Here’s a celebrity story about the corrupt relationship between physicians and pharmaceutical companies. It’s saddening to read, but to me at least it’s unsuprising. Medical reality shows have always seemed to me like a way to exploit pain, so it doesn’t surprise me that the host of several such shows should exploit his patients in other ways, and be exploited in return.
Painkiller abuse is on the rise, and with it comes an increase in pharmacy robberies. The drug names change, but the story is always the same.
Meanwhile, our government pursues an absurd war against a much less dangerous, addictive, and abusable drug. Medical marijuana is not where we need to be focusing our efforts.
Researchers are working on a way to detect Spice and other synthetic drug-mimicking compounds. The challenge of detecting a “constantly moving target” are hard to overstate, but it does seem like many of these drugs will soon be able to be found without too much trouble.
The title of this one speaks for itself.
And, on a lighter note, this week saw a call for peace between medically based addiction treatment providers and 12-step programs. We can only hope that one day soon, it will happen for real.
We at the Bel Air Center for Addiction want to wish you all a fun and safe weekend, and we hope to see you back here next week! Don’t forget to subscribe to our Twitter feed for updates and links!