Niki Tehranchi
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17-Mar-2010
JJ and I must be on the same wavelength today, cause we both ended up blogging about drugs, he about the legalization of Marijuana and me about prescription drugs. My discussion about "street drugs" is another topic for another day. Probably will be part of my "Top ten dumbest things I ever did in my life" blog, still a work in progress, cause there's just an abundance of riches there :o)
But today, I want to focus on prescription drugs and in particular, the hypocrisy of governments' war on "illegal" drugs while on the other hand, they bend over and subsidize all the pharmaceutical companies that dispense such necessary life saving pillls as restless leg syndrome medication. I am not anti-science or anti-medical establishment. I just think that nowadays it is too easy to get a prescription for a pill for whatever ailment you suffer from, a Band-Aid solution at best that may temporarily mask the symptoms but not eliminate the root of the problem.
I have a close relative who leads a very unhealthy lifestyle. He has a very imbalanced diet, no protein, no veggies. He stays up til all hours of the night. He does not have any physical activity. He gorges on coffee and sugar. And, as a result, he suffers from migraines and a host of other problems. You would think his doctor would discuss his lifestyle with him? Nooooo. In what I am sorry to say is typical Iranian doctor fashion, he just gives him prescriptions over the phone whenever he wants, without even having him into his office. As a result, I believe he has become, like many people nowadays, an addict to prescription drugs. Some, not all, doctors are acting as no more than drug pushers. And people think it must be okay if it is prescribed by a doctor, as opposed to the bad, bad stuff those shady characters are selling at the corner of Stench of Urine Street and Discarded Needles Boulevard.
Also, do you notice when you hear of actors or singers passing away from drug overdose nowadays, it is seldom the good old cocktails of cocaine and crack. Aaaaahhhh those nostalgic days of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Mama Cass, or Jim Belushi are long gone. Now, people like Heath Ledger, Corey Haim and Brittany Murphy are discovered with a veritable all you can eat buffet of prescription medication.
I remember after my emergency C-section, I was given prescription for some really powerful anti-pain medication, which I tossed in the trash as soon as I got home. I could not help but notice the prescription would have lasted me a good 9 months. Having decided to forego the pills, I was in pain for about 2 weeks after coming home but I found an amazingly novel, exotic, and ground breaking method of numbing that pain: Enduring it!!!
Obviously, not every ailment is going to be fixed by simply gritting your teeth and bearing it. There are serious, degenerative illnesses out there and we shoudl applaud the efforts of those in the medical and pharmaceutical fields who are doing their part in eradicating it.
What I am afraid of our society turning into however, if it has not turned into it aleady, is Aldous Huxley's prophetic vision in his novel Brave New World, which, among other things, describes a society where it is mandatory to take pills in order to remain a perfect human specimen. High school was not that many moons ago for me, and I remember reading that and thinking what the hell is he talking about? But now I get it. My cousin came to visit me for a few days in Los Angeles. We tried to show her the sights as best we could. Do you think she left with memories of Malibu or Universal Studios? No, the one thing that was etched in her mind was a visit to a highbrow boutique, I think in Melrose or some other "chic" part of town, where they were selling fancy pill boxes. There were dozens and dozens of them, she explained to me, wide-eyed, like it is a status symbol to be walking around carrying your Vicodin or your Percocet, and you might as well flaunt it. Today, I watched a product being advertised on TV, a sort of prescription drugs lockbox. The doctor that was advertising it was giving them away free to an overly excited audience, saying this would be a good way to prevent your kids from abusing your prescription drugs. Brave New World indeed...
By the way, I totally agree with JJ that we should not outlaw drugs, be they the "illegal" street drugs or the ones being pushed by pharmaceuticals. Just for the same reason that we should not outlaw alcohol, cigarettes, and fast foods and other things that are "bad" for you. Or else we might as well all wear adult diapers and ask our baby-sitter government to hold our hand and put us down for a nap. We have free will. We are allowed to make a choice. Just, once in a while, why don't you take a look at your "medicine" cabinet and think before you reach for that pacifier...oops...I meant pill!
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400 % increase in abuse of prescription meds
by Niki Tehranchi on Thu Jul 15, 2010 04:44 PM PDTA disturbing new government study from Obama's drug czar:
//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100715/ap_on_he_me/us_prescription_drug_abuse
Because of all the democracy
by abbyna on Sat Apr 17, 2010 07:15 AM PDTBecause of all the democracy that everybody say it deserves drugs started to be more often a death cause between young people and the Drug rehab centers have more and more clients .
a poor argument and poor judgement
by Monarchy_Forever on Thu Mar 18, 2010 02:17 AM PDTok, so the doctor is not doing their full examination because they are overwhelmed with patients or simply feeling lazy.
Obviously, that is from your perspective that the doctor is pushing drugs. You would want him to spend 1 entire hour on you diagnosing you and at the end you produce an insurance card that is worthless. Hmmm, the doctor should forgo his monetary situation to help you while foregetting about his whole well fare.
Get real. The doctors have seen so many cases that are so similar, they need seconds to diagnose. If they give you prescriptions its because they know it has worked in 80 % of situations.
You take your view of doctors and try and argue that illegal drugs should be permitted based on that?? That is like saying, my wife is bad in bed, so allow prositution. How stupid would that sound to average people? Pretty stupid, unless they have done too many drugs to throw them out of the loop for a long time.
I suggest you look deeper into issues instead of taking a suferficial view.
Also, what happened to naming your kid. You write a whole article on naming your kid, get responses. Then bam, never hear of it again. never know what name you chose! Sounds like it was fictitious all along, suckering readers! "sar kar mara gozashtey?
I'm really disturbed about these pill boxes
by I Have a Crush on Alex Trebek on Wed Mar 17, 2010 07:39 PM PDTI swear the end is near! What the hell is going on? It's all Rome before you know..... I hate to say this to you Niki because you're a mother.
Prescription drug addiction is not poor people's addiction
by Anonymouse on Wed Mar 17, 2010 04:43 PM PDTMany people can't relate to presciption drugs addiction, they think it is "taghooti"! Opium yeah sure it's a "tradition" but valium and stuff are for rich people!
It's a silent killer for sure.
So I'm going to stick to brownies and cookies that JJJ is now serving in his place! Imagine that, serving "sweets" for Norooz and eidi! LOL!
Everything is sacred.
...
by Red Wine on Wed Mar 17, 2010 03:24 PM PDTNo addiction ... Just fun i started to smoke MJ/grass since i was a kid in iran (before 1979!) ... i like it just because after smiking i feel so good!...
You should smoke MJ in many places/countries like Ahmedabad in India,Casablanca in Morroco, Seville in Spain,Ezmir in Turkey and of course ... San Fransisco ... !
I had my best ideas in my life after smokin/ MJ .
Red Wine Jan
by Niki Tehranchi on Wed Mar 17, 2010 03:19 PM PDTwhat is your addiction?
M.J.
by Niki Tehranchi on Wed Mar 17, 2010 03:18 PM PDTMargie, I swear this, as soon as I heard about MJ's passing, I turned to hubby and said, I bet he was having another cosmetic procedure done at home and something finally went awry. But from there to imagine an actual addiction to anesthesia, in order to sleep, whewwwww... Though I do feel sorry for him, childhood abuse is not a rational way to excuse lifelong addiction to anesthesia or drugs or whatever. But with money and power, there simply was no limit for him, and I think that's what really did him in. No on told him "no."
Do you know how Michael Jackson died? He also killed Iran
by I Have a Crush on Alex Trebek on Wed Mar 17, 2010 03:08 PM PDTHe was addicted to anesthesia! Move over heroin and crank. He said it was a "sleeping aid." LOL. What a wonderful world. I'm not religious at all. However, I think the end is near.
This addiction killed Michael Jackson and the Iranian protests in the western media. Do you remember? Damn drug companies!
...
by Red Wine on Wed Mar 17, 2010 02:58 PM PDTWelcome to our club Niki jan ...
I understand addiction all too well
by Niki Tehranchi on Wed Mar 17, 2010 02:56 PM PDTI battle addiction to sugar/carbs every day. This may not seem like a big deal but eating unhealthy could lead me to have diabetes and a number of other problems so it is really scary to me, and I take it very seriously. I have been able to knock out pretty much every other bad stuff from my life but once in a while, that chocolate croissant or that big bowl of pasta is beckoning me!!!
I think the reason people get addicted to stuff is they make you feel so good. So it is hard to reconcile the long term negative effects with the quick and easy "fix." But I am with you in that I sometimes get so enraged by the close people in my life who are self destructing before my very eyes. As much compassionate as I want to be, a part of me cannot help but to judge them and have contempt for them, both because of their "spinelessness" as well as "selfishness" in putting their loved ones through hell, because their addiction comes first.
I'll be honest with you Niki
by I Have a Crush on Alex Trebek on Wed Mar 17, 2010 03:02 PM PDTI'm as hippy as it gets, but I draw the line after weed and mushrooms. I hate people who do drugs. It's something I will never understand about myself but I hate junkies. I don't understand addiction very much. However, I do think the government and the war on drugs have a big part in perpetuating the expensive drug cycle.
I don't take any pills. No hormone therapy and no pain med prescriptions. A family member recently had surgery and I was so proud of her. She didn't take any of the thick oxy whatever it was they prescribed her. She took a tylenol a couple of times.
Pain is apart of life. If we don't feel pain, we miss out on life itself and won't feel "alive." Thank you for the blog!