The Uselessness of Phenylephrine • Hacker News Board

Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine

#611

Post by ac29 » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 9:39 PM UTC

MertsA wrote: post #569

ac29 wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one is selling 99.99% grade alcohol as an antiseptic in the US. Its usually 70%. There are additives in ethanol sold as an antiseptic to discourage drinking (various bitterants, not benzene).

No one is selling 70% ethanol as an antiseptic, it's isopropyl alcohol. Those additives in ethanol not intended for consumption are 8 parts acetone and 1.5 parts methyl isobutyl ketone to 100 parts ethanol. There are some rare ethanol based rubbing alcohols sold but the vast majority is isopropyl because it's not just denatured with bitterants, they add toxic substances as well. Here's the actual formula they have to…

Ethanol as an antiseptic is less common, but its definitely a thing: https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Brand-Rubbing-Alcohol-Antisept...

Its general sold as "ethyl alcohol" not ethanol, but its the same thing.

Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine

#612

Post by ray__ » Wed, Apr 06, 2022, 7:42 AM UTC

jasonhansel wrote: post #531

ray__ wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fallout from the over-criminalization of opioids, meth, etc is a big reason that you're observing these behaviors. Stigmatizing drug use perpetuates the punitive approach to this problem. If the law treated addiction and the abuse of hard drugs with compassion rather than the draconian approach that we have in place currently you'd be seeing a lot less of this stuff. This post could have easily been written about…

> This post could have easily been written about alcohol in the prohibition era. We've since learned that criminalizing alcohol makes its impact on society worse rather than better. It's worth remembering that Prohibition was, in fact, quite successful: https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/6/5/18518005/prohibit... To quote that article: > Across the Hudson River, in Manhattan, the number of patients treated in Bell…

Interesting, thanks! I think I mostly took issue with the idea that throwing drug users in jail is the best course of action, and the condescending/judgemental tone of the original comment. I think we can dissuade substance use and abuse through other means (better drug education and rehabilitation, taxation, non-felony level criminalization) that will be a good middle ground between no drug laws and the draconian life-ruining ones that we have in place right now.

Re: The Uselessness of Phenylephrine

#613

Post by ray__ » Wed, Apr 06, 2022, 7:47 AM UTC

wolverine876 wrote: post #543

ray__ wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fallout from the over-criminalization of opioids, meth, etc is a big reason that you're observing these behaviors. Stigmatizing drug use perpetuates the punitive approach to this problem. If the law treated addiction and the abuse of hard drugs with compassion rather than the draconian approach that we have in place currently you'd be seeing a lot less of this stuff. This post could have easily been written about…

> The fallout from the over-criminalization of opioids, meth, etc is a big reason that you're observing these behaviors. Didn't the massive opiod epidemic occur before they were criminalized?

Opioid possession without a prescription is a class C felony