Posted on 01/13/2013 12:15:01 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Yesterday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and city officials unveiled a new initiative to limit supplies of prescription painkillers in the city’s emergency rooms as a way to combat what they described as a growing addiction problem in the region. Some critics, as documented by The New York Times, however, felt the move would unnecessarily hurt poor and uninsured patients who use emergency rooms as their primary care doctor. Needless to say, Mr. Bloomberg was not swayed by this line of argument.
“The city hospitals we control, so … we’re going to do it and we’re urging all of the other hospitals to do it, voluntary guidelines. Somebody said, oh, somebody wrote, ‘Oh then maybe there won’t be enough painkillers for the poor who use the emergency rooms as their primary care doctor,’” the mayor said on his weekly radio show with John Gambling. “Number one, there’s no evidence of that. Number two, supposing it is really true, so you didn’t get enough painkillers and you did have to suffer a little bit. The other side of the coin is people are dying and there’s nothing perfect … There’s nothing that you can possibly do where somebody isn’t going to suffer, and it’s always the same group [claiming], ‘Everybody is heartless.’ Come on, this is a very big problem.”
In the same interview, Mr. Bloomberg stressed the initiative’s simple rationale is to prevent extra pills from piling up in the cabinets of New Yorkers who no longer need them, where they can pose a health risk if they’re abused.
“We talk about drugs, heroin and crack and marijuana, this is one of the big outbursts–and it’s a lot worse around the country than it is here. It’s kids and adults getting painkillers and using them for entertainment purposes, or whatever field of purposes, as opposed to what they are designed for,” he explained. “If you break a leg, you’re going to be in pain, nothing wrong with getting something that reduces the pain. But if you get 20 days worth of pills and you only need them three days, there’s 17 days sitting there. Invariably some of the kids are going to find them, or you’re going to take them and get you addicted.”
Mr. Bloomberg also argued the number of pain pills currently being prescribed had even contributed to an uptick in violent crimes outside of pharmacies from robbers looking to steal the drugs.
“You see there’s a lot more hold-ups of pharmacies, people getting held up as they walk out of pharmacies,” he explained. “What are they all about? They’re not trying to steal your shaving cream or toothpaste at the point of a gun. They want these drugs.”
Under what law can he do this? He’s just another tyrant let loose on the world and needs to be stopped ASAP. Perhaps the Ceaucescu solution — New Yorkers it’s up to you.
You are not the only one suffering because of these morons.
End the drug war. You misery is caused because They Who Know Better want to keep some people from ingesting verboten substances.
I never meant to imply that I was.
And, my situation has nothing to do with a drug shortage. So, not only does the DEA have quotas on chemical precursors used for legal drugs, which in turn leads to shortages, they NOW also have new REGS limiting the amount of _completed/manufactured_ medications, especially those which fall into the narcotic analgesics category, or which are opioid-based.
The reason the medication I need is not on hand in the pharmacy is NOT DUE to drug shortages. It is a direct result of new DEA regulations limiting how much stock a pharmacy can have on hand (based on recent history of filled prescriptions) and added layers of bureaucratic red tape.
The pharmacist stressed it is NOT because of a drug shortage, but a restriction on how much an individual pharmacy can have in their physical inventory and available for being dispensed.
It is a fine point, but an important distinction, nonetheless.
Ultimately, I think the govt. wants people to look forward to the “death panels,” and are working toward that end.
Thanks for the ping!
Pretty hard to break a leg there if you refuse to even enter the totalitarian third-world shithole. (No offense intended to third-world shitholes in general, by comparing them to the Big Crab Apple)
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