The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
In the New Yorker...
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on May 08, 2014, 02:44:23 pm ---I haven't gotten to that one yet, but I don't need Rachael Aviv to tell me the "truth" that people need to take responsibility for their own responsible use of medications, follow the instructions, and make sure their doctors know ALL the medications they're taking.
Of course, when I say things like that, I usually get accused of blaming the victim. ...
--- End quote ---
I doubt it this time, Jeff, because people don't tend to think of patients who die of opioid overdoses as victims of their doctors. I don't need to read an article to not think of doctors as villains in these cases, except in cases where people die of overdoses while following the prescription to the letter. Opioids are widely abused, and I assume most people who OD are taking them recreationally and/or consciously excessively.
OTOH, when someone says about a rape victim, for example, that she shouldn't have been wearing such a short skirt or whatever, that's blaming the victim because rape victims are victims.
Front-Ranger:
Okay, here's another quote from the article: "He said that a specialist there told him 'You could stick multiple Actiq suckers in your mouth and rear end and you still wouldn't overdose.'"
Actiq is a flavored lollipop that contains fentanyl, which is 80 times more powerful than morphine.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on May 08, 2014, 07:06:06 pm ---Okay, here's another quote from the article: "He said that a specialist there told him 'You could stick multiple Actiq suckers in your mouth and rear end and you still wouldn't overdose.'"
Actiq is a flavored lollipop that contains fentanyl, which is 80 times more powerful than morphine.
--- End quote ---
That sounds like malpractice. The medication isn't responsible for the stupidity of the person prescribing it.
As a matter of fact, I just took a very cursory look at the article in question, and it looks very much like it's about the malpractice of one Stephen Schneider, O.D., not about problems with the drugs themselves. But I'll know more when I get to read the article.
serious crayons:
How strange that they would put something like that in lollipop form!
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on May 08, 2014, 09:54:04 pm ---How strange that they would put something like that in lollipop form!
--- End quote ---
Apparently this has something to do with speeding up the delivery of the medication when it's used for breakthrough pain for cancer patients.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fentanyl
Meanwhile, I've got a question.
I always give my magazines to a friend at work when I've finished them--my version of recycling, so to speak--so I don't have back issues to go back to check, but did Rachel Aviv also write the article, some time back, about the criminally negligent abortion doctor? Does anyone remember?
If she did, I sense a theme here, and probably also a forthcoming book.
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