Welcome to America, where we’ll take anything to get high.
From heroin and crack cocaine to PCP and crystal meth — if it’s made in a bathtub, it’s gotta be good.
Can I get an amen?
But one of America’s deadliest killers isn’t a pill made in a tub, but rather, millions of pills, mass produced and over-prescribed to the point where a thriving black market now exists.
Nearly 40 Americans die each day from prescription painkiller overdose, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That amounts to 15,000 deaths per year, caused by an overdose from a pill deemed safe for their consumption by the Food and Drug Administration. The Associated Press implicates Vicodin and OxyContin, both prescription painkillers, as the cause of death in three out of every four overdose cases.
Prescription painkiller deaths now outnumber deaths caused by heroin and cocaine combined.
So what’s the real problem here? Is it the pills? Should we ban the medicine?
Of course not. It’s not the pills’ fault the consumer is an addict. Painkillers are great, and they come in handy quite often. Off the top of my head, childbirth would be especially worse without them.
That being said, painkillers are overprescribed by doctors who are overworked to a populace that’s over-addicted.
It’s a serious problem, and must be handled as such. We shouldn’t react with prohibition — not that we ever would. Pharmaceuticals run this nation, not oil and gas, my friends.
Off topic, but relevant. Marijuana overdose doesn’t lead to death, and when taken appropriately, marijuana can relieve many of the same ailments as prescription medication, with much less risk to the consumer.
Yet it remains prohibited. And instead, Americans are forced to take the only legal alternative for pain relief, highly addictive pills.
Thankfully, because there are so many advertisements for prescription medications, now I can tell my doctor what I need. What’s he (or she, all my single ladies) know that Google and I can’t figure out for ourselves?
Our current laws have not been written in our best interest. The “pill for every ailment” philosophy has gotten way out of hand. The idea that synthetic is always better than natural has permeated society like a wet fart though the boys’ locker room.
These medicines help more people than they hurt, and we must acknowledge this. However, we shouldn’t be barred from exploring alternative options for pain relief.
Our bodies are our own, so who is the government to tell us what we can and can’t do with them?
If I want to smoke crack and drink a 40 oz. soda in Times Square, I won’t be able to buy the soda. The crack is easy, New York pigeons actually poop little crack rocks. It’s pretty convenient.
But New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has banned big gulps to help combat obesity and rising healthcare costs. And while I maintain that I should be able to do what I want with my body, I think the government should help me not.
Bloomberg hasn’t made soda illegal — now I just have to walk my fat ass over to the machine and get a free refill. I can still be fat, he’s just made being fat inconvenient.
This is exactly how the federal government should handle the War on Drugs, including the prescription ones.
Instead of imprisoning drug offenders, why don’t we treat addiction as a public health issue and not a criminal offense?
The government will never ban prescription painkillers, but it can make them more difficult to get.
These medicines are overprescribed, and subsequently abused. Someone is writing these prescriptions. Find out which doctors like to party, and you’ll find the source.
It’s much easier to be an addict when nobody notices you’re using.
