I am always confused by this alleged epidemic of over-prescription of oxy when I know my sister and mom are having trouble getting adequate pain meds. Pain specialists are closing left and right; they can only have 200 patients each max and often there are zero doctors in your area with openings.
I thought the alleged trajectory was:
* Once upon a time, oxy was over-prescribed.
* Backlash! Now opiates are under-prescribed. This sucks. It's all a big mess.
* People who got hooked in the over-prescription era, plus other people who need pain relief and can't get it, turn to heroin.
* KABLOOIE
Last time I went to my pain management doctor I had to do a piss test to see if I was on other drugs. It really annoys me that I need to jump through these hoops just to get basic meds that help me function. It's not like I'm using lots of opiates, either. I like to have a handful around for the occasional crippling flareup but I'm not popping them like candy.
Some people consistently getting too little doesn't mean others haven't been getting too much. Our medical system is not well calibrated to assess and manage pain; sexism and racism are huge issues.
Measuring pain is stupid hard even when nobody can get good drugs no matter what they tell you.
Obviously, the main point is that we should all buy cocaine futures.
My sense is that the pop songs written about heroin are much better than those written about cocaine.
The exception might be White Lines by Grandmaster Flash, which is pretty catchy.
Meth, on the other hand, seems to have no musical footprint at all.
I recently obtained cbd tincture from a legal pot shop in Washington state. Virtually no thc in it. Remarkably effective at resetting the off the charts nerve pain I've had for about the last 15 years (depressing to even type). Would appreciate having this legally and with more accurate titration!
Friends who have done various drugs have all told me never to try Coke because I'd like it too much. They've all recommended ecstasy, but given my mental health that's always seemed like a really stupid idea for me.
I hear you on the opiate itchies, though. Whatever they gave me for general anesthesia a few procedures ago had me crawling out of my skin. I've warned everyone ahead of the mastectomy, and didn't have any issues with whatever they gave me for the port placement, so hopefully it won't be a problem.
Meth, on the other hand, seems to have no musical footprint at all.
I'm to lazy to look it up, but as i remember the new popularity of heroin was because they started to crack down on overprescription, and oxycontin already peaked in the aughts. So maybe getting pain relief is a pain (haha) because of the backlash?
It's probably different in different states too.
13. I dunno if there are more or fewer opiate prescriptions these days.
I do know that I hadn't seen a commercial about a new(?) prescription drug that relieves "opiate induced constipation" until the last few weeks. I think every commercial, along with the usual Cialis and Geico and DraftKings stuff, was during a football or baseball game.
Is this new? Is it drug companies saying, "We aren't selling as many opiates, but we can double on treating the side effects"?
7: Yeah, I have a friend who starting off making weed-infused edibles but now works almost exclusively on extracting essential oils from cannabis and then distilling out the active compounds to very high concentrations, for controlled dosing. He makes a CBD salve for his mom's fibromyalgia that they both swear by (as well as selling a fair amount of pure THC to "patients" who are mostly interested in getting high, and to other edibles manufacturers). It's frustrating that people who need serious pain relief basically only get opioids and research into possible alternatives is against the law.
I confess I'm uncertain how I've answered my own question. Is it that people taking up heroin only notice the young, beautiful, and talented people, while missing the part that they're dead? Like, "River was so amaaazing, I should totally do heroin like he did"?
15 Tell me you didn't ever want a Porsche 550 Spyder so bad.
Maybe it's that it doesn't come with the same immediate stigma that something like smoking crack does or that there's some kind of romantic-junkie appeal to it? I can see there being some kind of 'fuck-everything-yay-heroin' thing going on that isn't there for other really dangerous drugs. But I don't know how strong that is as far as making something appealing so I'm not sure either.
I do know that I hadn't seen a commercial about a new(?) prescription drug that relieves "opiate induced constipation" until the last few weeks.
Please tell me they use footage from Trainspotting.
19: I saw that commercial. Hate to disappoint you, Moby.
A careful reader will note that at no time did I ask what was actually on the commercial.
21. It is not a spoiler to say that it's a cartoon starring a middle-aged woman and a human-sized opiate pill. They appear to be good friends aside from the one minor problem.*
* Not including all the possible side effects from the new drug.
None of my friends won't let me poop, but several of them are very particular about where.
23: NIMBYism actually seems quite reasonable in this case.
The yard wasn't what upset them most.
Speaking of making the pain of living go away...Mid-life death rates among whites are on the rise.
That's only for white males from 45 to 54. That's not really my problem for a few months.
Where do you get that it's males?
I see the Prospect story gets around to morale, "hope" which was not, addressed in the AP story I read this morning but I wondered about.
28.1 is right. I'm apparently selfishly worried only about myself.
The Prospect story seems a little uncomfortable* saying that the root cause of the rising mortality rates is basically down to the dominance of conservative economic policies (even though they mostly do), but that plus the fact that it's pushing those same people in the direction of more extreme conservativism is enough to make me misanthropic enough to wonder if disastrous climate change is really all that bad.
*I mean, taking Charles Murray's attempt to explain it as the result of an abandonment of proper white virtue seriously in any way? That's really putting some effort into trying not to make the obvious answer seem too obvious.
Am I alone in having appreciated "handing out fentanyl plasters like you were making an Alaïa dress or some shit"? Because if so I should like to reassert my heterosexuality: Shake it, madame. Yowza.
26: Maybe we just got jealous of the Russians.
26 reminds me of the guy at the bar I was acquainted with who died from unplanned alcohol withdrawal caused by a relatively minor episode of medical care. Ugh.
Hey now. Heroin is one thing, but kawaii emoticons? Come on.
6: Just no way. Most heroin songs, at least after Heroin, are just sad withdrawal songs. People on coke actually write a lot of songs while high so you get a much better variety.
And now i want to listen to Cocaine Socialist even tho it isn't a drug song.
I want to listen to "yellow pills" now.
alameida! Have you ever met a junky Lorax?