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from the Antidiarrheal-overdose?-Oh,-crap! dept.
NPR is reporting on the latest drug scare, involving an over-the-counter antidiarrheal drug that is being used for its opioid-like effects by addicts:
Some people addicted to oxycodone and other opioids are now turning to widely available diarrhea medications to manage their withdrawal symptoms or get high. The results can be dangerous to the heart — and sometimes fatal — warn toxicologists in a study [open, DOI: 10.1016/j.annemergmed.2016.03.047] recently published online in the Annals of Emergency Medicine.
The researchers describe two case studies where people who were addicted to opioids tried to ease their withdrawal symptoms by taking many times the recommended dose of loperamide, a drug commonly used treat diarrhea. Both patients died.
"Because of its low cost, ease of accessibility and legal status, it's a drug that is very, very ripe for abuse," says lead author William Eggleston, a doctor of pharmacy and fellow in clinical toxicology at the Upstate New York Poison Center, which is affiliated with SUNY Upstate Medical University.
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4/20: Half-Baked Headline
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Dunbal on Wednesday May 04 2016, @04:57PM
Addicts overdose, and die. I would say that is a solution to a problem.
And people with coronary artery disease die too, and that's just because they were fat, lazy or smoked. Or better yet had a crappy combination of genes and so they were weak anyway and deserved to die. And don't get me started on those people with cancer.
Seriously it's fine to go around not giving a shit about other people who have problems. But then don't expect anyone to give a shit about you when you have problems.
I'm sorry, people, but I don't see the point in fighting to save people from themselves.
Then let's just give up on any form of society. I mean we don't need doctors, teachers, firemen, or anyone who helps anyone else in your world.
Your view is disgusting and I'm glad not everyone shares it.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday May 04 2016, @05:00PM
"deserved to die"
I did NOT use those words, nor did I have any intention of implying them. I only said that the world would be a better place without addicts. There are only a small percentage of people who I would say "deserve to die". Many of those people are on death row, and/or sitting in maximum security prisons already.
It's not a question of "deserving", it's a matter of wasting resources - financial, emotional, time, and more - on people who won't benefit from the expenditures.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Dunbal on Wednesday May 04 2016, @05:13PM
it's a matter of wasting resources
Resources that could be better allocated to the deserving. With YOU getting to decide who gets them and who doesn't. You can't hide behind your ethical gaffe. It's plain for all to see no matter where you want to go with the argument. You can use different words but it all comes to the same thing. YOU think something, therefore fuck everyone else. Unfortunately we have to share this planet with others, and at some point it means giving at least a minimal damn about them.
(Score: 3, Informative) by jdavidb on Wednesday May 04 2016, @05:54PM
YOU think something, therefore fuck everyone else.
That's true of the other side, too, though. "I think people can and should be saved by putting imodium behind the counter, so fuck everyone else."
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 04 2016, @06:16PM
While that is debatable, this isn't about imodium any more. runaway has expanded the question from the very narrow question of controlling access to imodium to providing aid to people with addictions in general as the world would be better off without them because 'resources.'
(Score: 4, Insightful) by jdavidb on Wednesday May 04 2016, @07:51PM
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 05 2016, @04:53AM
Your freedom has already been compromised, and its why addicts can't get help, even if they want it. Prohibition harms everyone.
(Score: 2) by Dunbal on Wednesday May 04 2016, @06:29PM
"I think people can and should be saved by putting imodium behind the counter, so fuck everyone else."
I agree. In fact I'm highly suspect of this claim and I think it's no coincidence that the DEA has been "cracking down" on prescription medications in the past few years and are just creating jobs for themselves, working down the list of medications and classifying anything that could potentially cause a bit of dizzyness as having potential for "abuse". Hey they need to justify an ever expanding budget, right?
Funnily enough drug prohibition (including opioid prohibition) has never managed to curb the number of drug abusers, which always seems to be around 3% whether drugs are legal or not. But when you make it harder for people to obtain these products for legitimate use, you are punishing people who actually need the product while doing nothing to curb its illicit use.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 04 2016, @07:00PM
In fact I'm highly suspect of this claim and I think it's no coincidence that the DEA has been "cracking down" on prescription medications in the past few years and are just creating jobs for themselves
I think you're spot on. BTW, did you know that the DEA is the largest enforcement agency in the world with presence (and jurisdiction) in almost every country in the world.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday May 05 2016, @02:31AM
Especially since immodium doubtless halts far more suffering than it causes. Most of you probably don't remember when there was nothing that would reliably stop the screaming shits from intestinal flu -- and that can be critical in children and old people.
It's also commonly used to treat viral diarrhea in puppies, which in weanlings can be the difference between life and death.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by jdavidb on Wednesday May 04 2016, @05:52PM
It's not a question of "deserving", it's a matter of wasting resources - financial, emotional, time, and more - on people who won't benefit from the expenditures.
Why should my (or your) freedom be sacrificed for a plan I (or you) am not persuaded is going to work?
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday May 04 2016, @06:07PM
am not persuaded is going to work
Unfortunately the situation is even more horrifying in that its widely understood that AA / NA and most other treatment programs basically don't work, like 90%+ failure rate.
So what we have is extremely expensive and profitable faith healing as an industry sector that exists primarily to funnel money to providers knowing that the treatment will have little to no effect other than making some people richer. It really is a horrible racket, profiting off suffering. I'm sure that type laughs all the way to the bank.
Doctors and the medical profession don't understand stubbornness. They understand that you have a tumor in there and the surgeon slices it out and its not in there anymore and the patients stubbornness doesn't matter much one way or the other. But WRT mental health ranging from slight obesity to lack of exercise to some mental health issues docs just don't understand all that matters is the patients desire, its the only thing that matters.
There is a class of diseases, where drug addiction is one, where the victims are incredibly stubborn and nothing in the outside world will have any effect... they'll get the outcome, good or bad, that they want and the external world doesn't much matter.
If it were not for that pesky biochemical link between body and mind, there would be a good argument for completely disconnecting mental health issues from the doctors. Docs just don't know how to think about mental health because physical health is too deeply ingrained. Nice people, just not trained for that kind of work on a deep philosophical level. Like making me a computer programmer and a plumber, I'm just not seeing the synergy and naturals at one are unlikely to be good at the other.
The two useful things incredibly expensive treatment programs provide, are medical monitoring for the detox and a low-ish stress environment so they can chill and not worry as much about daily life. Some kind of all inclusive resort could provide the same for a tenth the cost / profit of course.