Legal Drug Addiction

The number of prescriptions filled for opioid pain relievers - some of the most powerful medications available - has increased dramatically in recent years. From 1997 to 2007, the milligram-per-person use of prescription opioids in the U.S. increased from 74 milligrams to 369 milligrams, an increase of 402%. In addition, in 2000, retail pharmacies dispensed 174 million prescriptions for opioids; by 2009, 257 million prescriptions were dispensed, an increase of 48%. As the chart below demonstrates, these increases mirror increases in prescription drug abuse.

Source:http://www.whitehouse.gov/ondcp/prescription-drug-abuse

Why is it more acceptable to be using prescription narcotics as opposed to street drugs? It is easier to over dose on heroin, but it appears that more people are dieing as a result of prescription over dose.

Not exactly what most people think of when thinking of a drug addict, eh?

I love her still; though she's been gone for more than ten years now. I miss her. She was ill for a very long time. She had two bouts with breast cancer and suffered terrible osteoperotic pain for the last several years of her life. What did modern medicine do for her? Her doctors turned her into a drug addict. They got her hooked on Morphine, and down graded her to Percocet which nicely maintained her addiction.

The whole thing was so sad to watch. My normally sharp grandma was in a constant stupor; slush-brained. She'd be saying something to you and then forget, not just what she was saying, but that she was talking at all. She became frail and incapable of doing practically anything for herself. My grandmother died at the age of 77. At the time of her death, she was mobile in a wheel chair only, she toted an oxygen tank with her everywhere, and she took more pills that I have ever seen in my life!

Modern medicine did not save her life, it took her life. There is no reason that she should have suffered a stroke so massive that she was brain dead before reaching the hospital; not at her age. There is a reason that she was addicted to pain medication though. Give the woman a pill and send her home. If she can't feel anything, she can't complain. By the time her nest egg is gone, who cares, she'll be dead. You don't need money when you're dead; so, we'll take as much of it as we can before she goes.

For all of the pharmaceuticals she took, my grandma was still in terrible pain most of the time; stoned or not. You know what..? It seems to me that with each new pill she was told to take, her health got worse, not better. What is up with that?

PHOTO: taken three years before she died. (1996)

According to the wisdom of past lawmakers, Marijuana is more dangerous than Cocaine. I don't get that. The list of controlled substances, created by the government, who by the way, controls them, clearly states that marijuana is as harmful as heroin, and that Cocaine is less harmful than marijuana. Does that make sense? I don't think so.

How many schedules are there?
ANSWER: 5
Schedule I
Schedule II
Schedule III
Schedule IV
Schedule V

Marijuana is listed on the Schedule I list of drugs as a hallucinogenic substance. I have smoked it and know many people who have smoked it for years and I have never heard of anyone hallucinating from smoking it.Relaxing yes, tripping no. Who is the government trying to kid... senior citizens?

What I don't understand is how the same people who are against the legalization of marijuana can go home and have cocktails, or get shit faced drunk at a wedding. Why is something distilled morally more correct than something that grows naturally? Both alcohol and marijuana are used for recreation. Why is one more acceptable than the other? Alcohol kills, marijuana cures. My ex husband never pushed me around when he was smoking pot, but when he drank, look out! Domestic violence involves alcohol in one way or another, but I have never heard of any one growing pot muscles; beer muscles yes, pot muscles no. I have never heard of anyone getting stoned and picking a public fight, but bar fights happen every weekend when people go out and get drunk.

Alcohol affects the human brain in much the same way cocaine does. Yet Alcohol is legal and cocaine is not.

Tobacco is more addictive than heroin, but tobacco is legal.

Tobacco causes cancer, cannabis does not, but tobacco is legal.

Does any of this make sense?

I think it just goes to show who has political pull in this country. Tobacco companies and pharmaceutical companies. When will they realize that if they joint ventured, they'd both make a lot of money? There is demand for legal cannabis, and where there is demand there is need for supply. There is the possibility of major capitalization if someone in power would just pay attention.

The government should focus on drugs that destabilize, like meth-amphetamines, for example. Drugs like that which cause instant addiction and violent behavior, more crime and death.

We all know what happened when the government prohibited alcohol manufacture and consumption in this country. Crime rates skyrocketed due to the illegal alcohol trade. The Mafia was born in the streets of New York and Chicago, among other places. Prohibition created organized crime.

However, we as a people have not learned from this experience, other than realizing the need to repeal prohibition. We still prohibit the use of cannabis, even though there is a demand for it and until such prohibition is repealed, crime rates will continue as they are, or they will get worse.

The war on drugs has been a huge failure. The way to combat illegal drugs, namely cannabis, is to legalize it. If it is legal, the cartels will have no cause to cause harm to the public of this country. Remove the roadblocks and no one will have the need to force their wares across the border.

It makes no sense that a substance (cannabis) that can cure and comfort is illegal while a substance (alcohol) is legal and it kills people regularly. People die from alcohol consumption in car crashes, and alcoholism related maladies every day. No one dies from the recreational use of marijuana. Yet, marijuana is illegal and alcohol is not. It is okay to go get shit-faced drunk, but it is not okay to get a little stoned. That makes no sense.

It is not okay to use an non-addictive substance to feel better, but it is perfectly okay to use and abuse prescription drugs. Why? My guess is that is only because Big Pharma makes money off prescription addiction, not from pot smokers across the country. Pot smokers keep our prisons full of people who would otherwise be productive members of society. And that makes private prisons a lot of money. The government will spend untold millions to keep pot smokers in jail, but drunk drivers walk freely among us most of the time. Drunk drivers are dangerous and ultimately end up killing themselves and/or others.

Why is it that the government thinks they are responsible for what we as individuals decide to do to our bodies? Marijuana is not harmful and does not cause cancer as do tobacco products, yet it is legal to smoke tobacco. (Just do it outside.) They tell us where and when we can smoke and drink. We cannot drink alcohol outside and we cannot smoke tobacco inside. Yet, most drinkers smoke while they drink.

From my own experience, I did not try marijuana until after I smoked my first cigarette. I did not try harder drugs until after tieing on my first drunk.

I tried many types of drugs in my younger days, but decided they weren't for me, but I continued to smoke marijuana. I prefer getting high to getting drunk. For one thing, there is no hang-over.

Think of this: A pot smoker can spend $50 for a week's worth of pot, but a drinker can easily spend $50 a night in a bar drinking alcohol. Which makes more economic sense? Alcoholism kills people. Pot smoking does not. Alcohol is addictive, marijuana is not. Alcoholism causes many social problems, marijuana does not. Yet, people are thrown in jail for smoking, not drinking.

I have never heard of someone robbing a liquor store to buy a bag of pot, but people do rob to get other drugs and alcohol. Panhandlers beg for money to get more liquor, pot heads don't beg for change to get a joint.

The attitude toward marijuana is not very understandable considering how acceptable alcohol and prescription drug use is. The people who write and maintain the laws here go home and have cocktail parties and take pain killers; but that's okay, because they've made sure both are legal.

How many times have you seen lawyers advertising on television for bad drugs that were previously approved by the FDA? Obviously the FDA doesn't know what it is doing, if they can allow drugs to go to market and then recall them after people have suffered the consequences of using them. They are supposed to protect us from getting a hold of drugs that are harmful. Prescription addiction is legal folks. You pay top dollar for these drugs too. They line their pockets and have already figured in the cost to settle lawsuits that arise from using these drugs.

The DEA spends millions to track pot smugglers, but the money would be better spent tracking the drugs that kill people; like heroin, cocaine, meth and a few others. Cannabis hurts no one. Meth has become a huge problem in this country. I can't even buy a package of cold pills because meth makers use the stuff to make their meth. The world is a different place than it was when I was growing up. I prefer the way it was to the way it is now.

Back in the day, one had to go out and buy drugs to get high. Now all a kid has to do in most cases is open the medicine cabinet in their home and there are usually plenty of things to get high on.

Remember back in the day when the FDA said it was okay to give pregnant women speed so they wouldn't gain too much weight while pregnant? My friend's mother was taking prescription speed while pregnant and she drank while she was at it. All legal but not healthy.

This is my personal opinion, but I would rather see my kids smoke pot than drink alcohol. I've seen alcohol ruin many lives in my day. I've never seen marijuana ruin anything.

I was married to alcoholics. That was fun! Not! When he drank I suffered, when he got high, I did not.

Tylenol is a pain reliever that can cause liver damage, marijuana is a pain reliever that has no side effects. Ibuprofen is a pain reliever than can cause stomach upset; cannabis is a pain reliever that helps cancer patients keep from starving to death.
Cannabis is natural, OTC pain relievers are not. You'd think in this day of religious fervor, that people would be more inclined to use something God put on this earth as opposed to things man has made. Man made treatments are killing people; natural solutions are not doing the same.

There is no profit in cure, only in the addiction of treating the symptoms. Why cure cancer when money can be made in treating the symptoms? By the way, the government in the United States has known since 1975 that cannabis retards, neutralizes cancer cells. Have they made this information public? Not on your life! And, it is YOUR LIFE.

Isn't it refreshing to know that someone is going on vacation somewhere because you are hooked on their drugs?

My mother rakes a handful of pills every day and she is no healthier for it. Are you? Do you like spending a small fortune on pills just so that Pharma can advertise them on television? When do the risks out-weigh the benefits? The FDA won't tell you that until they have to in a court of law. Recalled legal drugs are killing us, not natural things like cannabis. Why trade arthritis pain for lymphoma? Why treat a headache with a drug that could destroy your liver?

If drugs and the treatment of disease were affordable, the middle class wouldn't be in such bad shape. It is the middle class that suffers high drug prices. It is cheaper to go buy a bag of pot to treat your ails than it is to be strung out on prescriptions.

Chronic pain is an issue that requires attention. Those who have it could end up losing their life over it because of the drugs that Pharma tells you to take to feel better. Smoke pot, feel fine, hurt no one, and live longer. Make sense?

If it is okay to drink alcohol or take prescription drugs to get high, why is the recreational use of cannabis so frowned upon? It is almost like the government is telling us to get hooked on the drugs they approve of, but to stay away from things that will actually help a person. Does alcohol have a medicinal value? Nope!

In 1919, the United States government enacted the prohibition of alcoholic beverages. This is known as the eighteenth amendment and was eventually repealed (1933) with the enactment of the twenty-first amendment.

What the prohibition of alcohol did for the nation was to increase crime; making criminals out of producers and consumers alike. Organized crime was born. Thugs became millionaires from the manufacture and sale of illegal booze.

Does this all sound familiar? It should, because that is exactly what the result of Cannabis prohibition has been. Increased petty and violent crime, powerful drug cartels, similar to the Mafia born of the last prohibition. Another similarity is the prison population. During the 1920's, prison over-population was at a new high, just as it is today. American prisons are full of pot smokers who did nothing to harm anyone.

The difference between then and today is the fact that many prisons are privately owned and the owners are making buckets of money keeping the pot-heads incarcerated. Prisons used to be a government thing like the police force. However, these days, private companies own prisons more often than not. They are making money hand over fist too. They loby for prohibition so that they can keep their prison populations high. More prisoners means more money. It's big business.

Lock up the rapists, murderers, and people who cause harm to others, not the happy, harmless, pot-heads.

One thing I wonder about is the constitutionality of prohibition of anything. For one thing, we all have the right to the pursuit of happiness. Secondly, and more importantly, we reserve the right to do with our own bodies as we see fit. If we are sick, we have the OPTION of seeking treatment. If we have a headache, we can choose to take an aspirin. If we want to party, we have the right to ingest alcoholic beverages. If we do not want to be pregnant, we can opt to have an abortion. We can even opt to not become pregnant in the first place. If we want skin art, we get tattooed. It is my body and I can do with it and to it as I please! If I want to eat glue, I can do that. The government can tell me that it is not a good idea to eat glue, but they have no right to punish me if I do. So, why does government think they have the right to tell me that I can't smoke marijuana? I'm not hurting anyone. I am not a drag on society as a whole. I'd be more likely to hurt someone under the influence of alcohol. I do not require more from life than the next guy; in fact, I probably require less.

I do not tell anyone other than my son, what to do with their lives, I don't want anyone telling me what to do with mine. I am tired of government trying to invade on my personal life. They are not my boss; I am theirs.

Legalize it and tax it!