Physicians holding patients hostage to medication?

First, I have to thank EVERYONE for making this a great thread, with lots of good give and take. It's one where even radically opposing ideas have added greatly.

To Seeker Mom, you are quite correct, it's easy to get confused and/or take incorrect amounts. Thus, this evidently fairly common practice has to be carefully customized per the individual patient and "cost" has to be the last item on the list before being enabled by the MD.

Excellent point.

One thought upon which to elucidate, the idea of stockpiling. I originally got this idea from the Survivor types and Extreme Adventure Trekkers where they'd get a special pack by a supervising physician o use as an emergence life-saving measure. In it were medications of a fairly dangerous nature, including stimulants, epinephrine, antibiotics, sedatives and even (I think) a morphine syringe as they used in WWII for combat wounds.

Not that I'm advocating this kind of thing for casual use, but evidently there are ways to get such equipment legally. One would assume that the Adventurist would have some First Aid training and specific training in use of this 'Kit'.

But consider...people get licensed to handle dangerous equipment.

o Farmers can legally by high explosives to remove tree stumps;
o Grandmothers get Concealed Weapons Carry permits and carry handguns;
o Military Vets are injected with unknown vaccines.

Thus the government's claims of 'protecting society' do not ring clear here.

Why should certain legal medicines be so restricted and controlled? As one Poster said, people wanting to harm themselves can take OTC medications.

I have several friends back in the day who routinely took old Antibiotic prescriptions for ear aches and got rid of it (maybe it cleared up on its own, who knows? )

How do we handle risk? We get training and we're judged competent. I think the same could be said of personal medical treatment.

Make it like First Aid training. You get special permission if you take Red Cross training, for instance.

IOW, what I'm saying is that Society is still giving Physicians the mantle of the Shaman/Priest in some ways and their knowledge is restricted and forbidden, as though the Layperson can't know enough even if they're a college professor, or a clinical scientist.

The truth is, the real experts in several sub-fields are Physical trainers, Nurses, some Nutrition experts (there are a lot of good ones), and though I'm pretty 'establishment', even Holistic Medicine practitioners have some good ideas (even if it's 'take less pharmaceuticals').

In addition we know 'Big Pharm' is out for Profits and Not our welfare. That's a fact.

We now license certain alternative medicines, and Deep massage and Shiatsu, Acupuncture, and 'Healing Hands' get approved by Insurance agencies (IIRC).

In my case, I tried for 6 years to get approval to go to a special Deep massage therapist (who had to have a physician referral) and my MD would NOT allow it. I was sent to a PT who hurt me doing a chest compression (HVLA), and to a very strange Chiropractor who would NOT make me a pair of orthotics (he kept dragging on our sessions to the point where I just gave up getting anything more than an adjustment).

But now, that special therapist has died and her business was closed, so I'll never get to be treated there. (One or two of my friends in academia raved about her ability, and one had an 8-year shoulder problem which would not be resolved healed in 5-10 sessions with her).

So my point remains that the MD and the Patient must work together as a Team - we're consumers and we're NOT some annoyance who can be 'fired' by their Doctor's office for not coming in for treatment. (That practice should be actionable in the legal system).

Anyway good posts, thanks everyone.

Disclaimer: I'm posting as a Member and I'm not advocating doing anything illegal, immoral or fattening.