Drugs You Have Tried & Did You Like Them?

[KelliBlueEyes]

Because you were careful to add the qualifiers, I tend to agree. However, I am not aware of newer reliable statistics that indicate deaths from opiate overdose are decreasing. According to the CDC they are way up. ( https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/index.html ) Not only deaths, but addiction rates and prescription rates are up.

Certainly opiates should remain in the medical arsenal for the treatment of severe and debilitating chronic pain. But some control and restraint (at the very least on the part of doctors, if not regulators and legislators) is indicated. Yet, much less dangerous drugs (e.g. marijuana) which have been shown to be effective for the treatment of some kinds of chronic pain have been banned from being prescribed - often precisely because of politics.

I would conjecture the problem with over prescription lies primarily with the pharmaceutical industry pressuring and bribing (i.e. marketing) doctors to push their products on patients and with doctors allowing themselves to be pressured and bought.

Then of course people with prescriptions share and/or sell their pills to others.

The opioid epidemic has reached such proportions that in some of the worst hit places the demand for paramedics have skyrocketed. Paramedics are getting quite good at rescuing addicts from the brink of overdosing on opioids. That might account for any downtick - if there are any - (and again I’d like to see the stats) in deaths by opioid overdose.

I'm not really in favor of "morality" or politics or opinion having any impact on health care. Look at our struggles in trans healthcare, they're unnecessary and driven by bigotry. Just like cis men have no basis regulating women's or trans people's health care, people with no experience with chronic pain, at least from a medical standpoint, have no business influencing the health care of people who have to deal with it.

[broncofan]

I'm not really in favor of "morality" or politics or opinion having any impact on health care. Look at our struggles in trans healthcare, they're unnecessary and driven by bigotry. Just like cis men have no basis regulating women's or trans people's health care, people with no experience with chronic pain, at least from a medical standpoint, have no business influencing the health care of people who have to deal with it.

I agree that morality as the word is used with regard to women's health, trans health, and prescription drug regulation is sometimes a euphemism for closed-mindedness and bigotry.

But I think that regulators need to consider both the legitimate use of painkillers for chronic pain and the type of use where the risks outweigh the benefits and the harm might be long-term addiction and death by overdose. It would be ideal if every regulator would know as much about an issue as possible by data, personal experience, and could avoid having stereotyped views of the people impacted by the regulation.

I imagine it would be maddening to have debilitating pain and have someone judge you as possibly drug-seeking and therefore fail to prescribe for a legitimate use (also cruel to be subjected to)...but on the flipside imagine having a transient issue and two weeks later being hopelessly addicted to a narcotic whose risks you weren't properly apprised of.

[Stavros]

I was in a mva that left me functionally disabled. I've been through years of physical therapy, chiropracters, accupuncture, etc with very few results. I agree that in cases where someone experiences temporary painful situations doctors are irresponsible in prescribing opiates, and I have friends who became addicts because a doctor was quick to prescribe opiates and then, after they had healed, they could no longer obtain the prescriptions and turned to street drugs.
In cases of ongoing or CHRONIC PAIN modern medicine has not found anything as effective as opiates. People who are extensively documented by medical specialists to be experiencing chronic pain, and who are tested frequently to insure they are not abusing their prescription or using any other illegal drugs, should have no problem obtaining prescription opiates even if the resulting tolerance will mean they will have to take larger doses later in life as their pain persists that may lead to them becoming physically addicted.
Personally, I tried everything else first with no results, as I had no desire to take these drugs. When it got to the point where my quality of life was adversely affected by my pain I realized I needed to find something effective. A prescription for opiates allows me to live and enjoy life like other people do. I still have pain, but it's tolerable.
Doctors prescribing opiates carefully when necessary does nothing to add to the "opiate epidemic". Besides, if you look at statistics, deaths from opiate overdose have been steadily decreasing in spite of what you hear in the news or from politicians.
This is yet another instance where politics needs to stay out of health care.

In fact, Kelli your case illustrates when and where the prescription of opioids/opiates can deal with a problem properly diagnosed, as well as their limitations.
I was drawing attention to what I felt was the use of an opioid for recreational use which is not what it is made for, and strictly speaking Opiates are derived from the natural source of Heroin/Opium where Opioids are synthetic. I would not recommend Heroin for anything other than medicinal purposes, strictly controlled.
I have a close friend who also takes numerous drugs for a dreadful form of bone-related cirrhosis and they work to some extent, and he does use marijuana too.

I regret to say you cannot extract politics from health care, not in the UK and rather obviously not in the USA where your ignorant President has turned it into a football to be kicked from side of the field to the other for no other reason than his resentment of Barack Obama. In the UK we view health care as a public service, we feel in the US you view health care as a business run for profit. In both cases the treatment of chronic back/muscle/bone complaints continue to challenge medicine and I believe drugs and other forms of therapy are the best we can do right now. I hope sincerely that in time new forms of therapy will emerge to improve the quality of your life.

Drugs developed for medical purposes should remain in that domain, there are multiple means of getting high for fit and healthy people which can be taken safely, as long as not in excess.

[Lucky4u]

I don't like weed as it makes me sleepy but i had some of the best sex ever after taking coke and md. Wow the connection was transcendental but be wary you might not get a hard on after taking MDMA.
Be safe and don't OD

[chupapau]

I've smoked several wheelbarrow loads of weed, but stopped because I don't like the spiced up tradition that started with skunk weed. Now when I visit Amsterdam the smell makes me want to puke Hash for that matter never really drove me wild, apart from the good old red lebanon (jeez, that is a long time ago).

Had a crazy couple of years where weed, alcohol, amphetamine AND acid stamps were the preferred weekend cocktail. Weekends started Friday night, and ended somewhere Sunday afternoon usually, non stop with no sleep.

Looooved lsd, truly an mind altering drug. Had always said I would stop it all when coke and opiates appeared in my circle. Did try opium once or twice, in very small quantities, enjoyed the buzz, but hated the smoke (that must be what donkey shit in a pipe tastes like).

Coke arrived, I quit and had to distantiate myself from my circle. Only then it was obvious I had a weekend amphetamine addiction, took me about a year to get rid of that. My old circle of friend slipped a bit deeper, some didn't live to tell, others saw the inside of a prison, some saw their businesses go down the drain.

But hey, still think acid is crazy fantastic, but you better be strong of mind before you taste that goody.


PS : Legal disclosure : all above is past legal statutory terms in any country worldwide, apart from places were killer idiots like Duterte rule. So I won't go near there

[Erika1487]

You need to write the book of your life.

You know I might just do that sometime in the future

[Erika1487]

Damn, you still alive?

Yeah still kickin ass

[Erika1487]

If I went to my doctor and said I had back pain, he would ask how severe it is, when did it first begin, and examine me. And if he were unable to diagnose the problem, he would send me to see a specialist for tests.
What he would not do is automatically prescribe an opioid like Oxycontin, in fact he may not prescribe any drugs at all but suggest I visit a physiotherapist. I don't know the details but I think your doctor has been irresponsible.

There is an opioid crisis in the US because doctors are not treating the causes of back pain like yours, but giving you drugs to treat its effects, and creating addicts because of it. In view of the links between doctors and the pharmaceutical industry in the USA, this is a commercial rather than a medical decision, and you should destroy the Oxycontin and seek specialist help for your back pain.

Stavros I have two slipped discs L4 L5, degenerative disc disease, and arthritis in my low back. My regular PCP wrote the script for Oxycontin and I do not take it every day just on occasion when the pain becomes unbearable to sleep.

[youngblood61]

yeah still kickin ass

good!

[iam mok]

Just a quick warning about Xanax because some people take this recreationally.

This was a prescription drug I took for 10 years. The effects were positive and beneficial. I liked it BUT after a build up of tolerance to it I decided that given the choice of taking more to get the effect or dropping it that dropping it was the prudent choice. It's not been easy. The discontinuation of Xanax has become quite the odyssey. So despite it's pleasant effects when being taken and frequently, the trouble of being able to leave it behind does not make it worth your while taking it. It can create this tolerance and dependence in just a few weeks.\ that can last weeks to months to years, if the dose and duration taking it was high and long enough.

If your doctor or dealer holds out the note or pills labeled benzodiazapines, just walk the other way.