Drug addiction starts in the home medicine cabinet

[dazzler (OP)]

source: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/rendezview/drug-addiction-starts-in-the-home-medicine-cabinet/story-fnpug1jf-1227513369574

Drug addiction starts in the home medicine cabinet

Did you know that this time last week was International Overdose Awareness Day?


The anticipation of that warm and relaxed feeling of your body floating away that some painkillers deliver can be an introduction to addiction. (Pic: iStock)

I didn’t, and have been playing catch-up ever since.

Regular readers will know I’ve had to undergo a couple of surgeries of late and so I spent some time on Endone.

With not one word of a lie, it was only a matter of days before I was soon referring to it as “my sweet, sweet, Endone” and looking forward to my few-hourly dose.

I don’t say that as an advertorial for the drug, but rather to show that within a very short time I was anticipating the prickling brain and inevitable numbing this tablet gave me as I lay back and sank through my bed.

Even as I sit here and write this, I can vividly recall the warm and relaxed feeling and my body floating away, relieved of pain.

The helter, skelter of life was muted to a point where I know I would not have been unable to function around my kids safely, and driving certainly wasn’t an option.

I want to point out, at NO stage were these drugs handed to me by medical staff in an irresponsible way; let’s face it, I’d had a baby cut out of my stomach and then some other abdominal surgery so painkillers were always on the cards.

I was monitored closely and any tablet given to me was signed off and supervised by at least two hospital staff — even if it was two-o’clock in the morning.

Perhaps it was their hypervigilance that hinted at the possibilities, or perhaps it just scared me how much I liked the feeling these drugs gave me, but I made the decision to stop taking it sooner than I had to.

But as Heath Ledger’s father Kim — who is also spokesperson for Scriptwise — pointed out this last week, thousands of others either don’t, or can’t make that decision, and the abuse of over-the-counter tablets is at epidemic levels.

It’s estimated that one in fifty Australians are currently taking stress relieving benzodiazepines and have been using it for longer than six months.

Meanwhile Oxycodone prescription (like the gear I was on) increased in this country by more than 150 per cent in the six year period from 2002.

To give you an idea in monetary terms, those synthetic narcotics were subsidised by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme to the tune of seven million dollars in 2007.

Sure that was a number of years ago now, but this problem is not going away as we focus on prescription drugs’ uglier and scarier step-sister, ice.

The terror, violence, grief and noise crystal methamphetamine and its victims command, mean those addicted to prescription drugs are sliding under the radar as the Iice epidemic sucks up all the coverage and resources.

I’m not saying it shouldn’t, but considering most people entering alcohol and drug treatment programs admit to sneaking prescription drugs in the preceding month, we must continue to push the agenda of the “Accidental Addicts”.

The fact these pills are prescribed by trusted medical professionals and are licenced and regulated, lull users into a false sense of security, dulling the realisation that what they’re actually taking is addictive, potent and deadly when mixed with other drugs and/or alcohol.

While I had to jump through all sorts of pain hoops to get to my tablets, there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence suggesting some doctors are all too happy to hand over a prescription, persuaded by pharmaceutical kick-backs.

And if it’s not through “official” channels there’s always a way; one nurse told me patients would leave their hospital beds with drugs in their mouths, even though it slashed the asking price by twenty to thirty dollars because it was covered in spittle.

So while yes it’s all ice, ice baby, it’s still worth considering that with nearly four Australians dying every day from an overdose, we perhaps need to start by cleaning our medicine cabinets.

[Narkotikon]

Scare tactics by a soccer mom IMO. 

Does she not realize that while there is an epidemic of prescription drug abuse, there are also legit patients who need those drugs?  I'm guessing not.  I wonder how she'd feel if she were offered no pain meds during her next pregnancy.  She has only herself and others like her to blame. 

[_Enduser]

Nark this was talked about earlier in some thread I don't remember.....

But; think about it.  You mentioned how your family members don't like painkillers and so presumably, like my parents, when they are prescribed weak painkillers; they hord them because of the remnants of some post-war mentality (resource scarcity, puritan ethic's war machine; Puritanism and that branch of christianity was pretty pacifist. . .http://www.common-place.org/vol-06/no-01/juster/ HAH.  ) 

But they horde them, and don't take them.  They don't seek to derive pleasure from things like that; because the pleasure simply isn't there so why persist and seek the pleasure when pleasure isn't pleasurable anyways?

I did, and from what I read so did you.  Unfortunate we are; not.  I like my tea; dope isn't sustainable but whatever, better living through chemistry.  So, obviously, a teenager I would definitely, at some point start jacking pills.  At first a few; some more; over the course of time all fucking gone; then I'm replacing the pills with dummy pills cause my parents don't know what they fucking look like anyways, so pretty much anything would do.

Lolz greek people with their "sex love frappé beach babez techno cigarettes sun summer" they don't fuckin care 'bout drugs AT ALL.....You'd think they'd be interested because all Greek music is based off a bunch of culture bastards getting high and singing ALL ABOUT IT on dope+hash and playing around Asia Minor, till Attaturk throws em all back to Greece (or the desert oops that was supposed to be Armenia!  Dammnit how'd we miss that one ?" Where they became the "African Americans" of their society.  And so did people who did what Turks did, which was smoke hash do opiates and listen to completely different music with heavy "oriental" influences. . . . .. However, they still thought their music was awesome though! Sound familiar?


So why would they, or anyone, ever wanna do some loser shit like get high?  Right?  Fucking losers LOLZ sitting there all drugged out and reinterpreting reality for us so we don't have to think about how to push ourselves forward.  Stupid fucking losers doing shit like; defining our language and discourse through writing and discovering the double helix and breakbeats and fucking JAZZ.  Why would you ever want to take these pills?

I took the pills, and they were from my mom's+pa's  medicine cabinet and THANK FUCKING GOD


Okay.  So I jacked pills all day

[ms-copin]

I love how she thinks because she read some statistics and nearly became addicted to endone herself that anyone given endone would become addicted to it and she knows all those people currently taking it must be addicted to it if they are taking it for longer then six months. I know a lot of GP's are hard asses when it comes to prescribing weak opiates and endone or OC are the big boys not taken very lightly.

I already read that they are going to be cracking down on these kind of prescriptions mainly benzo's though but we all know they won't be happy with just them ...

[Chip]

guys,i intentionally choose these articles to stimulate discussion - please do not think that i support any of the topics or ideas contained within, unless i state so as Ed. (editorial) comments in brown.

[thetalkingasshole]

i wish there were (still) drugs in my medicine cabinet 

[Narkotikon]

guys,i intentionally choose these articles to stimulate discussion - please do not think that i support any of the topics or ideas contained within, unless i state so as Ed. (editorial) comments in brown.

I think we all know you don't support these types of things Chipper.  No worries :-) 

[Reagans Ghost]

So on one hand, prescription drugs are beneficial and necessary when you take them upon the advice of a medical practitioner, or administered by one.

On the other hand, if you take them without involving a member of the medical establishment, they are incredibly dangerous, wreck lives and kill indiscriminately.


What sort of bizarre, magical thinking is this?!?

If these pills are so dangerous, that regular sweeping of medicine cabinets are required to keep them from killing innocent, curious teenagers, then the logical consequence would be to outlaw them completely, since clearly they're too dangerous to be given to people without extensive medical

On other hand, if these pharmaceuticals somehow become less lethal, when overseen by medicine men, and the correct rites and ceremonies take place, then shouldn't we try to figure out, what powers that doctors apparently possess that make it so? Perhaps we could prevent many unfortunate deaths, by passing some of these powers on to users? Perhaps by giving them a few weeks of training on the topic of opiates, along with legal authority to make scripts for personal use?

[Reagans Ghost]

Wait a second... Heath Ledgers dad has become A SPOKESPERSON for something called Scriptwise?!?

Please tell me I read this wrong, and that he isn't in fact collecting Shekels off the death OF HIS OWN SON?!!

A quick Google search tells me, that he has no ethical qualms whatsoever, with milking his death for all that it's worth, anytime somebody with a microphone happens to come by. What a class act...