Because of the thoroughgoing weirdness of American puritanism the US
version of the Brompton Cocktail, a mixture of drugs for the
alleviation of pain in patients within days of death, is made with
morphine, not heroine, as everywhere else, because morphine is less
addictive. Wouldn't want addicts crossing over into the better place,
I guess. Problem is, it doesn't work as well. The drug companies
don't care--they make the same profits either way.
Mark
At 11:03 AM 2/10/2007, you wrote:
>I unluckily have to add that the fault resides with the pharmaceutical
>industry as it has been planned since the start, see the history of Bayern
>and its product Heroin on the market in the middle of the XIXth century with
>the related and subsequent discovery of methadone to treat the American
>population, since it was sold in the States (Bayern is a German industry)
>against cough, or cold in general.
>An Italian sociologist dug into the matter, Guido Blumir, with one of his
>first books: "La droga e il sistema. Eroina" *Drugs and the system:
>Heroin*(don't know if it was translated into English). Another book I
>read by him
>was:* Donne di vita, vita di donne*, a collection of interviews he did to
>prostitutes; I cannot avoid noticing that in this book there is the visible
>tendency to exalt the prostitute, on the other side it was written with
>humanity and pity towards women who had no choices.
>What do you suffer from Chris?
>
>
>
>
>On 2/10/07, MC Ward <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>>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.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>____________________________________________________________________________________
>>Don't pick lemons.
>>See all the new 2007 cars at Yahoo! Autos.
>>http://autos.yahoo.com/new_cars.html
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