Not quite a conspiracy theory here (yet), Chris, but a
situation where _ordinary_ narcotics are doled out in
small doses, leaving patients still in pain and having
to wait for 4 hours to receive another dose. This on
relatively weak painkillers such as Vicodin and
Tylenol #3. When I questioned a doctor about it, I was
told that there are little old ladies addicted to
these drugs. (I think he meant _tolerance_ rather than
addiction.)
This is the sequelae of Nixon's "war on drugs."
--- Chris Jones <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> On Fri, 2007-02-09 at 08:13 -0800, MC Ward wrote:
> > Here at least I know of one methadone
> > clinic for people in constant pain. A friend goes
> > there and is really helped by that medication.
> (People
> > don't realize that methadone does more than help
> > heroin addicts.)
>
> This is not just my story but the story of hundreds
> of thousands of
> chronic pain sufferers in Australia and world wide
> that would number in
> the millions.
>
> Methadone; how I know you well. Have in the past
> been on the private
> methadone program and on some very high doses that
> would kill a mere
> mortal human. The problem is, even with the private
> methadone program
> here in NSW, you must visit a pharmacist twice a
> week to be dosed and
> then be given three and then on the second visit two
> take away doses and
> you are treated like a junky, which is to say, very
> badly. It is a
> deeply humiliating experience to be on methadone.
> Further to this you
> also become registered as an addict by NSW Health.
> For this reason I am
> perhaps unable to set foot legally in the United
> States. I could be
> denied a US visa as being an undesirable, being a
> registered opiate
> addict. Methadone is a chemical jail. You are jailed
> by NSW Health
> without the benefit of a trial by jury or even the
> right to consult a
> lawyer simply for being sick and in intractable
> pain. So much pain that
> I could not even walk until I had taken my methadone
> dose. When I first
> started on methadone I only had to visit a clinic
> once a week and be
> given take away does for the rest of the week but
> the government
> bureaucracy changed these rules and methadone has
> become so constrictive
> that I am unable to access it since I would be too
> weak to make it to my
> local pharmacy and if I do make it that far I would
> have a long wait and
> then be treated as low life scum and without any
> courtesy.
>
> Methadone as a pain relief medication itself is
> equal to or better then
> morphine, since tolerance does not develop as
> steeply or quickly as
> morphine does. But the ever constricting rules of
> the government health
> bureaucracy makes methadone untenable as an
> effective pain relief
> option.
>
> The governments of Australia makes opiate pain
> medication difficult, if
> not impossible to get through medical and legal
> means because they have
> a financial interest and gain in doing so, which is
> to say governments
> actively promote, effectively market and make
> financial gain from the
> market in illicit heroin and cocaine. Second only to
> the illicit market
> in weapons and firearms comes illicit drugs as the
> highest income earner
> for the Australian and worldwide capitalist economy.
> When I was a high
> income earner living in the elite Eastern Suburbs of
> Sydney I could
> afford to buy illicit heroin and cocaine from
> suppliers who catered to
> this elite high income market and it was always pure
> high quality heroin
> and the best pain relief known to medical science.
> If such suppliers
> were to be arrested for supply they would pay bribes
> to various
> government agencies as well as making donations to
> the political parties
> in government and as a result would receive a 12
> month holiday in a very
> comfortable minimum security prison, meanwhile also
> making arrangements
> for the continuation of supply to their elite
> Eastern Suburbs clients.
> In the less elite areas heroin dealers who were
> arrested and unable to
> be given the option of paying bribes had their
> assets seized and the
> return from these seizures are paid into general
> revenue, so again the
> government benefits by balancing the books and these
> asset seizures
> amount to quite a large financial return for the
> government. This might
> sound like a conspiracy theory but I am a very
> highly trained
> investigative journalist and this is what I have
> observed in my past
> active life as a journalist. In one case, a heroin
> dealer who was busted
> needed to put aside $20,000 to pay the judge so as
> to get a light
> sentence. Bribes and asset seizures are part of the
> cost in the business
> of supplying heroin to customers in an arena where
> the government
> actively makes opiate pain relief difficult to get
> legally through
> medical means and so then is able to financially
> benefit from fostering
> the market in illicit heroin. Only the rich can
> afford pain relief on
> the illicit market. The poor must suffer in chronic
> agony. If you are
> poor, too sick to earn an income and are consigned
> to the poverty of an
> invalid pension, pain and agony is your fate.
>
>
>
____________________________________________________________________________________
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