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Painkillers now kill more Americans than any illegal drug

vox.com

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Re: Painkillers now kill more Americans than any illegal drug

#51

Post by SilasX »

mathattack wrote: post #25
beamatronic wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> insane amounts of money I think you said it yourself - not to be snarky or anything. But someone has found a way to get rich, and they use their funds to lobby to keep the current system in place.

It boggles my mind that it's somehow acceptable for the folks running prisons to be able to lobby for the 3 strikes laws. http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2010/09/16/117661/sb1070-p...

For context, it's not just the people running private prisons, but also public prison guard unions:

http://ordinary-gentlemen.com/timkowal/2011/06/the-role-of-t...

Re: Painkillers now kill more Americans than any illegal drug

#52

Post by facetube »

disposeofnick9 wrote: post #28

I've lost at least two elderly, extended family members this way. Both applied both a patch and took a pill, which caused an OD. The issue is that many opioids and non opioids gap between the therapeutic dose range and LD50% is often dangerously narrow. Complication #0: serum bioavailable molecule assay is rarely monitored. People metabolize and clear drugs at vastly differently rates. Complication #1: Hospital mista…

Complication #0 actually seems even worse when private insurance is tossed in to the mix: much of the monitoring that would be prudent is excluded by my employer-based insurance company as "not medically necessary". For example, I can't get them to pay for a CYP2D6 test to determine if I'm an ultrarapid metabolizer of a particular drug, nor can I get them to pay for blood level monitoring of the active metabolite to determine if I'm in the therapeutic range. In fact, tests across cytochrome P450 have a blanket exclusion. This is a $20,000 per year policy; probably the best the US health system has to offer.

Re: Painkillers now kill more Americans than any illegal drug

#53

Post by joesmo »

Send patients home with Narcan and train the people they live with to administer it as well. Have every EMT, firefighter, and police officer in the nation carry and know how to administer Narcan. Have it be part of every single first aid kit sold in this country. Remove the social stigma of drug abuse. Remove penalties for people who help others who are overdosing. You'd think someone would have some common sense in this country but you'd be wrong. It will never get better the way things are going now. It's ridiculous to even have a fucking article like this that doesn't mention the numerous tried and true solutions that exist but are simply not being put into place because the people in power in this country want to see people dying.

The problem isn't that we don't have solutions. Solutions are a plenty. The problem is that no one in America cares. No one in this country gives a shit that people are dying. Most people want it to happen. They support the fucking drug war. They want people to die. Until this fucking shit changes, people will continue to die and idiots will continue to wonder what can we do? So many fucking things, I don't even have time to write them all down. That's the fucking sad part.

Re: Painkillers now kill more Americans than any illegal drug

#54

Post by [deleted] »

krschultz wrote: post #15

I've never taken an illegal drug in my life. I've smoked a cigarette about 5 times. I drank in college but lately I've cut that out of my life as well. I had a security clearance with drug testing requirements for a while and now I just don't like the feeling of a hangover from alcohol or the risk of ingesting random plants/chemicals made by shady people. In short: I'm the most vanilla, square, anti-drug person you c…

[deleted]

Re: Painkillers now kill more Americans than any illegal drug

#55

Post by facetube »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #43
mc32 wrote: post #2

So painkillers used against prescription kill more people than any individual illegal drug and since people demand painkillers to treat chronic pain physicians are looking to treat chronic pain with alternatives one such is using MJ as one of those alternatives because misuse doesn't result in fatal overdoses, generally. Vox, stop with the hyperbola.

>> "people demand painkillers" I might be completely wrong here so please correct me if I am. Why would a doctor care what a patient demands? Tell them no. There's nothing they can do about it. I can't demand any prescription drugs from my doctor (I'm in the UK) - and I've tried once. Do doctors in the US worry about losing money if they lose a patient or this that not the case? Edit: Thanks to those who responded. A…

When you inexplicably decide that health care is a "marketplace" of rational and informed actors, patients become customers that need to be pleased, and lost patients become lost revenue. We are in a world of hurt over here, please send help.

Re: Painkillers now kill more Americans than any illegal drug

#56

Post by fweespee_ch »

krschultz wrote: post #15

I've never taken an illegal drug in my life. I've smoked a cigarette about 5 times. I drank in college but lately I've cut that out of my life as well. I had a security clearance with drug testing requirements for a while and now I just don't like the feeling of a hangover from alcohol or the risk of ingesting random plants/chemicals made by shady people. In short: I'm the most vanilla, square, anti-drug person you c…

> It does not make sense to me why anyone still believes that using the criminal justice system as the mechanism for getting to that goal is the right path.

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2014/08/money-not-morals-dri...

> Alcohol and Beer Companies.

> Pharmaceutical Corporations

> Police Unions

> Private Prison Corporations

> Prison Guard Unions

http://www.businessinsider.com/police-unions-and-pharmaceuti...

> Pharmaceutical companies that make billions off painkillers and police unions are two big heavy hitters in the fight against marijuana legalization. They throw their monetary support behind groups that fight legislation that would legalize pot — even medical marijuana — and lobby Congress.

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/presumed-guilty-how-prisons-profi...

> Yet in documents the company is required to file under securities law, Corrections Corporation of America has told investors that its business may be hurt if new policies advance “leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices.” And in a 2010 report, CCA declared that “any changes” to harsh drug sentences could stem the flow of new prisoners in the U.S., reducing “demand for correctional facilities to house them.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/04/28/...

> The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices or through the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by our criminal laws. For instance, any changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them. … Legislation has been proposed in numerous jurisdictions that could lower minimum sentences for some non-violent crimes and make more inmates eligible for early release based on good behavior.

Re: Painkillers now kill more Americans than any illegal drug

#57

Post by cik2e »

delecti wrote: post #33
Igglyboo wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Opiate pain relief is orders of magnitude better than marijuana.

It's more orders of magnitude more dangerous and addictive (in that marijuana is almost impossible to OD on, and isn't addictive at all). Marijuana is certainly not the magical silver bullet some make it out to be, but it's incredibly effective for many people whose only other recourse would be opiates.

Kratom is a great and currently legal alternative. It works on opioid receptors and cannot be fatally overdosed. Unfortunately, many sates are already moving on banning it. Big pharma lobby for the win.

Re: Painkillers now kill more Americans than any illegal drug

#58

Post by facetube »

Igglyboo wrote: post #26
mc32 wrote: post #2

So painkillers used against prescription kill more people than any individual illegal drug and since people demand painkillers to treat chronic pain physicians are looking to treat chronic pain with alternatives one such is using MJ as one of those alternatives because misuse doesn't result in fatal overdoses, generally. Vox, stop with the hyperbola.

Opiate pain relief is orders of magnitude better than marijuana.

This may be genetically variable; OPRM1 A118G seems to predict some amount of decreased effectiveness for a lot of exogenous opioids.

Re: Painkillers now kill more Americans than any illegal drug

#59

Post by hawkice »

krschultz wrote: post #15

I've never taken an illegal drug in my life. I've smoked a cigarette about 5 times. I drank in college but lately I've cut that out of my life as well. I had a security clearance with drug testing requirements for a while and now I just don't like the feeling of a hangover from alcohol or the risk of ingesting random plants/chemicals made by shady people. In short: I'm the most vanilla, square, anti-drug person you c…

> In short: I'm the most vanilla, square, anti-drug person you can find. I don't want to use them, and I think other people would be better off if they reduced their usage as well.

You say you don't understand why drugs are illegal. I think this is your core misunderstanding.

You are not the most anti-drug person I can find. I've never used alcohol or cigarettes (I didn't even use painkillers when my four wisdom teeth were taken out), and spent the majority of my life admonishing the use of caffeine.

I am not even anti-drug compared to most Americans. A substantial portion of America believes that using drugs (illegal drugs only, of course) is _morally wrong_. That is why they have favored sending people to prison instead of rehab. Because it is a violation of the social contract they favor to be under the influence of such substances, and that by using them you are no longer able to execute your duties as a citizen. And you aren't. I don't want you high on meth when you vote. I don't want you high on pot when you drive. I don't want you coming down from heroin when you serve on a jury. Those actions have consequences, all actions as a citizen do, because we cannot isolate from each other. Breaking those commitments _could be_ considered morally wrong, and not just from puritans or fundamentalists.

Re: Painkillers now kill more Americans than any illegal drug

#60

Post by mathattack »

SilasX wrote: post #51
mathattack wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It boggles my mind that it's somehow acceptable for the folks running prisons to be able to lobby for the 3 strikes laws. http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2010/09/16/117661/sb1070-p...

For context, it's not just the people running private prisons, but also public prison guard unions: http://ordinary-gentlemen.com/timkowal/2011/06/the-role-of-t...

Yes. Which also seems bad. Though similarly I think it's strange that public sector unions can politically organize to pick who sits opposite them during contract negotiation time.
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