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1st, one death is too many, I do not want to minimize this problem. Before you bang on me, I am a pharmacist and fully understand the issues involved in "the drug epidemic"
I want to throw 3 numbers at you. (why 3? to keep things in a simple perspective for a very complicated issue)
I'm not including auto deaths, other diseases, suicides, etc
Before you bang on me again, I know that there is a major problem with over prescribing opioids and other meds.
Cost estimates: The NIH currently spends about $116 million a year on opioid use disorder research, mostly through the National Institute on Drug Abuse, one of the NIH’s 27 institutes and centers. To accelerate the agency’s various research initiatives, Collins says, the NIH would need four or five times the current spending—or roughly $500 million a year. (The NIH’s annual budget is set by Congress, although the organization’s directors then decide what priorities to fund within their budget.) ( Opioid Crisis: What Experts Say It Would Cost to Fix It | Money )
Why the Hell is our government throwing so much money at a problem that is for the most part self induced? Isn't this money better spent on cancer, heart disease and other diseases that plague mankind?
If someone wants to kill him, or herself, that's their problem, not mine.
Thoughts?
Check out and add to those statistics the number of college students on amphetamines around our Country...with legal prescriptions but NO ADD?ADHD diagnosis.
Unfortunately, most people are not all that interested in deep thought about issues and simply believe whatever they are told. People who haven't been affected find it easy to buy the "drug users are losers" line and they see them as "others," who are not like them. People think it could never happen to them. It is changing a bit now that middle and upper class white people, including politicians are seeing their children and other "good people" becoming addicted. Suddenly, some are actually starting to talk about treatment, rather than just "lock em up!"
We will never beat opioid addiction with punishment. The physical dependency is too strong, it takes a hold of people in a way most simply can't comprehend. The vast majority of opioid addicts are simply trying to stay well, they rarely get high. Withdrawal is like the worst illness you have ever experienced combined with soul crushing depression and anxiety. It affects every cell in one's body. Opioid addicts going through withdrawal are advised to hide all guns and anything else that could easily be used to commit suicide. The physical and mental pain of addiction and withdrawal has lead to many suicides. This crisis can't be ended with punishment, most need treatment and medical intervention to complete the withdrawal process and psychological help to maintain sobriety. That would mean diverting money spent on law enforcment to treatment. Who believes that's going to happen in the US?
There is also the fact that every time a dealer is jailed, another pops up to take his/her place. Confiscate a house full of drugs, they will be replaced immediately. LE is just running around in circles. They aren't solving anything. I understand they want their nice paycheck, great healthcare and pension so they can retire early. Most of us would love to have that too but they are delusional if anyone believes they are actually accompishing anything.
I agree with you 100%. When I was coming off heroin, I attempted suicide twice, it was HORRIBLE, unlike anything you have imagined. relating it to 'being sick' is nowhere close to being adequate, people that have never felt this, just do not understand what it feels like.
I told my dad, taking heroin every day was like taking a pill that puts you in a great mood all the time, and takes away or dulls most physical and emotional pain, he said it sounded great....and it was great...the problem starts when you loose control over it, and really imo, its the laws against it, that cause the most problems, people rob and steal to get it, because it is so overly priced, that is due to the illegal status, if heroin was legal, it would be MUCH cheaper, alcohol prohibition is proof of that, once the laws went away, no one was robbing or stealing to get it, it drove the criminal element out immediately.
The difference with alcohol prohibition, back then, there was not as much of a police state, there was not a concentrated effort to profit off these things, if alcohol prohibition happened today though, Id bet they would keep it going and profit off it the same way they do with drugs though.
Even our local sheriff refuses to allow his officers to carry Narcan
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ron61
I can see a whole lot of legal implications from this!
Ok, 'mike', I want to say first that you don't sound like any pharmacist that I have ever met.
Second, you act as though you've never heard of accidental drug overdoses. Imagine one of your local sheriffs deputies responds to a call with a child in distress. He gets there only to find out that child ingested grandma's pain killers. All of them. No narcan, which is indeed a miracle drug, and therefore a dead child. How long before that deputy can get that image out of his mind? How many millions will the grieving parents receive from the sheriffs department for willfully putting the public at risk?
1st, one death is too many, I do not want to minimize this problem. Before you bang on me, I am a pharmacist and fully understand the issues involved in "the drug epidemic"
I want to throw 3 numbers at you. (why 3? to keep things in a simple perspective for a very complicated issue)
I'm not including auto deaths, other diseases, suicides, etc
Before you bang on me again, I know that there is a major problem with over prescribing opioids and other meds.
Cost estimates: The NIH currently spends about $116 million a year on opioid use disorder research, mostly through the National Institute on Drug Abuse, one of the NIH’s 27 institutes and centers. To accelerate the agency’s various research initiatives, Collins says, the NIH would need four or five times the current spending—or roughly $500 million a year. (The NIH’s annual budget is set by Congress, although the organization’s directors then decide what priorities to fund within their budget.) ( Opioid Crisis: What Experts Say It Would Cost to Fix It | Money )
Why the Hell is our government throwing so much money at a problem that is for the most part self induced? Isn't this money better spent on cancer, heart disease and other diseases that plague mankind?
If someone wants to kill him, or herself, that's their problem, not mine.
Thoughts?
If you break a leg while skiing, you wear a crutch and sometimes need physical therapy. And then you get better, maybe have a limp but you'll get there. If someone ingests an opiate, like the skier, they don't know if or how badly they will get hurt. The person who is hurt from opiates needs a crutch, also. That crutch repairs the damaged receptors of the brain. As a pharmacist, you know what that medicine is, and when used, there are many, many people that get well.
Cancer and heart disease can all be argued as lifestyle diseases, by the way, and how much money is wasted on those efforts is just as important as peoples brains crippled by opiates.
Now about that medicine, people can get it cheap (Canada) but they must be monitored, because they're no different than high blood pressure people who just stop taking their meds, because they feel better. They have to stay on it. Like someone trying to walk with a broken leg, needs a crutch.
With internet, every adult in this day and age knows the risks involved with drug consumption. If people want to do drugs, they'll find a way. They can stop any time they'd like, yeah it's difficult to quit but you got to pick your battles in life. Alcoholism is probably the biggest drug problem in the country. Opioids too. Plenty of those here in FL.
With internet, every adult in this day and age knows the risks involved with drug consumption. If people want to do drugs, they'll find a way. They can stop any time they'd like, yeah it's difficult to quit but you got to pick your battles in life. Alcoholism is probably the biggest drug problem in the country. Opioids too. Plenty of those here in FL.
Wars have been fought over opium/opioids for centuries, thats not going to stop or slow down anytime soon.
I have wondered why, instead, we haven't went after the cartels and so forth who are no better than Saddam Hussein or Bin Laden. We choose to continue beating our head against the wall, Treating the symptoms instead of going after the source of the problem.
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