Prescription drugs far more dangerous to Americans 11/24/15 via Natural News

[minkeygirl]

The US constitution says we have the right to bear arms. That meant to defend ourselves during war.

The NRA uses a different translation. Basically any idiot can own a Gun. They don't care how many little kids get shot. Anyone has the right to own a gun.

I serously doubt the U.S. NRA is secretly funding operations anywhere else. There are too many hackers and it would be too easy to uncover. And it's a too deeply ingrained American right. I doubt the care about some wankers across the pond.

I can't prove that however and the opposite can't be proved either. conspiracy theorists agitating the situation do no good.

 

[*GG*]

The US constitution says we have the right to bear arms. That meant to defend ourselves during war.

The NRA uses a different translation. Basically any idiot can own a Gun. They don't care how many little kids get shot. Anyone has the right to own a gun.

I can't prove that however and the opposite can't be proved either. conspiracy theorists agitating the situation do no good.

Not at all, you might want to read more than Lilb/Progressive rags. 2nd Amendment is just during war, are you for real? Ugh

GG

 

[Valentijn]

2nd Amendment is just during war, are you for real?

It's for state militias, largely in the context of very independent states which were understandably paranoid about a brand new federal government stepping in to oppress the people who had already had enough of that from the British monarchy.

It was also written at a time when guns were capable of shooting one bullet every minute or two. The Constitution is not holy writ, and it is not blasphemy to review or rewrite the Bill of Rights to reflect the current reality.

 

[maryb]

As far as I know (and it has been some time since I was active in general society) people In the UK people have to undergo a rigorous screening before being given a gun licence, they have to be a member of a club or provide proof of what their interest is in owning a gun. Any experience of mental health issues, depression etc would result in the licence being removed and them having to undergo another assessment. I used to have gundogs and knew a few people with licences, they took the responsibility very seriously, locked cabinets etc. police inspections. It is so far removed from the situation in the US. Its seems to me that many of the people who were responsible for some of the shooting atrocities in the US were very disturbed individuals, I like to think they wouldn't have passed the screening here. Sorry right off topic.....

 

[barbc56]

@maryb

Very informative. Thanks!

How I wish things were different here. There have been so many tragedies. Many involving children. Some from people not taking responsible precautions that you mention.What a shame.

What is a gundog? Is it the same as a hunting dog?

Barb

 

[minkeygirl]

@ggingues my point being this is a u.s constituion issue (however you want to interpret it which is the crux of the issue) and the idiots in the NRA imo don't have a secret puppet group in the uk as JE implied.

I can't prove there isn't but can he prove there is? and conspiracy theories help no one. Certainly not people shot by some idiot who's mommy was mean to him.

@ggingues i can't read and when I do it's not progressive rags. It's the ingredients in my toothpaste.

 

[Undisclosed]

(NaturalNews) It's official: Guns are not the deadliest things in the only country on Earth with a recognized right to "keep and bear arms," as the political Left would have you believe. Turns out that Big Pharma is the nation's most deadly killer.

So it's 'official' -- guns kill, prescription medication kills.

Indeed they do. That's not news. It's just sad.

The news in this Natural News 'article' is just another 'Big Pharma' kills people with their medications article that this website cranks out on a regular basis. If, according to the author, Big Pharma is at fault for killing people with their nasty prescription medications, why on earth doesn't he blame gun manufacturers for shooting deaths. That would only be fair and logical. But then again it's totally illogical to blame 'Big Pharma' for deaths caused by prescription meds when there are so many other factors involved.

Natural News is not exactly the purveyor of any kind of real news because they are not any kind of news agency to start with. They basically make stuff up and then label it official and true. How many other 'News' agencies in the world sell vitamins, supplements, books about vitamins and supplements, books with 'secret' information about cures etc?

Why would they have an article about big bad pharma killing thousands of people on a site that that promotes and sells supplements and vitamins (which by the way are mostly synthetic and not natural)? Could it be that they are using their "news" stories to sell something and make money. Natural News is about money and they have no problem with writing stupidly skewed and outright deceptive articles for financial gain just like the one being discussed here under the guise of "Other News and Research".

Abuse of prescription medications is a problem and so is the killing of innocent people with guns -- why on earth does it have to be one is a bigger problem than the other. They are both huge problems in their own right. I am frankly shocked that the author of this article didn't go on to claim that death by guns is the fault of big pharma too. Oh wait, Natural News has already gone down that route -- http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2...-twas-big-pharma-that-led-adam-lanza-to-kill/

http://www.alternet.org/personal-he...aguing-america-their-bad-claims-about-science

Dr. David Gorski of the Science-Based Medicine website calls Natural News “a one-stop shop, a repository if you will, of virtually every quackery known to humankind, all slathered with a heaping, helping of unrelenting hostility to science-based medicine and science in general.”

Adams also considers himself a scientific researcher, but some of his claims are dubious. He has even bought himself a mass spectrometer which he uses to test various products for toxicity. He recently used this device to show that a flu vaccine containing thiomersal registered 51 parts per million of mercury. But that’s not the news in his findings: Adams went on to insist that his critics must be brain-damaged (or perhaps brainwashed) by mercury:

The only people who argue with this are those who are already mercury poisoned and thus incapable of rational thought. Mercury damages brain function, you see, which is exactly what causes some people to be tricked into thinking vaccines are safe and effective.

Science-Based Medicine blogger Dr. Steven Novella describes Adams' site as “a crank alt-med site that promotes every sort of medical nonsense imaginable. If it is unscientific, antiscientific, conspiracy-mongering, or downright silly, Mike Adams appears to be all for it —whatever sells the ‘natural’ products he hawks on his site.”

What makes Adams unique is that he likes to mix far-right vitriol and conspiracy theories with his alternative medicine advice. He has come out as aclimate-change denialist, 9/11 Truther, and a Birther.

Here’s some more quackery from Adams and Natural News:

• Guns don’t kill people, medications do. Adam Lanza and Elliot Rodger committed their horrific mass murders because of the medications they were taking.
  
  
• A cold fusion device has been invented and will be a game changer for energy. It wasn't.
  
  
• Americans are constantly bombarded by lead coming from airplane chemtrails. (Actually, lead levels in blood have been falling for years.)
  
  
• Bill Gates and Microsoft are in the process of developing weaponized, ethnically targeted influenza viruses as part of a sinister eugenics plot.

I think both prescription medications and vitamins/supplements both have a place in health care. There are some really excellent medications out there that are really helpful to people. There are some really good vitamins and supplements out there that are really helpful to people. There are many instances where guns have actually saved lives. It's not all black and white.

 

[MeSci]

I think both prescription medications and vitamins/supplements both have a place in health care. There are some really excellent medications out there that are really helpful to people. There are some really good vitamins and supplements out there that are really helpful to people. There are many instances where guns have actually saved lives. It's not all black and white.

I agree with Kina that Natural News is not the place to go for unbiased facts, but it is true that prescribed drugs are responsible for a very large number of deaths, not just in the US but also in the UK, Australia, Europe, etc. I researched this a few years ago. Here, for example, is a CDC page on drug deaths in the US. Note this bit:

The majority of drug-induced deaths were unintentional 74.3%

 

[minkeygirl]

If the choice is intractable pain or drugs. I'll take drugs

If the choice is drugs or supplements to keep from being bedbound? Load me up!

Until someone comes up with some options people need to shut the F up.

IMHO of course.

 

[MeSci]

If the choice is intractable pain or drugs. I'll take drugs

If the choice is drugs or supplements to keep from being bedbound? Load me up!

Until someone comes up with some options people need to shut the F up.

IMHO of course.

Not sure who you mean by 'people', but hopefully we are allowed to discuss things here.

I use pharmaceuticals too, but I think that people have a right to know that they are not necessarily as safe or effective as sometimes portrayed or perceived.

 

[minkeygirl]

I just meant for me, I don't care what others say. I'll do what I have to based on my informed decision. Scare tactics don't impact me.

As for the uninformed? That's on them to do their own research.

Until others are in my shoes they can talk all they want about how bad things are for. It doesn't matter to me. As I said. Tbis is my opinion for me.

 

[valentinelynx]

I would have to disagree with the suggestion that paracetamol overdose might be a less traumatic way to take one's life than other (drug?) options? I took about 60-65 paracetamol plus about a bottle of benzodiazepines in 1996, and woke up after about 24 hours unconscious, almost-completely uncoordinated, incontinent at both ends, and mercifully managed to get to hospital where I spent a month with liver and kidney failure, dialysis, etc. It seems to be something of a miracle that I didn't suffer permanent damage. People who have taken a relatively small number of paracetamols have sometimes apparently recovered, only to suffer progression to liver failure, encephalopathy or other chronic illness.

It is not an easy way.

True. In my medical training, watching someone die of an acetaminophen OD was awful. The one I recall was a young man who OD'd on a combo product (hydrocodone and acetaminophen). He woke up from the hydrocodone with treatment, and no longer wished to die. Unfortunately, his acetaminophen dose was high enough that he could not be saved, so he had a couple of days before the terminal liver failure kicked in. The combination of opioids with acetaminophen is deadly. Acetaminophen should be removed from all opioid products: it is much easier to rescue someone from an opioid OD than from an acetaminophen OD. In addition, if you do actually want to die, an opioid death can be easy and gentle, as you suggest, but an acetaminophen death is ugly and unpleasant.

Thank you for observing that many OD's are NOT accidental. I also find it aggravating that these demonization of pain medication articles never reflect on how many lives are improved, or actually saved by opioids. How many people kill themselves because they are denied adequate pain control? How many peoples' lives are vastly improved by the increased access to pain medication that started in the '90s with the humanitarian efforts to better treat pain?

Pain patients are being thrown under the bus again as the pendulum swings again, once again against allowing pain patients to get opioid treatment. I live in fear nowadays that new regulations, and tightening coverage by insurance companies (as they capitalize on the new fear mongering) will deny me access to the medications that allow me to function. How many deliberate OD's are by people who have been denied adequate pain treatment? How many are accidental heroin OD's by patients suddenly cut off from their pain medication (say because of DEA persecution of their doctors, or insurance denials, or lab error on their urine drug screen) who turn to street drugs but don't know how much to use (street drugs not having much in the way of labeling...).

 

[MeSci]

I also find it aggravating that these demonization of pain medication articles never reflect on how many lives are improved, or actually saved by opioids. How many people kill themselves because they are denied adequate pain control? How many peoples' lives are vastly improved by the increased access to pain medication that started in the '90s with the humanitarian efforts to better treat pain?

Pain patients are being thrown under the bus again as the pendulum swings again, once again against allowing pain patients to get opioid treatment. I live in fear nowadays that new regulations, and tightening coverage by insurance companies (as they capitalize on the new fear mongering) will deny me access to the medications that allow me to function. How many deliberate OD's are by people who have been denied adequate pain treatment? How many are accidental heroin OD's by patients suddenly cut off from their pain medication (say because of DEA persecution of their doctors, or insurance denials, or lab error on their urine drug screen) who turn to street drugs but don't know how much to use (street drugs not having much in the way of labeling...).

Agree 100% - would like to give you more 'likes'.

In the UK, many cancer sufferers are still often given too little (opioid) pain relief and suffer terribly.

When I was in agony with wisdom teeth repeatedly erupting and receding in the 1980s, my doctor wouldn't give me adequate pain relief, and I ended up resorting to street morphine - luckily I had contacts. It was wonderful - I was able to sleep at last (the pain had prevented sleep).

I use paracetamol and codeine tablets as part of my sleep med rotation - only about 6 tablets a week - but I don't want the paracetamol, only the codeine. Someone else on here gets a lot of pain and is forced to take too much paracetamol as she needs a lot of codeine.

I was aghast at the destruction of the opium crops in Afghanistan, thinking about all the people in poor countries who could get pain relief if the Western governments bought the crops and provided cheap pain meds to those who needed it (not to mention the farmers being put out of business).

 

[heapsreal]

Agree 100% - would like to give you more 'likes'.

In the UK, many cancer sufferers are still often given too little (opioid) pain relief and suffer terribly.

When I was in agony with wisdom teeth repeatedly erupting and receding in the 1980s, my doctor wouldn't give me adequate pain relief, and I ended up resorting to street morphine - luckily I had contacts. It was wonderful - I was able to sleep at last (the pain had prevented sleep).

I use paracetamol and codeine tablets as part of my sleep med rotation - only about 6 tablets a week - but I don't want the paracetamol, only the codeine. Someone else on here gets a lot of pain and is forced to take too much paracetamol as she needs a lot of codeine.

I was aghast at the destruction of the opium crops in Afghanistan, thinking about all the people in poor countries who could get pain relief if the Western governments bought the crops and provided cheap pain meds to those who needed it (not to mention the farmers being put out of business).

Google cold water extraction method. Can getvrid of the paracetamol. Onrs desperate if they considering this.

Drs in australia seem ok with prescribing panadeine forte for pain and painadeine extra is otc is usually enough.