Posted by JonW on June 5, 2002, at 15:58:09
In reply to Re: Liberal thinking ? (very long post)Everyone, posted by omega man on June 5, 2002, at 12:52:34
> Its quite possible to use your head with illegal drugs and be Ok ..these substances did'nt get so popular as to be banned without having some real benefits...So I can look at something like MDMA and see if I could get help from it..why else would I do it ? So from that point when I got to psycho-babble the initial reaction was "wow , everybody in the USA is really into trying new drug combos that have not been tested as safe"
> what I saw here looked scarier than anything I did..posts like "HELP EFFEXOR giving me ELECTRIC BRAIN SHOCKS " etc etc etc....plus having seen quite a high turnover of people who post here...makes me wonder how many still are.....here...Hi omega man,
It may be possible for you to use illegal drugs without a problem but that doesn't mean this is true for the population in general. In my opinion, pushing this idea of "safe" drug use could only affect the general population in a negative way. Take the following excerpt from a paper about MDMA, for example:
"Apart from the small number of people who have reported improvement or resolution of emotional or personality problems after the use of MDMA in psychotherapy, the long-term effects are virtually all adverse ones. They are all thought to arise from a neurotoxic action of the methylenedioxy derivatives of the amphetamines."
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11599334&dopt=Abstract)This does not support what you are saying. Yes, ecstasy feels good, but for the majority that's not the same as having real benefit and without great risk. Where is the data to support what you are saying? Similar claims were once made about LSD being useful for patients in therapy, but in at least one study no lasting benefit was found in a 10 year follow-up study of such patients. There is plenty of data that supports the safety and efficacy of effexor. I know the United States is full of politics and the drug companies are only in it for the money, but we still go by the data and get things right most of the time.
Maybe the turnover here in psycho-babble is a bad sign, but maybe it's a good sign, too. Show me the data that supports the idea that more people die from the "cocktails" prescribed than ecstasy or heroin use and I may change my mind about things. I don't mean to come across as saying these drugs are "evil" because I certainly don't think that. I mean, if any given chemical happens to improve the quality of life for someone with a horrible prognosis I think they should have legal access to it. But I can see how having such laws is a very tricky business.
Jon
p.s. I don't think tapering drugs when you discontinue them is a marketing ploy. Believe me, I hardly taper when I stop a drug and almost always suffer for it ;)
poster:JonW
thread:108590
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020602/msgs/108813.html