history!
No, being a pot head is like running out of gas and instead of pulling off on the right shoulder, choosing to park your car in the middle of the gore formed at a freeway off ramp and then standing next to it until someone watching their GPS tries to make a late exit. I have seen it happen in person. And they were just as dead as the heroin addicts we didn't make it to in time... only a lot messier.
Yeah, and i saw that happen to someone sober at the moment.
Thank you. I still have a half full bottle of the opoid I was prescribed after my back surgery. (A particularly fun day in AFG)
Once I could handle the pain, I stopped taking the pain pill.
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