Drugs

Stuff we should click on.  Be sure to state Not Work Safe, if applicable.  KTHX.
Malcolm
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Post by Malcolm »

The War on Drugs is going so well, Congress has funded more treatment plans.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drug overdose was the leading cause of injury death in 2013 — the most recent date available — among American 25 to 64 years old, surpassing deaths caused by motor vehicle traffic crashes; 71 percent involved opioid painkillers.

Some public health experts have bemoaned the lack of federal response and have argued that the Food and Drug Administration has exacerbated the problem by continuing to approve new opioids in a market already flooded with them.


On a completely unrelated note:
Detroit doctors nailed in prescription drug bust.
The doctors ran the ring with the help of crooked pharmacists and patient recruiters who helped push roughly 1 million painkillers on the street, authorities said. The charges come one day after state officials announced that drug overdose deaths are up 14% in Michigan, claiming the lives of 1,745 people in 2014 — with heroin and painkillers as the culprits.

No hypocrisy going on here.




Edited By Malcolm on 1457634289
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Malcolm
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Location: Minneapolis

Post by Malcolm »

Unsurprisingly, as prescriptions skyrocket, so do prices.
In a report that could fuel the growing political outcry against high drug prices, pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts said "opportunistic manufacturers" and "scheming" pharmacies helped drive up prices by 98.2 percent since 2011.

Meanwhile, estimated street prices for a zip of bud:
1970: $300 for ultra-high quality
2000: $650 for the same
today: $500-750
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Malcolm
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Post by Malcolm »

CDC says doctors are high-priced drug dealers responsible for more ODs than all street drug pushers combined and they need to get their shit together.
The popularity of these medications has been blamed for surging rates of opiate addiction and death in the United States, prompting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue new guidance urging doctors to reserve the medications for patients with acute cancer pain, those receiving palliative care and those in their final days of life. For treatment of chronic pain due to conditions like arthritis and back problems, doctors instead should try Tylenol, Advil or other non-addictive therapies, the guidelines recommend.

Hmm, what non-addictive pain relievers can I think of?

“When a patient tells me that the opioid enables them to sleep at night, get out of bed and do their usual activities, I feel much more reassured than I do by the patient report of any pain score,” he wrote in JAMA Internal Medicine.

By damn near hooking them on time released heroin, yes.




Edited By Malcolm on 1458149349
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Malcolm
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Joined: Fri May 21, 2004 1:04 pm
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Post by Malcolm »

Spice epidemic puts 20 in hospital. If only some alternative could be discovered and legalized.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Malcolm
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Post by Malcolm »

Radicals from unknown institutions recommend complete decriminalization for drug use.
A group of 22 medical experts convened by Johns Hopkins University and The Lancet have called today for the decriminalization of all nonviolent drug use and possession.
...
In a lengthy review of the state of global drug policy, the Hopkins-Lancet experts conclude that the prohibitionist anti-drug policies of the past 50 years "directly and indirectly contribute to lethal violence, disease, discrimination, forced displacement, injustice and the undermining of people’s right to health."

The pricks at the DEA couldn't be reached for comment because they were probably out on a multi-million dollar sting to catch someone in a $5K drug deal.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Malcolm
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Post by Malcolm »

DEA plans to reconsider whether or not they should maintain their current marijuana policy of "keep pissing away millions of dollars and imprison the fuck out of everyone."
This isn’t the first time DEA has been asked to reconsider marijuana’s classification. In 2001 and 2006, DEA considered petitions, but decided to keep marijuana a Schedule I substance.

Betting they'll vote for the status quo.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
TheCatt
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Post by TheCatt »

Interesting. The FDA filed a recommendation with the DEA, but no word on what that was.

Personally, I would give it a Schedule IV designation.

Side note: I'm pretty sure I've tried at least 2 substances on each Schedule list.




Edited By TheCatt on 1459983899
It's not me, it's someone else.
Malcolm
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Post by Malcolm »

It seems less harmful than any Schedule V.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Malcolm
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Post by Malcolm »

Wow. No wonder this country is fucking clueless about drugs.
The University of Mississippi, which functions as Uncle Sam's weed man, has an enormous amount of marijuana on hand, but its product would be laughed out of any Colorado dispensary, according to a recent inventory of the school's stash.
...
The most powerful strain on the DEA ledger, a "reprocessed" batch numbered 1304-1, tops out at 13.7 percent THC. Most batches in the "high THC" section of the inventory are less than 8 percent.

The University of Mississippi's supply is essentially stuck in the 1970s, when THC content rarely broke the double digits.

Compare that to the potency available at dispensaries in Colorado, which recently legalized recreation pot. Having had years to experiment in medical marijuana industry, which has been legal for more than a decade, horticulturalists there have produced varieties packing 30 percent THC or more. The average THC level in retail stores is 18.7 percent, according to a state-sponsored study.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
TheCatt
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Post by TheCatt »

TheCatt wrote:Interesting. The FDA filed a recommendation with the DEA, but no word on what that was.

Personally, I would give it a Schedule IV designation.

Side note: I'm pretty sure I've tried at least 2 substances on each Schedule list.
Apparently they are considering Schedule II.

Certainly an improvement, but still insufficient.
It's not me, it's someone else.
Malcolm
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Post by Malcolm »

Not a chance. Be lucky if that shit isn't bumped back to a newly created Schedule 0 category.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Malcolm
Posts: 32040
Joined: Fri May 21, 2004 1:04 pm
Location: Minneapolis

Re: drugs and

Post by Malcolm »

Makers of oxy *** GASP *** lied about its effectiveness and encouraged docs to keep prescribing more when those claims fell short.
That’s led to a dynamic wherein more than half of patients prescribed OxyContin for longer than three months are on regimens of more than 60 milligrams per day—a dosage level far more susceptible to abuse and the possibility of an overdose, the Times says.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Malcolm
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Joined: Fri May 21, 2004 1:04 pm
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Re: drugs and

Post by Malcolm »

Senior citizen drug dealers. I'll bet a zillion dollars they do almost no jail time because rich, old, white dudes don't go to jail. We reserve that for the poor and brown.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Malcolm
Posts: 32040
Joined: Fri May 21, 2004 1:04 pm
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Re: drugs and

Post by Malcolm »

On the heels of some people realizing that prescription opioids are a bigger problem than street heroin, we've got them slowly coming around to the fact that maybe we overprescribe these fucking things, too.
Just half of antidepressant prescriptions are actually for depression, according to a new study published in JAMA, while the other half are for "off-label" uses. The most common off-label use is for anxiety, another mood disorder. But even though the drugs work primarily by manipulating levels of brain chemicals related to mood, they're commonly prescribed for things that have nothing to do with our moods. Insomnia, chronic pain, fibromyalgia, migraines, obsessive-compulsive disorder, menopause, ADHD, PMS, digestive problems, overactive bladder, and eating disorders are just a few of the common non-depressive reasons that docs dash off a prescription for anti-depressants. They're even used to treat sex problems.
Seriously, just what the fuck? I'm going to go out on a limb and say most ODs in this country are due to combos of:

1) painkillers/opioids
2) anti-anxiety/depression meds
3) sleeping pills
4) booze

Half of those are 100% legal if you're 21 or over. The others aren't exactly hard to come by, mainly because most doctors have looser morals than your average street pusher; they just dress nicer.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Malcolm
Posts: 32040
Joined: Fri May 21, 2004 1:04 pm
Location: Minneapolis

Re: drugs and

Post by Malcolm »

Opioid addiction is so bad...
The implant, which has four matchstick-sized rods that are inserted under the skin of the upper arm, administers the anti-addiction drug buprenorphine in a continuous dose for six months. That medication is only available now as a daily pill or a thin film that dissolves under the tongue. The implant, called Probuphine, is intended for people who are already stable on low doses of the drug.
By the way, here's how that happened.
This explosion in opioid prescriptions began in the early 1990s with “a big push” from medical groups that doctors were under-treating pain, according to Dr. Ted Cicero, a professor of psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis and an opiate-use researcher.

One of the primary justifications for this increase, used by doctors, pharmaceutical companies, and researchers alike was a single paragraph printed in the January 10, 1980 issue of the New England Journal Of Medicine:

ADDICTION RARE IN PATIENTS TREATED WITH NARCOTICS
...
In an interview released by Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing in 2011, Portenoy admitted that he used the Porter and Jick letter, along with other similar studies on opioid use, to encourage more liberal prescribing of opioids:

None of [the papers] represented real evidence, and yet what I was trying to do was to create a narrative so that the primary care audience would look at this information in toto and feel more comfort about opioids in a way they hadn’t before. In essence this was education to destigmatize [opioids] and because the primary goal was to destigmatize, we often left evidence behind.
Goddamn, I wonder what other pain relievers there might be?
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher said he previously attended a “hempfest” in San Bernardino, and was urged to try the drug after years of suffering and sleep deprivation from arthritis.

“I haven’t been able to go surfing for a year and a half, and I’ve been in severe pain,” Rohrabacher told Cannabis Radio. “And you know what? I tried [a marijuana-infused topical preparation] about two weeks ago, and it’s the first time … in a year and a half that I had a decent night’s sleep, because the arthritis pain was gone.”

The California Republican is the first sitting member of Congress in recent history to admit using medical marijuana. Although medical marijuana is legal in California and 23 states across the country, the drug is still illegal under federal law.
Can't think of any.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Malcolm
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Location: Minneapolis

Re: drugs and

Post by Malcolm »

This just keeps getting better.
Scientists have known for more than three decades that nerve injuries intensify the release of pain signals. Grace and Watkins believe that opioids might do the same — putting the cells into a kind of "overdrive." Grace explained that the body may be "recognizing opioids as something that’s foreign and needs to be eliminated and so it’s triggering this immune response causing the release of these pain molecules that are then increasing the perception of pain in the brain.”
Naturally, the doctors have a great response to this problem: another fucking pill.
So you can still take your opioids but if you block this immune response that’s occurring at the same time, then you can still get that pain relief but you can prevent these long-term consequences from occurring
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Malcolm
Posts: 32040
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Location: Minneapolis

Re: drugs and

Post by Malcolm »

Another old, rich drug dealer gets a slap on the wrist.
The grand jury determined Radecki also used his home to store about $5 million worth of prescription drugs, based on the street prices he allegedly charged at his all-cash practice in 2011 and early 2012.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Malcolm
Posts: 32040
Joined: Fri May 21, 2004 1:04 pm
Location: Minneapolis

Re: drugs and

Post by Malcolm »

Jessie Ventura points out the absurd restrictions placed on "legal" bud.
Take Colorado for instance. If you're a Colorado resident, you can buy up to 1 ounce of marijuana at one time, but if you're visiting from another state, you can only purchase up to ¼ ounce at a time. Name one other legal substance that is regulated in this manner.
...
Let's limit the amount of beer to a six-pack per person per day and see how much rioting there'd be in the streets! Look, if a substance is legal to purchase, then I should be allowed to purchase as much of it as I so desire. To me, that's the definition of a legal substance.
...
Hypothetically, as an approved medical marijuana patient in Ohio, I can take a medication that can drastically help my condition and then lose my job, or I can go on suffering and keep my job and therefore be able to support my family. See how House Bill 523 doesn't actually legalize anything?
...
I'd like to know what lawmakers are so afraid of when it comes to actually legalizing marijuana. What are the side effects of this medication? Patients feel better. It helps people manage chronic pain without addiction or death. We just lost Prince, one of the greatest musical icons of my home state of Minnesota, due to prescription pill overdose. If his doctor prescribed him marijuana, I believe he would still be with us today. And as a "recreational" substance, name me one person who smokes weed and then wakes up the next day not remembering committing violent or aggressive acts, which is so typically associated with alcohol use.
...
When people buy cigarettes, they don't worry if they have too many packs in the trunk of their car, yet there is not one medical benefit of smoking cigarettes. It's common knowledge that cigarettes slowly kill you. So addictive substances that kill people: perfectly legal. A medical substance that has proven time and time again to have practically zero side effects and can actually help people: not fully legalized, and many Americans risk going to jail if they use it.
In the meantime, the head of the DEA has called medical marijuana "a joke" and his organization just recently acknowledged that heroin is worse than bud. You may recognize that second thing as a fact the rest of the world has been aware of since sometime in the '60s.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Malcolm
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Location: Minneapolis

Re: drugs and

Post by Malcolm »

Cops learn something that most drug cookers and chemists already figured out some time ago.
In the video, a detective describes trying to seal a plastic bag that contained the drug and some of the powdery substance going airborne.
“A bunch of it poofed up into the air, right in our face, and we ended up inhaling it,” said one of the detectives.
“I felt like my body was shutting down,” said the other detective, describing effects of the drug that made him feel like he was dying.
Even meth dealers know they need to wear masks to filter out aerosols.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
TheCatt
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Re: drugs and

Post by TheCatt »

Your statement is dumb. Of course meth dealers know, they're around the stuff all the time.
It's not me, it's someone else.
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