The Collapse of the Health Care Insurance Industry

WASHINGTON, DC (Rueters) — In December, 2016, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported that more than 11 million people had purchased private health insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act exchanges. Now, three plus years after President Trump took office, Kaiser is reporting that 30 million people have lost their insurance. What happened?

One of the first moves of the Republican Congress was to get rid of the ACA requirement that insurers provide certain benefits such as mental-health services and maternity care, saying those requirements drove up premiums.

Since the crash of the health care insurance industry, premiums are no longer a problem.

Studies have shown that since the ACA was gutted by a male president and mostly-male congress, women have suffered the most from its loss. There’s been a sharp increase in abortions, and the U.S. — already one of the international leaders in infant mortality — is now number one on that list.

There’s been an increase in deaths from certain types of cancer that mostly affect women, like breast and uterine cancer. By the time women seek treatment, it’s already too late. Planned Parenthood has been made to close an alarmingly large amount of clinics, both before and after Trump took office. The corresponding explosion of sexually-transmitted diseases, including AIDS, is unsurprising and was expected by most experts.

Mental health clinics, already poorly funded, have also been closing left and right since Trump’s inauguration. The suicide rate has mostly increased every year, but since 2017, it has skyrocketed, finally forcing the CDC to consider suicide as a threat to public health. Rates for depression, addiction, and crime have also increased. After 8 years of an unemployment rate that only went down, it started creeping back up again in the early part of 2018, and is still increasing.

Another idea supported by the Republican Congress was health savings accounts, but it didn’t take long for HSAs to fall out of favor after China Bank & Trust was found guilty of bankrupting around a million of these accounts held by Americans. The Russian Gold Bank was found to have only bankrupted about 1,000 American health savings accounts. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau discovered these criminal actions before Republicans closed it down, the information only coming to light this year through anonymous internet sources.

Almost everyone (with the exception of state insurance commissioners) thought that selling health care insurance across state lines would be beneficial to consumers, but a recent study by Harvard University showed that the majority of consumers were actually harmed by the proliferation of fly-by-night insurance companies created by this new market. Customers often bought insurance from companies that only existed on the internet, and many people were dumped as soon as they filed a claim.

The health care insurance industry was able to withstand these changes, only falling apart in 2018 after Republicans cut the taxes which funded the ACA. Doctors began to only accept insurance from well-known companies, leaving millions of people unable to find a doctor, even with insurance. Then the largest corporations stopped selling health care insurance altogether.

After the collapse of the health care insurance industry in early 2019, medical costs have started to decline. When it’s too expensive to go to the doctor, you just don’t go. Doctors are now advertising on Craig’s List and Tinder, many offering free introductory visits. After a slew of busy years for hospitals and mergers, three years after Trump became President, there are now 40% fewer hospitals in the U.S.

After President Trump ended the drug war last month, experts have predicted a similar collapse of the medical industry. Only time will tell.

Even dogs aren’t safe from the drug war

http://distractify.com/animals/2016/12/27/police-pup-brutality

The heartbreaking decision began with an incident in Battle Creek, Michigan, in 2013 when police fatally shot two dogs while carrying out a search warrant in a couple’s home… According to court documents, officers shot the couple’s second dog when it retreated to the basement and barked at officers…

“The standard we set out today is that a police officer’s use of deadly force against a dog while executing a search warrant to search a home for illegal drug activity is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment when… the dog poses an imminent threat to the officer’s safety.”

Maybe I should become a conspiracy theorist

For every story about someone who suffers from addiction, if the media wanted to, it could find 20 stories of people suffering from chronic pain. It’s inequities like this that make one start to believe in conspiracy theories. I’ve seen addiction articles recently in the Los Angeles Times and now the Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/no-longer-mayberry-a-small-ohio-city-fights-an-epidemic-of-self-destruction/2016/12/29/a95076f2-9a01-11e6-b3c9-f662adaa0048_story.html?utm_term=.826e5a2ffb86

As I predicted, pretty soon, there will be an addiction clinic next to every place that does surgery. Because I’m not aware of any kind of surgery that would not include the use of some kind of painkiller.

She told him the truth: More than a year earlier, she had hurt her back lifting a patient at work, where she was a nursing assistant. A doctor gave her a prescription for 120 Percocets with two automatic refills. That was 360 pills. After those ran out, he gave her a scrip for 60 more and warned her about addiction. Too late. She had no problem finding pills on the street.

I don’t know what to think about this story. What kind of doctor would prescribe Percocet right off the bat for a hurt back? I would think that most doctors would at least start with codeine.

This happened fairly recently, so what kind of doctor would give an automatic refill for a painkiller (without worrying about the DEA)? And then within a span of months, this patient went from taking Percocet for her back to finding pills on the street? Is her story supposed to be representative of… something?

Am I supposed to believe this:

“Now you can get heroin quicker in these communities than you can get a pizza,” said Teri Minney, head of the Ross County Heroin Partnership Project.

I don’t know what to believe anymore, but I do know that only one side of this war is being told. And I don’t understand why.

To A New Beginning

http://www.yahoo.com/news/2016-pictures-news-slideshow-wp-100040397/photo-p-p-photo-100040029.html

Gun Violence
JAN. 5, 2016 — U.S. President Barack Obama sheds a tear while delivering a statement on steps the administration is taking to reduce gun violence in the East Room of the White House in Washington.

“You’re only as sick as your secrets.” Carrie Fisher

“Pussy Grabs Back.” Best meme of the year

“Love yourself. It’s free.” Me 🙂

Dear White People

http://www.mic.com/articles/163096/texas-mom-reports-to-police-that-a-white-man-allegedly-choked-her-son-they-arrest-her#.GsNnYzX9M

Imagine calling for help for your 7-year-old son and ending up in the back of a squad car. That’s what happened to a Fort Worth, Texas, mom when she called the police to seek justice for her son, who had allegedly been choked by an older white man after he littered, The Root reported…

This video is shocking. As a white person, I can’t imagine being treated like this by the police. As the mother of a white son, I can’t imagine a neighbor or stranger trying to choke my son because he littered. I think white people have a lot to learn about how people of color are treated in our society.

Bridges

It’s important to build bridges.

I’ve tried to build bridges between pain patients and those who suffer from addiction, with little, if any, success.

I’ve tried to build bridges between pain patients and the cannabis industry, spreading the truth about using pot to treat pain.

I find it difficult to build bridges between atheists and religious people. I don’t understand the worship of some supernatural being, and I don’t understand why religious people follow my atheist blog.

Because I visit everyone who visits me, I found myself reading about the sin of masturbation today. Did you know that if you masturbate, it proves you have no self control? Please.

Humans are able to pleasure themselves in a myriad of ways, including with food, sex, and drugs. Just like with the drug war, religious people have a problem with the notion of pleasure. Ironically, researchers have shown that prayer can elicit the very same pleasure responses in the brain as sex and drugs.

Some people on the internet think we should build bridges between Democrats and Republicans. That’s a given. But, build bridges with white-pride Nazis? No, I don’t think so.

Build bridges with people like this?

I watched this video, and I’m like, isn’t anyone going to stand up to this bully?

Here’s a warning to bullies: Don’t pull this shit when I’m standing there. I can also cuss like a sailor and I’m not afraid of you.

Criminalizing pain

http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2016/12/need-speed-acceptance-opioid-guidelines.html

(12/17/2016) We need to speed up our acceptance of the opioid guidelines

My comment:

I’ve predicted that pain clinics and addiction clinics would eventually become one and the same. I suppose addiction clinics will soon be cropping up next to dentist offices and places that treat cancer, too. I guess these places will help the very small percentage of pain patients who also suffer from addiction, but pain patients are extremely tired of being treated like drug addicts.

Yes, the medical industry should pull together and speed up its acceptance of the CDC’s opioid guidelines, even though a basic principle of medical ethics says that when you have an intervention that works, you don’t introduce alternatives unless there are significant advantages. After all, doctors have so many different and successful alternative treatments to manage pain that I’m sure no one will miss painkillers.

Yes, doctors should treat every patient who complains of pain as a potential drug addict. That sounds like a wonderful idea. Let’s see how that attitude will help those who suffer from addiction, along with 90% of the rest of the population.

People refusing to see a doctor when they’re in pain. People in pain automatically going to the underground drug market, where there’s a better chance of finding some kind of relief. What good is a doctor who will not only minimize your pain, but ignore it? How many serious medical conditions will be missed because a doctor ignores a patient’s pain?

Yes, we’ve done such a good job of criminalizing addiction, let’s criminalize pain, too. Another wonderful idea from the medical industry.

Goodbye, Vicodin

http://www.publicintegrity.org/2016/12/15/20544/drugmakers-push-profitable-unproven-opioid-solution

“…crucial efforts to steer physicians away from prescription opioids — addictive pain medications involved in the deaths of more than 165,000 Americans since 2000.”

How much more effort will it take? How much more fear can be instilled in doctors and patients?

Pain medications are not addictive for the majority of people who take them, so to describe them as such is just pure ignorance. Let’s see the number for the amount of Americans who have taken pain medications since 2000 without becoming addicted. Because believe it or not, opioids provide benefits to tens of millions of Americans. And while it’s easy to throw around huge numbers like 165,000 (within a 16-year period), the truth is that the percentage of Americans who suffer from an opioid addiction is very low (0.6% of the population).

“An estimated 78 Americans die from heroin and prescription opioid overdoses every day.”

For comparison, according to the CDC, in 2013 there were 113 suicides every day.

The CDC also says that “firearms are the most commonly used method of suicide among males (56.9%).” When will the government force gun manufacturers to make an abuse-deterrent gun? When will they force gun owners to buy a more expensive, abuse-deterrent model?

“The FDA already has begun moving in the direction suggested by companies, mapping out a process for removing older opioids from the market when newer versions are shown to be more effective at thwarting abuse.”

How many other drugs are considered effective only because they’ve been shown to thwart abuse? Is that the purpose of these medications, or is their purpose to treat pain? Has the FDA determined that it’s not important to show how effective the abuse-deterrent opioids are at treating pain? Because as a 30-year intractable pain survivor who’s taken almost every prescription opioid, I find it hard to believe that these new formulations work better, or even as well as, ubiquitous painkillers such as Vicodin and Percocet.

http://www.publicintegrity.org/2016/12/15/20549/drugmakers-set-gain-taxpayers-foot-new-opioid-costs

Some drugmakers aim to replace ubiquitous painkillers such as Vicodin and Percocet with harder-to-abuse formulations that are patent-protected and command higher prices — a plan that could cost government-funded health programs hundreds of millions of dollars in higher medication expenses…

http://www.facebook.com/CDC

#DearCDC: A basic principle of medical ethics says that when you have an intervention that works, you don’t introduce alternatives unless there are significant advantages. Please share with the public which alternative treatments for chronic pain show significant advantages over opioids for a majority of patients. In other words, prove that the CDC’s guidelines are in compliance with the basic principles of medical ethics.

Without industry backing, pain patients are screwed

I can’t help but look at successful advocacy work and compare it to the fight of pain patients against the opioid war.

Marijuana advocacy is backed by its own industry and heavily-funded groups like the Drug Policy Alliance, so it’s no wonder that the movement has been successful. While I was surprised at the success of the Standing Rock protectors against the Dakota Access Pipeline, I think it was when the veterans got involved that some success was reached. I’m also thinking about the long-term success of gun rights advocates, which also include a lot of veterans, as well as powerful industry backing.

And then there’s the recent success of kratom.

As an intractable pain survivor, I’ve kept up with the news on kratom. In fact, another pain patient even mailed some to me. I haven’t tried it yet because I’m afraid of the nausea, as I’ve read that this side effect can be severe, depending on dosage. And who knows the right dosage for me? Not me. And I don’t have the money to experiment.

When we look at the success that kratom advocates have achieved so far — against the DEA, of all foes — we have to wonder why. What have they done that pain patients have failed to do?

For one, even the kratom movement has industry backing. Which industries would back pain patients? Not the medical industry, that’s for sure. No, in fact, there are very large industries working against pain patients, including the addiction industry and the federal government.

There’s also the issue of who these advocate are — what positions they hold in this society. Most pain patients are disabled and poor. It’s hard to get anyone to listen to you when you’re disabled and poor, unless you’re supported by funding from… somewhere.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-12-12/is-kratom-a-deadly-drug-or-a-life-saving-medicine

Kratom gained popularity in the U.S. over the past decade or so, as its availability spread online and in head shops. Two or 3 grams of powdered extract steeped in hot water or whipped into a smoothie offers a mild, coffee-like buzz; doses double or triple that size can induce a euphoria that eases pain without some of the hazardous side effects of prescription analgesics. Preliminary survey data gathered recently by Oliver Grundmann, a pharmaceutical sciences professor at the University of Florida, found that American users are mostly male (57 percent), white (89 percent), educated (82 percent with some college), and employed (72 percent). More than 54 percent are 31 to 50 years old, and 47 percent earn at least $75,000 a year…

At the time, the DEA seemed less worried than the FDA. The DEA had listed kratom as a “drug of concern” for several years, but spokeswoman Barbara Carreno told the trade publication Natural Products Insider in March 2014 that kratom had “not been a big enough problem in the U.S. to control.” That posture changed several months later. On the afternoon of July 16, 2014, according to the Palm Beach Post, a 20-year-old Ian Mautner drove to an overpass in Boynton Beach, Fla., left his Isuzu Trooper, removed his sandals, and threw himself to his death on Interstate 95 below. Police found packets of kratom in his vehicle. Lab tests showed mitragynine, as well as prescription antidepressants, in his blood. He hadn’t left a suicide note.

Ian’s mother, Linda Mautner, blamed her son’s death on kratom addiction, telling the FDA that her son had ingested the leaf frequently, causing him to suffer from weight loss, vomiting, constipation, and hallucinations, among other problems. He had dropped out of college and entered rehab, but relapsed the month before he died.

Five weeks later, the DEA asked the FDA for a recommendation on whether to name kratom a controlled substance…

In the U.S., the kratom business consists mostly of retailers who buy raw leaf product from overseas farmers or a distributor. There are also wholesalers who package and encapsulate the stuff, though some retailers contract this out themselves. A recent survey by the Botanical Education Alliance, a business lobby group, counted about 10,000 vendors with annual revenue slightly over $1 billion…

The DEA issued its formal notice about kratom on Aug. 30, calling it “an increasingly popular drug of abuse readily available on the recreational drug market.” By law, the DEA’s final ruling wasn’t subject to court review. Nor did it require public comment…

Within a week, the Botanical Education Alliance and [Susan] Ash’s association hired a lobbyist, a public-relations company, and the Washington law firms Venable and Hogan Lovells, where Rosenberg had once been a partner…

More than 200 of the 660 kratom-related calls to poison centers had also involved alcohol, narcotics, or benzodiazepines, Hogan Lovells said. “Never before has DEA invoked its emergency scheduling authority to take action against a natural product with a long history of safe use in the community,” the letter read. It was signed by David Fox and Lynn Mehler, former lawyers in the FDA’s Office of Chief Counsel. According to Ash, the letter cost her organization $180,000…

Thinking of you, Lee Brooker

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/13/us/alabama-prosecutor-valeska-criminal-justice-reform.html?

Mr. Valeska has proved exceedingly adept at using diversion, generating more than $1 million for his office in the last five years. The money has helped him consolidate his singular power over the justice system in Houston and Henry Counties, where he has presided as the chief prosecutor for three decades.

Dothan, the seat of Houston County and, with 70,000 residents, the regional hub, can feel like it is caught in a Southern time warp, immune to change and defined by racial division. Dothan, where one in three residents is black, has never had a black mayor, police chief, circuit judge or school superintendent. Meetings of the city commission are held in a room adorned with 28 portraits of city leaders, all of them white men. An old photograph shows police officers, including the current chief, posing beside a Confederate flag…

It is not uncommon for residents to suffer severe penalties for crimes that would be considered minor elsewhere. Lee Brooker, a 77-year-old disabled veteran, was caught growing marijuana in his backyard in 2011. By introducing prior convictions from 1991, Mr. Valeska sought, and won, life without parole for Mr. Brooker…

#FreeTheLeaf

Data Quality Act

http://www.nationallawjournal.com/

(12/5/2016) Orrick, Representing Marijuana Advocate, Challenges DEA Statements About Pot

A national nonprofit advocacy group supporting legal access to medical marijuana has petitioned the U.S. Justice Department to require drug enforcers to correct allegedly false and misleading information about cannabis use on its website.

Americans for Safe Access, represented pro bono by Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, cites 25 alleged violations by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration of the Information Quality Act. The law, also known as the Data Quality Act, requires federal agencies to draft guidelines that ensure the “quality, objectivity, utility and integrity of information” that they distribute and to provide a mechanism to correct any misinformation…

http://www.facebook.com/CDC

#DearCDC: Is your Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain in compliance with the Data Quality Act? Has it been reviewed by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs?

Can long-term pot use cause Alzheimer’s?

I don’t know much about Alzheimer’s, but I did have a grandmother who passed away from that disease. Am I worried about my pot use causing Alzheimer’s? No.

This research was published today in some Alzheimer’s magazine. It centers around a very expensive brain scan (not covered by insurance) which the author has been selling at his California clinic for almost a decade.

At first, I thought there might be something to this research. After all, we’re talking about a brain scan here. But I wondered how they can tell if a brain is acting abnormally when they don’t know what the brain looked like before the so-called long-term pot use.

How much did each person use every day? What kind? Was it homegrown or doused with chemicals from a dispensary? What were the ages and genders of the patients? Did any of them suffer from addiction, depression, PTSD, or chronic pain? Because you can’t blame pot when other medical conditions affect the brain.

In other words, I think this research is full of shit. Yes, we all know that pot can mess with your memory. But so can a bunch of other stuff, including pollution and old age.

So, here’s the information I found. You decide.

http://www.content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-alzheimers-disease/jad160833

Conclusion: Multiple brain regions show low perfusion on SPECT in marijuana users. The most predictive region distinguishing marijuana users from healthy controls, the hippocampus, is a key target of Alzheimer’s disease pathology. This study raises the possibility of deleterious brain effects of marijuana use.

Authors: Amen, Daniel G.; Darmal, Borhana; Raji, Cyrus A.; Bao, Weining; Jorandby, Lantiea; Meysami, Somayeha; Raghavendra, Cauligi S.

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2015/dec/01/psychiatrists-couch-dr-daniel-amen-md/

The Washington Post wrote that by almost any measure Dr. Daniel Amen is the most popular psychiatrist in America. He is a double board certified psychiatrist, who has written 10 New York Times bestselling books, including the mega-bestseller “Change Your Brain, Change Your Life.”

I’ve never heard of this doctor, but then I don’t buy self-help books.

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/shame-on-pbs/

I used to have a high opinion of PBS. They ran excellent programs like Nova and Masterpiece Theatre and I felt I could count on finding good programming when I tuned into my local PBS channel. No more.

It was bad enough when they started featuring Deepak Chopra, self-help programs, and “create your own reality” New Age philosophy, but at least it was obvious what those programs were about. What is really frightening is that now they are running programs for fringe medical claims and they are allowing viewers to believe that they are hearing cutting edge science.

Neurologist Robert Burton has written excellent articles for salon.com pointing out the questionable science presented by doctors Daniel Amen and Mark Hyman in their PBS programs…

http://www.pbs.org/ombudsman/2008/05/caution_that_program_may_not_b.html

“It’s 10 on a Saturday night and on my local PBS station a diminutive middle-aged doctor with a toothy smile and televangelical delivery is facing a rapt studio audience. ‘I will show you how to make your brain great, including how to prevent Alzheimer’s disease,’ he declares. ‘And I’m not kidding.’

“Before the neurologist in me can voice an objection, the doctor, Daniel Amen, is being interviewed by on-air station (KQED) host Greg Sherwood. Sherwood is wildly enthusiastic. After reading Amen’s book, ‘Change Your Brain, Change Your Life,’ Sherwood says, ‘The first thing I wanted to do was to get a brain scan.’ He turns to Amen. ‘You could start taking care 10 years in advance of ever having a symptom and prevent Alzheimer’s disease,’ he says. ‘Yes, prevent Alzheimer’s disease,’ Amen chimes in.

“Wait a minute. Prevent Alzheimer’s disease? Is he kidding? But Sherwood is already holding up Amen’s package of DVDs on learning your risk factors for A.D., as well as his book with a section titled ‘Preventing Alzheimer’s.’ Then, as though offering a landmark insight into a tragic disease — and encouraging viewers to pledge money to the station — Sherwood beams and says, ‘This is the kind of program that you’ve come to expect from PBS.’

http://www.yelp.com/biz/amen-clinics-costa-mesa-4

Amen Clinics
Counseling & Mental Health; Psychiatrists

5/2/2015
Worst experience ever. Especially when you’re in a extremely depressed state of mind. I did all the tests and it came down to just an internist “reading” my results and pushing their vitamin supplements onto me. Ugh. Don’t go here. They’re no help.

3/3/2016
Beware – Amen Clinics preys on mentally ill people and the families who love them. The clinic will bleed you dry with “off label” treatments, nutrition classes, supplements, charges to fill out insurance paperwork, and routine services that cost 2x what regular providers charge. Amen Clinic’s pushes their expensive services even when they aren’t working…

11/20/2016
The cost associated with said process/treatment is staggering…

http://www.nextavenue.org/can-marijuana-save-aging-brain/

Cannabinoids, the active chemical components of marijuana, can regulate inflammation in the brain and promote neurogenesis — the growth of new neural pathways — even in cells damaged by age or trauma. As more research has indicated that brain inflammation appears to be a cause of several degenerative diseases, marijuana has been getting a closer look as a potential preventive medication.

In a 2006 study published in Molecular Pharmaceutics, a team of University of Connecticut researchers reported that THC, the chemical compound responsible for marijuana’s high, “could be considerably better at suppressing the abnormal clumping of malformed proteins that is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease than any currently approved prescription.”

To be clear, most scientists investigating the link between cannabinoids and brain health are not advocating widespread casual marijuana smoking to ward off Alzheimer’s disease. Marijuana possession remains illegal and research has shown that long-term, frequent marijuana use can impair memory, focus and decision-making…

In 2007, Ohio State University researchers published a paper stating that medications which can stimulate cannabinoid receptors in the brain “may provide clinical benefits in age-related diseases that are associated with brain inflammation, such as Alzheimer’s disease.” In 2009, Italian and Israeli researchers found that cannabidiol (CBD), marijuana’s primary non-psychoactive cannabinoid, may also block the formation of the plaques in the brain believed to bring on Alzheimer’s.

Wenk believes that, in humans, “the equivalent of one puff a day” could help ward off dementia. “I have said to older people, ‘Try it,’” Wenk says. “They email me back to say it’s helping. It’s worked in every rat we’ve given it to. We have some happy, intelligent old rats.”

Opioids are a plague?

http://www.statnews.com/2016/11/18/opioids-addiction-chronic-pain/

The opioid epidemic has rapidly emerged from the shadows and is now recognized as a plague that affects hundreds of thousands of Americans regardless of age, race, or socioeconomic status. In its destructive potential, it can be compared to the AIDS and polio epidemics…

A plague is contagious — addiction is not. And please, addiction is as destructive as AIDS? That’s what you would call a lie.

As for who this “epidemic” affects, it’s been shown that it mainly affects white, middle-class people. Those who enjoy a certain socioeconomic status are the ones with access to prescription medications like opioids.

But unlike AIDS and polio, the opioid epidemic continues to rage in large part because we, as a nation, have not yet resolved to attack it head on…

Really? Why don’t you tally up all the money that’s been spent in the war on drugs and the fight against addiction. Just like with every war, the more money you put into it, the more it takes on a life of its own, causing destruction to just about everyone.

As a pain expert, I had hoped the surgeon general’s report would have placed a greater emphasis on the need to develop alternatives to opioids that can be used for pain management, which would eliminate a key pathway to abuse…

Opioids are not a “key pathway to abuse,” just like marijuana is not a pathway to heroin abuse. And it’s extremely disturbing that a pain “expert” believes this to be true. Tens of millions of patients have taken opioids without any problems whatsoever.

And while a lot of people talk about alternatives to opioids, they don’t exist. Nothing works as well as opioids for pain. Nothing. How do I know? Because just like millions of other pain patients, I’ve tried everything. So, while this “expert” can hope for alternatives to opioids, that’s not the reality. And it won’t be for decades to come.

Here’s a more in depth analysis of the Surgeon General’s report:

http://www.reason.com/blog/2016/11/18/surgeon-generals-report-mistakenly-treat

The article from STAT reminded me of an article I saw months ago:

http://www.aol.com/article/2016/07/14/prolonged-drug-use-may-impact-moral-judgment/21432378/

Researchers from the University of New Mexico and the Mind Research Network have found yet another ill effect linked to prolonged drug use. According to the scientists, over time, both cocaine and methamphetamine can diminish activity in the brain’s moral and emotional centers, creating difficulty in determining right from wrong. The study’s subjects were inmates from prisons in New Mexico and Wisconsin. Roughly 130 of them had a history of methamphetamine and cocaine use, while the remaining 80 did not.

Whose morals are we talking about here? And with a sample size that was so small, using prison inmates, this “study” determines nothing. Also, you can’t determine what happens to a brain on drugs unless you have tests that show how that same brain worked before the drug use started. Recently, scientists have figured out how to “fingerprint” the brain. Turns out, everyone’s brain is unique:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/brain-connections-map_us_582b628be4b01d8a014adc56

As some scientists are discovering, each brain is wired in a completely unique way. In the same way that each of us has a specific fingerprint, we also have a distinct map of brain connections…”

This research by UNM is the only kind that’s been funded by anti-drug agencies, like the NIDA. Do you want to know why we spend so much money on the failed drug war? It’s partially because of wasteful research like this.

What I would like to see is a test that shows the activity in Trump’s “moral and emotional centers.” You know, the ones that determine “right from wrong.” Would it look similar to the prisoners’ test results?

#DearCDC

Posted on the CDC’s Facebook page today:

#DearCDC: How does it feel to ruin people’s lives? To make them feel like outcasts and drug addicts because they suffer from constant pain?

#DearCDC: What is the agency’s position on creating stigma? Is there an epidemic of stigma in this country?

#DearCDC: Does your agency get a kick-back for every pain patient now labeled a drug addict in need of treatment?

There are no holidays for those who suffer from chronic pain.