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Americans consume 80 percent of the world's pain pills as prescription drug abuse epidemic explodes
UK Daily Mail ^ | 10 May 2012 | Michael Zennie

Posted on 05/10/2012 9:49:03 PM PDT by iowamark

Americans consume 80 percent of the world's supply of painkillers -- more than 110 tons of pure, addictive opiates every year -- as the country's prescription drug abuse epidemic explodes.

That's enough drugs to give every single American 64 Percocets or Vicodin. And pain pill prescriptions continue to surge, up 600 percent in ten year, thanks to doctors who are more and more willing to hand out drugs to patients who are suffering.

As more people get their hands on these potentially-dangerous drugs, more are taking them to get high. Their drug abuse leads to 14,800 deaths a year -- more than from heroin and cocaine combined.

'We've become a society of wusses,' Long Island, New York, pharmacist Howard Levine told the BBC.

Mr Levine stopped carrying all of the major addictive prescription drugs after he was robbed twice by addicts looking to get high.

Nationwide, police are reporting increases in robberies and other crimes by people who are addicted to oxycodone and hydrocodone, the key ingredient in most prescription pain pills...

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: drugs; drugwar; pain; painkillers; painmedicine; painpills; percocet; vicodin; warondrugs; wod; wodlist; wosd
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To: BuckeyeTexan

Fiorocet....


41 posted on 05/10/2012 11:10:56 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously, you won't live through it anyway)
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To: stanne; acapesket

OY, vey!
How about this edition?

Kidney stones are indeed, very painful and, as such, an actual factor in the invention of drugs (necessity being the mother of invention, and all that). they are about THE most painful condition and they affect men more oten than women.

After working a urology unit, as a nurse, an then also giving childbirth, it is my opinion that kidney stones are as, if not MORE, painful, and with a non-productive outcome, so to speak.

Demerol, for a few days in the hospital, is absolutely harmless. Don’t let the guy out for a pass to go to a voting station on election day.

Just for info, Demerol is just great for relaxing the ureter, allowing that awful kidney stone to pass, and avoiding self-destruction, after which there is no more pain and absolutely no need for further pain meds above acetomenophen or aspirin.


42 posted on 05/10/2012 11:11:11 PM PDT by stanne
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To: stanne; acapesket

OY, vey!
How about this edition?

Kidney stones are indeed, very painful and, as such, an actual factor in the invention of drugs (necessity being the mother of invention, and all that). they are about THE most painful condition and they affect men more oten than women.

After working a urology unit, as a nurse, an then also giving childbirth, it is my opinion that kidney stones are as, if not MORE, painful, and with a non-productive outcome, so to speak.

Demerol, for a few days in the hospital, is absolutely harmless. Don’t let the guy out for a pass to go to a voting station on election day.

Just for info, Demerol is just great for relaxing the ureter, allowing that awful kidney stone to pass, and avoiding self-destruction, after which there is no more pain and absolutely no need for further pain meds above acetomenophen or aspirin.


43 posted on 05/10/2012 11:11:12 PM PDT by stanne
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To: iowamark

We’re Americans, We can afford them....


44 posted on 05/10/2012 11:23:08 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously, you won't live through it anyway)
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To: txhurl

Only 64 Vicodins a year?
After my heart surgery that one weeks worth.


45 posted on 05/10/2012 11:27:42 PM PDT by gigster (Cogito, Ergo, Ronaldus Magnus Conservatus)
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To: sargon
In a free and open market, the cost of these things would be negligible, which would virtually eliminate the crimes which you bemoan. Contraband law is Tyrannical law, and it will always produce magnitudes more misery (and less freedom, of course) than the problems it attempts to solve, just as alcohol Prohibition did. A blind man could see it with a cane...

The late GREAT Dr. Milton Friedman would applaud your words. Some day the idiotic war on drugs will end. A few years after that, people would be amazed how much the violence will be diminished.

The government loves the War on Drugs, not because it helps protect the innocent; but precisely because it greatly increases the power of government at ALL levels.

46 posted on 05/10/2012 11:31:26 PM PDT by sand88 (Nothing on this Earth would get me to vote for Mitt.)
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To: stanne

Yep, opiates aren’t good for functioning normally. Dietary changes have helped me the most, but I still need Maxalt regularly and a Vicodin occassionally.

Actually, I discovered Toradol six months ago and have decided it’s a wonder drug. It’s non-narcotic and provides fast pain relief with a self injection. It’s kept me out of the ER. Unfortunately, there’s a national shortage of it right now. So I have to use it sparingly.


47 posted on 05/10/2012 11:35:10 PM PDT by BuckeyeTexan (Man is not free unless government is limited. ~Ronald Reagan)
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To: Migraine

Heh. And muh feet!


48 posted on 05/10/2012 11:38:25 PM PDT by BuckeyeTexan (Man is not free unless government is limited. ~Ronald Reagan)
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To: guitarplayer1953

I am so very sorry. Migraines can be worse than natural child birth, kidney stones, etc.


49 posted on 05/10/2012 11:42:50 PM PDT by BuckeyeTexan (Man is not free unless government is limited. ~Ronald Reagan)
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To: BuckeyeTexan

Diet has been the most helpful for me. Particular additives are my enemy.

Migraines are serious.

On the topic, do you get the impression, as I do, that part of Obie’s popularity is due to a drug enhanced populace?


50 posted on 05/10/2012 11:45:25 PM PDT by stanne
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To: BuckeyeTexan

Diet has been the most helpful for me. Particular additives are my enemy.

Migraines are serious.

On the topic, do you get the impression, as I do, that part of Obie’s popularity is due to a drug enhanced populace?


51 posted on 05/10/2012 11:45:25 PM PDT by stanne
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To: Vendome

It didn’t touch the pain. Toradol is my new wonder drug and it’s not a narcotic.


52 posted on 05/10/2012 11:48:26 PM PDT by BuckeyeTexan (Man is not free unless government is limited. ~Ronald Reagan)
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To: BuckeyeTexan

Ugh. occassionally = occasionally. Got carrieedd away with the double letterrss.


53 posted on 05/10/2012 11:54:12 PM PDT by BuckeyeTexan (Man is not free unless government is limited. ~Ronald Reagan)
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To: berdie

Perhaps his position on pain medication is evolving too.


54 posted on 05/11/2012 12:01:34 AM PDT by HotKat (Politicians are like diapers; they need to be changed often and for the same reason. Mark Twain)
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To: stanne
If I ever find the man who decided MSG and maltodextrin were good ideas, I'll waterboard him for a month non-stop and then strangle him with my bare hands. And when he's dead, I'll waterboard his corpse. And when I'm dead, I'll waterboard him again. Sorry SOB.

Well, Obama voters have to be on some sort of drug and I'll bet it ain't hopium. But yes, they seem to think "he's a righteous dude!"

"The sportos and motor heads, geeks, sluts, bloods, waistoids, dweebies, dickheads... they all adore him. They think he's a righteous dude." ~Grace, School Secretary, Ferris Bueller's Day Off

55 posted on 05/11/2012 12:13:37 AM PDT by BuckeyeTexan (Man is not free unless government is limited. ~Ronald Reagan)
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To: stanne
Zomig words like magic so do a number of other vasodilators

Heh. You mean vasoconstrictors. Vasodilators would make a migraine worse.

56 posted on 05/11/2012 12:22:50 AM PDT by BuckeyeTexan (Man is not free unless government is limited. ~Ronald Reagan)
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To: iowamark
Nice little monopoly the govt has in the pain relief industry.

Seeking relief from pain outside of their industry is criminal.

The real crime is the govt declaration of the suffering as criminal.

Prohibition needs to end. It's not Constitutional!

57 posted on 05/11/2012 12:29:50 AM PDT by rawcatslyentist ("Behold, I am against you, O arrogant one," Jeremiah 50:31)
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To: iowamark
Re: “110 tons of pure, addictive opiates”

220 tons - after ObamaCare is implemented.

58 posted on 05/11/2012 12:34:52 AM PDT by zeestephen
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To: BuckeyeTexan

Righteous dude, indeed. Ferris, maybe, Obie, not even at 3AM last call (not that I’ve ever been there).

That torture you descrive sounds like about what a three day migraine is like. Had one recently. Trying to remember where I ate. There was cheap wine and salad dressing involved. Oh, yeah, the movie theater. Gave in to temptation of salad (dressing full of MSG) and sulfite-laden wine. Another poison.

I know all the code words for MSG and what to avoid, though I do fall into traps occasionally. Sulfites are nasty. Not an enhancer, like MSG, but a preservatibe, another salt, I think.


59 posted on 05/11/2012 12:39:13 AM PDT by stanne
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To: digger48

*snort*


60 posted on 05/11/2012 12:40:08 AM PDT by Slings and Arrows (You can't have Ingsoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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