DEA Restricts Narcotic Pain Drug Prescriptions

[GaryProtein]

Originally Posted by audioguy3107

Sooooooo.........we should sell Oxycontin, Dilaudid, etc......OTC? You do realize that said govt. officials would then have to be deployed to peel millions of people off the streets for various reasons? It would be like the Walking Dead without the zombies walking (eventually) around and trying to eat people. Don't know about NY, but dental prescribing is not exactly the target of the monitoring programs you know.

Yes, sell it all. I doubt people would be stoned falling flat in the streets. It isn't like that with alcohol and the other drugs would still have a smaller "audience." There will always be a few who use more than they should, but that doesn't mean everybody else should be prevented from obtaining what they want. Actually, dental prescribing IS one of the primary targets in NY.

[audioguy3107]

Originally Posted by GaryProtein

Yes, sell it all. I doubt people would be stoned falling flat in the streets. It isn't like that with alcohol and the other drugs would still have a smaller "audience." There will always be a few who use more than they should, but that doesn't mean everybody else should be prevented from obtaining what they want. Actually, dental prescribing IS one of the primary targets in NY.

Well, you obviously have little knowledge about what hardcore narcotics do to people and how they work in comparison to tobacco, alcohol and marijuana. And sure, they would have a lesser audience, but there would be more than enough that I wouldn't want to even get in my car out of fear. Why the heck is the dental profession one of the targets up there? I don't think I've ever seen ONE issue with dental prescribing in the Atlanta area....are there a whole bunch of rogue dentists up there or something?

- Buck

[AndyPandy]

My view, FWIW, is exactly the same as Gary Protein's. Legalise it, sell it and tax it - heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, amphetamines, the lot. Put the tax toward education and rehabilitation programs. Do not fill up the prisons with drug crime, and eliminate the dealers in one foul swoop. It is the best harm minimisation strategy we have available to a society.

No doubt a policy that is deeply politically unpopular but the only one that actually makes any sense.

The "War on Drugs" is a complete furphy, a term invented by a politician for his own purposes. Ask anyone actually involved in it, or deals with the effects of drugs on a daily basis, as I do in the court system ( I am a barrister), btw alcohol in my experience is involved in FAR more domestic violence than drug use: it is a feature of almost all dv & assault matters I see.

You can't stop people using drugs, you can't stop the supply, all you can do is control it and stop the violence & crime around it, and try and educate people about the risks and what it will do to their lives.

All IMHO etc etc

[radio times]

I just recovered from a serious dental infection that knocked me out for a week. I just stuck with paracetamol even though I was offered Ibuprofen by the Doc. Only used 'em for a day and a half. Why on earth would you need narcs?

[djwhog]

HMM all these schedule 3 drugs can be caled in in WY, but you have to walk inshow ID and have the script in hand before they fill them. Always been this way in WY. But get them if you need them is not an issue.

I know since I have had 14 eye operations and 4 times had to be on Oxy or hydro.

PS I hate having to take either so bad for you etc, but that level of pain.. yuk..

Yep kinda agree they should not be to easy to get. These are serious drugs...

[AndyPandy]

Ibuprofen is a NSAID, it is not a narcotic. You should have taken it. It would have aided the healing and made you more comfortable.

Paracetamol is neither an opioid analgesic or a NSAID, no one actually knows how it works. It harms the liver in excess.

Prior to being a barrister, I spent 10 years as a dentist. So know a fair amount about pain control in that context.

You need opioid drugs when you have serious pain. Morphine works when nothing else does. As a dentist I used it when treating AIDS patients.

I have a sister who has an addiction to morphine (via derivatives), developed when she had her first severe symptoms & treatment for ovarian cancer (which ain't pretty). Given the ovarian cancer will kill her before the morphine does, it doesn't bother me one bit. Nor her oncologist. I just want her comfortable as she dies.

Can I suggest everyone who doesn't have a smidgen of medical knowledge get off their high horse about drugs? It doesn't help the debate.

[Mike1998]

Originally Posted by GaryProtein

No, I'm not kidding. Sell it all in stores just like liquor. Just be of legal age. There are no drive by shootings or crime to get booze, but there was when it was expensive during prohibition. In NYS we MUST go to the database when prescribing narcotics. The war on drugs is a flop and a deadly failure.

They did this in Portugal, results seem to be positive:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-891060.html

[rbbert]

Originally Posted by djwhog

...Yep kinda agree they should not be to easy to get. These are serious drugs...

They aren't all that hard to get now! Except that you often have to deal with criminals, and the profits go to criminals and criminal enterprises.

The Cato Institute (a conservative but also apparently libertarian think tank) endorses the Portugal approach linked above.

There would undoubtedly be more people addicted and intoxicated by what are now illegal drugs if they were decriminalized or legal. The questions are 1) is that worse than the present costs to society of the vast criminal activity and profits currently associated with all aspects of illegal drugs and 2) with legality comes the opportunity for more research into causes and treatment of abuse and addiction as well as more resources available to provide treatment; will that eventually lower abuse and addiction problems to LESS than they are today rather than more?

[radio times]

Sorry Andy, I was only alluding to my history with personal dental pain, and that alone. I have had medical training, but it would be churlish of me to trumpet this in lieu of your personal tragedy which I'm also sorry for. I had no intention to broaden the issue beyond that. My apologies.

[AndyPandy]

Originally Posted by radio times

Sorry Andy, I was only alluding to my history with personal dental pain, and that alone. I have had medical training, but it would be churlish of me to trumpet this in lieu of your personal tragedy which I'm also sorry for. I had no intention to broaden the issue beyond that. My apologies.

Gosh, I didn't take it that way, no need to apologise. It is just life: cancer affects many families and mine is just one of them. I used my instance as offering an example because I know about it.

Please, if you have a point of view, I'd love to hear it, especially as you are medically trained, and understand the role drugs have.

I guess my ultimate point is that narcotics etc have a place, and should be available to be used when needed. I don't know the availability of drugs in the USA, but understand that they are much easier to obtain than in Australia & NZ, where they are very restricted and (most) treating professionals take the responsibility of prescribing very seriously indeed. We have a much smaller population base, so that helps.

re: illicit drugs of abuse - I don't think anyone has the answer, but I know what we are doing now isn't working. I'm open to trying a different model.