It seems that with each iteration of this series, I become a little more incredulous of America drug policy. Today, I'm struggling with the discovery of unlabeled and unbottled Oxycontin in an abandoned rental property being a possible felony. Within the last few weeks, the tenant of the rental died of [gasp] a drug overdose. During the eviction of his remaining earthly possessions, these pills were discovered and identified. Oxy, being a Schedule 1 drug, is illegal to even touch if they are not prescribed to you.
There's an old adage that "possession is nine-tenths of the law". This could be an exaggeration, but it's quite clear that much of our legal code revolves around who is currently in control of objects or real and intrinsic value, to what degree that control is lawful, and what rights and authorities that control grants the person in possession. Obviously, since is is legal to prescribe Oxycontin in all fifty states, it is Federally legal to have Oxy on your person. If that prescription doesn't apply to you, you are susceptible to all kinds of legal troubles.
As you know, my worldly and savvy reader, Oxy is an opioid. Rush Limbaugh made it famous during his on-air admission to being addicted to it. It's become a pop buzz-word and so notorious that it even has comedic legs. You may not know that this semi-synthetic chemical dates back to 1917 and shares a long and sordid history with opiates of all shades. At this point, it's not really necessary to enumerate all of the bad things we know about opiates, but be aware that it falls within that scope of highly addictive substances.
I did become familiar with something new in researching the legalities of Oxy possession; opioid-induced hyperalgesia. This is a condition that arises through prolonged use of opiates and is characterized by hypersensitivity to pain stimulus. This "paradoxical" syndrome is poorly understood, but well documented. Unfortunately, it is difficult to distinguish from simple dose-tolerance, which can lead to heavier prescriptions and more certainty of addiction.
Seriously, I'm kinda sitting here at a loss for why this drug is even on the market. Yes, the government has a long and tumultuous romance with opiates. They aren't going to give up on that anytime soon. They have long preferred the company of the devil they know. But I think it illustrates the imbalance in drug policy when something so acutely addictive and laden with intolerable side effects is as available as the nearest scrip pad, yet marijuana carries a wholesale ban without any of these detrimental characteristics.
I have tried to imagine this in terms politicians would understand. No, wait... not politicians. I prefer framers of the Constitution. Those people were at least idealistic. But it occurs to me that the dichotomy between the legality of Oxy and illegality of weed is comparable to creative rephrasing of the 2nd Amendment. Imagine, please, that the government had a long history of allowing private citizens to own cannons, but strictly regulated butter knives. Both are classified as weapons; the potential for misuse of the former being a) orders-of-magnitude more likely, and b) infinitely more catastrophic. Inexplicably, however, the government stubbornly refuses to give up on cannons while all but eradicating butter knives.
Is this a logical policy?
I certainly don't think so, but perhaps I'm exaggerating. Previously, I've discussed the medical facts of marijuana use. You may have read about the extremely low rate of dependence, the absolute absence of dangerous withdrawal symptoms, or the demonstrated inability to induce overdose. The more I learn about opiates, the more astounded I am at our elected leaders for continuing this relationship with opium.
CNN published an article
on March 20, 2017 that equates length of prescription duration to
likelihood of addiction. If you'd like to skip this paragraph, let me
sum up: The longer one is prescribed opioid pain treatment, the more
likely they are to become addicted. If you guffawed and said, "duh...",
then we're on the same page. The rest of what follows will not be
enlightening. Even with only a single day of use, there is a 6% chance
that the patient would have found a way to be using a year later. After
31 days of prescribed use, that number jumped to 30%. Extended release
opioids mitigate that some degree, but the rate of addiction remains
high.
The end result is that 20% of people who start out
on an opioid regimen will still be using opioids three years later. That
brings one pertinent fact to the forefront... opioids are for
short-term pain management. Extended exposure, as evidenced by the
information above, leads to more addiction, more illicit drug use, and
more negative health impacts.
I genuinely wish this
was as simple as it sounds. Sadly, it
is easier to develop and approve formulas that include opium than it is
to establish medical validity of a product that requires no
tampering. Medical marijuana, however, is now evaluated through
the lens of knowledge acquired by our mismanagement of opium.
I have nothing to equate this with except ignorance. Coming back to how I lead off this entry, it is ludicrous that drugs like Oxy are handed out as easily as they are, the pitfalls being well known and documented, yet there is no accepted medical use for marijuana...
The fuck...?
