Turn on, Tune in, Drop out!

Turn on,
Tune in,
Drop Out!
Blame the Doc, blame Big Pharma, blame the Nurse, blame the health care workers, blame the porters, blame the cleaning staff. Blame everyone, that is except those most to blame, Those who most manipulate the health care system for their own ends. Those who purport to be health care experts while knowing little about health care other than how to manipulate it for political or financial gain. Maybe we should blame the society that nurtures addiction by failing to accept responsibility for the role it plays in perpetuating it and in minimizing it and enabling it for so long, Recently there has even been a move to change the terminology of addiction because those words are not acceptable anymore: they attribute responsibility to the addict, their enablers and to societal attitudes in general and that is not politically correct. How can we resolve a problem that we don't want to accept responsibility for let a!one our role in its generation through ignorance or apathy or both? Addiction and drug abuse problems have existed since long before medical records were kept. Humans realized early on that ingestion of certain substances brought about immediate resolution of all the pains and problems of the world. No, more than that. Instant gratification, instant ecstasy. Some decided that they would not settle for anything less, regardless of the cost. After all, surely a few years of ecstasy tops a long life of hard work, suffering, responsibility for oneself and others and the gradual loss of all the strength and independence one works so hard to maintain. Life is not easy and growing old is a long and painful experience for most. Unfortunately the dawn of the permissive age resulted in the decline of that ability good parents have tried to give to their children to accept responsibility and self discipline. Actions have consequences. and we have replaced that irrefutable truth with the concept of instant gratification trumping all. That was easiest avenue for the parents to take, particularly in the sixties and seventies, but there was also the misconception that it was good for their children too. It wasn't.
Nevertheless, it was the idyllic objective of most physicians to prevent or cure disease and when that end is not possible to relieve pain and suffering to make life as tolerable as possible.  At least, it was in those days. Medical students spent their youth in gaining understanding of and insight into illness, physical and mental and most of us did succeed in doing just that.
At least, that is the way it used to be until the politicians and their administridiots took over!
And make no mistake about it, they have taken over.  
So what has this to do with the current addiction catastrophe? We have to go back a number of years to grasp how we got here.
When I was a young man studying medicine in the 1950s the prescription of narcotics was not lightly undertaken. Physicians were very much aware of the risks entailed and most of them prescribed carefully and judiciously. Sometimes perhaps a little too stringently but always with the intention of providing as effective relief was possible. Physician prescribing patterns were monitored by a variety of methods of varying efficiency. At some point the Heath care administridiots aided by many of the professional associations decided that they knew better. Physicians were not treating many patients aggressively enough and were instructed to be more 'generous' in their prescribing of narcotics, failure to do so was negligence. Most patients who are being treated with narcotics for pain want to get off them as quickly as possible. Precisely those patients who were at greatest risk of becoming addicted, many of whom could be adequately treated without narcotics, were demanding narcotics and cautious physicians were often admonished for withholding them, by groups who had no special skills or knowledge in this area of patient care. Patients referred to pain specialists for help in treating their addiction often returned to their family doctor on more potent medication, than they were originally on. Dosages patterns grew larger and in my senior years of practice I frequently saw narcotics prescriptions for doses that would have resulted in loss of license in my younger years. The growing permissiveness of society towards street drugs in general and opioids played no small part in the increasing flood of drugs pouring into our country. Then we act surprised at the death and destruction that ensues. And how do our politicians and administridiots react. By legalizing marijuana! Some recommend much more than just pot..

No wonder they want to blame J&J, and Big Pharma, and anyone but themselves.
Look around, "Turn on, tune in and drop out," didn't work out too well. Timothy Leary did a lot of damage!