Another one of those drug test, before you get benifits thread.

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jillio said:
Ummm... I was looking for actual numbers. "Several" doesn't tell me much, and certainly cannot be used to check the number of incidents against the population to get a more realistic ratio of exactly how many times things like this are happening.

Psuedoephredrine has been regulated in my state for several years.
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It's regulated here also but not by prescription. I will work on the numbers. It may take me a bit to compile them but meth use here is rampant!
 
airportcop said:
I'm afraid that you are probably correct here. Pot is not so much the real problem but more harsh drugs like cocaine, heroin, meth, extasy.
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I know for a fact that I am correct. I spent too many years working in domestic violence not to be certain of my statements. And I will also say that alcohol is the culprit more often than all of the other drugs you named put together. Especially heroin and ecstacy, simply due to the effects these two have on the user.
 
airportcop said:
It's regulated here also but not by prescription. I will work on the numbers. It may take me a bit to compile them but meth use here is rampant!
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I take it you are in a rather rural area.

There would be ways to get around it being a prescription, as well. Being a prescription certainly hasn't stopped oxycodone from being one of the most popular street drugs around.
 
jillio said:
Incarceration is not a deterrent, and especially not when discussing drug use. Like you have stated, giving someone the label of criminal only insures the likelihood that they will have to commit further crime in order to survive. Our criminal justice system actually insures recidivism rates will continue to climb.
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It certainly hasn't kept the boy next door to me from getting kicked out of two private schools. :P He died of a crack overdose later on. I remember he put a bullet in our kitchen wall while we were on vacation in VA beach. Even cops weren't enough to make him stop.
 
jillio said:
I take it you are in a rather rural area.

There would be ways to get around it being a prescription, as well. Being a prescription certainly hasn't stopped oxycodone from being one of the most popular street drugs around.
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Ain't that the truth. One can find anything if you know where to look.
 
jillio said:
I take it you are in a rather rural area.

There would be ways to get around it being a prescription, as well. Being a prescription certainly hasn't stopped oxycodone from being one of the most popular street drugs around.
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No, I live in the 3rd largest city in Missouri (170,000) but all around us are rural areas. It is happening in the cities now as much or more than in the country.
 
airportcop said:
Here is a good site to view to start with while I'm working the #s!

Community Partnership - NoMeth.org Home
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Briefly scanned your site, but don't see anything there that I don't already know. The issue is, locking people up for running meth labs or for using meth hasn't slowed anything down. There are still as many meth labs and still as many users. If you want the incidence of drug use to go down, you have to address it from a different perspective. We need to be addressing drug use as what it is and start approaching it from the reason that people use drugs. We need to address the problems in society that create drug use. Just locking people up hasn't worked, nor will it ever work. How many years does the 'war on drugs" have to fail and how many billions of dollars per year of taxpayer money has to be spent before people go, "Wait, this isn't working?" Locking people up just gives the average Joe the idea that something is being done to address the problem, and that is a false sense of security.
 
jillio said:
Briefly scanned your site, but don't see anything there that I don't already know. The issue is, locking people up for running meth labs or for using meth hasn't slowed anything down. There are still as many meth labs and still as many users. If you want the incidence of drug use to go down, you have to address it from a different perspective. We need to be addressing drug use as what it is and start approaching it from the reason that people use drugs. We need to address the problems in society that create drug use. Just locking people up hasn't worked, nor will it ever work. How many years does the 'war on drugs" have to fail and how many billions of dollars per year of taxpayer money has to be spent before people go, "Wait, this isn't working?" Locking people up just gives the average Joe the idea that something is being done to address the problem, and that is a false sense of security.
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Then how do you stop them when most (90%) are addicted to meth after the first time? Education is a great idea but it doesn't seem to be working well.
 
airportcop said:
Here is another but it is older on the stats.

Injurious meth fires are common, Mo. authorities say
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Compare these to the population in these years and you will see that the incidence is greatly exaggerated.

According to the most complete DEA figures available, three children and 24 suspects died at meth labs in 2004; and one child, 27 suspects and eight law-enforcement officers died at labs in 2003.

But then, if people were told the actual numbers in a realistic way, people would start objecting to the amount of tax money spent on the "war on drugs". It is in the DEA's best interest, and law enforcement's best interest, to present things in a less than realistic light. It is a funding issue. If we put half as much funding into treatment and social justice as we do into the "war on drugs", we would be seeing some progress.
 
airportcop said:
Then how do you stop them when most (90%) are addicted to meth after the first time? Education is a great idea but it doesn't seem to be working well.
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I believe jillio may know more about that and I also think she may have been thinking of taking preventive measures against drug use as well.
 
airportcop said:
Then how do you stop them when most (90%) are addicted to meth after the first time? Education is a great idea but it doesn't seem to be working well.
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That is a myth. No one becomes addicted to any substance after one use. It is physically impossible.

Check my post above this one. There are a couple of suggestions for ways to reduce the incidence of drug use in this country.
 
jillio said:
Compare these to the population in these years and you will see that the incidence is greatly exaggerated.

According to the most complete DEA figures available, three children and 24 suspects died at meth labs in 2004; and one child, 27 suspects and eight law-enforcement officers died at labs in 2003.

But then, if people were told the actual numbers in a realistic way, people would start objecting to the amount of tax money spent on the "war on drugs". It is in the DEA's best interest, and law enforcement's best interest, to present things in a less than realistic light. It is a funding issue. If we put half as much funding into treatment and social justice as we do into the "war on drugs", we would be seeing some progress.
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:dunno: It might prove to be an interesting experiment in comparison with what we are doing now.
 
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deafskeptic said:
I believe jillio may know more about that and I also think she may have been thinking of taking preventive measures against drug use as well.
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Exactly. Punitive measures don't work. We need to incorporate a harm reduction model for those who are currently using and social reorganization to prevent use in future generations.
 
jillio said:
Briefly scanned your site, but don't see anything there that I don't already know. The issue is, locking people up for running meth labs or for using meth hasn't slowed anything down. There are still as many meth labs and still as many users. If you want the incidence of drug use to go down, you have to address it from a different perspective. We need to be addressing drug use as what it is and start approaching it from the reason that people use drugs. We need to address the problems in society that create drug use. Just locking people up hasn't worked, nor will it ever work. How many years does the 'war on drugs" have to fail and how many billions of dollars per year of taxpayer money has to be spent before people go, "Wait, this isn't working?" Locking people up just gives the average Joe the idea that something is being done to address the problem, and that is a false sense of security.
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It strikes me as being unbelievably cruel to make drugs illegal and to turn people away from hospitals. My friend Kathy is a case in point: she divorced a couple years ago and has no insurance, since her job is low-paying. She has severe pain from a cancer growing inside her. Yet no hospital will accept her as a patient, nor give her relief from her pain. On Monday I will take her to the human resources office to talk with a caseworker, and I hope to God they can help her. She is a real sweetheart and it boils my blood to see her suffering. She does not drink alcohol, since that makes the condition worse instead of better, you know? We sure stink as a country when it comes to care for its citizens.
 
Beowulf said:
It strikes me as being unbelievably cruel to make drugs illegal and to turn people away from hospitals. My friend Kathy is a case in point: she divorced a couple years ago and has no insurance, since her job is low-paying. She has severe pain from a cancer growing inside her. Yet no hospital will accept her as a patient, nor give her relief from her pain. On Monday I will take her to the human resources office to talk with a caseworker, and I hope to God they can help her. She is a real sweetheart and it boils my blood to see her suffering. She does not drink alcohol, since that makes the condition worse instead of better, you know? We sure stink as a country when it comes to care for its citizens.
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You are preaching to the choir. I couldn't agree more: our priorities as a society are seriously skewed.

Does your state have H-Cap? That would be a possibility for her.
 
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