Jeff Sessions’ answer to opioid crisis: Americans should opt for aspirin, ‘tough it out’

a reply to: luthier

Those incidents are outside the norm.

Arrest the people doing the criminal acts and the ones profiting from it.

a reply to: DBCowboy

If we assume that the medical experts are truly experts, and yield to their knowledge, I have to ask why we imprison people with medical and psychological issues.

We wouldn't treat cancer with prison. Well...unless someone starts to lobby sessions for it, anyway.

Cannabis has been shown to reduce a person's dependency on opioids, they eventually replace the opioids with a joint. But Sessions doesn't care about that, he's on a crusade against marijuana while at the same time saying "tough it out" to opioid addicts. He's a piece of # in my book.

a reply to: DBCowboy

Not really that outside. The Dea has found lots of these situations. The pills are all traceable. Congress has voted several times to protect manufacturers.

a reply to: Xcalibur254

What is your solution? Keep handing out the unnecessary opioids or handing out 500mg Tylenol? I had a tooth pulled once and my dentist wrote me a prescription for oxycodone but I bought BC Powder instead and that cured the pain within 60 seconds. Each powder is 945mg of aspirin. It's nasty but it works just as well and doesn't have side effects or alter your mood.

originally posted by: Thirty6BelowZero
a reply to: Xcalibur254

What is your solution? Keep handing out the unnecessary opioids or handing out 500mg Tylenol? I had a tooth pulled once and my dentist wrote me a prescription for oxycodone but I bought BC Powder instead and that cured the pain within 60 seconds. Each powder is 945mg of aspirin. It's nasty but it works just as well and doesn't have side effects or alter your mood.

Cracking down on Marijuana probably isn't the answer.

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

He actually just said the other day that a large number of opioid addicts are originally marijuana users. Completely ignoring the fact that it has been scientifically proven that marijuana is not a gateway drug.

a reply to: Abysha

Had to stop at this post going through the thread.

You absolutely nailed it !! Thank you!!

I had a friend who was in serious chronic pain and the VA only let him have a set amount of his hydrocodone. It wasn't nearly enough to let him get out of bed in the mornings, so he took to buying more in "less than legal" ways. With just a 50% increase he wasn't only functional but was able to run his own mechanic business. However, when the VA cut off his supply completely he fell back into chronic pain. And less than a year later he's now dead.

I am also one who's been on these things and have rarely used a whole bottle for what it was prescribed for. The remaining stay in a cupboard and are only broken out in emergency cases. (ex: middle of the weekend toothache)

It's the ones who use it as their "go-to" good time drug that wrecks the whole thing.

originally posted by: NerdGoddess
Melania was just in Cincinnati with our great Childrens Hospital being educated further on our Opioid crisis. She was told that in our city, 3 in 100 babies are born addicted to Opiates. All day long they deal with babies crying, screaming, and yes, dying because of this. If the prestigious doctors here thought some EXPLETIVE asprin would do the trick, I'm certain we wouldn't have the problem that we do.

I hope Melania tells Sessions to STUFF IT and if she doesn't, after seeing the live feed of what she was briefed on- then I'm convinced none of them truly cares and it's all for show.

-Alee

So your solution is to keep shoveling opioids down pregnant addict's throats?

I avoid opioids like the plague.
A cocktail of aspirin, alcohol, and ganja will get you through any unbearable pain.

originally posted by: luthier

originally posted by: Thirty6BelowZero
a reply to: Xcalibur254

What is your solution? Keep handing out the unnecessary opioids or handing out 500mg Tylenol? I had a tooth pulled once and my dentist wrote me a prescription for oxycodone but I bought BC Powder instead and that cured the pain within 60 seconds. Each powder is 945mg of aspirin. It's nasty but it works just as well and doesn't have side effects or alter your mood.

Cracking down on Marijuana probably isn't the answer.

I didn't mention one thing about MJ, what are you talking about?

a reply to: DBCowboy

For the most part I agree with you. I'm a recovering alcoholic, so am very familiar with the concept of dealing with emotional pain (dealing with everything, really) by using a substance to change my emotional state. No one got me addicted booze but me.

I don't do AA much now, but I did for a while, and so ran into many people in that community who had pill addictions (they didn't like the "vibe" in NA). They would also tell you that whether or not they started on opiates for legitimate pain, THEY addicted themselves- not their docs or the governmental agencies who regulate our drugs.

And it's hard for me to comprehend, but some people can actually take Xanax or Clonopin (I know thats a benzo, but same result), etc, and NOT get addicted!

It's ridiculous to punish the people who CAN and DO use opiates responsibly, because of those that can't. If we're doing that, why not ban food, since some people eat too much and end up morbidly obese?

I had a severe pain issue a few years ago; I had to go to the ER twice to get IV fluids- it hurt so much to swallow that I couldnt, and therefore got dehydrated. After the second time, the doctor prescribed OxyContin or some variation of that. I never had a pill issue, but was nervous about taking it with my booze addict history. And when the issue was clearing up and I didn't need the pain meds anymore, I was bummed. I wanted to take the rest of the pills in that bottle even though I didn't need them anymore (and on a side note, I informed the prescribing doctor of my alcoholism and that I had to be careful with mood-altering substances, and he was great, and only gave me 5 days' worth- he was completely a responsible prescriber).

Anyway I didn't take the rest of them- I gave them to a friend to dispose of. So for people like me, kratom is a god-send, because I can't take opioids if I have a pain issue. I hate the officials who are trying to ban it. They are purely doing it for their own financial interests. So I can just imagine how "normal" people must feel, to imagine having pain medication taken from them, becUse of the people who abuse it.

That was a long rant, sorry folks. It's just an issue I have some experience with, and I do think it's an important issue. And I think the government needs to take a hike on MOST of the things they interfere with.

a reply to: Xcalibur254

There is an out of control, for profit, opioid crisis.

It makes sense to curb the enthusiasm. Everything isnt a path for pain medication. Some issues need pain mitigation. Depends.

Sometimes pain really is weakness leaving the body.

a reply to: Thirty6BelowZero

Jeffies full statement was Marijuana is part of the problem. Being the gateway drug. We don't need more Marijuana we need people to take aspirin.

“The DEA said that a huge percentage of the heroin addiction starts with prescriptions. That may be an exaggerated number; they had it as high as 80 percent,” Sessions said. “We think a lot of this is starting with marijuana and other drugs too.”

a reply to: Xcalibur254

That statement by him ignores the studies that show marijuana reduces opioid dependency. If marijuana is what led to opioids then why are these studies showing that opioid users prefer marijuana? Doesn't really make sense.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
a reply to: DBCowboy

If we assume that the medical experts are truly experts, and yield to their knowledge, I have to ask why we imprison people with medical and psychological issues.

We wouldn't treat cancer with prison. Well...unless someone starts to lobby sessions for it, anyway.

Short answer; we shouldn't.

a reply to: DBCowboy

I agree...but many do, or are too uneducated to know the difference, or like your comment to which I responded implied, trust the doctors to know what they're doing (the logical fallacy of appeal to authority).

Luckily, I grew up with an RN for a mom, one who talked openly with us at home about the negative things that go on in hospitals, so I know enough to be skeptical at the correct times.

But, sadly, too many do not.

When you say, "Let doctors decide," that sounded like you were implying that a blind trust in doctors is okay. Doctors have decided probably five different times in my life to prescribe opioids, and every time I did not need them.

originally posted by: luthier
a reply to: DBCowboy

Not really that outside. The Dea has found lots of these situations. The pills are all traceable. Congress has voted several times to protect manufacturers.

Well there you go.

We should trust the people to solve the opioid crisis who are the people who facilitate the opioid crisis?

a reply to: SlapMonkey

I trust my doctors, but I also ask questions.

Trust, but verify.

When a society pushes the workers to work to their breaking point, don't be surprised that there are long term consequences that include chronic pain. When workers can't take 2-3 days off to heal an injury sustained on a job, or an injury caused from repetitive motion/stress, there is little one can do besides keep working and allow the problem to get worse to where the only option is taking medication to either deal with the pain (to keep pluggin along at the job) or to get some relief after they are no longer fit for the same job.

workers have become (probably always were) throw away to companies, especially manual laborers and many don't believe that office jobs can have serious health impacts and cause severe pain. The human body wasn't meant to do a lot of what companies ask of it for 6-14 hours straight. They reap the profits while the workers loose their marketability due to decrease in physical health.

Even people in the prime of their lives and in excellent shape (go to gym 3-5x a week for 90-150 minutes) suffer from extreme pain due to repetitive work actions.

When people have the attitude of sessions, I pray that they or their loved ones will be put in the situation where they suffer the same conditions of many of the workers here and have no outside assistance. It is a living hell that many people deal with on a daily basis and then the only thing that allows them to eek out a meager existence (by staying active in the work force while injured) the gov wants to stick their noses in and say they know better while the major problem is drugs smuggled in either the southern border (THANKS MEXICO!!) or mailed in from Asia (THANKS CHINA!!!!) and finally smuggled back from Afghanistan by "dirty" troops, gov contractors and NGO's. They Fentynal & carfentynal issue can squarely be placed on China for the vast majority with the possibility of some new sourcing coming from Mexico where some entreupenuers have started manufacturing it there from what I hear (or importing it there as well). The Heroin is usually from Mexico or Afghanistan region and then they get married with fentynal(s) in the states and they permanently displace many of our citizens. These deaths are what caused alarm bells to start, and now they are going after the easy targets, law abiding citizens, instead of the hard targets that are the main cause of the problem. They are only increasing the likely hood of deaths by their actions and it is totally counter intuitive to what needs to be done. This is criminal action by our leaders on many levels either actively or by negligence/stupidity and all should be punishable to the extreme in these cases.


It all goes back to companies exploiting workers too much and causing unhealthy relationships between workers and their jobs. Now health insurance companies are starting to clamp down and there is going to be MAJOR backlash before too long and something is going to happen, something has to give, and I don't think it's going to be the people taking this for much longer.