New Powerful Painkiller Has Abuse Experts Worried

[yukonjack]

These damn okies always whining about something, eh?

I'll admit I whined a little bit. Maybe a lot, I really don't remember. My daughter is still laughing at me. No sympathy at home.

 

[ignerntbend]

Yukon, you might even consider amputation at the first knuckle. Years ago my cousin lost the first part of his dominate hand index finger in an unfortunate accident. Everybody thought it was funny
What if he'd cut off his arm[not funny] What if he'd cut off his hand? [again not funny.]
How much of yourself do you need to cut off before it stops being funny? It's a philosophical question, and every man must answer it for himself.

 

[dugby]

Of all the things I could have been wasting my time reading, how was I so fortunate as to stumble onto these pearls.

Ouch, Yuck....

Vote for Ron and legalize everything.

I was shooting some skeet with a fellow from amsterdam one afternoon here in OKlahoma. He said it is was really a shame that the open mindedness of his country on drugs and the open mindedness of our country on firearms couldn't be brought together in one place. He was a real pleasure visit with. A lot of the attitudes on both sides of these issues have a lot in common.

 

[tRidiot]

I'm sorry, I'm all for freedom, but if you legalize everything, we're going have some mass epidemics of drug OD deaths on our hands... way more than we have now, which is already approaching an epidemic. You can make your arguments about marijuana, but the harder stuff, even prescription, is just horrendously abused and dangerous.

 

[vvvvvvv]

we're going have some mass epidemics of drug OD deaths on our hands...

Data?

 

[mhphoto]

I'm sorry, I'm all for freedom, but if you legalize everything, we're going have some mass epidemics of drug OD deaths on our hands

Not to be insensitive, but that's just Darwin at work.

 

[RidgeHunter]

Data?

Nah, 'cause it shows the opposite to be true.

 

[tRidiot]

Data?

Nah, 'cause it shows the opposite to be true.

What data shows the opposite? Other countries? Other countries demographics and traditions are vastly different than our own, so comparisons are apples to oranges or peaches at best.

I've got extensive real-world experience with not just drug abuse but deaths from drug abuse on a daily basis all around this country for years. I'm stating my educated, experienced and informed opinion. You don't have to agree with it, though, that's fine. Both overdoses and deaths from overdose are on the rise in this country and this state in particular.

What experience do you have with it? When you want to come in and see all the O.D.s we see every day that you never hear about in the news, then maybe your position will change. Maybe it won't.

 

[ignerntbend]

You've probably seen the results of alcohol poisoning, gun shot wounds and car accidents as well. What can our government do to address those problems?

 

[RidgeHunter]

What data shows the opposite? Other countries? Other countries demographics and traditions are vastly different than our own, so comparisons are apples to oranges or peaches at best.

I've got extensive real-world experience with not just drug abuse but deaths from drug abuse on a daily basis all around this country for years. I'm stating my educated, experienced and informed opinion. You don't have to agree with it, though, that's fine. Both overdoses and deaths from overdose are on the rise in this country and this state in particular.

What experience do you have with it? When you want to come in and see all the O.D.s we see every day that you never hear about in the news, then maybe your position will change. Maybe it won't.

It's pretty dismissive to think that there is such a difference between America and other countries for one. What differences we do have come from years of propaganda and irresponsible drug education. For another, the "chaos in the streets" is just as laughable as the gun control crowd saying major cities would turn into the OK Corral if people are allowed to carry handguns. There is simply not a large segment of the population for whom the only thing holding them back from heavy drug use is a law.

The drug war ramp-up 40 years ago under Nixon, and the quadrupling of the incarceration rate in that period of time matched up with the fact that OD deaths are the highest they've ever been, and the fact drug use and abuse rates haven't declined a bit (more Americans report using illicit drugs than any other country) speaks quite a bit to me.

I have numbers to prove the everything from the Harrison Act to the CSA of 1970 were not effective in curbing drug use, and nobody has any numbers to prove that ending drug prohibition would be the downfall of society. All they have is "I've seen drug addicts before." Great, I've seen a lot of squirrels before if we're listing things that don't matter.

Lastly, it's ridiculous to throw the "experience" jabs around. Addiction is not rare, and I personally don't know a single person that has not dealt with addiction or an addict on a very personal level. I'm not going to sit here and try to out-anecdote anyone with drug stories, but I will say there is one common trait all the ones I've known share...they don't care what they are doing is illegal. Your anecdotes don't mean a thing, and mine don't either. Just because someone has a different opinion than you does not mean they don't grasp the situation. You want to take the effectiveness argument away - I don't believe we need a government powerful enough to legally prohibit people from ingesting a substance and I never will. That simple.

The righteousness of drug prohibition has been burned it our brains since infancy and it's hard for people to accept that it may be flawed in anyway. "The truth, indeed, is something that mankind, for some mysterious reason, instinctively dislikes. Every man who tries to tell it is unpopular, and even when, by the sheer strength of his case, he prevails, he is put down as a scoundrel." - Mencken