Forum Post: Can we stop oxycodone production?
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 30, 2011, 12:34 a.m. EST by joe100
(306)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Oxycodone was the number one killer, causing 1,516 deaths in 2010, compared to 1,185 the year before. This is just in Florida.
Overall, there were 2,710 deaths in Florida last year caused by prescription drugs, compared to 2,488 in 2009.
For the second year in a row, prescription drugs continued to outpace illegal drugs as a cause of death -
there were almost three times as many deaths in Florida last year attributed to oxycodone compared with cocaine.
There are patients who need this drug for pain. legitimate sick people. not everyone who has MS or ALS or Lyme disease has an IV in their arm to get IV anything. some of us need to take our meds orally. someone here said," just put them on morphine or something else". like what? morphine, while an effective pain killer in hospitals via IV is not available the same way to the chronically ill patient. doctors just don't hand out morphine scripts that easily. joe, the docs in ny state are prescribing less and less oxy for that very reason you mentioned. believe me, they are cracking down. the laws are getting tough and legitimate people w/ pain are suffering HUGELY! we are being demonized and watched very closely where we are treated like drug addicts just for wanting a better quality of life.
oxycodone/contin is a more sophisticated drug, newer than morphine, and that is why it is in so much demand. while you have a point of course about the addiction problem, taking oxy off the market will just send them into another direction of opiates, like heroin, where you can REALLY die easily because the dope is not always pharmaceutically kosher. education is the answer, and prosecution of the Broward county, et al dealers("doctors")...not a stop in production of the drug or the persecution of legitimate pain management doctors who have taken an oath to treat our pain humanely.
You can't take away personal responsibility because you take away freedom when you do that. If you want the government to wipe your ass then expect a totalitarian regime to control you in every way. Educate yourself and your kids about the dangers of drugs both legal and illegal but don't encourage the increase in size of the police state.
I don't agree. We live in a huge society of BILLIONS of people. The math is, if the drug is available and easy to use, some people will use it. Doesn't matter about education, etc. Some will use it.
Maybe stop oxy in pill form and just offer it intravenously. See that would work for everyone! Sick people could have their oxy, and the kids couldn't use it so easily!
How did I arrive at this solution? Through this forum and talking with others. They helped me come up with a viable solution.
I don't think anyone could disagree with this solution.
Your comments about only having intravenous oxycodone is really a ridiculous suggestion for many reasons.
2) Intravenous therapy is a major risk factor associated with infection, particularly antibiotic resistant bacteria, like MRSA, which is deadly. Why would a person be put at risk for infection (for an extended period of time) that intravenous administration would create, when there is an oral alternative- its against all sound medical practice.
3) Also, you need to read Mooks posts- Oxycodone by itself is way less dangerous than Vicodin, Percocet , Percodan, or any other opioid that has acetaminophen or Ibuprofen mixed with it because tylenol and ibuprofen can cause liver failure in the case of acetminophen and kidney failure in the case of ibuprofen, if person is taking too much. People die of kidney or liver failure due to the tylenol and ibuprofen more than the the oxycodone. The FDA considered a ban on vicodin and percodan because of deaths associated with over doses of the acetaminophen but decided to decrease the amount of acetaminophen and place warnings on prescriptions instead- http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-06-30-tylenol-acetaminophen_N.htm-
4) Also, read my post below and you also may want to think about taking a critical thinking class.
huh? do you know that oxycontin is very similar in chemical structure to heroin? Do you know how people take heroin? intravenously.
If the drug exists on the planet some people will take it regardless of the laws or any obstacles. Do you know the effects of the drug war as it is? It's devastating. How do you like paying $40,000 per year to lock up pot smokers? How do you like the cops not keeping the peace but rather disturbing the peace with raids in which some innocent people and bystanders die? How do you like operation fast and furious?
oxycontin is not the drug. The drug is oxycodone. Oxycontin is the pill designed to be time released that contains oxycodone. You cannot inject oxycontin because, by definition, it is a pill.
Most people snort or smoke heroin. I don't know anyone who has ever used it intravenously. Nobody is suggesting continuing the drug war. This is a matter of pharmaceutical companies having too much power not locking up users.
someone has suggested more laws regulating drugs
You don't think that any more drugs should be regulated? Do you think that a company should be allowed to aggressively market and sell any poison they want even if they are just straight up lying about its ability get you high or help with illness? Did you ever hear about that bath salt shit? It doesn't even effectively get people high and they are going bat shit crazy on them and winding up in prison or in the hospital. They are completely legal and are sold in convenience stores.
Regulation at the pharmaceutical level has nothing to do with continuing or expanding the drug war. It is already illegal to sell these drugs without a license and to use without a prescription. If anything if production decreased that would diminish the drug war.
I believe that if cannabis was legalized and treated like beer or wine than very many of our country's drug problems would disappear in a matter of months. No police state or totalitarian regime required. Just common sense.
it's "already illegal" hence the continuation of the drug war. Education is the key to solving our drug problems - not the prison industrial complex that is enabled by over-regulation
Lack of regulation is what causes drug arrests. How many people go to jail for illegally selling alcohol as opposed to cannabis, cocaine, heroin, drugs like that? You are not reading what I am saying so why should I even bother...
OK I quoted you but I'm not reading I guess. I sure don't get where you are coming from though. "Lack of regulation is what causes drug arrests" I just don't see how you could have possibly calculated this. Here's another 1% for you. 1% of Americans are incarcerated. More than half of those are victimless drug law offenders. That's over a million people.
Think of the unintended consequences, the collateral damage of giving our politicians more power, which is what has been suggested. Big pharma needs to be regulated with anti-trust laws and bribery laws but we don't need anymore laws regulating the people and sending more of us to prison because of them.
It is already illegal. When the drug companies increases production more ends up on the black market. I said regulating the drug companies would decrease the amount of oxy that is sold illegally therefore less addicts, less arrests, less drug war. I didn't say anything about increasing police forces and arrests. I don't know how you are interpreting what I am saying as incarcerating more Americans. I said nothing about regulating people or users. I stated numerous times that I despise the drug war. I use drugs. I enjoy them. I have enjoyed many many illegal drugs in my lifetime and never had a problem with anything except alcohol. I am not advocating a drug war.
Either you are confused or you are suggesting increasing production of oxy and selling them in gas stations.
I just don't think you've thought it out all the way. Those things you say you don't like, the drug war and such would be contibuted to as a by-product of increased regulation.
Many drugs are illegal now, yet we still have addicts.
I think nationwide, more people are using hydrocodone. Vicodin was the #1 rx'ed drug in the US last year.
Hydrocodone is small potatoes compared to the more potent forms of oxycodone. If someone gets addicted to vicodin but doesn't move on to stronger forms of opiates they are exaggerating their addiction.
Doctors are a lot more likely to prescribe Vicodin though because it is schedule 3 instead of schedule 2. I rarely prescribe Percocet because you can't call it in and you have to put your NPI number on the prescription form. And most oxycodon addicts eventually move onto heroin which is usually quite a bit cheaper. You can almost make the argument that oxycodone is safer than hydrocone because you don't need to take as much to get the same high. A lot of people are overdosing not on the opiate, but on the acetaminophen you get by blowing 6 Vicodin.
Do you think that vicodin abuse is more common then? I didn't realize I was talking to a professional. I was talking more about how some people actually think it's cool to pretend to be addicted because they take like one or two vicodins a day and get high from it. I've met people like that before. But I also know people that would pop 10 vicodins in their mouth just to curb withdrawal even though they know that the acetaminophen is gonna kill their stomach. It is just all they can get sometimes. It is so sad. Blowing even one vicodin is terrible. I mean, shit, snorting any of those drugs is bad but I really hope a lot of people aren't doing six at once. That is probably worse than snorting heroin.
I am a dentist, but one of the things we prescribe most often is narcotics. My usual prescription for vicodin is take 1-2 every 4-6 hours. So taking 2 vicodins is really nothing special. Most non-addicts will feel high after taking 2 though.
I was just at a continuing ed class last year and the speaker said that vicodin was the #1 rx'ed drug in the US last year. Of anything, not just painkillers but blood pressure meds, diabetes meds, etc. I suspect the main reason is like I said above. Percocet is stronger than vicodin so it is a schedule 2 instead of 3 by the DEA and prescribing it can be a pain. He also said that vicodin use could surpass marijuana us by high school students within 5 years. That blew my mind because it is exponentially more dangerous than marijuana
It is normally liver failure that will kill someone taking a ton of vicodin or percocet. For a true opiate addict (and this is by no means medical advice for anyone haha) I would think it is better to use heroin than either vicodin or percocet. People will do whatever it takes to get the opiate needed to curb the withdrawal, it would likely be better without all the acetaminophen.
Yea I agree with you about the vicodin and percocet for addicts being the worst but I think that oxycontin and roxicet are safer than heroin just because they are controlled doses. I used to actually like doing like 5 or 10mg of roxicet sometimes just to balance out the pot. Pot can make me way too sensitive about stuff.
I didn't know that the drug scheduling affected doctor's prescriptions but that makes a lot of sense. Some people I know that had addiction problems needed painkillers for legitimate reasons and could only get vicodin from the doctor and were so pissed off haha. It was basically useless for them.
Oxycontin is one of the most dangerous drugs out there because of that controlled dose. If you crush it up and snort it, you get that whole 24 hr dose all at once. There are people getting 80 mg of oxycodone, which is a ton even for a whole day, all at once. I am not sure of the exact numbers but I would think that if a non-addict with no tolerance tried that, it would likely kill them.
Yes, it very well could, even if they took it orally whole, without crushing it.
Yea they might. That is fucked up that one pill could hurt someone that much and for a different person it wouldn't even fully relieve withdrawal symptoms. A lot of mistakes could be made that way too I guess. I was thinking about a somewhat responsible user who isn't ignorant of the drug knowing how much they are taking as opposed to heroin which could really be any potency and they wouldn't know until they tested it first.
What do you mean by stop production.? Are you suggesting making it illegal?
By whatever means, get the big pharmaceutical companies to stop making it and stop distributing it. Laws in this case would not work well - it's a policy thing.
If small mom and pop shops make it, like meth labs, you can't stop that. But our society CAN stop highly professional and efficient corporations from distributing and manufacturing oxy.
I understand your concern but passing laws making all this shit illegal is just more of the same. Do you really want the government that deep into your life? All those laws would do is make criminals out of ordinary people..and that is what drug laws do now. Of course we need to do Something, but I don't think making drugs illegal is the way to do it...
The difference between heroin production and oxycodone production is that heroin is made, trafficked and sold solely by criminals and only exists on the black market. Oxy is produced by corporations and exists legally before making it to the black market. Oxy production increases every year by significant amounts because of loopholes that exist in some states (Florida) where dealers can fill as many scripts as they care to and then traffic them all over the rest of the country. I don't suggest making production entirely illegal but there needs to be something done about the easy access that is available to users.
I am entirely against prohibition of almost every recreational drug and despise the drug war. I even think opium should be legal or at least decriminalized. Smoking opium is about as addictive as smoking pot and drinking a glass of wine. Oxycodone is far more addictive and dangerous and pharmaceutical companies are taking advantage of people through advertising it as safe.
I didn't say do the prohibition with LAW. It can be done other ways. Just stop it from being manufactured by our pharmaceutical companies. There is no patient market requirement for oxy, as other medications the same thing.
Opiate derived pain medications have legitimate uses, they are needed by patients with pain management issues.
I bet if they or a loved one were suffering in pain for years and years they would change their minds real quick.
If oxycodone stops then heroin production will increase, and even more people will die. The OP is dumb, there should be harm reduction measures taken, but prohibition never works to solve a drug problem. Never Ever.
Yes, overdose on this drug is a huge problem. The cases I'm aware of involve people crushing and snorting the time release version of the drug (extremely dangerous, particularly when you're dealing with 80mg of this drug). Unfortunately, the manufacturer hasn't done enough to warn people about this specific risk (through television advertising). It's not enough to stick a warning on the bottle (since abuse of this drug is reasonably foreseeable, and those using the drug without a prescription obviously will not have access to those sort of warnings).
Not that this has anything what so ever to do with OWS, but when I see this many horrible assumptions, incorrect statements, and such a lack of knowledge that are in the posts in this thread, I can't help myself.
More people live with debilitating chronic pain in United States than cancer, heart disease and diabetes combined (and other developed countries are much the same) The majority of these people live with pain everyday of their lives 24/7. I know it can be hard to believe that it is even possible to be in constant pain but it is. Oxycontin can take a person who lives with severe pain - pain that is at a 7, 8 ,9, or 10 on a scale of 1-10 and decrease it down to a 3, 4, or 5 or it can take someone who lives with moderately high pain at a 6 and bring it down to a 2 or a 3 and maybe they might experience some pain free times if they are lucky. These may seem like modest reductions to "Joe100", but I can assure you they are not modest reductions to the person who is suffering with pain. To have severe pain brought down to moderate or mild intensity is not modest. And even if a person only gets a modest reduction, when you are living everyday with severe pain, any relief is welcome.
Chronic pain is not just acute pain that lasts longer and it is not just a symptom of some other injury or disease. (cancer pain and chronic pain are not categorized as the same type of pain) Chronic pain is an incurable disease of the nervous system. Its tenacity is largely attributed to complex physiochemical changes that occur within the pain processing pathways of the central nervous system (in the brain and spinal cord) and in the peripheral nervous system . These physical and chemical changes are often triggered by the barrage of pain signals from poorly treated acute pain. These physiochemical changes become permanently imbedded in the nervous system, altering the normal way pain is processed, producing a state of pathological pain sensitivity and activating the transition of acute pain to the state of chronic pain. In other words, chronic pain is not a problem in the tissues, its a problem in the nervous system. It represents a nervous system gone rogue, where the broken pain system itself is the pain source, separate from whatever the initial pain source was. To stop the production of the production of Oxycodone would leave thousands, if not millions of people to suffer.
Florida's pill mill problem is due to the state being among only a handful of states that hasn't adopted proper schedule II - controlled drug laws to have better monitoring and controls in place- so people who don't have a legitimate pain problem can go into free standing "Pain Management Clinics" run by unscrupulous, criminal doctors and get opioids without any real documentation. Finally, the state is passing new laws - about 15 years too late. The deaths and the ruin lives caused by prescription drug abuse is truly heartbreaking.
But oxycodone is a pain medication and it should be available to the legitimate pain patients. Thousands of pain patients take their pain medications properly and don't abuse them, but we don't hear about that, we only hear about the people who abuse the medication. We don't hear about the people who are helped by these medications and who are harmed by not having the medicines they need. People in society often think that although people may suffer from chronic pain, at least they don't die from it, but that's not true. Unrelieved pain impacts just about every system in the body. Chronic pain patients who end up living with pain for prolonged periods of time like 15, 20, or 25 years or more often die 10 to 20 years earlier than they would have, had it not been to the pain- and I am not talking about death due to overdose- but mostly to cardiac events, endocrine problems and other illnesses that they develop secondary to the tremendous amount of stress that is placed on the body by being in pain for years and years (and then of course many die from suicide as the suicide rate is 2 to 3 times higher in this population). For millions of chronic pain patients, opioids are life saving medications. And many people whose chronic pain is managed on opioids will be on these medications for the rest of their lives.
Lastly, it is totally not true that "not a single patient would miss oxycontin" if it wasn't made anymore and that they can just take some other medication. Pardon me for saying, you don't know what you are talking about. As with all medications (even Tylenol and Advil) Pharmacokinetics varies (often greatly) from person to person as does the pharmacodynamics of different opioids and for some people morphine or methadone, Fentanyl patches, etc. do not work as well as Oxycontin, just like Oxycontin sometimes doesn't work as well for some people as these other opiates. Also, the side effects can vary from opioid to opioid and often someone won't be able to tolerate one opioid over an other.
The comment about only having intravenous oxycodone is really a ridiculous suggestion for many reasons. Intravenous therapy is a major risk factor associated with infection, particularly antibiotic resistant bacteria, like MRSA, which is deadly. Why would a person be put at risk for infection (for an extended period of time) that intravenous administration would create, when there is an oral alternative- its against all sound medical practice. Oxycontin is the extended, time release formula of oxycodone, it only comes in oral tablets, it doesn't come in an IV form. Only oxycodone (regular release) comes in a IV form as well as orally. Its the oxycontin that is so dangerous because people crush it and snort it and get all the medication at once instead of over a 8 to 12 hours as the extended formula releases the medication. But what is really wrong about this suggestion is that for many people Oxycontin gives them their lives back- it reduces their pain enough that they can become functional again, so that they are not in bed all day and they can live a quality life. Lots of people with chronic pain lead moderately active and almost normal lives because oral oxycontin keeps them from having to spend all day in bed. Your "brilliant" idea of tethering them to an IV pole to give them a medication that doesn't even come in IV form is. You are thinking that chronic pain is like acute pain- its not. You can't compare acute and chronic pain- its like comparing apples and oranges or hunger and thirst.
And the comment "And who is more important? Some guy who is dying of cancer ANYWAY??? Or the kid trying to grow up? is perhaps the most ignorant, short sighted, stupid, and crass comment of all (talking about lack of humanity)- many of Joe100's comments are disturbing but this one kinda takes the cake. I think by my lengthy post, its clear that not every person who has pain, has cancer. Nor is everyone who has chronic pain old or even middle aged.That "some guy dying of cancer" who Joe100 eludes to deserves to have his pain managed and if oxycontin is the only drug that works then he shouldn't be denied it- not because they don't make it anymore and not because others are addicted to it. Children and young people die painful deaths from cancer and children and young people develop chronic pain- whether it originates from from injuries or a chronic illness or some other pain syndromes
O.K. I am done. Wow, Joe100, really pissed me off
Should some people suffer from extreme pain just because others aren't self-controlled enough not to overdose. Maybe we should ban anything that can be dangerous....cars, airplanes. Lot's of people have heart attacks when they are walking up stairs or having sex. Maybe we should ban that stuff too.
You're kind of missing the point. As people are saying here, oxycodone is more or less just another opiate. The real scandal is that OxyContin was marketing it as being a "less addictive" opiate (the same trick used back when heroin was first put on the market). And they were marketing it for "off-label" indications. Now Purdue Pharma paid a fortune - $634 million - in fines and penalties over this... but they still made more than that in profit even during that initial period, and more thereafter ( http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/19/business/19drug.html ).
Having drug companies addict people and then settling affairs by cutting in the government for a portion of the loot is no answer. Banning desperately needed painkillers is also no answer. What we need is to recognize that the rules of the game we're playing by are just plain stupid. We should reject the patent system whereby companies research new drugs and tax the sick (in royalties leading to massively inflated drug prices) to pay for them - then spend the vast majority of the money on marketing. We should establish a system whereby there are cash bounties for research companies to bring products through to each stage of drug development, and those drugs then become generically available to all Americans, and those living in any other country dropping the patent-driven model of drug development. We should make it so that pharmaceutical entrepreneurs no longer have to deal with tremendous risk and loanshark prices for venture capital, no longer wait ten years to see if a product starts to pan out. We should no longer leave "orphan" diseases untreated, nor burden people with unrelated diseases to pay for them with a loopy orphan drug bill that benefits large companies with lucrative existing drugs to put up for patent extension. We should ensure that inventing new antibiotics is a very profitable activity, that inventing cures and one-time treatments is a very profitable activity, and inventing pills people take every day for life is no more profitable than that. We should guarantee that biomedical research, competently done to develop useful products, is a good industry returning decent profits to those willing to focus their attention on research and development and quality manufacturing, not those who lie and mislead and advertise and connive and corrupt to get their way.
Conclusion about Oxy
Thank you all for participating. I think it has been a fruitful post, and I know I have learned things from you all on this post. This will be my last post on this topic.
I have arrived at some conclusions.
The solution is to have Oxy available in a form that is not easily illicitly bought, sold, and used by youth, such as intravenously.
For those doctors, dentists, and patients who claim patients "need" oxy, and nothing else will work, they can use it in bed intravenously. If their patients need pain relief on the go, they can take something else besides Oxy. If the pain is so bad that they need oxy, the patients can stay in bed and take it intravenously or some other way that is not in pill form.
Contrary to about 50% or more of the forum participants' thoughts, a modest improvement in pain relief on the go is not more important, nor a priority over preventing death to our youth. I am VERY surprised how so many of you think modest improvement in pain relief and pain relief convenience is a priority over preventing death - I am actually shocked at this lack of humanity. To me, these people sound EXACTLY like the corporate greed people.
Convenience being more important than dead youth makes no sense.
Where 100 years ago, if something bad was introduced to society, that can cause death or problems if not used correctly, only a few people would die. Today, instead of a few, it's thousands, because there are billions of people.
There is a small percentage of people who are like "monkey see - monkey do" type of people. Suppose the percentage is .0001%, which means 1 in 1,000,000 people are "copy cat" people.
Hence, in large populations, it no longer makes sense to count percentages, it only makes sense to count the number of people. The time to stop something is when a certain number of people are suffering, the percentage doesn't matter anymore - it's the number of people.
Thanks again for your thoughts and opinions, let's move on to something else now.
"For those doctors, dentists, and patients who claim patients "need" oxy, and nothing else will work, they can use it in bed intravenously. If their patients need pain relief on the go, they can take something else besides Oxy. If the pain is so bad that they need oxy, the patients can stay in bed and take it intravenously or some other way that is not in pill form."
This wouldn't be very effective except for terminally ill patients (who I believe should have access to any and every drug that could possibly relieve their pain, including heroin)
All the drug companies would have to do is mix their pills with a compound that would render the opiate useless once crushed up. That would stop much of the abuse. I think that they are doing something like this already but it needs to be improved upon.
http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/another-victim-of-the-drug-war/
http://reason.com/archives/1997/01/01/no-relief-in-sight/singlepage
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2010/12/the_worst_kind_of_ham_sandwich.html
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3727
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3778
but how many people do these drugs help as well? My neighbor wouldnt be able to get through her day since her tumor was removed last year. They don't get her high at all, just keep debilitating pain away so she can work and be a mom. Alot of people suffer because govt goes after pain management doctors. Now doctors wont prescribe doses high enough to help alot of people in constant pain. Google Radley Balko and his research on pain management doctors.
Solution FOUND!!!! Stop OXY in pill form, and just have it available intravenously!!!
I cannot agree with this. I am sorry. I understand why you want this but, we have people that need this. We have people who are now using "bath salts" which are not really bath salts. I can no longer go in at the beginning of fall and purchase cold medication to last through the winter season without using my ID because it can be used in the production of meth.
The thing is that someone that is drug seeking is seeking drugs and currently this movement towards not writing the scripts is actually harming the people that desperately need them. The target audience is going to find something else or continue to get them from a "reputable" place.
You didn't read the Wiki - no one needs this. In laboratory tests it was proven that OXY is no better than Morphine. All of these patients can get the same benefits with other drugs. Oxy is not needed at all.
Some people react badly to morphine but do not to Oxy. And you cannot make the people that need this medication do without because you have a group of people that are morons.
These morons are lost children, partly because their parents are lost economically, because of the corporate greed. The parents' lives are so disturbed by economic turmoil, the parents don't parent enough, and the children suffer. People will do what's available. There are many other drugs besides morphine and oxy that can work.
And who is more important? Some guy who is dying of cancer ANYWAY??? Or the kid trying to grow up?
the priority is clearly NOT the dying people. It is the youth.
Oxy abuse has nothing to do with where we are economically. The street value for an Oxycontin pill is $20. Addiction hits every socio economic class, regardless of who's struggling. Most of the kids addicted aren't getting it legally thru an MD, but on the street or thru a dirty doc. And as for your comment about " who is more important.. some guy who is dying of cancer anyway" really puts you in catagory of cold ,uneducated and inhumane. You seriously need to go visit some kids in a cancer wing and ask them how important they are.
Typical psychopath, read Ayn Rand much???
Life long pain. The priority is taking care of the people that are in pain.
This does not mean that the kids be damned. That is a whole 'nother ball game baby.
I don't agree at all. The people in pain have plenty of meds to choose from without Oxy.
And yes, it does mean "let the kids be damned". because thats the result.
You think the dead kids can come back?
What do you think all these dead kids would write in this forum.
What would the dead kids say?
What would you say to them?
No. If you think for one minute that your problems are solved by removing Oxy---you are wrong. Dead wrong.
Are you in Florida? I hope so, because this is going to sound really familiar. Do not talk to me about dead kids until you stop privatizing your social services and, more specifically, your hotline. Do not talk to me about dead kids until you get the god damned AK-47s off the street. Do not talk to me about dead kids until you address the issues of the inability to obtain more than adequate mental health care for Florida's third leading cause of teen deaths -suicides.
You are not even close to solving the problems.
I personally have NO problems with oxy. I knew a kid that died recently. He was not my friend. I knew his family. Oxy doesn't bother me personally, just people around me. What are you so excited about this? What has guns got to do with Oxy?
Since when have I privatized social services? what are you talking about?
50% of teen deaths are from accidents, and 73% of those are from cars. Cars lead the way for teen deaths. Suicides are only 13%.
You must know someone who committed suicide.
"You are not even close to solving the problems"
What problems? Calm down, do the math. You are not making any sense. Are you on oxy?
You think the dead kids can come back? What do you think all these dead kids would write in this forum. What would the dead kids say? What would you say to them?
You did write those words, did you not? You also wrote the following: These morons are lost children, partly because their parents are lost economically, because of the corporate greed. The parents' lives are so disturbed by economic turmoil, the parents don't parent enough, and the children suffer.
Don't use kids as a weapon for your goal.
Suicide is the third leading cause of death for 15-to-24-year-olds, and fourth for 10-14 year olds. You have the capacity to recognize that those "lost children" may have economic problems (although-drug use does not recognize economic boundaries). You have the capacity to recognize that there may be problems in the home (although-there are those that are just thrill seekers). But, rather than focus on the issues that promotes drug use or puts kids at risk--you want to nail something that isn't even going to remotely solve the problem. And you call that math?
You don't make any sense.
I didn't write "morons" - I was repeating what someone else wrote. They called the youth morons. Not me.
Some women are, well, different.
But some are like you.
As Jack Nicholson said in as Good as it Gets. not an exact quote, but very close.
"To write from the point of view of a woman, all one has to do, is take a man, and take away all his accountability and reason, then you have woman"
You seem to be one of those women. BTW car accidents are by far the biggest problem in numbers. Not Suicide and not oxy.
Why are you so rude?
My goal is to have less people die from oxy. What is so bad about that?
Or maybe you are being paid to try an annoy me? It's not working. I love to type....
Ok, fucktwit. Your goal is to be a nonsensical class A jack-off.
i think your response means I win! hahahhhahahaaa
Seriously stop being so rude. i am also a professional stand up comic. You will never win a battle of words with me.
Go fuck yourself.
You lack talent. The only place you are standing up is out in the rain.
You sound really hot. Are you a hotty? Maybe we could get together. FIne line between love and hate!!! hahahahahaha
joe is a fraud. look at his join date. when you see someone with an argument that seems to miss the point and lacks a valid counter to your own, call them a fraud and forget them.
Sweet. I'm forgetting him as I write.
word
What about people who suffer from chronic pain? They must pay the price because others are abusing the drugs???
According to studies OXY does NO better than morphine. Morphine and other drugs do just as well. There is no need for it. At all.
I have chronic pain go tell my pain management dr to prescribe it. It would much cheaper but since he is pressured by the DEA he is allowing me to suffer by under medicating me. I take OXY at the lowest dose. I am tested, I am monitored and only allow to fill the prescription at one pharmacy. I am treated like a criminal because I got injured on the job and now have a spine of a 90 year old. Twenty years of pain and failed spinal surgeries and I'm treated as if I killed someone.
What does this have to do with OWS?
Regulation and education are the solution. Not prohibition.
As long as there is prohibition the only people selling will be addicts and gangsters who have a vested economic interest in selling more no matter how irresponsible the sales.
Addiction i a genetic based disease that requires treatment and understanding, not ostracizing. SEE: The American Society of Addiction Medicine - Definition of Addiction http://www.asam.org/DefinitionofAddiction-LongVersion.html
AND: Swiss heroin model reporting benefits http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/Home/Archive/Swiss_heroin_model_reporting_benefits.html?cid=5423558
aahpat....finally someone (you) who understands this is not a platform to discuss this matter...OWS's missions statement has nothing to do with 99% of the issues people are bringing into this. This is one of the main reasons people no longer want to hear it anymore and cannot take it seriously. To many issues thrown ito the mix...
Now naturally there will be people(joe 100) who will try to throw in the point
"....When corporate greed disregards the life and deaths of the 99% - I think that pretty much qualifies as Occupy relevant..."
Hell than we can say that ABOUT ANY issue...car companys for making the car to fast,gun makers for making the guns,peanut companys for growing peanuts (some of the 99% have allergies),I can go on forever saying that the corporations are guilty of disregard to others lives...in joe100's case the person taking the drugs is not 99.9999% responsible for disregard of life...heck even he says its ok to get high ONCE in a while,just control it,if not blame the coporations making it.
People WE NEED to start taking responsibility for OUR actions OUR parts in ALL the problems of today even if its only tiny or small.
I agree.
Well said.
Perspective.
Thank you!
BTW (this is not directed at you sepcifically prospective this is to all out there) by no means am I trying to belittle joe,his point,any others issues and agendas or that of OWS ......I am just saying.
I'm a firm believer in personal responsibility. If more people had it the world would be a better place.
yes it would.
When corporate greed disregards the life and deaths of the 99% - I think that pretty much qualifies as Occupy relevant.
I don't see why Oxy pills need to be made. There is other stuff that does the EXACT same thing for patients, that will not have such a following of recreational users as Oxy.
If I were an exec at the pharmaceutical company, I would stop making it. And I am not some prohibition freak like you see in these forums. If there was no Oxy, not a single patient who uses it for pain would miss it. They can use morphine or something else. All that would happen is recreational use and deaths would decrease.
In my city, there are kids dying from this. I have nothing against getting wasted once in a while... but dying? And have it be addicting so fast?
There are kids dying because people like you insist that addicts and gangsters be the only sales force for intoxicant drugs rather than medical professionals and licensed responsible adult members of the community.
Prohibition encourages and subsidizes sales to children. Educated non-medical sales to adults and addicts prescribed their drugs through dispensaries and doctors would reduce almost all of the sales force on our streets today because addicts would no longer be dealers. And intelligent users would prefer to buy from a pharmacy that provides education and regulation rather than gangsters.
The prohibition economic embargo model creates and imposes crime subsidized anarchy on our streets. When you support the Drug War you support addicts and gangsters selling drugs unregulated to children.
I mean prohibition from manufacturing it. If it ain't there, how will it be distributed?
And by the way, I support the idea that mom and pop shops SHOULD be allowed to sell drugs, like marijuana, and other prescription drugs, to make money, just like the big pharmacies, that have no right to claim a monopoly on drug sales. Of course they should have training, accountability, etc., but the training and licensing should not be too burdensome where it prevents common people from entering the drug trade.
Thus, in the plan proposed, it would be impossible that "Prohibition encourages and subsidizes sales to children" if the stuff isn't manufactured at all.
i don't understand your point.
i don't support the drug war AT ALL. In fact STOPPING the manufacture of Oxy would reduce the drug war. I don't think taking drugs is a crime. i don't think selling drugs is a crime, (unless to kids) I don't think growing marijuana or poppy plants is a crime or should need govt supervision.
i just think dangerous drugs like Oxy should not be manufactured. That's all.
Heroin isn't manufactured - how is it distributed?
Most of the cocaine being used illicitly isn't pharmaceutical - how is it distributed?
Marijuana isn't produced by any legal manufacturers (except for the few that are allowed now under medical mj laws) - how is it distributed?
You are denying human nature. If not oxy there would be something else. there always has been and there always will be. It is the nature of intoxication and addiction.
For one thing the U.S. companies are not the only manufacturers.
For another the largest producers of the key ingredient, morphine, are gangsters. If you ban production of oxy you simply give them another lucrative market to sell morphine, opium and heroin into.
Some history. Prior to the Drug War doctors sold to their patients low level pep pills and tranquilizers. The Drug War stopped this for the most part. within three years America saw its first meth epidemic as gangsters saw the vacuum in the market and filled it with easily produced but far more dangerous drugs.
Heroin was used by far fewer than 100-thousand Americans until the government Drug War upped the profile of the market and gangsters around the world suddenly saw a major market opportunity. White racists in the U.S. government intelligence community were happy to encourage the funding of authoritarian military states by allowing them to sell drugs hard drugs into poverty oppressed minority American communities that the white racist intelligence people wanted to destabilize.
The only way to get this corruption out of our culture is to legalize and regulate drug sales and use.
Reduce access to children by having responsible adult supervision of most sales. Reduce the number of addicts selling, the people who sell most to kids, by prescribing to them.
You are denying human nature. Oxy is NOT found in nature.
Better to just do natural drugs. and the something else there would be besides Oxy - would KILL LESS. What don't you understand?
Your statement "If you ban production of oxy you simply give them another lucrative market to sell morphine, opium and heroin into." makes NO LOGICAL SENSE.
Better to have morphine, opium and heroin markets WITHOUT OXY!!!
Get off YOUR Drug war kick. Banning Oxy does not mean support the drug war. You are misplacing all your "stop the drug war" energy.
I am 100% for stopping the drug war. I have lots of statistics in brochures and web sites about this topic for the past decade how the drug war should be stopped.
The action of Banning oxy in no way supports the drug war.
You are misplacing your "stop the drug war" energy.
Dammit aaphat quit saying things I agree with :-). You hit the nail on the head there my friend. Also through a pharmacy the quality control is better. There are many people making fake pills with Lord knows what in them.
Truth
I'm not for banning it, but I do admit there is a great deal of pressure put on people by their peers to take it.
I've lost many friends that have done horrible things to me to support their addictions.
While I've never done Percs, I've noticed that people are always introduced to it by an acquaintance that offers it for free, at first. I've been offered free Percs at least 10 times a year by these types of people and have never taken it. They know that if they can get you hooked, they can rely on a steady supply of money from you. Everyone I know that's addicted can not stop taking them for more than a couple months and they all started their pill addiction the same way I mentioned. Cocaine is very similar the way people offer it for free, knowing that getting you addicted is in their interests.
I am not sure why people support the companies making it... doesn't seem worth it. I found this at wiki:
"There is no evidence that any opioids are superior to morphine in relieving the pain of cancer, and no controlled trials have shown oxycodone to be superior to morphine."
and
"Another thing that separates oxycodone from morphine or heroin and makes it very appealing to youth, novice drug users, or those that wouldn't use heroin or morphine is the ease in which it can be used or administered. Most oxycodone users simply use the drug orally or crush the pills into a fine powder and snort it. "
"Percocet, on the other hand, is also a narcotic analgesic developed in the mid 1970s. Although Percocet may contain Oxycodone, it is different because it has an Acetaminophen part which means that it has an effect similar to that of Acetaminophen. "
The Acetaminophen kind of ruins what the recreational users want.
Based on the above, I don't understand that need for it in the marketplace at all.
"The Acetaminophen kind of ruins what the recreational users want."
My view is that there is a desired effect to the Acetaminophen diluting the Oxycodone. The effect it has is to destigmatize it. I think there's a distinction between "recreational use" of drugs (which is social) and a drug addiction. The reason they start their addictions with Percs is because it has the appearance of being a harmless pain reliever.
This is true. One oxycotin could be as strong as 10, 20 percocets and it doesn't have the acetamniophen in it. If somewhere to take enough percocets to equal an oxycontin then the acetaminophen would make them sick or tear their stomach open eventually. Snorting percocets is a bad idea.
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Have you known someone die of prescription pills
I live in florida and come from missouri , never heard of the term pill heads until I got here.
Rush Limbaugh won't allow it.
Nobody is forcing them to take oxycodone.
Tough luck.
Most oxycodone ends up on the black market and in many high schools it is more common than pot. While it is safer than heroin because the doses are measured it is just as addictive as snorting heroin. It is a huge problem and your tough luck attitude is pretty harsh.
If these people want help with their addiction, they can get help. The government shouldn't have to babysit them. They could provide rehab perhaps, but that's as far as it should go.
In Florida it is legal to go from doctor to doctor filling as many prescriptions as possible enabling people to traffic them across the country. There are things the government could do that would be perfectly reasonable other than rehabilitation.
I rather have doctors be drug dealers than gang members. At least doctors don't go around shooting people.
The point is the doctors are providing the drugs for the dealers. Its not like every kid who wants an oxy goes to a doctor to get it. Do you know how drug dealing works?
Don't you mean, Oxycodone Abuse was the number one killer, causing 1,516 deaths in 2010 ?
ETA: I know this a big problem everywhere. Here is a good link if anyone is interested. Check out the graph on page 32, http://oxywatchdog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/The-Florida-Medical-Examiners-Commission-2010-Repo1.pdf
Oxy's will never be banned. Way too much money in legal heroin. What the hell do you think we are doing in Afghanistan? Securing the poppy fields
Taylor shouted Damn all you bloody apes to Hell Damn You!!! while Nova was parking her Chevy in back of Cornelius ape Hut Taylor shouted Damn all you bloody apes to Hell Damn You!!! while Nova was parking her Chevy in back of Cornelius ape HutTaylor shouted Damn all you bloody apes to Hell Damn You!!! while Nova was parking her Chevy in back of Cornelius ape Hutaylor shouted Damn all you bloody apes to Hell Damn You!!! while Nova was parking her Chevy in back of Cornelius ape Hut Taylor shouted Damn all you bloody apes to Hell Damn You!!! while Nova was parking her Chevy in back of Cornelius ape HutTaylor shouted Damn all you bloody apes to Hell Damn You!!! while Nova was parking her Chevy in back of Cornelius ape Hutaylor shouted Damn all you bloody apes to Hell Damn You!!! while Nova was parking her Chevy in back of Cornelius ape Hut Taylor shouted Damn all you bloody apes to Hell Damn You!!! while Nova was parking her Chevy in back of Cornelius ape HutTaylor shouted Damn all you bloody apes to Hell Damn You!!! while Nova was parking her Chevy in back of Cornelius ape Hutaylor shouted Damn all you bloody apes to Hell Damn You!!! while Nova was parking her Chevy in back of Cornelius ape Hut Taylor shouted Damn all you bloody apes to Hell Damn You!!! while Nova was parking her Chevy in back of Cornelius ape HutTaylor shouted Damn all you bloody apes to Hell Damn You!!! while Nova was parking her Chevy in back of Cornelius ape Hutaylor shouted Damn all you bloody apes to Hell Damn You!!! while Nova was parking her Chevy in back of Cornelius ape Hut Taylor shouted Damn all you bloody apes to Hell Damn You!!! while Nova was parking her Chevy in back of Cornelius ape HutTaylor shouted Damn all you bloody apes to Hell Damn You!!! while Nova was parking her Chevy in back of Cornelius ape Hutaylor shouted Damn all you bloody apes to Hell Damn You!!! while Nova was parking her Chevy in back of Cornelius ape Hut Taylor shouted Damn all you bloody apes to Hell Damn You!!! while Nova was parking her Chevy in back of Cornelius ape HutTaylor shouted Damn all you bloody apes to Hell Damn You!!! while Nova was parking her Chevy in back of Cornelius ape Hutaylor shouted Damn all you bloody apes to Hell Damn You!!! while Nova was parking her Chevy in back of Cornelius ape Hut Taylor shouted Damn all you bloody apes to Hell Damn You!!! while Nova was parking her Chevy in back of Cornelius ape HutTaylor shouted Damn all you bloody apes to Hell Damn You!!! while Nova was parking her Chevy in back of Cornelius ape Hutaylor shouted Damn all you bloody apes to Hell Damn You!!! while Nova was parking her Chevy in back of Cornelius ape Hut Taylor shouted Damn all you bloody apes to Hell Damn You!!! while Nova was parking her Chevy in back of Cornelius ape HutTaylor shouted Damn all you bloody apes to Hell Damn You!!! while Nova was parking her Chevy in back of Cornelius ape Hutaylor shouted Damn all you bloody apes to Hell Damn You!!! while Nova was parking her Chevy in back of Cornelius ape Hut Taylor shouted Damn all you bloody apes to Hell Damn You!!! while Nova was parking her Chevy in back of Cornelius ape HutTaylor shouted Damn all you bloody apes to Hell Damn You!!! while Nova was parking her Chevy in back of Cornelius ape Hut
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get rid of penicillin too, some people die from it. Actually, get rid of prescription drugs altogether, people die from taking too much or a bad interaction. You're ridiculous.
Penicillin treats infections doesn't it? While OXYs just numb you, doing nothing to help heal you. There is a big difference. OXYs dominate the drug market because the drug companys control all the poppy fields in the world. I would never take them, Just smoke weed. It works better, less health effects, and you aren't supporting Big Pharma.
Not knowing that they're allergic, people die from peniciilin
Cool, I will try to get your family to take OXY and see what happens. Marijuana is great and so is wine! but not oxy. There are lots of great drugs. Even acid or mushrooms once in a while is a great experience. But when drugs kill people thats uncool. Kid I knew just died a few weeks ago - but you don't care -why should you? You're ridiculous.
I am a dentist and I prescribe oxycodone, normally in the form of Percocet, from time to time. There are a lot of drugs that can be abused, the opiates just being one of them. Unfortunately, opiates are the best pain relievers out there. If I do a difficult extraction, it is going to be very painful for a few days. Why shouldn't I prescribe something that will actually work to control my patients pain?
Oxycodone is completely safe when used as directed. I would be very interested to read the study that you obtained your information in your original post from. If I had to bet, most of those deaths were caused by the acetaminophen in Percocet, not the oxycodone.
Cool! Someone that actually prescribes Oxy for patients! You obviously have a good point of view to enter in the discussion. From the info I got, it is all about Oxy - they say that the acetaminophen in Percocets makes Percocet a lot less desirable than Oxy. I read that Oxy and morphine do the same as far as pain relief. But a gentlemen in this forum informed me he was in a situation where morphine didn't work, and claims that oxy helped save his life.
The best solution I came up with so far, was to stop making Oxy in pill form, and have it available intravenously only.
But now the Dentist wants to prescribe Oxy! Oy! Here is my question to you. If Oxy was only available intravenously or in some form that is not a pill and not easily bought, sold, and used, could this work?
And isn't there other pills that you can prescribe that is just as strong that doesn't provide the youth with such ease of getting wasted and addicted?
What do you think? Lots of kids are dying cause of Oxy. And there addictions are horrible, and their personalities change. And its so easy to snort! There is no acetaminophen!
Let me know. You have more experience than me.
I think you may be using oxycodone and Oxycontin interchangeably, which is not the case. Oxycontin is a name brand for a time released oxycodone (generic) tablet. Percocet that I prescribe is either 2.5 mg or 5.0 mg of oxycodone with 325 mg of acetaminophen. Oxycontin is a pill that has as high as 80 mg of oxycodone (even as high as 160 mg until recently) that is time released throughout the day.
The problem is people crushing up the Oxycontin and either injecting it or snorting it, thus getting the whole days worth of oxycodone all at once. There is a BIG difference between Oxycontin and the oxycodone in something like Percocet. As a dentist, I would never prescribe Oxycontin because it is something prescribed to manage chronic long term pain. I do, however, prescribe Percocet (oxycodone with acetaminophen) for management of acute pain.
To answer your question though, if oxycodone was only available intravenously it would not work because it needs to be given over a period of several days in the case of a tooth extraction. Patients aren't able to start an IV on themselves and it would be a huge waste of resources to keep them in a hospital or other healthcare facility for several days after something as benign (yet painful) as a tooth extraction.
You should reassess your proposal to stop oxycodone production altogether and focus on the fact that they are being produced with the acceptance that they will be abused because of the form they come in.
I agree with you about the problems but many people suffer horrible pain and need strong opiate derived pain relief medication. There are other forms of oxycodone and even stronger drugs that are less likely to be abused, e.g. fentanyl patches and oxy pills designed to not work well when crushed, etc. People are getting really defensive and rightly so seeing how most people know somebody suffering from extreme pain for long periods of time that need strong painkillers.
Like wiki said, tests have shown that OXY does nothing better than morphine - they offer the same pain relief. Oxy is not needed by any patient - other drugs do the same thing.
Yea but if there was no more oxy and morphine production increased people would just be abusing that instead. They already are. I actually prefer the way morphine feels to oxycodone. I used to do opiates recreationally and although I never enjoyed the high enough to get hooked on them most of my friends did. When morphine was available instead of oxy that is what we would get and abuse.
Sorry about your friend.
I have no problem with drugs. I hate the drug war. Selling and doing drugs IS NOT A CRIME! The world would be better off with Morphine abusers than oxy abusers. I think thats true from the data - but I dont have first hand experience. I have smoked as much weed as anyone on these forums, I drink plenty of wine, I don't take pills hardly EVER. I did cocaine, acid, mushrooms in college. I just don't think the world needs Oxy.
I talked to one friend of mine whose kid was on oxy, and the affects last long after they stop using. Its so addictive and bad. You know....
People will take what's available, whatever it is. Let's make what's available better.
I agree with you but I also agree with others that say that stopping production is a losing battle. I believe the drug war is a farce and is set up intentionally to do the opposite of what those who enforce it pretend. I actually think it is largely about economics and the black market is a shadow economy that greatly affects the regular economy. Cities have been built and democratically elected governments have been destroyed with that money
And I challenge you on the weed smoking hahaha.
i have had a lot good chronic in my day.... we will have to have a challenge... maybe a new reality show! intead of man vs food, MAN vs WEED hahahahhaa
i care about your friend
at the same time, i dont think oxy should be illegal. it is beneficial to a lot of people in pain and anyway, drug laws never work; the junkies always gonna get they junk whether you like it or not. the best thing for you to do now is to bring up the story to the people you love. tell them how fuckin sad it was for everyone else. :)
most people od after being off drugs for a while, they go back to their old dose right away and poof. thats also a good thing to tell people, especially those you may know who are tryin to stop...
The pharmacies are making the drug policy. i am not suggesting drug laws, which don't work. There are several things involved: architecture, policy, law, and enforceability. I am suggesting as a society we stop making this drug. That's all. If its made, sure it will sell. Stop making it, and everyone will use something else. The world does not need Oxy.
cant see it your way, sorry. been around for longer than you, seen a lot more people die. you're fighting a losing battle. do what i said and your friend's death can have meaning.
that is all
I doubt you have been around longer than me - I am 50 years old. We can agree to disagree. doesn't make you right, nor me. Why do you think you have seen more people die than me? You military or something? Or a gangster? Or a doctor?
Too much alcohol via wine or liquor will kill you, you CAN O.D. on it.
Well let people have as much as they want, they'll quit when they have had enough.
People die, it happens all the time. If this is how somebody wants to die, who are The People to stop them?
If we lived 1000 years ago - there would be no OXY. Why don't we make ALL kinds of NEW drugs that KILL people EVEN quicker than OXY! And let's introduce this drug to your family, your children, your cousins, some of the wild ones are BOUND to take it because its there! And then they will die, and then no one will care.
In the society I want to live in, I would like to see plenty of GOOD drugs that don't kill so easily, and leave out the bad drugs.
People will do what there is. If it aint there, they won't do it.
People are not neanderthals. If drugs they want do not exist, they will make them. 100+ years ago, plenty of lethal and highly addictive drugs were indeed legal. Plenty of people used them daily.
The Federal Government was never intended to be it's brother's keeper. That is the responsibility of community and churches.
Drive their stock-prices to zero with nationwide boycotts. This can be done quickly, without waiting around for a congress, senate and executive branch to sign it into law.
Just Be the change you want to see, by voting with your dollars. Prohibition never really works, driving their stock prices to zero is the only viable solution, its a way of occupying these companies that are hurting folks.
Besides, I think people would have more satisfaction to effect the change themselves! Why should we wait for government to do it FOR us. =)
No, the people should organize boycotts and hit them where it actually counts. If such a ban had enough popular support of people to actually get through congress and senate, then there is no reason to think that an effective boycott could never happen (and quicker). Convince people to dump their stocks! heehee (((it can be much more fun doing it ourselves, why should political hacks have all the fun)))
What I mean is prohibition in any way possible, I don't necessarily mean "prohibition" like in 1920s prohibition of alcohol. Driving down stock prices, change policies, protest... whatever works!
...nods... I like your post, because Big Pharma does need to be put in (mic) check ;) Good to meet you joe100
http://www.naturalnews.com/Index.html
And pleasure to meet you! and thanks for your kind words!
Hello, Joe100:
I understand your concern. Prescription pain killers can be, well, killers, when abused. That goes for Morphine, too.
But I think your caring about these kids (and adults) who get hold of these powerful drugs and wind up dead is overshadowing the flip side of that, and leading you to mistaken solutions.
Oxycodon probably saved my life. I underwent a surgery that went terribly wrong, and a nerve bundle was compromised, rendering me paralyzed with pain. If I moved as much as 1/2 inch I would pass out in agony. My entire system was under such stress that the doctors were seriously concerned about my having a heart attack or stroke while in the hospital.
They gave my morphine, which somewhat dulled the worst of the pain, but not enough to allow me to move, and made me lethargic. Giving me more would have depressed my breathing too much and stop my heart. They put balloons on my legs to prevent thrombosis. But I was told that if I couldn't get my legs moving in 48 hours, despite the balloons pumping them continuously, I only had a 50/50 chance of survival. When they added Oxy to the mix, I was finally able to push through the pain and move my legs.
I'm not a doctor. I don't know if I could have been given something else just as effective as part of the pain-killing cocktail (and, by the way, neither do you). But that is the combination that worked, and I eventually walked out of that hospital. I thank my lucky stars that Oxy was available to me.
Here's the point: the medication works when used properly. In my case, it was literally a life saver. For many others, it allows for a normal functioning life that would be unattainable without it. But it is a narcotic, extremely dangerous if used unwisely.
Many, many, many other things on the market meet similar criteria. Extremely useful or even life-saving when used correctly, harmful or even deadly when not. Is the issue to stop their availability, or to ensure they are used properly? I think it is the latter, and that means better regulations and, frankly, better parenting.
The pharmaceutical industry is guilty of a great many wrongs, but making effective drugs available to doctors and their patients isn't one of them.
Let me say it again: I believe your concern is genuine and comes from your heart. But I know that your solution will do more harm than good.
If you feel as strongly about this issue as you seem to, maybe you can join together with some good doctors to start campaigning for tighter restrictions in your state, and push for more public awareness. But keep in mind that no matter what you do, there will be those too stupid, or too young, or too mentally ill to be able to make rational decisions about their own health, and will find a way to get dangerous drugs or engage in other, equally foolhardy behaviors. Sadly, there's really nothing we can do about them.
First story I head like that. WOW! Glad you made it through. You make some good points. I am not sure if other drugs would have worked for you, I am not a doctor either.
But suppose the Oxy was NOT available in pill form AT ALL. But you could get it intravenously or something. There are solutions.
Again, I stand and say, the world would be better without Oxy pills in society.
"I stand and say, the world would be better without Oxy pills in society."
I'm not so sure. Those pills also helped a friend of mine live longer. (He had a degenerative spinal disease and was in constant pain.)
We have to remember that nearly all things carry a cost. Penicillin has saved millions of lives. It has also killed thousands. And its misuse has led to disease resistant bacteria. Cars have made life easier for countless people, opening up the ability for people to work more easily, shop, and so on, But they have also increased pollution, are changing the climate, and have been driven recklessly, leading to literally scores of thousands of deaths.
Do we get rid of antibiotics, cars (including electric ones) and a hundred other things we want or need that carry both great benefit and risk simply because of the potential for their abuse?
Again, I understand your concern about trying to avert needless tragedy. But complex issues of societal benefit and risk often defy simple answers, no matter how well-meaning.
I dont like cars - I prefer public transport. Public transport should be put in many more cities, would lower 50,000 deaths a year by over 50%. I dont think cars help people's lives. People who drive everyday are fat and die early. Part of the reason I like NYC so much. So I don't buy your metaphors. How has penicillin killed anyone?
Cars have not made life easier or better in any way. Cars isolate and alienate people.
Why does the world need oxy pills? Just have oxy available intravenously.
Cars have both benefits and costs. It is up to you to decide if those benefits are worth it or not for yourself. (I personally don't drive.) But I sure am grateful for ambulances. And the trucks that deliver things to the local bodega or deli. Even the occasional Taxi. (I sure couldn't go up and down all those subway stairs in the weeks after my surgery.)
I'm really sorry, but your not knowing why the world needs Oxy, or something that works just like it doesn't make it unnecessary. It just means you have never needed it. And I sincerely hope you never do. I, for one am grateful for it.
As to being available intravenously only, see my reply below.
Read "The Geography of Nowhere" - agree 100% that cars have killed community and has alienated ourselves.
Just have oxy available intravenously, and not in pills. That's the best solution I have come with so far.
That would represent a huge burden on people who need it at home or even at work. And it would have to be a drip, not a quick shot, in order to control the dosing. The potential for serious harm would increase dramatically. A person in the kind of pain that requires something like Oxy in the first place is unlikely to have the wherewithal to be able to find a vein, inject themselves, adjust the drip properly so as not to overdose, make sure there are no air bubble in the line, make sure no infection develops, etc. They would certainly be unable to function normally tethered to an IV bag.
I think the best you can hope for is increased education, public awareness, and working to make sure it is prescribed properly. Beyond that, it is out of anyone's control, as are most things in life.
oxycodone is synthetic Heroin and more and more young people today are getting addicted to this drug which is creating an increase in the illegal market for Heroin. Make no mistake oxycodone is dangerous and it should never have been pushed by the pharm co.
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No, it won't be stopped because American people have a "love affair" with drugs. Just ask the Mexican people.
I love drugs, I think good chronic is AWESOME! And weed is one of the only drugs in the world that auto shut off. After one smokes a bit, one doesn't get any higher, and no one has ever ODed.
As a society we should supply the GOOD drugs and not the BAD drugs.
Oxy with beer is great!