They gave me 60 vicodin when I got my wisdom teeth taken out. I took one and chucked the bottle after. I feel like I dodged a bullet there.
Cannabis legalization decreases stock market value of major pharmaceutical firms
161–170 of 222 posts
Re: Cannabis legalization decreases stock market value of major pharmaceutical firms
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm really glad for you, but I don't know how I would have survived my wisdom teeth removal without them. Even with the pills the pain was still excruciating. I lost a lot of weight from inability to eat or even drink. In my opinion, giving somebody pills who doesn't need them (what used to be the norm) isn't great but the vast majority of people don't suddenly become junkies. Most people are perfectly fine. You your…
I certainly wasn't advocating that no one should get opioids because I have a high pain tolerance, rather that we maybe shouldn't be prescribing them by default for everything. In the same vein, I think a lot of research ought to be done into non-addictive painkillers. Then the risk would basically be zero and everybody's happy (except for pharma companies that make bank off of opioid addicts, of course)
> I certainly wasn't advocating that no one should get opioids because I have a high pain tolerance, rather that we maybe shouldn't be prescribing them by default for everything.
Many, many people assume that if the doctor doesn't offer pain medicine, then it's because they don't need it. Once you've left the office and the pain gets bad and you realize you should have asked for them, it's too late. But also, a ton of doctors won't prescribe them anymore ever because of the extreme risk of losing their career to the DEA if they make a bad call in favor of prescribing. There's virtually zero risk for under prescribing, so human nature for self-preservation makes this decision a no-brainer for the doctor.
> In the same vein, I think a lot of research ought to be done into non-addictive painkillers. Then the risk would basically be zero and everybody's happy (except for pharma companies that make bank off of opioid addicts, of course)
I agree completely
Re: Cannabis legalization decreases stock market value of major pharmaceutical firms
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm really glad for you, but I don't know how I would have survived my wisdom teeth removal without them. Even with the pills the pain was still excruciating. I lost a lot of weight from inability to eat or even drink. In my opinion, giving somebody pills who doesn't need them (what used to be the norm) isn't great but the vast majority of people don't suddenly become junkies. Most people are perfectly fine. You your…
The problem with talking about "giving somebody pills" is that it's extremely imprecise. A coworker of mine was once given a two week script for oxy after they injured their arm, they had two days of serious pain and then just mild soreness - this was an insane over prescription and my friend knew it. They used cannabis to manage their pain for two days and never filled the script. I think a script for two or even th…
I don't understand what the problem is with the imprecision in your story. Did your coworker abuse the extra pills? Did he become an addict? If not, then why is it so bad for him to have gotten more in case he needed them? Don't you think needing them and not having them is worse than the situation your friend was in where he needed to throw them away?
Re: Cannabis legalization decreases stock market value of major pharmaceutical firms
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think one problem is people have vastly different thresholds of pain. Somebody else having the same injury might be calling their doctor back begging for a refill because they can barely function. Of course determining how much of that is a medical need versus how much is "the pills talking" is never going to be easy.
That's one of the beautiful things about Cannabis legalization - it provides a non-addictive pain management solution where the pills will talk much less.
I fully agree with you on Cannabis, but I don't think that's an argument for restricting opioid pills. I think we can and should make Cannabis widely available, and should absolutely encourage people to give it a try first, but if it doesn't work for them I think they should have the option of trying the pills.
Re: Cannabis legalization decreases stock market value of major pharmaceutical firms
#165Surely I'm not the only person for who cannabis just makes pain far worse. In fact I know I'm not I've heard it from other people. Opiates are spooky, but ... they work really well.
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Re: Cannabis legalization decreases stock market value of major pharmaceutical firms
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I just felt normal. No pain, no other effects. Reminds me of this excellent comment from Reddit about what heroin is like: --- Actually this is an obvious question but it's not what you might think. Let me explain it to you, I've been an opiate addict for a long time and tried many drugs. Drugs that are 'uppers' have the most 'obvious' euphoria. For example if you take adderall/coke/meth/speed/MDMA you will get thi…
So if you are miserable, opiates will make you feel content. Not euphoric, but merely content, normal. But if you already feel content, opiates will not make you feel much different. That’s sad if true. Opiate users are not chasing a high, they’re merely chasing a normal.
That's what research is starting to suggest for at least some opiate addicts.
Opiates have a very strong anti-depressant effect, that also tends to make the depression worse after coming down. Well, really it's the activation of "opioid" receptors (becoming a bit of misnomer) that have a very strong anti-depressant effect, which is the same mechanism that the anti-depressant effects of ketamine derive from despite not being an opioid (anti-depressant effect is almost entirely negated if taken with naloxone, aka NARCAN, to inhibit the opioid receptors).
This worsening of depression symptoms after coming down from opiates causes a vicious, psychological feedback loop in addition to the physical dependency. This also may be why ketamine has higher risk of addiction than other psychedelics like psilocybin.
Re: Cannabis legalization decreases stock market value of major pharmaceutical firms
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
I imagine it has a lot to do with the type of pain. I don't think I'd want canniboids for a sharp pain, and certainly not for anything intense. But for a chronic pain or some kind of ache where you're taking medication over a long term, a daily dose of cannabis has got to be much better than any kind of opiate.
Nah, I have chronic pain. Muscle stuff (back, hips). And arthritis. They're insantly worse the moment I consume. I know it's hard for those who enjoy cannabis to understand this. But for me it's a highly unpleasant drug. Maybe the most unpleasant of the various recreational substances I've taken over the year. For me it's pain and paranoia. In the milieux I was in in my 20s it was constantly around, and wow, was I ev…
I don't know if this will help you but:
Cannabis tends to amplify whatever you are thinking about. If you are mentally focused on the pain that will almost certainly be counter productive.
For paranoia, a trick that works for me is to mentally/consciously call out the paranoia and acknowledge that it is exaggerated/not real and instead caused by the cannabis. As soon as I do that it disappears.
Re: Cannabis legalization decreases stock market value of major pharmaceutical firms
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem with talking about "giving somebody pills" is that it's extremely imprecise. A coworker of mine was once given a two week script for oxy after they injured their arm, they had two days of serious pain and then just mild soreness - this was an insane over prescription and my friend knew it. They used cannabis to manage their pain for two days and never filled the script. I think a script for two or even th…
I don't understand what the problem is with the imprecision in your story. Did your coworker abuse the extra pills? Did he become an addict? If not, then why is it so bad for him to have gotten more in case he needed them? Don't you think needing them and not having them is worse than the situation your friend was in where he needed to throw them away?
He was a trained pharmacologist who knew that being on a constant dosage for that long can be habit forming so he didn't take them - a decent portion of people are handed a bottle of pain meds "Here's a two week supply" and assume they're supposed to take them at the prescribed rate continuously. It takes an active personal decision to decide not to take the meds prescribed for you and that you've already paid for.
Re: Cannabis legalization decreases stock market value of major pharmaceutical firms
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I just felt normal. No pain, no other effects. Reminds me of this excellent comment from Reddit about what heroin is like: --- Actually this is an obvious question but it's not what you might think. Let me explain it to you, I've been an opiate addict for a long time and tried many drugs. Drugs that are 'uppers' have the most 'obvious' euphoria. For example if you take adderall/coke/meth/speed/MDMA you will get thi…
Honestly that reads like a creative writing exercise given the amount of inaccuracies in that rose-colored description. I'd recommend anyone reading take that with a large grain of salt.
Found it incredibly accurate myself.
Re: Cannabis legalization decreases stock market value of major pharmaceutical firms
#170Yay. Recreational marijauna user here and opioids scare the crap out of me. Had to take 10 oxycodone after a surgery and if they can hand those out they can hand out marijauna capsules or whatever. It's really that simple.
I'm a medical cannabis patient in the UK (medical cannabis was quietly legalised in 2018, there's only 10-20k private patients and virtually none on the NHS so even a fair few police officers don't know it's a thing yet!) and opiates scare me too. Anecdotal I know but I was given a box of codeine after having my appendix out recently and didn't even need a quarter of them so I could definitely see cannabis displacing the less powerful opiates to some extent in the future.
I guess it depends on the type of pain but I find cannabis more effective than codeine for the neurological pain I'm prescribed it for anyway.