Saturday, April 25, 2009

Prohibition

Prohibition

Self medication is something almost everyone does. Start with Aspirin and Tylenol. People feel the need to medicate themselves, maybe a headache, maybe some other pain, maybe a fever, so they take a pill. All other OTC meds as well, including Nyquill. Now say you need something else. The law says that you need a prescription for that.

Historical note: Thomas Jefferson thought that the imposition of the world's first prescription law, in France, would signal the end of freedom in France. He was right. He died before they dared to institute one here.

The doctor needs to select whatever drug he will prescribe from a few government mandated lists. Some substances are considered trivial, and others are on another list that confers more liability on the doctor. These lists are political in nature. Many prescription-only substances are shared between citizens - we all have done it. That is a felony. Who is the victim worthy of protection here?

But what happens if your need for self medication will not be met by your physician? Many turn to alcohol as the cure-all. (Many medicines contain large amounts of alcohol anyway.) Politically we are allowed alcohol in most places. But what do you do if alcohol does not alleviate your symptoms? And what then if you find something else, either not on any list of legal prescriptions, or not allowed for your particular condition? Or maybe your symptomatology is not on the government list of diseases for which a particular substance is allowed? Or not confirmed by xray or mri or other tests? Pot, crack, heroin, and other substances are used for many reasons by people seeking to self medicate conditions that physicians would gladly prescribe for, but they are not allowed to. Cocaine is the absolute best anesthetic for eye surgery, yet is not allowed anymore. Some psychiatrists used to prescribe Cocaine for depression,until a few years ago. No more.

Drug prohibition and prescription laws are another scam the government is running on We the People. Why can doctors prescribe narcotics for pain but not for depression? Feel anxious or violent today? You can get a valium or haloperidol from your doctor, but not pot or heroin. Why is this freedom denied to us?

Why are so many on the political right so willing to continue to scam the public with excessive government restrictions by buying into this one, hook line and sinker. The most basic freedom is being denied here. And where in the constitution do you find the power given to government from We the People to put us in jail if we grow a plant in our yard and smoke it ourselves, instead of buying alcohol in a government store, or at least paying a government tax? I can make wine, brew beer (most of the founding fathers did both) but I can not grow a plant? Why? Because someone believes that I will get high? And what is wrong with that? Do you get high from alcohol? What is the difference? And why is it preferable, from what perspective is it better, that I can get addicted to oxycontim or morphine from my doctor, but am denied marijuana for chronic pain? And why, in states where pot is a legal prescription, do the federal authorities harrass and threaten doctors who prescribe it?

Your answer to that is that somewhere, somehow, someone will "get high," and perhaps enjoy their medicine. What is wrong with that?