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H the K[_2_]

On 10/28/09 12:29 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:48:50 -0700, wrote:

On Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:37:06 -0400, wrote:

On Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:06:56 -0700, wrote:

By Alan Prendergast in Education, Follow That Story, MarijuanaMon.,
Oct. 26 2009 @ 2:57PM

In the long-foundering, ever-festering war on drugs, there's just
about zero truth to the idea of zero tolerance. As anyone who's
studied the prison population can figure out, certain groups dealing
in illegal drugs can be targeted for harsh punishment, while other
groups trafficking in the same drugs are all but ignored.

Of course if you are a doctor you can push drugs without fear and the
government/insurance industry will subsidize your customers.
A friend of mine cured his cocaine addiction be getting himself
declared ADD. Now he does 40mg of amphetamines every day, insurance
pays for it and he stays wired up all the time.

Man, what a way to live... ick.

Personally, as bad as speed is, I think the "pain pill" problem is
worse. My wife was in the construction industry and she believed
25-30% of the people working were walking around with a prescription
bottle full of pain pills (in their name) and close to that many who
were using them illegally.
I know the doctors push them because in my travels through the medical
establishment for my wrist problem, EVERY ONE OF THEM offered me
something. (Vicodin, Oxycotin or Oxycodone were the most popular).
I passed.
It does make me wonder what happens if you got stopped in a DUI
checkpoint and "****ed positive" for one of these narcotics.
Sure you have a prescription that allows you to own them and take them
but not to take them and DRIVE !
I bet you go to jail.

Unfortunately, injuries, strains, et cetera, are common in the
construction industry, and in this country we have a lousy system to
assist hourly workers if they are injured. So guys with back/leg
injuries come back to work too fast, and then re-injury themselves or
re-aggravate already existing weaknesses. Sometimes the pain pills are
the way they can work and then too many of them get hooked.

If we were in a more progressive country, we'd have better regulations
to take care of injured workers. But *this* is the failing bastion of
screw-you capitalism.