The OPIOID EPIDEMIC -- Seeking Your Thoughts.

a reply to: peter vlar


I have been administered IM morphine, and prescribed a variety of old-fashioned codeine preparations. They worked fine for me.

I have also been prescribed several of the opioid class of drugs including OxyContin. They worked fine too, but I didn't care for the side effects.

So if both drugs work equally well, what will it hurt to pull those that are so easily abused? I fully understand it is a subjective experience, but I don't buy into the line that we simply cannot exist without the opioids.

originally posted by: Salander
a reply to: peter vlar


I have been administered IM morphine, and prescribed a variety of old-fashioned codeine preparations. They worked fine for me.

I have also been prescribed several of the opioid class of drugs including OxyContin. They worked fine too, but I didn't care for the side effects.

So if both drugs work equally well, what will it hurt to pull those that are so easily abused? I fully understand it is a subjective experience, but I don't buy into the line that we simply cannot exist without the opioids.

Just because something "works fine for you" doesn't mean that it's the case for every patient. It depends on the type of pain and the cause thereof, it varies from one patient to another what medications work best. Some people need a long acting medication like Fentanyl or OxyContin to make their day to day lives bearable and then use smaller dose medications for breakthrough pain.

It should be up to the patient and their doctor to decide what works best for the patient, not someone on the internet who says that codeinne worked fine for them so there's no need for anything stronger on the market. Also, morphine and codeine are both opioids.

It's great that an IM injection of morphine worked for you but unless a person is on hospice and has an RN there tand administer the medication, people can't just take home a vial of morphine and jab themselves with it sonyour comparison is a very poor analogy.

Removing nature classes of medications because a minority of patients abuse them is condemning far too many people to a life's of hell because you see the situation as simply black and white. The needs of the many far outweigh the abuses of the few and it's when people are in pain and desperate that they turn to the streets when legal pharmaceutical options are no longer available. A blanket ban on specific medications is just idiotic.


ETA Some people are allergic to morphine and codeine and synthetics or semisynthetic opiates are the only options they have that are safe to take.

We can go back and forth on this topic. Some people are prone to addiction, some docs may be a bit generous as well with the meds. Some people are weak, some are just plain bad etc etc

The bottom line is that people are dying and we have an moral and ethical obligation to help them........... Not only that individual addiction is like a social wrecking ball in terms of family and society. And this is no longer a "ghetto" issue, its hitting EVERYWHERE.

We need to bandaid the situation with tighter controls on meds, stop acting like pot is the same as heroin, and provide narcan injectors in the community much like an AED

Then we need to fix the problem with REAL MENTAL healthcare, education etc.

a reply to: carewemust

" The OPIOID EPIDEMIC "

Federal Intelligence Agencies Conspiring to Hook Millions of American People on Hard Drugs by Allowing the Protected Import of said Illicit Drugs while Contributing to their Black Budgets . Been going On since the 1950's.........

originally posted by: FredT
We can go back and forth on this topic. Some people are prone to addiction, some docs may be a bit generous as well with the meds. Some people are weak, some are just plain bad etc etc

The bottom line is that people are dying and we have an moral and ethical obligation to help them........... Not only that individual addiction is like a social wrecking ball in terms of family and society. And this is no longer a "ghetto" issue, its hitting EVERYWHERE.

We need to bandaid the situation with tighter controls on meds, stop acting like pot is the same as heroin, and provide narcan injectors in the community much like an AED

Then we need to fix the problem with REAL MENTAL healthcare, education etc.

I totally agree that we need to stop treating cannabis like Heroin, we need to increase treatment options for people who want help, we need naloxone/narcan to be easily available and see much more. But how much tighter can we get with prescription controls? I have to be able to drive 40 min on less than 24 hours notice for pull counts and random urinalysis to make sure I'm taking the medications that I am prescribed and not dovert Big them for cash. I've had my prescriptions reduced recently because of state guidelines that puts legislators in charge of my medical needs and not the doctors who treat me and see me every 30 days. I pay out the ass for prescriptions, I pay for urinalysis because my insurance doesn't cover it, I lose hours out of a day to drive down, wait, take a drug test, get my pills counted and drive home and it costs Ken money for gas. I have sever chronic issues that I've been treated for for a decade and a half and suddenly I'm treated like a junkie off the street because other people can't be responsible for themselves or because somehow my prescriptions (not mine specifically, the same types and similar dosages) have led to other people to OD. Why am I punished when I have proven time and time again that I am nothing but compliant. All because when I was in high school I thought it would be really awesome to join the Army and jump out of planes to honor, protect and defend our Constitution. It's a hell of a thanks I'm getting when I have done absolutely nothing wrong or illegal.

a reply to: peter vlar

No, morphine and codeine are not opioids, because when morphine and codeine were first brought into use, in the English language the word opioid did not exist, was not in use. Man had not yet coined that term. That is, in my 1976 Websters New Twentieth Century dictionary, the word opioid cannot be found. Nor in my son's 1986 Webster
Collegiate can the word be found.



The simple answer is they were called opiates. That word has existed for a long time. Opioid is only a recently used term, as the drug is a recently synthesized drug, designed for effect one might say.

a reply to: carewemust

My first reaction? 'They' are blowing this out of proportion to civer up how many lives are lost in and out of the hospital on prescribed drugs/chemo/etc - that are not opioids.

peace

originally posted by: silo13
a reply to: carewemust

My first reaction? 'They' are blowing this out of proportion to civer up how many lives are lost in and out of the hospital on prescribed drugs/chemo/etc - that are not opioids.

peace

Still, I think it's noteworthy that the White House's Opioid Commission, headed by NJ Gov Chris Christie is suggesting that the President declare a national state of emergency.

originally posted by: Salander
a reply to: peter vlar

No, morphine and codeine are not opioids, because when morphine and codeine were first brought into use, in the English language the word opioid did not exist, was not in use. Man had not yet coined that term. That is, in my 1976 Websters New Twentieth Century dictionary, the word opioid cannot be found. Nor in my son's 1986 Webster
Collegiate can the word be found.



The simple answer is they were called opiates. That word has existed for a long time. Opioid is only a recently used term, as the drug is a recently synthesized drug, designed for effect one might say.

You're only point is to argue the semantics of etymology based on dictionaries that only include words in common, everyday use? The term opioid has been used for far longer in medical dictionaries since you want to split hairs.


Yes, originally, opioid was used for synthetic and semisynthetic medications like oxycodone (the active ingredient in OxyContin) Demerol and others of a synthetic or semisynthetic nature derived from another sportiest of poppy within the Papiver Genus. But today, and for decades and opioid is any drug that acts on the opiate centers in the brain. Some are agonists, others like naloxone, are opioid antagonists. And again, you're focusing on word etymology as a distraction from not having a valid argument to the legitimacy of the rest of my post. Different people respond to different medications and some people are Allergic to opiates like Morphine. Yes, Morphine is an opiate burnopioid is any drug that acts on those specific centers of the brain. Removing entire classes of medications based on what worked for you is just ignorant. A basic rule of thumb is that all opiates ar opioids but not all opioids are opiates. To put it in simplistic terms, Amy drug that acts on the brains opiate receptors is an opioid. But only medications derived from Palpver Somniferum are opiates. Hope that helps.

For further reading-
en.m.wiktionary.org...

medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com...

www.fda.gov...

en.m.wikipedia.org...

www.drugs.com...

a reply to: peter vlar


Yes, shame on me for getting into semantics.

I do understand and have no problems with the evolution of language. It is a fact of life. In some contexts "bad" can really mean "good".

But the fact is that before there were opioids, there were opiates. You may change the meanings of words if that's what suits you, and I will consider that in any future communications.

Synthetic opioids are different than the more organic opiates, whether you prefer to blur the meanings between words or not.

a reply to: peter vlar


Take a moment to consider the function of suffices in the English language.

Note that "-oid" is defined as 1) Having the appearance of: RESEMBLING or 2) One that resembles something specified or has a specified quality. An example is humanoid. Not human, but resembling human.

Thus opioid, not opium but resembling opium

September 14, 2017

Relevant news today from Trump's Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA):

HRSA awards $200 million to health centers nationwide to tackle mental health and fight the opioid overdose crisis.
Today, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) awarded more than $200 million to 1,178 health centers and 13 rural health organizations in every U.S. state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Pacific Basin to increase access to substance abuse and mental health services.

Full Article: www.hhs.gov...

originally posted by: carewemust
June 29, 2017

Maybe it's due to the current push to reform America's Medical Insurance system, but I'm hearing more and more on the news about an OPIOID addiction problem in America. In fact, some media and politicians are calling it an Opioid EPIDEMIC and even a CRISIS.

Out of curiosity, I Googled to see what Opioids are. Here's what I found at the Government Drug Abuse website: www.drugabuse.gov...

""Every day, more than 90 Americans die after overdosing on opioids. The misuse of, and addiction to opioids—including prescription pain relievers, heroin, and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl—is a serious national crisis that affects public health as well as social and economic welfare.""

It must be really bad in some states, because Congress is preparing to add an additional $45 Billion...yes, BILLION dollars to the revised GOP healthcare bill for fighting this epidemic: nypost.com...

SEEKING YOUR THOUGHTS...

1. It appears that this isn't an addiction that affects only the poor, or only inner-city people.

2. When a Senator, like Susan Collins (R-Maine), says that she needs hundreds of millions of dollars to "fight" this epidemic in her state, what would she use the money for? How do you fight something that's comprised of both legal and illegal drugs?

3. Should we feel sympathy for ADULTS who are addicted? I have a hard time being empathetic for adults who hurt themselves, by smoking, being too fat, taking too many legal drugs, drinking too much, etc.. (fyi..I'm a smoker. The addiction, and potential cancer, are 100% my fault.)

4. Is this particular "mass addiction" to Opioids simply part of the natural decline and deterioration of humankind in general, and America specifically? ("End times" religious verses speak of this deterioration.)

-CareWeMust

To make this easy here is the key info : These figures come from what I have read in sources linked in ATS threads.

90-95% of all drugs entering north America come from Latin/south America
90-95% of all drugs entering Europe come from Afghanistan

The war on drugs is 30 years old in 2017.
The war on drugs has cost 30 Billion Dollars.

The US has occupied Afghanisatn for what is it 7 years now?
Before the US occupied Afghnssatn it was occupied by Russia for, what was it 5 years?

The US has conducted milittree operations in Latin/South America how many times in the last 30 years.

Why did/have they not refit xyz number of airal tankers and helicopoters with sprays and dump Roundup or Glysophate on the drug plants for 7-8 years in succession - if it thats what it took to kill or eradcate the cocain plants?

Why has Monstanto and other big pharama not developed a GM plant, insect or other creature so that it will kill the coc aine plants on contact or within a just a couple of years.

Why have they not done this in Afghanstain also.

Has it ever occured to anyone that the US citzens are the enemy of the global planners, the bilderburgers and likely several other groups we do or do not know about?

And some very deep thinkers in their quest tfor explanation can't think of anything like i've mentioned?

Some very deep thinkers in their quest to find answers and blame someone can't think and look any further than the vicitms on the street??

lets not be cruel, lets be kind and give them the benfit of the doubt and consider the possiblity that whoever wrote point 3 in the post quoted above are in fact people who have been paid to come here and make such claims.

a reply to: Azureblue


The US has been in Afghanistan for 15 years now. The Russians only needed 8 years to get the picture, but the US is not as perceptive as the Russians, or simply have other interests, such as reaping the profits of the black market opium business.

The CIA has been reaping those profits almost since its inception.

originally posted by: Salander
a reply to: Azureblue


The US has been in Afghanistan for 15 years now. The Russians only needed 8 years to get the picture, but the US is not as perceptive as the Russians, or simply have other interests, such as reaping the profits of the black market opium business.

The CIA has been reaping those profits almost since its inception.

I actually think the US milittree controls the world drug trade and I suspect they do it raise money for the secret space program and or other black budget type programs. I also reckon this is reason why confiscation and infringement laws focus heavily on monetary fines as the punishment and much less on other forms of punishment.

Phil Schneider, once said that milittree science advances 20 years every calendar year, compared to the advance of civilian science per calendar year.

a reply to: Azureblue


They probably work together as needed, but my guess is the CIA has far more skin in the drug business than the US military does. Iran-Contra suggested that.