A DRUG WAR
Are we becoming a nation of elderly zombies?
It seems like we may be headed there. More and more elderly people are becoming addicted to drugs - most of them prescription drugs or good old fashioned alcohol.
As the boomers continue to age, it's going to get worse and worse. And with the way drugs are prescribed to our kids, by the time they get to be senior citizens they'll be well primed, with an entire lifetime of drug use behind them.
The wonderful part of the whole thing is that many of the elderly are not able to afford these prescriptions, so we're creating a taxpayer subsidized drug addicted generation, with all of the money going to the Big Pharmaceuticals.
This is one reason I don't believe in legalizing "recreational" drugs like marijuana or cocaine. Because, ultimately, I don't think it will reduce addiction (although decriminalizing it would certainly reduce crime - in much the same way that raising the speed limit to 65 reduces speeding). I think it'll just make more money for the Big Guys, and leave more people strung out. Then we can tax them all to hell (like we do with cigarettes) and take what little they have left.
Ah, well, that's just business, and good business = making money. Right?
5 Comments:
I find myself in complete agreement with all you've said here.
I would also add doctors to the list of those who could stand to take a look at their role in this problem. So often a doctor will write a presciption without really asking about what a patient is already on. When my grandmother first got sick before passing last year, all of us were shocked by how much medication she was on. I gotta tell you it was staggering the amount of pills she was taking everyday. She died of kidney failure and I have to wonder how much of that was due to her organs being poisoned by too much medication or bad pharmacutical interactions with one another.
Old folks tend to self medicate too, a very dangerous habit.
As a result of this, I know when its my turn to take care of my folks the first thing I'll do is clear their medicine cabinet and bring the bag to a doctor to review.
Sign me up. I want to be part of the Limbaugh generation, I'm sick of street drugs, I want nice clean Pharma grade dope.
When you say that raising the speed limit to 65 reduces speeding, how does that work? Do you mean that drivers actually go slower or simply that it is no longer speeding because they can go 65 without getting a ticket?
I've heard arguments that the 55 mph speed limit, which was based on fuel efficiency when it was introduced, lives on solely because tickets are such an easy source of revenue for municipalities.
Dave, I mean the latter, in that if you were going 65 when the limit was 55 you were speeding, whereas if it's changed to 65 you no longer are.
The fuel efficieny vs. 55mph thing... I keep hearing conflicting reports. Just yesterday I heard a report on the radio (maybe it was actually a commercial?) that said that, with fuel costs the way they are, we should all start keeping it at 55.
55 seems so... slow.
I'll have to poke around. I also remember some studies that showed that, once you go over 55, the fatality rate in accidents skyrockets. I wonder if I just dreamt that...
Can we get back to the drugs please?
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