Drugging of America (or, More Hypocrisy in the "Drug" War)

[drokhole]

Last edited Tue Aug 7, 2012, 11:49 AM - Edit history (1)

Drugging of America
Sales of prescription painkillers soar across the country
By Chris Hawley Associated Press

New York - Sales of the nation's two most popular prescription painkillers have exploded in new parts of the country, an Associated Press analysis shows, worrying experts who say the push to relieve patients' suffering is spawning an addiction epidemic.

From New York's Staten Island to Santa Fe, N.M., Drug Enforcement Administration figures show dramatic rises between 2000 and 2010 in the distribution of oxycodone, the key ingredient in OxyContin, Percocet and Percodan. Some places saw sales increase sixteenfold.

Meanwhile, the distribution of hydrocodone, the key ingredient in Vicodin, Norco and Lortab, is rising in Appalachia, the original epicenter of the painkiller epidemic, as well as in the Midwest.

(snip)

Opioid pain relievers, the category that includes oxycodone and hydrocodone, caused 14,800 overdose deaths in 2008 alone, and the death toll is rising, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.

(more at link: http://www.jsonline.com/features/health/drugging-of-america-drugging-of-america-2o4spt8-147633035.html)

This report, hot on the heels of President Obama's proclamation that "drug legalization is not the answer." Of course, "drugs" already are legal, and the pharmaceutical profiteers are the dealers of some of the most dangerous and addictive (and government approved!). It's just not something we like to acknowledge.

If it isn't already painfully obvious, the word "drugs" is very misleading and the well of rhetoric has been completely muddied. Especially since some of the most beneficial/least destructive "drugs" - ones that could not only take care of the majority of symptoms these opiates are ostensibly prescribed to alleviate, but cure people of their addictions to them and other dangerous narcotics - are the ones with the worst (and most unwarranted) reputation. Instead of appropriately deploying and providing these "drugs" as therapeutic medicines (or for other personal use, as the case may be), these are the very "drugs" that our country (and, through its iron-fisted influence, the world) has declared their "war" on.

The benefits of cannabis are becoming more and more widely known. The fact that we've outlawed hemp's countless industrial uses alone is criminal. But there are plenty of other "Schedule I drugs" that have long been erroneously disparaged, suppressed and mislabeled. Particularly, the "hallucinogens."

Take Ibogaine, a highly efficacious treatment for heroin and prescription opiates after only one use. Surprisingly, it was recently highlighted in an article (Can a hallucinogen from Africa cure addiction?) on BBC's website. See also this news report (which features Dr. Deborah Mash from the article)...

...and the intense documentary Detox or Die, available in 5 parts on YouTube (with treatment administered around the 4:00 mark of Part 4)...

(see also Teejate's account/response in a recent DU thread about the aforementioned BBC article)

Meanwhile, psilocybin mushrooms have proven effective in treating depression, cluster headaches, and anxiety - not to mention an increase in general well-being:

The same can be said for the DMT-containing ayahuasca brew, LSD, and peyote. Did I mention the amazing potential of ayahuasca?

Yet these are all the strictest form of illegal, while OxyContin, Percocet, Percodan, Vicodin, Norco and Lortab continue to reap enormous profits for the pharmaceutical giants (while poisoning the general populace in the process). It's. Fucking. Maddening.

And, lest anyone think I'm suggesting the only solution is "drugs" all the way down - I believe the centerpiece of any treatment for a lot of these symptoms (chronic pain, stress, mental fog, depression, etc...) can and should focus on a shift in diet (including the all-important step of eliminating processed junk), proper sleep/rest, and stress-reduction (through stuff like meditation and mindfulness). That being said, the desire for mankind to alter consciousness, even in "healthy" individuals, is not to be ignored either. And these count among the "healthier" ways to do that, as well.

[freshwest]

1. Not enough death and profit from natural 'drugs.' Nice to see a post from you again, Drokhole.

[drokhole]

4. Spot on, freshwest! Thanks, and nice to see you, too!

[CrispyQ]

2. We should always refer to it as the War on Some Drugs. -nt

[99th_Monkey]

3. Or The War on Inconvenient Drugs

inconvenient in that they are less easily regulated, and inconvenient in that
they often tend to induce "anti-authoritarian" consciousness.