Some people just don't get it.

[Niflmir]

I actually do think Harper's getting the right idea in targeting the distribution networks and in steering the user toward help. You can't simply ignore marijhanah - but you can control it. Control kicks down risk-fired mark-up and at least makes the attempt to keep it out of the hands of the vulnerable and the dealers.

None of it has looked into the pharmaceutical industry itself. Their products have been real poison. Oxyconton and Zoloft come to mind. I believe they have to do more testing on the binders and chemicals. A lot of them are carcinogens. What is so wrong with using opium as an active ingredient instead of synthesizing it with chemicals that we really know nothing about?

Woof!

Actually criminalisation ensures that the government has no direct control over the sale, distribution, quality or liability associated with the marketing of the drug. The only control is then the indirect tool of the police. The police can interfere in the production if they find out where it occurs, they can interfere in the distribution if they find out where it occurs. The police cannot do anything about ensuring that it stays out of the hands of the vulnerable unless they have ensured that it is in no one's hands, since they have no idea where the drugs are that aren't in police evidence rooms.

Using the police to try to find and eliminate hidden distribution networks is an irresponsible way to protect the vulnerable when you could control the distribution networks directly and provide a guarantee of protection for the vulnerable.

 

[karrie]

None of it has looked into the pharmaceutical industry itself. Their products have been real poison. Oxyconton and Zoloft come to mind. I believe they have to do more testing on the binders and chemicals. A lot of them are carcinogens. What is so wrong with using opium as an active ingredient instead of synthesizing it with chemicals that we really know nothing about?

Woof!

I've been told that the large majority of the pain and nausea (sorry for the overshare) that arises when I take prescription drugs or vitamins or anything in tablet for short of a TUMS, is due to the many things they use to bind them together, not just the medication itself. My last doc did her best to ensure I was kept off any and all meds due to it. I've even had docs look at getting me on prescription marijuana because pills make me so sick. In the end though, the yearly renewal was so ridiculous, it just wasn't worth all the paper work.

 

[Tonington]

What is so wrong with using opium as an active ingredient instead of synthesizing it with chemicals that we really know nothing about?

Woof!

Just for the record, your body can't tell the difference between a synthesized opiate and the natural opiate of the same molecular shape and formula.

 

[lone wolf]

Just for the record, your body can't tell the difference between a synthesized opiate and the natural opiate of the same molecular shape and formula.

How do these synthetics break down? If the various components are retained, where are they retained? What mutations are created in rebonding in the host? How tough is it to break free from a dependency on the chemistry? I ask this because I had a much harder time getting off percocet than I did percodon - both of which (ironically) I used to stay working. Opium has been out there for a thousand years. It's effects are known.

Woof!

 

[Tonington]

The synthetic form of a chemical is exactly the same as the natural form of the chemical of the same name. The 3-d shape of molecules determines how they will interact in the metabolic processes. The limonene in Mr. Clean is exactly the same compound as the limonene you get from citrus peels, only it was synthetically produced.

The metabolites are thus the same as the metabolites of the natural products. Where it does get hazy, is pharmaceuticals are sometimes based on natural products, but not exact replicas of any natural product. There is no meaningful long term studies for new drugs, and that's why years after gaining approval, you have drugs being taken off the market.