Sorry folks, some people on the East Coast have heroin problems, so we cant discuss mj legalization.

[Warren DeMontague]

Signed, the ideological gatekeepers of the debates.

[2pooped2pop]

1. it seems to me that the heroin addiction problem

has been on purpose. I think they want poor and middle class to become addicted so they can do whatever they want as people will be too busy dealing with their problems, facing jail, etc to care what politicians and big corporations/ industry are doing.

It may be that we have more pain now as our food, our air, our water is polluted and causing inflammation and other problems in our bodies. But it does seem that these new pain clinics want to give you narcotics and don't seem to want to get you off of them. I suffered from chronic pain back in the 80's. While my insurance would not cover treatments I wanted to try, it would cover drugs. However no doctor that I went to was willing to up my drugs to narcotics. That was being saved for a last resort.

Now, I know people who suffer from chronic pain and have asked their doctor to get them off of the narcotic with negative results. They ordered much more than the patients needed and was very reluctant to wean them off.

that is not right. I am wondering now it those doctors are just getting kickbacks for the scripts or if this is part of a bigger plan.

and yes, I am suspicious of everything.

[eridani]

7. Nonsense. Only a minority of biologically sensitive people become addicts.

Can't find it online, as it was published in the 80s, but Scientific American reported on a study where people were allowed to self-administer morphine whenever they wanted it. They were all in a hospital setting. The first finding was that there was enormous individual variation--some people took so little that the researchers wondered how it could have had any effect, and others took what they thought would be enough to stun a horse. The second finding was that pain relief was far more effective, because the patients didn't have to wait until they were really hurting in order to get access to morphine.

Thirdly, only 2 or 3 of the research population developed addictions--and every one of them had a prior history of addiction.

So yes, aggressive pain relief will produce more addicts strictly from a statistical standpoint, but so what? The answer to that is to know your patients in advance, and make sure that those prone to addiction get extra attention to make sure they are weaned off it before being released. They shouldn't get prescriptions until they agree to be hospitalized so they can be monitored.

[abelenkpe]

2. That's weak

Don't see how that makes any sense at all.

[Warren DeMontague]

6. You don't see how every time the subject of marijuana legalization has come up in the debates

is has been avoided, and swiftly segued into "what are we going to do about the drug addiction crisis?"


Okay, pop quiz: Aside from Sanders, how many Presidential candidates have actually addressed marijuana legalization in their debate answers? We've had Hillary, for one, give at least 20 minutes worth of answers, maybe more, about how she wants to give more money to the drug war because of heroin. Yet 4 states have legalized marijuana for recreational use. Is it not an important topic?

[Warpy]

3. No shit, and even with billions being squandered on the WOD

those addicts (as well as the ones here in NM) never seem to have much of a problem getting their drugs. The black market prices just mean they have to rob the rest of us for the money to buy them.

[Half-Century Man]

4. One more compelling reason for National Single Payer Health care.

With racist GOP governors doing everything they can to discredit the first African American President. One of the ways has been to refuse to expand medicaid, most have gone as far as to throw thousands of poor people off of medicaid to overburden the ACA (such as my medicaid expulsion in Wisconsin).
A second issue is high deductibles.
The third is big pharma.
All of these have worked to strip pain medication from thousands of people.
Dealing with constant pain is maddening. Some (maybe eventually all) turn to illegal drugs to combat pain.
Heroin is the cheapest effective choice.
People on state medical aid get tested for illegal drugs, one hint of a trace and off you go.

While over prescription of opiates has been a contributing factor, large blocks of people suddenly without medication is a greater factor.
My brother is one of those afflicted.

Add to all this, the easiest most cost effective way to fight heroin addiction is medical marijuana. But then methadone (synthetic heroin, same addictive qualities, a hell of a lot more expensive, made by big pharma) would be hard to sell,

[TeamPooka]

5. Prohibition is a failed public policy, again.

[mountain grammy]

8. and has been for the last 100 years..

100% FAILURE!!