Whitney Houston is Dead

DeafCaroline said:
I know you didn't which is why I'm asking if you think it's the answer instead of stating that you said it is.
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No, I don't think that criminalization of alcohol and prescription drugs is the answer to people overdosing on drugs.

I also don't think that legalizing recreational drugs is the answer to people overdosing on drugs. (That was my original point, as posted.)
 
so what is the answer then? what would be an ideal solution? clearly the war on drugs, especially marijuana is not working at all.
 
Babyblue said:
How would legalizing drugs stop people from ODing? People will still use and people will still OD regardless of the drug legal status. Building tolerance is one of the reason why people OD.
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I'm not referring to "people" because they die in any way they can. I'm referring to these well-known celebrities. A string of celebrity deaths for the past couple years were mostly the result of OD'ing on pharmaceutical drugs.

and beside.... OD'ing on weed? never heard of it.
 
Reba said:
Regulate, how?

Prescription drugs are regulated now, and people still abuse them.

Alcohol is regulated somewhat, at least by age, yet it's still abused.

There may be some good arguments for decriminalizing drugs but expecting people not to overdose or have bad effects from them are not them.
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precisely!

alcohol and prescription drugs are addictive and destructive. marijuana? nope. why criminalize a natural substance that is known to alleviate pain and suffering without side effects and addiction that pharmaceutical drugs can't? this is mind-boggling to me.
 
DeafCaroline said:
so what is the answer then? what would be an ideal solution? clearly the war on drugs, especially marijuana is not working at all.
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Sounds like an excellent topic for a new thread. Go for it.
 
Jiro said:
I'm not referring to "people" because they're stupid and they die in any stupid way. I'm referring to these well-known celebrities. A string of celebrity deaths for the past couple years were mostly the result of OD'ing on pharmaceutical drugs.

and beside.... OD'ing on weed? never heard of it.
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Never heard of it either. Incidentally, here is something amusing. According to US law, cannabis is a Schedule I drug, not known to have any medicinal qualities. Did you know the US government itself owns patents to medical qualities of cannabis?

They are waging a war against the very same drug they own patents to.

United States Patent: 6630507
 
DeafCaroline said:
So, you think criminalization of alcohol and prescription drugs is the answer?
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The answer to what? Overdosing? No, it is not. To prevent people from abusing drugs? No, It will is not.

Reduce crimes perhaps since it will be legal instead of illegal. But the other things involved such as abuse, addiction, and the neglect follows will not go down.
 
Babyblue said:
The answer to what? Overdosing? No, it is not. To prevent people from abusing drugs? No, It will is not.

Reduce crimes perhaps since it will be legal instead of illegal. But the other things involved such as abuse, addiction, and the neglect follows will not go down.
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Yes, however, it's the addictions themselves that's the issue, alcohol and other drugs bring them out in some people.

Do you treat an alcoholic by illegalizing alcohol or by treating him for addiction?

Another way to look at it is this: many people have serious addictions to food. As a result, some develop serious health issues, and even death resulting from those health problems. Do we illegalize food? No, we treat the addiction itself.
 
I'm sorry that I participated in getting this topic off poor Whitney Houston. :(

Anyway, we don't know what caused her untimely death. It's just sad.
 
Reba said:
I'm sorry that I participated in getting this topic off poor Whitney Houston. :(
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It's related to this thread because of latest string of celebrity deaths OD'ing on pharmaceutical drugs. I understand that they live a very high-stress lifestyle and that most of them needed very powerful pharmaceutical drugs just to "relax". I'm just saying that if we legalize marijuana.... I don't think we would see this kind of tragedy.

Reba said:
Anyway, we don't know what caused her untimely death. It's just sad.
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most likely OD'ed on pharmaceutical drugs like Heath Ledgers. I'm hoping this is not another case of Michael Jackson (administered and improperly resuscitated by "personal" doctor)

All I can say is hey.... look at Eric Clapton and Willie Nelson. still alive and singing.
 
The laws for getting pain meds are fairly strict. The DA gets a report of all powerful pain meds so they can monitor the patients and doctors. Pharmacies work very hard on catching the fakes. That was one of my main jobs in the pharmacy. Tracking patients who over used and were over prescribed. I worked very close wirh the DA. However, since most of these celebrities have personal doctors they can get a way with a lot more then the average pain patient. Thats here in Cali, I do not know about other states. I am so sad about Whitney.
 
Angle1989 said:
The laws for getting pain meds are fairly strict. The DA gets a report of all powerful pain meds so they can monitor the patients and doctors. Pharmacies work very hard on catching the fakes. That was one of my main jobs in the pharmacy. Tracking patients who over used and were over prescribed. I worked very close wirh the DA. However, since most of these celebrities have personal doctors they can get a way with a lot more then the average pain patient. Thats here in Cali, I do not know about other states. I am so sad about Whitney.
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All Schedule III pharmaceutical drugs are regulated and monitored. Their personal doctors will have to prescribe it and then pharmacy dispenses it so it's recorded.
 
Angle1989 said:
The laws for getting pain meds are fairly strict. The DA gets a report of all powerful pain meds so they can monitor the patients and doctors. Pharmacies work very hard on catching the fakes. That was one of my main jobs in the pharmacy. Tracking patients who over used and were over prescribed. I worked very close wirh the DA. However, since most of these celebrities have personal doctors they can get a way with a lot more then the average pain patient. Thats here in Cali, I do not know about other states. I am so sad about Whitney.
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Look at Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson's own personal doctor, did not get away with it. He is going to face a 4 years of prison.
 
Oddball said:
Look at Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson's own personal doctor, did not get away with it. He is going to face a 4 years of prison.
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and some doctors who illegally prescribed steroids to athletes
 
Jiro said:
All Schedule III pharmaceutical drugs are regulated and monitored. Their personal doctors will have to prescribe it and then pharmacy dispenses it so it's recorded.
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Your exactly right. However, these celebrity doctors do not use the celebrities names for obvious reasons. They can call in a prescription "for office use" or use factious names. They can now even override a triplicate perscription by using a special code. This code basically means it is a life or death situation. Serious pain and cancer both qualify. Also if the prescription is paid by cash and not run through insurance the patient can pharmacy and doctor hop. Makes it a lot harder for us in the pharmacy to catch. So yes, they are regulated but there are serious loopholes. Just my thoughts.
 
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Angle1989 said:
Your exactly right. However, these celebrity doctors do not use the celebrities names for obvious reasons. They can call in a prescription "for office use" or use factious names. They can now even override a triplicate perscription by using a special code. This code basically means it is a life or death situation. Serious pain and cancer both qualify. Also if the prescription is paid by cash and not run through insurance the patient can pharmacy and doctor hop. Makes it a lot harder for us in the pharmacy to catch. So yes, they are regulated but there are serious loopholes. Just my thoughts.
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I'm not aware of any loopholes but I'm sure there is some illegal scheme to get around with it. What I do know is that since Schedule III drugs are strictly regulated, you'll need to record it in computer - who receives what.

Obviously - this won't work out well for celebrity addicts since it would be too easy to get red-flagged. Also I can't imagine it would be easy to get a certain amount of Schedule III drugs in certain time without raising suspicion.

I should ask some of my friends about this when I see them. They're pharmacists and doctors.
 
Babyblue said:
How would legalizing drugs stop people from ODing? People will still use and people will still OD regardless of the drug legal status. Building tolerance is one of the reason why people OD.
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It would work.....the same way legalizing alcohol keeps people from getting drunk. :)
 
Jiro said:
I'm not aware of any loopholes but I'm sure there is some illegal scheme to get around with it. What I do know is that since Schedule III drugs are strictly regulated, you'll need to record it in computer - who receives what.

Obviously - this won't work out well for celebrity addicts since it would be too easy to get red-flagged. Also I can't imagine it would be easy to get a certain amount of Schedule III drugs in certain time without raising suspicion.

I should ask some of my friends about this when I see them. They're pharmacists and doctors.
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Ok, this is how it is done. This is a just the one of many stories in my 20 years in the pharmacy in CA.

70 year old woman with cancer. Her 40 year old daughter takes good care of her mom, even moved in with her to help. Mom has no RX coverage so the daughter is stressed every month she comes in to pick up the Percocet which is legally written on a triplicate. Months go by and the son comes in. Hands me the bottle and is concerned that the Percocet is not controlling his moms pain. I look in the bottle and we figure out that the daughter has been replacing the Percocet with Tylenol all those months. More research was done and the daughter was doing this with another triplicate that the mom was getting at another pharmacy. The poor mom was suffering while the daughter was taking her pain meds. Happened all the time. These are the loopholes.
 
Angle1989 said:
Ok, this is how it is done. This is a just the one of many stories in my 20 years in the pharmacy in CA.

70 year old woman with cancer. Her 40 year old daughter takes good care of her mom, even moved in with her to help. Mom has no RX coverage so the daughter is stressed every month she comes in to pick up the Percocet which is legally written on a triplicate. Months go by and the son comes in. Hands me the bottle and is concerned that the Percocet is not controlling his moms pain. I look in the bottle and we figure out that the daughter has been replacing the Percocet with Tylenol all those months. More research was done and the daughter was doing this with another triplicate that the mom was getting at another pharmacy. The poor mom was suffering while the daughter was taking her pain meds. Happened all the time. These are the loopholes.
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that's not a loophole. it's fraud and theft.

as I thought - Schedule III drugs are so tightly controlled and monitored that I seriously that even doctors can get around with it without raising suspicion. the only way to do it under radar is to defraud it or steal it.

loophole means people can "legally" scam it.
 
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