Meanwhile In America

[mickbrown]

9 minutes ago, Duck Egg said:

The Canadians repeating that less than 1% of Fentanyl in the US came across their border.  Surely the US agency (FEMA?) signing Oxycontin off as safe and pushing it onto GPs as a harmless painkiller was more responsible for the epidemic? 

Think it boils down to Yanks being absolute fannies.

We have a bit of pain - get some Paracetamol down you.

They have a bit of pain - start necking industrial quantities of Oxycontin

[Zico]

15 minutes ago, mickbrown said:

Think it boils down to Yanks being absolute fannies.

We have a bit of pain - get some Paracetamol down you.

They have a bit of pain - start necking industrial quantities of Oxycontin

seems to me like big pharma wants them to, so tells doctors to get it out there

[gonzo]

1 hour ago, Zico said:

seems to me like big pharma wants them to, so tells doctors to get it out there

Same with SSRIs.

[wanderer1984]

15 hours ago, gonzo said:

 

Turns towns and cities in to this. 

Thank the lord it hasn't made it properly over here.

 

 

 

It's fucking grim. If you've got a bit of time ... watch this.

[Cheese]

3 hours ago, Bertie said:

Ah well - he deserved what he got then didn’t he 🙄!

Hard to see how fentanyl crisis can be fixed easily.  Supplies will always get through as long as demand is there.  Same drug problem the world over. Instinctively I’d (also) want to go for punitive measures against dealers and users, but root cause in US think is the absolutely massive homelessness, social care and healthcare problems.  Been to many US cities with work and it’s shocking everywhere.  Denver had pavement ghettos.  San Francisco is absolutely zombie apocalypse.  Even San Diego was going down the pan. Just can’t see either republicans or democrats having the will to fix.

Democrats have "the will", but the system is rigged.

[Bertie]

Btw - San Francisco (genuinely) used to have an App called Snapcrap where you could report instances of human waste on the streets after folks had had a dump in public.  Unbelievable.  I’ve read reports that “between 2020-23 there were 125,000 instances of human faces on the streets”.  

[wakey]

10 minutes ago, Bertie said:

Btw - San Francisco (genuinely) used to have an App called Snapcrap where you could report instances of human waste on the streets after folks had had a dump in public.  Unbelievable.  I’ve read reports that “between 2020-23 there were 125,000 instances of human faces on the streets”.  

I've heard AI is making massive advances in faecal recognition  😁

[gonzo]

I was certain Fenantyl hadn't reached these shores properly in a recreational sense until I read the other side of this forum and someone was suggesting Santos plays in midfield for us.

 

[Tonge moor green jacket]

Although not America, a shooting in Sweden at an education establishment. 

Several dead and many injured.

Mental.

[frank_spencer]

14 minutes ago, gonzo said:

I was certain Fenantyl hadn't reached these shores properly in a recreational sense until I read the other side of this forum and someone was suggesting Santos plays in midfield for us.

 

But Hierro did it....

 

😁

[little whitt]

33 minutes ago, frank_spencer said:

But Hierro did it....

 

😁

Dou't Santos 

could Lace 

Hierro's 

boots 

[Tonge moor green jacket]

7 minutes ago, little whitt said:

Dou't Santos 

could Lace 

Hierro's 

boots 

I reckon he could. 

He'd just take a fucking age to decide which boot to do first. 

[Dimron]

40 minutes ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

I reckon he could. 

He'd just take a fucking age to decide which boot to do first. 

He'd certainly mange the sideways lacing 😁

[wakey]

2 hours ago, little whitt said:

Dou't Santos 

could Lace 

Hierro's 

boots 

Little whitt's top tips:

#1 Stop wasting time on laborious 'B's - simply use an apostrophe instead.

Like it mate, might try it myself.

[gonzo]

Trump threatens Iran would be 'obliterated' if it assassinates him - as he signs 'tough' directive against Tehran | US News | Sky News https://search.app/gs9hdnPK9RcAHULk6

 

He's going for it 🫣

[Cheese]

8 minutes ago, gonzo said:

Trump threatens Iran would be 'obliterated' if it assassinates him - as he signs 'tough' directive against Tehran | US News | Sky News https://search.app/gs9hdnPK9RcAHULk6

 

He's going for it 🫣

2 birds with 1 stone...

[TroySwoosh]

3 hours ago, wakey said:

Little whitt's

top tips:

#1 Stop wasting time

on laborious

'B's -

simply use

an apostrophe

instead.

Like it mate, might try it myself.

fixed it for you 

[bolty58]

14 hours ago, Bertie said:

Ah well - he deserved what he got then didn’t he 🙄!

 

Where did I say that? Thought not.

The world didn't get what it deserved as a result. 

[bolty58]

1 hour ago, gonzo said:

Trump threatens Iran would be 'obliterated' if it assassinates him - as he signs 'tough' directive against Tehran | US News | Sky News https://search.app/gs9hdnPK9RcAHULk6

 

He's going for it 🫣

The great disruptor. The fetid mess which had developed globally will be cleaned up to an extent, that's for sure.

Will it be better? I am sure the usual suspects on here will howl with disapproval and the righteous will applaud.

If nothing else, everything will be refreshed.

[Tonge moor green jacket]

20 hours ago, Duck Egg said:

The Canadians repeating that less than 1% of Fentanyl in the US came across their border.  Surely the US agency (FEMA?) signing Oxycontin off as safe and pushing it onto GPs as a harmless painkiller was more responsible for the epidemic? 

If it's an illegal activity, how would they know for sure?

The oxycontin situation is a separate one.

I don't know what state it leaves folk in, but we've seen the videos above, and that suggests Fentanyl is a major problem in its own right.

[Not in Crawley]

45 minutes ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

If it's an illegal activity, how would they know for sure?

The oxycontin situation is a separate one.

I don't know what state it leaves folk in, but we've seen the videos above, and that suggests Fentanyl is a major problem in its own right.

It's not. The opioid issue directly lead to the rise in Fentanyl abuse - it's not a singular problem - and actually can be tracked as well to the rise of populism in the states as people seek answers to both economic and problems such as this.

Books like Dopesick spell this out. But the best is American Overdose, which spells out the link between big pharmacy, politics and the issues now I  the states. The below is a review from the British Journal of Medical Practice. My mate is a GP and when I said I'd read Dopesick said I had to read this.

This book describes health and social devastation caused in the US by the rapid growth of potent opiate analgesic prescribing. It analyses the intensive marketing and lobbying of federal regulating bodies, state and federal government, and the powerful influence on medical and pharmacy professional bodies. And the large profits the pharmaceutical industry have made. It looks at experiences of people harmed and how their concerns were ignored by regulating authorities, state and national government. It describes how medical professionals and pharmaceutical companies constructed an epidemic of untreated pain with opioids as a safe and effective first-line treatment.

The author is a journalist. How robust is the evidence he draws on? His analysis draws from a wide range of sources: interviews and testimonies from those involved, including people affected, family, health professionals, members of the regulatory Food and Drug Agency, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and politicians; national and state statistics; policy documents and research papers. He draws on a research paper and a review that question the effectiveness of opioids for the treatment of chronic pain.^1,2 A clinical guideline for opioid prescribing from the CDC suggested a different approach to prescribing of opiates.³ And a policy document from the Trump administration recognised that the epidemic had occurred and the harm it had done.⁴ The author brings this together to present a strong case for how the epidemic came about and was sustained, and the consequences for individuals, families, and communities. Is the US experience applicable to the UK? National statistics show a growing number of people taking increasing amounts of opiate analgesics, both prescribed and over the counter. Recent analysis of general practice prescribing data 1998–2016 found the number of prescriptions for opioid analgesics had increased by 34%, rising from 568 per 1000 patients per year in 1998 to 761 in 2016.⁵ The number of more potent opioids prescribed, such as morphine, fentanyl, oxycodone, and buprenorphine, have also increased. There has also been a growth in gabapentin and pregabalin use, to treat an increasing wide range of chronic pain, even though the evidence for treating its actual indication of neuralgic pain is poor. There has been an increase in the number of reported drug deaths attributed to gabapentoid and prescription opioid drugs. The influence of pharmaceutical companies is perhaps more subtle in the UK compared with the US, yet remains substantial; for example intense marketing of Subutex (buprenorphine) following its introduction in 2006 for heroin addiction treatment; including lobbying for inclusion in NICE 2007 technology appraisal TA114 and for it to be prescribable on FP10 (MDA) prescriptions.

 

[royal white]

No doubt some odd balls on here will be against this. 
 

 

[London Wanderer]

14 hours ago, Not in Crawley said:

It's not. The opioid issue directly lead to the rise in Fentanyl abuse - it's not a singular problem - and actually can be tracked as well to the rise of populism in the states as people seek answers to both economic and problems such as this.

Books like Dopesick spell this out. But the best is American Overdose, which spells out the link between big pharmacy, politics and the issues now I  the states. The below is a review from the British Journal of Medical Practice. My mate is a GP and when I said I'd read Dopesick said I had to read this.

This book describes health and social devastation caused in the US by the rapid growth of potent opiate analgesic prescribing. It analyses the intensive marketing and lobbying of federal regulating bodies, state and federal government, and the powerful influence on medical and pharmacy professional bodies. And the large profits the pharmaceutical industry have made. It looks at experiences of people harmed and how their concerns were ignored by regulating authorities, state and national government. It describes how medical professionals and pharmaceutical companies constructed an epidemic of untreated pain with opioids as a safe and effective first-line treatment.

The author is a journalist. How robust is the evidence he draws on? His analysis draws from a wide range of sources: interviews and testimonies from those involved, including people affected, family, health professionals, members of the regulatory Food and Drug Agency, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and politicians; national and state statistics; policy documents and research papers. He draws on a research paper and a review that question the effectiveness of opioids for the treatment of chronic pain.^1,2 A clinical guideline for opioid prescribing from the CDC suggested a different approach to prescribing of opiates.³ And a policy document from the Trump administration recognised that the epidemic had occurred and the harm it had done.⁴ The author brings this together to present a strong case for how the epidemic came about and was sustained, and the consequences for individuals, families, and communities. Is the US experience applicable to the UK? National statistics show a growing number of people taking increasing amounts of opiate analgesics, both prescribed and over the counter. Recent analysis of general practice prescribing data 1998–2016 found the number of prescriptions for opioid analgesics had increased by 34%, rising from 568 per 1000 patients per year in 1998 to 761 in 2016.⁵ The number of more potent opioids prescribed, such as morphine, fentanyl, oxycodone, and buprenorphine, have also increased. There has also been a growth in gabapentin and pregabalin use, to treat an increasing wide range of chronic pain, even though the evidence for treating its actual indication of neuralgic pain is poor. There has been an increase in the number of reported drug deaths attributed to gabapentoid and prescription opioid drugs. The influence of pharmaceutical companies is perhaps more subtle in the UK compared with the US, yet remains substantial; for example intense marketing of Subutex (buprenorphine) following its introduction in 2006 for heroin addiction treatment; including lobbying for inclusion in NICE 2007 technology appraisal TA114 and for it to be prescribable on FP10 (MDA) prescriptions.

 

Big pharma is definitely responsible for a lot of opioid addiction 

Easier to blame the Mexicans though, rather than rich gringos who don’t give a shit about public health

[bolty58]

1 hour ago, royal white said:

No doubt some odd balls on here will be against this. 
 

 

More common sense. I do hope it will catch on.

[gonzo]

9 hours ago, royal white said:

No doubt some odd balls on here will be against this. 
 

 

How in Christs name was it ever allowed in the first place.

Unbelievable.