Day: 03/13/2015

Do you recognize your addictions?

https://painkills2.wordpress.com/?s=do+you+recognize+your+addictions%3F

http://www.livescience.com/18430-falling-love-brain.html

2/11/2012, What Falling in Love Does to the Brain

“Intense passionate love uses the same system in the brain that gets activated when a person is addicted to drugs,” said study co-author Arthur Aron, a psychologist at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. In other words, you start to crave the person you’re in love with like a drug…

But the brain studies did suggest that love changes over time, Aron said. “As long as love remains, we get used to the relationship, and we’re not afraid our partner will leave us, so we’re not as focused on the craving,” he said.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-joint-adventures-well-educated-couples/201208/falling-in-love-is-smoking-crack-cocaine

That is, there are striking similarities between the brain state of a person falling in love and that of a person who has just smoked crack cocaine. We’re not talking about the slightly buzzed feeling you might get from drinking a glass or two of wine, but rather about the high-octane euphoria associated with smoking crack cocaine. Falling in love is the best high you can get without breaking any laws.

Dr. Helen Fisher, an anthropologist and relationship researcher, conducted a series of illuminating studies on the brain chemistry of love. Specifically, she found that the same brain chemicals (that is, massive amounts of dopamine and norepinephrine ) are in play, and many of the same brain pathways and structures are active when we are falling in love and enjoying a cocaine-high…

http://www.today.com/health/new-love-or-drug-use-its-all-same-your-brain-1B5939005

9/7/2012, New love or drug use? It’s all the same to your brain

He’s right to say it this way, too, because love itself is an addiction. That explains why we become obsessed with a new love, why breaking up is so tough, why we drunk dial our exes, why we stay in relationships long after the thrill is gone…

New love follows the same course. It feels good, so we want more. Any reminder of our lover can spark motivation to be with them. And then one night we find ourselves in flagrante delicto on the hood of a 2003 Ford Focus.

Our pre-frontal cortex (PFC), may try to tell us that risking arrest for indecent exposure is a bad idea, but it has to shout over the appetite being generated by the brain’s reward system. That system can be so powerful it can effectively mute the PFC…

Whether the stimulus is love, or drugs, the brain adapts. It physically changes, reconfiguring the mesolimbic dopamine system. In addition, a stress-related neurochemical called corticotrophin-releasing factor (CRF) rises.

“Liking” changes to “wanting.” Rather than a positive motivation, we’re now under the thumb of “negative reinforcement.” A drug addict no longer likes the drug, he wants it. “What you are worried about is feeling terrible when you are not on the drug,” Koob says…

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2010/oct/13/love-drug-pain-relief-cocaine

10/13/2010, Love really is like a drug

Intense spells of passion are as effective at blocking pain as cocaine and other illicit drugs, a team of neuroscientists say. Tests on 15 American students who admitted to being in the passionate early stages of a relationship showed that feelings for their partner reduced intense pain by 12% and moderate pain by 45%…

The study went on to investigate whether distracting the students also reduced pain by giving them simple mental tasks, such as naming sports that do not involve a ball. The brain scans showed that while both love and distraction reduce pain, they appear to act on different pathways in the brain.

“Love-induced analgesia is much more associated with the reward centres. It appears to involve more primitive aspects of the brain, activating deep structures that may block pain at a spinal level: similar to how opioid analgesics work.”

He added, “One of the key sites for love-induced analgesia is the nucleus accumbens, a key reward addiction centre for opioids, cocaine and other drugs of abuse. The region tells the brain that you really need to keep doing this.” …

Attention Florida Pain Patients

Florida investigative reporter doing 30 minute special on pts not getting meds updated 03/18/2014

Hey I need a favor. I need as many pain patients who are being rejected as you can get to email me a 20 second video something like “hi my name is __ I suffer from__and I can’t get my medication…”  We‘re going to use it for an upcoming 30 minute special we’re putting together
I need lots of these – hundreds ideally – please pass the word around. Email: mjgrant@hearst.com.

I wish there were reporters in every state who were interested in helping suffering pain patients. Thanks, Matt Grant!

Senior Citizens Beware

Cops lies about reason for stopping Senior Citizens on highway?

Cops lies about reason for stopping Senior Citizens on highway ?

The deputy claimed that the couple had been stopped due to their window tint. After checking the tint, the officer claimed it was not within the legal limit. The problem with the officer’s assertion is that Tharp had the tint tested at the Toyota dealership and the tint registered perfectly legal. The deputy then proceeded to order the couple out of the car and began interrogating the couple about smuggling narcotics…

“Our deputy is trained to take an extra step,” said Chief Deputy Keith Brooks. “He is actually attached to our narcotics unit and he is primarily support for them. However, when he is out on the road and not supporting them, he conducts traffic stops. His primary function is to look for criminal activity.”

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/elderly-cancer-patient-pulled-window-tint-interrogated-drug-mule/

Congressional Research Report on PDMPs (3/24/2014)

Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs: Are They Working?

Click to access R42593.pdf

Interstate Information Sharing and Interoperability

State PDMPs vary widely with respect to whether or how information contained in the database is shared with other states. While some states do not have measures in place allowing interstate sharing of information, others have specific practices for sharing. These practices may be based on factors such as agreed-upon reciprocity between states, or whether a request stems from an ongoing investigation. As of December 2013, 45 states allowed for sharing PDMP information on some level—with PDMPs in other states, with authorized PDMP users in other states, or both…

Potential Unintended Consequences

PDMPs may have unintended consequences beyond reducing prescription drug diversion and abuse. Prescribers may hesitate to prescribe medications monitored by the PDMP—even for appropriate medical use—if they are concerned about potentially coming under scrutiny from law enforcement or licensing authorities. Studies of paper-based prescription monitoring programs that preceded the electronic PDMPs found that many prescribers did not order the required prescription forms, rendering them unable to prescribe specified controlled substances at all. Their concerns may lead prescribers to replace medications that are monitored by the PDMP with medications that are not monitored by the PDMP, even if the unmonitored medications are inferior in terms of effectiveness or side effects. Studies showed that after benzodiazepines were added to New York’s paper-based program in 1989, a decrease in benzodiazepine prescriptions was accompanied by an increase in prescriptions for other sedatives. Individuals whose intent is to use controlled substances for nonmedical purposes may also substitute unmonitored prescription drugs or street drugs for those that are monitored by the PDMP.

Like prescribers, patients may fear coming under scrutiny from law enforcement if they use
medications monitored by the PDMP, even if they have a legitimate medical need for the
medications. Patients may worry about changes in prescribing behavior, which may limit their access to needed medications. Patients may worry about the additional cost of more frequent office visits if prescribers become more cautious about writing prescriptions with refills. Patients may also have concerns about the privacy and security of their prescription information if it is submitted to a PDMP…

The Rise in Heroin Abuse

In March 2014, Attorney General Holder called the rise in heroin abuse “a sad but not unpredictable symptom of the significant increase in prescription drug abuse we’ve seen over the past decade.” While Attorney General Holder did not cite increased enforcement and monitoring as a reason for the rise in heroin abuse, others have stated that the crackdown on prescription drug abuse may have led users to turn to heroin, a cheaper alternative to prescription drugs that may be more easily accessible to some who are seeking an opiate high.
Policy makers may debate whether increased scrutiny and monitoring of prescription drug activity has unintentionally contributed to the increase in heroin abuse, and if this is the case, how should the government address this issue, if at all?

http://www.pdmpassist.org/pdf/PDMP_interoperability_status.pdf

Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs) Interstate Data Sharing Status (current as of 1/21/2015)

Click to access washington_nff_final.pdf

Washington State’s Data Sharing Initiative with Medicaid and Workers’ Compensation

(April 2013)

This project was supported by Grant No. 2011-PM-BX-K002 awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Office for Victims of Crime, and the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking…

Data from prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) include virtually all prescriptions dispensed to a patient, including those paid for by cash, so use of PDMP data by third party payers allows more complete patient monitoring… Washington’s data sharing initiative shows promise as a model for providing PDMP data to third party payers, whether public or private, to help mitigate the prescription drug abuse epidemic…

New Mexico deputy arrested on drug charges

http://krqe.com/2015/03/13/new-mexico-deputy-arrested-on-drug-charges/

According to the criminal complaint, Sandoval was trying to sell more than a pound of cocaine…

Tell me, where does one get a pound of cocaine?  Does he have his own lab?  Did he steal it from impound?  Did he buy it in Mexico? Is he just the go-between?

Ever Wonder What a Kilo of Cocaine Looks Like Inside of You?

Sorry, dude

http://joemonahansnewmexico.blogspot.com/

DRIVEN TO DRINK

The editor of the Santa Fe New Mexican was arrested early Thursday on an aggravated DWI charge. Maybe he was drowning his sorrows over the lack of real news emanating from the Roundhouse this session. Or maybe he hit the bottle when Rep. Kenny Martinez said some rapes were the result of drunken college sex.” Or it could have been over that photo of Rep. Stephanie Maez that Majority Leader Nate Gentry was caught scrawling sarcastic love notes on. Being forced to watch all of that unfold is enough to make any ink-stained wretch embark on a Lost Weekend.