John Oliver, Fentanyl, Harm Reduction

5 Responses to John Oliver, Fentanyl, Harm Reduction

1. Kevin R. says:

   March 30, 2022 at 3:18 am

   I have another idea. As a 20 year chronic pain patient who needs opiate medications just to function and have any kind of life outside of bed, my medical treatment for the last 5 years has been dictated by federal law enforcement. Due to the poorly written 2016 CDC Opioid prescribing guidelines, I am being punished for the actions of those who misuse and abuse opioids. The DEA decides what amount of prescription opiates my pain management doctor can prescribe. If they decide that a doctor is prescribing too much, he/she can be prosecuted and sent to prison. This certainly makes it easy for the DEA to look like it’s actually doing something, as all they have to do is search through state PDMP’s until they find a doc who THEY think is writing too many scrips. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel! I mean doctors only go through years of training in order to learn how to properly diagnose and treat medical conditions! So, of course, they dare not tempt the DEA to go after them, as they can lose their livelihood. But the REAL problem, as we all know, is the explosion of illicit fentanyl on the streets. It is not, nor has it EVER been, prescription opioids causing the exponential increase in overdose deaths in this country. (Read the reporting of Josh Bloom @acsh.org for the truth of what’s happening.) Since everyone knows that the WAR ON DRUGS has been a complete and utter failure since day one, why wouldn’t the DEA want to take the path of least resistance and continue to sit on its’ ass, looking to bust doctors who are only trying to help relieve the needless suffering of those in pain? Because it’s easier to do that than to go after street drug dealers, who are responsible for the breathtaking rise in OD’s due to the prevalence of illicit (NOT prescription) fentanyl in almost every kind of street drug.

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2. Servetus says:

   April 2, 2022 at 5:09 pm

   Humans have a natural proclivity for drug use, and Congress should note the fact and go with the flow. For example, a new study supports the drunken monkey hypothesis, “that our attraction to booze arose millions of years ago, when our ape and monkey ancestors discovered that the scent of alcohol led them to ripe, fermenting and nutritious fruit.”

   1-APR-2022…The study was led by primatologist Christina Campbell of California State University, Northridge (CSUN), and her graduate student Victoria Weaver, who collected fruit eaten and discarded by black-handed spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) in Panama. They found that the alcohol concentration in the fruit was typically between 1% and 2% by volume, a by-product of natural fermentation by yeasts that eat sugar in ripening fruit.

   Moreover, the researchers collected urine from these free-ranging monkeys and found that the urine contained secondary metabolites of alcohol. This result shows that the animals were actually utilizing the alcohol for energy — it wasn’t just passing through their bodies.

   “For the first time, we have been able to show, without a shadow of a doubt, that wild primates, with no human interference, consume fruit-containing ethanol,” said Campbell, a CUSN professor of anthropology who obtained her Ph.D. in anthropology from Berkeley in 2000. “This is just one study, and more need to be done, but it looks like there may be some truth to that ‘drunken monkey’ hypothesis — that the proclivity of humans to consume alcohol stems from a deep-rooted affinity of frugivorous (fruit-eating) primates for naturally-occurring ethanol within ripe fruit.” […]

   …(the study) is a direct test of the drunken monkey hypothesis… Part one, there is ethanol in the food they’re eating, and they’re eating a lot of fruit. Then, part two, they’re actually metabolizing alcohol — secondary metabolites, ethyl glucuronide and ethyl sulfate are coming out in the urine. What we don’t know is how much of it they’re eating and what the effects are behaviorally and physiologically. But it’s confirmatory.” […]

   AAAS Public Science News Release: Monkeys routinely consume fruit containing alcohol, shedding light on our own taste for booze–Study supports ‘drunken monkey’ hypothesis: humans inherited love of alcohol from primate ancestors

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3. Servetus says:

   April 4, 2022 at 11:33 pm

   Pain relief from cannabinoids is safe in conjunction with opioids. Anyone familiar with combining both, as I once did recovering from a broken clavicle, can confirm the research findings. Cannabinoids win again:

   Philadelphia (April 4, 2022) – Findings from a new animal study suggest that cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) might be safe for use with opioid pain relievers…a low-risk way to reduce the dose of opioids needed to relieve pain.

   “There is intense interest in using medical marijuana in patients with chronic pain because compounds in marijuana like CBD and THC may produce pain relief themselves or enhance the pain-relieving effects of opioids,” said Lawrence Carey, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio. “This means people could potentially use lower doses of opioids and still get relief from pain. Taking less pain medication could also lead to a lowered risk of addiction or physical dependence to opioids.”

   The researchers found that CBD and THC do not enhance the rewarding effects of opioids. This means that these compounds may not increase the risk for addiction when used in conjunction with opioids. […]

   AAAS Public Science News Release: Animal study shows safety of using CBD and THC with opioids–Combining marijuana compounds with opioids doesn’t increase risk for addiction

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4. Servetus says:

   April 11, 2022 at 9:08 pm

   Improvements in brain connectivity found in psilocybin therapy helps in treating depression, and may provide a therapy for anorexia and addiction:

   11-APR-2022…with psilocybin therapy, as measured by improved participant scores on clinical questionnaires…[a]nalysis of the brain scans revealed altered communication or connectivity between brain regions.

   More specifically, they found an increase in communication between those brain regions that are more segregated in depressed patients. They found a correlation between this effect and symptom improvement in both trials – while the strength and duration of effect varied between participants, it was strongest in those who reported an improvement in symptoms. The researchers added that while follow-up data is still being analysed for participants, initial changes in brain activity one day following treatment were a good predictor of whether a person would still show improvement at six months.

   Professor Carhart-Harris added: “We don’t yet know how long the changes in brain activity seen with psilocybin therapy last and we need to do more research to understand this. We do know that some people relapse, and it may be that after a while their brains revert to the rigid patterns of activity we see in depression.” […]

   Professor David Nutt, Head of the Imperial Centre for Psychedelic Research, said: “These findings are important because for the first time we find that psilocybin works differently from conventional antidepressants – making the brain more flexible and fluid, and less entrenched in the negative thinking patterns associated with depression. This supports our initial predictions and confirms psilocybin could be a real alternative approach to depression treatments.”

   Professor Carhart-Harris said: “One exciting implication of our findings is that we have discovered a fundamental mechanism via which psychedelic therapy works not just for depression – but other mental illnesses, such as anorexia or addiction. We now need to test if this is the case, and if it is, then we have found something important.” […]

   AAAS Public Science News Resease: Magic mushroom compound increases brain connectivity in people with depression after use

   Nature Medicine Publication: Increased global integration in the brain after psilocybin therapy for depression: Richard E. Daws, Christopher Timmermann, Bruna Giribaldi, James D. Sexton, Matthew B. Wall, David Erritzoe, Leor Roseman, David Nutt & Robin Carhart-Harris.

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5. Servetus says:

   April 30, 2022 at 9:35 pm

   John W. Whitehead, a constitutional law attorney, calls out no-knock warrants:

   …There was a time in America when a person’s home was a sanctuary, safe and secure from the threat of invasion by government agents, who were held at bay by the dictates of the Fourth Amendment, which protects American citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures.

   The Fourth Amendment, in turn, was added to the U.S. Constitution by colonists still smarting from the abuses they had been forced to endure while under British rule, among these home invasions by the military under the guise of “writs of assistance.” These writs gave British soldiers blanket authority to raid homes, damage property and wreak havoc for any reason whatsoever, without any expectation of probable cause.

   To our detriment, we have come full circle to a time before the American Revolution when government agents—with the blessing of the courts—could force their way into a citizen’s home, with seemingly little concern for lives lost and property damaged in the process.

   Rubber-stamped, court-issued warrants for no-knock SWAT team raids have become the modern-day equivalent of colonial-era writs of assistance. […]

   https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/04/26/no-knock-raids-rip-a-hole-in-the-4th-amendment/

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