It's Time to End the "War on Drugs"

[NationalTitles18]

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/02/us/portland-oregon-fentanyl-state-of-emergency/index.html

‘An extremely dangerous spike’
As public health workers, outreach teams and police unite for the task, they forge ahead under Measure 110, a 2020 law enacted by statewide vote that declared a “health-based approach to addiction and overdose is more effective, humane and cost-effective than criminal punishments.”


“Essentially what has happened is drugs in Oregon are the same as a traffic ticket,” Portland police Officer David Baer told CNN.

Meantime, opioid overdose deaths in Oregon have increased from 280 in 2019 to 956 in 2022, with 628 recorded so far for last year, state data show. “We’re on an extremely dangerous spike,” Multnomah County Health Director Rachael Banks told CNN.

Nationwide, the tally of drug overdose deaths involving fentanyl rose almost four-fold over five years through 2021, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. And though early research, published in JAMA Psychiatry, suggests no link between Measure 110 and Oregon’s increase in fatal overdoses, critics have blamed the law for the mounting toll.

“You look at what has happened: open fentanyl, open drugs on the streets,” said Republican state Rep. Jeff Helfrich said, decrying Measure 110 as “an unmitigated disaster.”

_____________

Complicated issues, and people try sometimes to oversimplify things without looking at the data that is available or comparing that to national statistics.

Drug overdoses are a huge and growing problem in the US.

 

[NationalTitles18]

This is what the fentanyl crisis looks like in a state rethinking its historic drug policy

Over the last three years, photographer Jordan Gale has been documenting Portland’s struggle with fentanyl, which recently led officials to declare a state of emergency.

www.cnn.com

 

[NationalTitles18]

Overcoming poverty and addiction, he passed the bar exam. Then his prescription got in the way.

Experts say discrimination against people who use medication to treat their opioid use disorder is rampant. The Justice Department is trying to change that.

www.nbcnews.com

 

[CrimsonJazz]

Oregon governor signs law recriminalizing drug possession

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek (D) on Monday signed a law recriminalizing the possession of small amounts of drugs. The law makes personal use possession a misdemeanor punishable with sentences of up to si…

thehill.com

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek (D) on Monday signed a law recriminalizing the possession of small amounts of drugs.

The law makes personal use possession a misdemeanor punishable with sentences of up to six months in jail. However, it also creates avenues for treatment instead of criminal penalties by encouraging law enforcement agencies to start programs that would move defendants toward addiction and mental health services.

Kotek said in a signing letter that “deep coordination” between courts, police, prosecutors, defense attorneys and local mental health providers is vital, adding that they are “necessary partners to achieve the vision for this legislation.”

In 2021, Oregon became the first state to decriminalize drug possession. However, the state has recently faced a large rise in overdose deaths and had the second-highest rate of substance abuse disorder in the U.S., according to a 2023 audit report.

 

[CrimsonJazz]

Government data refute the notion that overprescribing caused the ‘opioid crisis’

The root of the opioid crisis is not pain treatment. It is instead a crisis of hopelessness driven by the conditions in which people live.

reason.com

The root of the opioid crisis is not pain treatment. It is instead a crisis of hopelessness driven by the conditions in which people live, including social isolation, economic distress, and a lack of meaningful prospects for a better future. Reducing the availability of pain-relieving medications or prosecuting doctors for "overprescribing" does nothing to address those problems. Yet millions of pain patients have been force-tapered to ineffective dose levels, and thousands of them are dying of medical collapse or suicide, while the DEA continues to persecute their doctors for trying to help them. It is time to evict the DEA from doctors' examination rooms.

 

[NationalTitles18]

Government data refute the notion that overprescribing caused the ‘opioid crisis’

The root of the opioid crisis is not pain treatment. It is instead a crisis of hopelessness driven by the conditions in which people live.

reason.com

The best article I've seen on reason in some time.

 

[mdb-tpet]

The best article I've seen on reason in some time.

I believe it's is strongly both, not one or the other:

""We're 5% of the world's population, but we consume 80% of the world's prescription opioids," said Dr. Jonathan Chen, a physician and researcher at Stanford University Medical Center who studies prescribing patterns.

Patients still receive more than twice the volume of opioids considered normal before the prescribing boom began in the late 1990s."

We should give Opioids out far more carefully AFTER other pain medications have proven NOT to work.

And, I don't deny the reaction and attempts cure the crisis may harm some or many with trying to curtail Opioid prescriptions. But there are many examples of pill mills and beyond excessive prescriptions as well as folks who have started taking the drugs to mask other issues.

We could go on and on about the reasons people start self-medicating and end up addicted to Opioids, but I'll stop here.

https://www.npr.org/2020/07/17/887590699/doctors-and-dentists-still-flooding-u-s-with-opioid-prescriptions

 

[CrimsonJazz]

I believe it's is strongly both, not one or the other:

""We're 5% of the world's population, but we consume 80% of the world's prescription opioids," said Dr. Jonathan Chen, a physician and researcher at Stanford University Medical Center who studies prescribing patterns.

Patients still receive more than twice the volume of opioids considered normal before the prescribing boom began in the late 1990s."

We should give Opioids out far more carefully AFTER other pain medications have proven NOT to work.

And, I don't deny the reaction and attempts cure the crisis may harm some or many with trying to curtail Opioid prescriptions. But there are many examples of pill mills and beyond excessive prescriptions as well as folks who have started taking the drugs to mask other issues.

We could go on and on about the reasons people start self-medicating and end up addicted to Opioids, but I'll stop here.

https://www.npr.org/2020/07/17/887590699/doctors-and-dentists-still-flooding-u-s-with-opioid-prescriptions

This is a totally rational take and I agree with your premise. Powerful narcotics absolutely should be seen as a last resort treatment. Having said this, once a person has crossed that last resort threshold, it should not take an act of congress to get the medication needed and doctors absolutely should not feel like the Sword of Damocles is hanging over their heads just for writing a prescription. Nobody wants a society full of addicts, but as someone who routinely sees grown people in their 70's and 80's crying in pain because they are too disabled to get up and go to pain management, I don't want to see needless human suffering, either.

 

[92tide]

I believe it's is strongly both, not one or the other:

""We're 5% of the world's population, but we consume 80% of the world's prescription opioids," said Dr. Jonathan Chen, a physician and researcher at Stanford University Medical Center who studies prescribing patterns.

Patients still receive more than twice the volume of opioids considered normal before the prescribing boom began in the late 1990s."

We should give Opioids out far more carefully AFTER other pain medications have proven NOT to work.

And, I don't deny the reaction and attempts cure the crisis may harm some or many with trying to curtail Opioid prescriptions. But there are many examples of pill mills and beyond excessive prescriptions as well as folks who have started taking the drugs to mask other issues.

We could go on and on about the reasons people start self-medicating and end up addicted to Opioids, but I'll stop here.

https://www.npr.org/2020/07/17/887590699/doctors-and-dentists-still-flooding-u-s-with-opioid-prescriptions

those pill mills and docs didn't just randomly decide to overprescribe, either

Sacklers Sacked But Purdue Still Caused Opioid Epidemic - PMC

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[NationalTitles18]

I believe it's is strongly both, not one or the other:

""We're 5% of the world's population, but we consume 80% of the world's prescription opioids," said Dr. Jonathan Chen, a physician and researcher at Stanford University Medical Center who studies prescribing patterns.

Patients still receive more than twice the volume of opioids considered normal before the prescribing boom began in the late 1990s."

We should give Opioids out far more carefully AFTER other pain medications have proven NOT to work.

And, I don't deny the reaction and attempts cure the crisis may harm some or many with trying to curtail Opioid prescriptions. But there are many examples of pill mills and beyond excessive prescriptions as well as folks who have started taking the drugs to mask other issues.

We could go on and on about the reasons people start self-medicating and end up addicted to Opioids, but I'll stop here.

https://www.npr.org/2020/07/17/887590699/doctors-and-dentists-still-flooding-u-s-with-opioid-prescriptions

It wasn't a high bar for reason to cross to be the best article from there in a while.

That said, I agree with you; but after the 2016 CDC letter there was an acute overreaction that still reverberates and that deepened the crisis.

 

[NationalTitles18]

those pill mills and docs didn't just randomly decide to overprescribe, either

Sacklers Sacked But Purdue Still Caused Opioid Epidemic - PMC

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

And that is true, but CMS and colleagues made it much worse and that is rarely discussed.

 

[92tide]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1781779898912137684

Sending people to prison just for possessing marijuana has upended too many lives and incarcerated people for conduct that many states no longer prohibit. It’s time that we right these wrongs.

 

[Go Bama]

I believe it's is strongly both, not one or the other:

""We're 5% of the world's population, but we consume 80% of the world's prescription opioids," said Dr. Jonathan Chen, a physician and researcher at Stanford University Medical Center who studies prescribing patterns.

Patients still receive more than twice the volume of opioids considered normal before the prescribing boom began in the late 1990s."

We should give Opioids out far more carefully AFTER other pain medications have proven NOT to work.

And, I don't deny the reaction and attempts cure the crisis may harm some or many with trying to curtail Opioid prescriptions. But there are many examples of pill mills and beyond excessive prescriptions as well as folks who have started taking the drugs to mask other issues.

We could go on and on about the reasons people start self-medicating and end up addicted to Opioids, but I'll stop here.

https://www.npr.org/2020/07/17/887590699/doctors-and-dentists-still-flooding-u-s-with-opioid-prescriptions

I take exception to some of this article, especially in relation to the dental field.

I routinely prescribe opioids because a large portion of my practice deals with pain management. The people who write these types of articles are rarely sitting in my chair. There are many circumstances where people need something stronger than acetaminophen and/or ibuprofen.

"That's the way I was taught," acknowledged Chen at Stanford University. "If the patient tells you they're in pain, it's better to just believe what they say and give them enough medication until they say they feel better."

This is BS. I’ve never written an Rx for anyone without being able to recognize and diagnose the patient has a genuine issue.

"Dentists are prescribing just a couple more tablets, so they don't have to rewrite the prescription" during follow-up patient visits, said Suda at the University of Pittsburgh.

I have an app on my phone for writing prescriptions. Once the patient’s information is entered writing the prescription is simple. I choose which medication the patient needs from a list and hit send. If the prescription is for a narcotic, I have to enter a password and a random number which changes every 30 seconds. I never write narcotic Rx’s for more than 12 pills. That’s three days worth. I’ve never written an Rx for oxycodone.

I’m sure there are some bad actors in my profession, but this over prescribing issue is not being caused by dentists.

 

[92tide]

about damned time

US poised to ease restrictions on marijuana in historic shift, but it'll remain controlled substance

In a historic shift, the U.S. moves to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, AP sources say.

apnews.com

 

[NationalTitles18]

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/30/economy/dea-marijuana-rescheduling/index.html

The Biden administration will move Tuesday to reclassify marijuana as a lower-risk substance, a person familiar with the plans told CNN, a historic move that acknowledges the medical benefits of the long-criminalized drug and carries broad implications for cannabis-related research and the industry at large.

The US Drug Enforcement Administration is expected to recommend that marijuana be rescheduled as a Schedule III controlled substance, a classification shared by prescription drugs such as ketamine and Tylenol with codeine.

“[The Department of Justice] continues to work on this rule. We have no further comment at this time,” an administration official said Tuesday.

The DOJ declined to comment.

Moving marijuana out of Schedule I could open more avenues for research, ease some of the more harshly punitive criminal consequences, allow cannabis businesses to bank more freely and openly, and result in firms no longer being subjected to a 40-year-old tax code that disallows credits and deductions from income generated by sales of Schedule I and II substances.

However, rescheduling marijuana will not solve that federal-state conflict, the Congressional Research Service noted in a January 16 brief. The manufacture, distribution and possession of recreational marijuana would remain illegal under federal law and possibly subject to enforcement and prosecution regardless of the state’s legality, the CRS wrote.

States with medical marijuana programs do currently have some federal protections in place via appropriations legislation that restricts the Justice Department from interfering in those programs. Schedule III status will not affect that rider, the CRS said.

 

[NationalTitles18]

Congress Accidentally Legalized Weed Six Years Ago

When lawmakers voted to allow hemp production in 2018, they quietly opened the door to legal THC in all 50 states.

www.theatlantic.com

Congress Accidentally Legalized Weed Six Years Ago
When lawmakers voted to allow hemp production in 2018, they quietly opened the door to legal THC in all 50 states.

Hemp-based intoxicants aren’t limited to delta-8 THC. The Farm Bill also appears to authorize the creation of hemp-based delta-9 THC products as long as the total delta-9 content is 0.3 percent or less of the product’s dry weight. This turns out to be easy to do. Carolindica, for instance, sells a 10-gram gummy that contains 30 milligrams of hemp-derived delta-9 THC, which is exactly 0.3 percent of the gummy’s total weight. The Florida-based company Crispy Blunts sells a cookie that weighs 22 grams and contains 50 milligrams of delta-9 THC. At 0.23 percent by weight, that’s well under the Farm Bill’s threshold, but the total THC content is five to 10 times as high as the legal per-serving limit in many of the states that have legalized recreational-marijuana edibles.

 

[Jon]

Congress Accidentally Legalized Weed Six Years Ago

When lawmakers voted to allow hemp production in 2018, they quietly opened the door to legal THC in all 50 states.

www.theatlantic.com

Congress Accidentally Legalized Weed Six Years Ago
When lawmakers voted to allow hemp production in 2018, they quietly opened the door to legal THC in all 50 states.

they're everywhere around Atlanta. THCa products too, even come with "I swear this is legal" flyers explaining the farm bill.

this place isn't far from me and it is a full out dispensary

Best CBD & Delta 8 Products Seller in Atlanta, Georgia | ATLRx

We are a leading CBD & Delta 8 THC product seller online in the US offering quality gummies, flowers, tincture, and more. Visit our stores in Atlanta, Alpharetta, and Dawsonville, Georgia.

www.atlrx.com

 

[TIDE-HSV]

they're everywhere around Atlanta. THCa products too, even come with "I swear this is legal" flyers explaining the farm bill.

this place isn't far from me and it is a full out dispensary

Best CBD & Delta 8 Products Seller in Atlanta, Georgia | ATLRx

We are a leading CBD & Delta 8 THC product seller online in the US offering quality gummies, flowers, tincture, and more. Visit our stores in Atlanta, Alpharetta, and Dawsonville, Georgia.

www.atlrx.com

There's one down the mountain from me, in Five Points, called "The Green Lady"...

 

[92tide]

There's one down the mountain from me, in Five Points, called "The Green Lady"...

i saw a billboard for "alabama's best budz" while driving through b-ham a couple of weeks ago

 

[Jon]

feel like maybe we should do something else here

Secret DEA files show agents joked about rape in a WhatsApp chat. Then one of them was accused of it

A group of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents boasted in a WhatsApp chat of their “world debauchery tour,” shared lurid images of their latest sexual conquests and at one point even joked about “forcible anal rape.”

apnews.com