Let’s Save Some Money- a lot of Money. Lets GO BACK; to selling all narcotics-over the counter-
in the general store.
Let's also drop our prejudices-
and save some lives.
Heroin: From cough medicine to underworld
narcotic-- A Hundred-Year Habit
How the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, reflects
on the state of the global war on drugs and on Canada’s-The Taxpayers-part
in that war.
Every
decade that United States
of the Americas controlled and directed organisation still known as the “United
Nations” reaches new international agreements, focused largely on
criminalization and punishment that
restrict the ability of member nations to devise effective solutions to local
drug problems.
In
the name of compliance with these agreements, governments??? enact more punitive and
costly drug control measures and politicians
endorse harsher new drug war strategies
which add to the
long list of human rights violations.
In
many parts of the world, including Canada, the politics of prohibition form a
huge barrier to public health efforts to stem the spread of HIV, hepatitis and
other pathogens. In
the name of the War against Drugs, human rights violated, environments damaged
and prisons filled with drug "offenders", many with no other crime
than simple possession of drugs for personal use.
Scarce
resources better spent on health, education and economic development used on
ever more expensive supply-reduction efforts. Sensible proposals to reduce
drug-related crime, disease and death abandoned in favour of proposals for
"drug-free" societies, inhuman and unattainable though they may be.
The War against Drugs has become a War
against Drug Users and against those farmers, often the world’s poorest, who
grow drugs or their precursors. This war is more akin to a CRUSADE--an attempt
to push beliefs, government, religion down the throat of another-- a CRUSADE in
which there can be no victory but only some DISTORTED sense of moral
superiority.
Heroin (diacetylmorphine or
morphine diacetate, also known as diamorphine and commonly known by its street
names of H, smack, boy, horse, brown, black, tar, and others is an opioid
analgesic originally synthesized by C.R. Alder Wright in 1874 by adding two
acetyl groups to the molecule morphine, which is found naturally in the opium
poppy. Administered intravenously by injection, heroin is two to four times
more potent than morphine and is faster in its onset of action
Illicit
heroin is sometimes available in freebase form, dulling the sheen and
consistency to a matte-white powder Because of its lower boiling point, the
freebase form of heroin is smokable. It is prevalent in
heroin coming from Afghanistan, which in 2004 produced roughly 87% of the world
supply. Now, however,
the production rate in Mexico has risen six fold (2007 to 2011), changing that
percentage and placing Mexico as the second largest
opium producer in the world.
As with other opioids,
diacetylmorphine is used as both a legal, medically prescribed drug (e.g., as
an analgesic, cough suppressant and as an anti-diarrhoea drug) and a
recreational drug, in which case the user is seeking euphoria. Frequent and regular
administration is associated with tolerance and physical dependence.
Internationally, diacetylmorphine controlled under Schedules I and IV of the
Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs
Heroin is available for prescription
to long-term abusers as a form of opioid replacement therapy in the United
Kingdom, Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, and Denmark, alongside
psycho-social care—in the same manner that methadone or buprenorphine are used
in the United States and Canada
Canada
actively participates in and supports global violation of rights and resources,
hiding behind the excuse that it is bound to do so by UN
In spite of -- or perhaps because of
-- these efforts, UN agencies estimate the annual revenue generated by the
illegal drug industry at $US400 billion,
or the equivalent of roughly eight per cent of total
international trade.
This industry has fuelled organized
crime, corrupted governments and police at all levels, increased violence,
distorted economic markets and twisted societal values. These drug-related
problems are the consequences not of drug use per se, but of decades of
ineffective drug policies and inappropriate drug laws.
September 26, 2013 Doctors in B.C. Can Now
Prescribe Heroin BUT, They Do Not Always Use This Ability In The Most Effective
Manner.
True,
British Columbia, Canada, has had a heroin problem for years. Statistics are
hard to come by, but in 2008, a former user described use of the drug in the
province as an "epidemic," and a
2010 BBC story called Vancouver, BC's largest city, the "Drug Central of
North America." However,
a new strategy in the fight against addiction and the host of societal problems
that come with it is emerging let
doctors prescribe addicts heroin so they get the drug they need without
resorting to crime.
Studies have shown this approach can help many long-time users, but the Canadian government??? wants it
shut down.
Prescription
heroin is and has long been used in some European countries, including Switzerland,
Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands, and not just for the treatment of
narcotics addiction but it
has been a long time coming to North America.
The
first Canadian study that tested the effectiveness of giving addicts heroin
under the supervision of doctors was the North American Opiate Medication
Initiative, which started in 2005. It eventually recruited 251 addicts in
Vancouver and Montreal who had unsuccessfully attempted to kick smack numerous
times.
A control group given methadone commonly
prescribed to heroin addicts so they can wean themselves off hard drugs.
The
results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2009, showed that
injectable heroin—known in medical-speech as diacetylmorphine—was a far more
effective and efficient treatment than methadone in getting users out of the
vicious and costly cycle of crime, infection, overdoses, and hospital visits
that are a way of life for those in the grips of long-term, hardcore addiction.
Compared
to those trying to kick heroin using methadone, participants used street drugs
less often, committed fewer crimes, and were employed more often, more
connected to their families, and straight-up happier.
A
"cost of illness" analysis from 2000
found that severely addicted individuals can cost society over $43,000 per
year, so getting addicts off the streets and into roles as members of
productive society is good for all of Canada.
Canadian—All Doctors in North America Need
to Take a Much Closer Look at the Other Medical Uses.
Under
the chemical name diamorphine, diacetylmorphine prescribed as a strong
analgesic in the United Kingdom, where given via subcutaneous, intramuscular,
intrathecal or intravenous route. Its use includes treatment for acute pain,
such as in severe physical trauma, myocardial infarction, post-surgical pain,
and chronic pain, including end-stage cancer and other terminal illnesses. In
other countries (Canada), it is more common to use morphine or other opioids in
these situations. In 2004, the National Institute for Health and Clinical
Excellence, a non-departmental public
body of the
Department of Health in the United Kingdom, produced guidance on the management
of caesarean section, which recommended the use of intrathecal or epidural
diacetylmorphine for post-operative pain relief.[15]
In
2005, there was a shortage of diacetylmorphine in the UK, because of a problem
at the main UK manufacturers.[16] Because of this, many hospitals changed to
using morphine instead of diacetylmorphine. Although there is no longer a
problem with the manufacturing of diacetylmorphine in the UK, some hospitals
there have continued to use morphine. The majority, however, continue to use
diacetylmorphine, and diacetylmorphine tablets are supplied for pain
management.
Diacetylmorphine
continues to be widely used in palliative care in the UK, commonly given by the
subcutaneous route, often via a syringe driver, if patients cannot easily
swallow oral morphine solution. The advantage of
diacetylmorphine over morphine is
that
diacetylmorphine is most
fat soluble and therefore more potent by injection, so smaller
doses of it needed for the same analgesic effect. Both of these factors are
advantageous if giving high doses of opioids via the subcutaneous route, which is
often necessary in palliative care.
Drug Facts: Drug-Related Hospital
Emergency Room Visits.
In
2009, there were nearly 4.6 million drug-related emergency department visits nationwide. These
visits included reports of drug abuse, adverse reactions to drugs, or other
drug-related consequences.
• Almost 50 percent attributed to
adverse reactions to pharmaceuticals taken as prescribed, and 45 percent
involved drug abuse.
• The Drug Abuse Warning
Network estimates that of the 2.1 million drug abuse visits: 27.1 percent
involved nonmedical use of pharmaceuticals (i.e., prescription or over the
counter medications, dietary supplements).
• 21.2 percent involved
illicit drugs
• 14.3 percent involved
alcohol, in combination with other drugs.
• Emergency department visits
involving nonmedical use of pharmaceuticals (either alone or in combination
with another drug) increased 98.4 percent between 2004 and 2009, from 627,291
visits to 1,244,679, respectively.
• Emergency department visits involving adverse
reactions to pharmaceuticals increased 82.9 percent between 2005 and 2009, from
1,250,377 to 2,287,273 visits, respectively.
• The majority of
drug-related emergency department visits were made by patients 21 or older
(80.9 percent, or 3,717,030 visits). Of these, slightly less than half involved
drug abuse.
• Patients aged 20 or younger
accounted for 19.1 percent (877,802 visits) of all drug-related visits in 2009;
about half of these visits involved drug abuse.
In
2009, almost one million visits involved an illicit drug, either alone or in
combination with other types of drugs. The Drug Awareness Warning Network estimates :
• Cocaine involved in 422,896
emergency department visits.
• Marijuana
involved in 376,467 emergency department visits.
• Heroin involved in 213,118 emergency
department visits.
• Stimulants, including
amphetamines and methamphetamine, involved in 93,562 emergency department
visits.
• Other illicit drugs—such as
Phencyclidine (PCP), ecstasy, and Gamma-Hydroxybutyrate (GHB) commonly referred to as a
“club drug” or “date rape” drug. Gamma-Hydroxybutyrate is abused by teens and
young adults at bars, parties, clubs and “raves” (all night dance parties), and
is often placed in alcoholic beverages. Euphoria,
increased sex drive, and tranquillity= reported positive??? effects —were involved much less
frequently than any of the drug types mentioned above.
• The rates of emergency
department visits involving cocaine, marijuana, and heroin were higher for
males than for females. Rates for cocaine highest among individuals aged 35–44,
rates for heroin highest among individuals aged 21–24, stimulant use highest
among those 25–29, and marijuana
use highest for those aged 18–20.
• Approximately 32 percent (658,263) of
all drug abuse emergency departmen visits in 2009 involved the use of alcohol,
either alone or in combination with another drug.
• 1.2
million emergency department visits involved the nonmedical use of
pharmaceuticals or dietary supplements.
• The most frequently reported drugs in
the nonmedical use category of emergency department visits were opiate/opioid
analgesics, present in 50 percent of nonmedical-use emergency
department visits; and psychotherapeutic agents, (commonly used to treat
anxiety and sleep disorders), present in more than one-third of nonmedical emergency department
visits.
• Included among the most frequently reported
opioids were single-ingredient formulations
(e.g., oxycodone) and combination forms (e.g., hydrocodone with acetaminophen).
Methadone, together with single-ingredient and combination forms of oxycodone
and hydrocodone, was also included under the most frequently reported opioids
classification—
• hydrocodone (alone or in combination)
in 104,490 ED visits
• oxycodone (alone or in combination) in
175,949 ED visits
© Al (Alex- Alexander) D Girvan. All rights reserved.
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