Posted by med_empowered on October 2, 2008, at 22:23:28
In reply to Vicodin ~someone please explain to me why...., posted by jaclinhyde on October 2, 2008, at 19:25:27
People have known for a long time that opiates are good for pretty much whatever sort of pain--physical, emotional, spiritual--that ails you. That's why tinctures of opium were given to anxious 19th century women and why so many melancholy poets ate optium. Even now, some doctors (very few, but some) are willing to give patients Temgesic for depression and other psychiatric problems.
The problem is that psychiatrists and doctors in general have this bizarre idea that its ok to "treat" depression with antidepressants, lithium, antipsychotics, and other drugs that have horrendous side effects and often don't work, but its absolutely unacceptable to actually make miserable people *feel* better.
That's not "treatment"--psychiatric "treatment," apparently, has to be painful and expensive, which may explain why ECT is making a comeback--that's "getting high" or "misusing medication."
Then you have the addiction industry that's sprung up over the past 20 years or so. I don't know if you've noticed, but suddenly anything that doesn't make you feel like crap is "addictive" and must be stopped. Pot is gaining some acceptance, but I'm pretty sure that's just b/c its use is too widespread and too obviously innocuous for the addiction industry to bother launching a full-fledged attack against it like they did in the "Reefer Madness" days.
And there's the DEA and other drug regulating agencies. These days, most states either have or soon will have prescription monitoring systems. These systems, of course, don't just exist to identify doctor shoppers (of whom there are actually very few); they exist to allow the DEA to control the medical profession.
Sorry this is so long and rambling. My point is that although individual doctors have often bought into this BS, the individual doctors aren't really the problem; they're just the part of the problem that we, as patients, have to deal with. The problem is with an ideology that says its not only OK, but desirable, to have control over what people put into their bodies. The problem is also an economic one--I don't know if you've noticed, but Vicodin and other old-school treatments for psychiatric problems (benzos, stimulants) are pretty cheap. I'm pretty sure Big Pharma would be p*ssed if people stopped popping Abilify (which costs several hundred $$$ monthly) and started popping Vicodin (which I think might cost $30 or so, w/o insurance). Obviously, some people are going to slip through the cracks and find a way to legally obtain cheap, fun drugs; luckily, the addiction industry will intervene, with its over-priced shrinks, therapists, etc. to help "detox" people and "break the cycle of addiction."
Its a terrible situation, and I think it may only be getting worse, not better.
However, if you like opiates, you can get tramadol (ultram) online w/o a pre-existing script; since its not a controlled substance, its still possible (in some states) to legally order it off the internet as long as there's a doctor somewhere down the line writing a prescription for it.
poster:med_empowered
thread:855335
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080926/msgs/855369.html