Big Pharma is Murdering America Through Prescription Addiction and the DEA is Screwing Us All

As an EMT, working in a substance abuse facility, the opiate addiction issue is at the forefront of the majority of what I see. People that started on opiate medications as young as 15 that are now addicted...... Average everyday people that have been seeing "pain management" doctors for 10+ years now hooked on prescription opiates..... When the pills dry up (insurance or doctor reasons) most are already so far in to their addiction that many of them switch to the cheaper alternative which is heroin. I have personally witnessed people detoxing from opiates and while alcohol and benzodiazepines are much more dangerous to withdraw from, the effects of opiate withdrawal are often very painful.

The DEA is proposing a ban on Kratom which would take affect on Sept 30, 2016. Kratom is currently used as an alternative pain, anxiety and opiate detox medication; it is not addictive or habit forming like conventional benzo's and opiates. It is much SAFER than the garbage the big phara's throw at us and hence the DEA crack down. Big pharma doesn't want us to have a choice in the matter. If you're in pain then you either suffer or you MUST become an addict!

This ban is being put in to place with little to no research by the FDA and with the rising opiate addiction levels in this country BECAUSE of prescription pain meds they have no business making Kratom a "schedule 1 drug". It's used for SAFE opiate detox, unlike methadone, suboxone and/or subutex; all of which are just as addictive as heroin.

The DEA reports "15 deaths" possibly attributed to Kratom use from 2014-2016; that's 15 total in two years. In 2014 there were 47,055 lethal opiate overdoses; in one year! If the FDA is going to regulate anything it should be what the big pharma is FORCING us to take, not natural alternatives.

You get prescribed those things, but no one forces you to take them.

I know I am going to get blasted by people saying that you need them for pain control and some people do need pain control. But I also think a lot of people never fully test the limits of what they can endure and take pills expecting a painless existence too.

I have a condition that responds to pain killers by producing more pain, so they simply aren't a very good option for me except in very limited quantity for very serious pain - say like after my C-section - and even then, I wait until I am almost beyond endurance before I take one because I know the feedback loop I am tempting with any painkiller.

Right now, I am typing this with a decent degree of nerve pain shooting down my left arm and into my wrist from a bone spur in my neck putting pressure on the nerve. I can deal. The alternative is worse.

But not many people are in my position, so they take the pain pills right away because it makes them feel good, and after a while, they get hooked. How many test their limits or use what they're given sparingly and only in emergencies? And how many really are in a position where they verifiably do need that pain medication all the time, and if they are in that spot, is the idea of addiction that horrible for them?

I did a little research on Kratom but don't have enough information to make an opinion of it yet. It doesn't sound that bad compared to opiate meds that doctors prescribe. Benzos are also addicting and dope a person up pretty well some time.

Big Pharma has always wanted to dominate our society, they have slowly been gaining more and more power. Soon we will all be giving them a quarter of what we earn.

a reply to: DJDigitalGem

First-line responder....aknowledged....you are 100% bang-on.......the scope of the con-job is global and genocidal.....keep barking BigDog....people are listening.

I've been saying this for years, but there's little denying it now when you match up the hard data, anyone who ignores or perpetuates the false storyline is living in cognitive dissonance or benefitting in some way they don't want the train to stop running.

what actually effective policy looks like

Bottom line is that these drugs are a huge part of our lives, and have been since the very earliest civilizations. Before civilization even. They aren't going anywhere. So the best we can do is address it as it is, a minor inconvenience if handled correctly, like how Portugal handles it for instance.



Back when "patent medicine" was big, which were sold in tincture bottles and basically an old tyme version of your local pharmacy, you'd find heroin or derivatives of it in nearly every bottle, to treat all kinds of ailments. ...Along with the famous coca-plant derivative. Addictions were seen as nothing more than nuisance effects, similar to being addicted to coffee or cigarettes.


Some of the most important people in our history were addicts of both kinds, or numerous kinds. It's part of life, part of the human condition. The "side-effects" or negative effects, are only determined by two things: How we treat it (society - stigma, etc) and how we allow it to enter society (e.g. forced or dishonest marketing, "pushing" etc, brings many negative consequences)

There is a belief that the substances themselves cause all the harm. In reality, no, it's actually prohibition or forceful consumption that can be directly correlated to all the ill effects.

Everything you thought you knew about "hard" drugs is wrong.


Prohibition: the social stigma (preventing relationships, understanding, compassion, etc).

Jail: destroying work opportunities, taking away savings, equity - asset seizures, banned from hire, jobs, careers, etc.

Stigma: hate, a level of hate felt across all levels of society, which prevents people from normal liberties, manifesting into physical ailments - like a person not being able to find housing, ill effects of homelessness. Not being able to afford anything after exposure to high prices of the illegal market - poor diet, poor health, poor hygiene, etc.

These things are all manifestations of prohibition and the treatment of the drugs or the user, rather than effects of the substance itself. Another example would be the Opium Wars, where England purposely flooded China with Opium. The amounts are absurd. So again, an unnatural supply or pressure for people to consume, can have just as much negative fallout as "preventing" it's trade. What should be employed, is a natural trade & consumption. Where users are encouraged to use in moderation, social stigmas can remain, but no limits on the user (only on the business/marketing/large scale trade, to prevent corporations from marketing it unethically.)

Users are useless & a drain on society.

The worst thing about users in this day and age, is that they buy into the propaganda we are inundated with. If we believe the use of (xyz) will make us useless, we certainly will become useless taking (xyz). I can't believe the number of biased ignorants, addicted to opioids by doctors, while spewing vitriolic hate towards recreational or college era users (of the same types of thing they are taking, unaware).


The father of modern surgery, was an opiate addict for most of his life. If born today, probably would be locked up, instead of helping revolutionize medicine.

Dr. William Stewart Halsted (1852-1922), one of the greatest of American surgeons. Halsted, the scion of a distinguished New York family, and captain of the Yale football team, entered the practice of medicine in New York in the 1870s and soon became one of the promising young surgeons of the city.

Halsted was a morphine addict at the age of thirty-four, when Welch invited him in 1886 to join the distinguished group then laying the foundations for what was soon to become the country's most distinguished medical school. Welch knew, of course, of Halsted's addiction, and therefore gave him only a minor appointment at first. Halsted, however, did so brilliantly that he was soon made chief of surgery and thus joined Osler, Welch, and Billings as one of the Hopkins "Big Four.".

Halsted's skill and ingenuity as a surgeon during his years of addiction to morphine earned him national and international renown. For Lister's concept of antisepsis--- measures to kill germs in operation wounds Halsted substituted asepsis: measures to keep germs out of the wound in the first place.

www.druglibrary.org...

Now, let's fast forward 100+ years.


We now have "BANNED" ...everything. Except its not really is it? The Pharma companies are selling the exact same drugs, in many times, much stronger versions, analogues with stronger interactions, harder to break-addiction, more potency, less natural, etc, etc, etc. the exact same stuff. The only difference often only seen in a name or perception.

So regular trade of these substances, remedies, drugs, whatever you wish to call them, is totally outlawed. Police enforce these regulations, the "Law" or the judicial branch sequesters the "trouble makers" from the population, (jail) and everyone takes their cuts along the way. The enforcement wing (police) take the profits from the so-called "criminals", and in effect are PROFITING from the illegal trade.


When I was just a young guy, in my teens, I noticed the hypocrisy and irony of the system. If they were really about what the 'official line' says they are, no money, no benefit, no nothing should every be taken from the..."criminals", because once you start seizing funds from "criminals" who are operating a supply chain, you are now benefitting directly from the trade. So in effect, the government has a large hand in perpetuating the criminal enterprise. Increase policing = increase cots = increase demands.


That's not even including all the public funds that are given along the way to administer the fallout. Don't forget the "drugs cause violence" myth. What happens when you rob a contractor of thousands to millions of dollars? The government pretends "it's ill-gotten gains so those people have no right to it ---just ignore us while we take it & spend!" -also ignore every time they take money from someone, or a commodity, it creates a debt. Can the debtor go to court & file civil proceedings? NO. So = Violence.

That is the drug war in a nutshell. The only ones laughing all the way to the bank are Pharma/Police/Courts-Judges-Lawyers/Pharma, everyone else are cogs.

Thank you for this post.

I like to compare this to cigarettes. They kill countless people a year and the only thing they do is raise the price. because if the people bootleg tobacco the government will not make money.

Now with pills, if people stop them and go to heroin, the government still makes money

a reply to: ketsuko

Completely agree.

On top of all that nobody said withdrawal would be easy. Perhaps the prescribing doctors don't explain this properly but after benzos there comes a slow and painful withdrawal process. It's a structured process. But it's hard.

If finances are a problem then I see the issue. In the U.K. you still get the drugs despite your bank balance, if you don't need them the doctor will slowly help you get off them. As I said, it's not easy.

The problem is with the health system being based around $ and the education given to patients.

I hate the big pharmacy companies as much as anyone but with special pills there also comes special responsibility.

a reply to: and14263

If finances are a problem then I see the issue. In the U.K. you still get the drugs despite your bank balance, if you don't need them the doctor will slowly help you get off them. As I said, it's not easy

I wish it was like this in the states.....doctors here would not listen to me and basically cut me off of benzos so I was forced to quit after far too rapid of a taper that I planned myself.

After getting through that I found kratom to help with anxiety and depression from the protracted withdrawal, and arthritis.

I have no hope but to heal my brain with my thoughts alone and that's gonna be really really difficult...

a reply to: ketsuko

While I see your point I think the OP was saying that other safer options are purposefully removed to boost sales of addictive medicine. Yes we all do have a choice to take the narcotics, but we should have the choice for alternatives.

originally posted by: ketsuko
You get prescribed those things, but no one forces you to take them.

Not true. Most doctors will terminate you as a patient if you don't have a therapeutic level of the drug prescribed in your system come time for a UA. This is especially true with pain patients. Also, pain is purely subjective. None of our brains make the same amount of chemicals as anyone else's so we really have no way to know what the other person is feeling. You can tough through it? Good for you. Where you go wrong is trying to hold other people up to whatever "standard" you create for yourself. Chronic pain patients and heroin addicts have the exact same addiction, and pain patients maintain a house, job, family, why is that? Because they aren't surrounded by the dangerous environment that pushing these substances underground creates.

It really comes down whether it's more important to punish someone who's lifestyle choices you don't agree with (prohibition) or to help people and make society a better place. Most people that were taught the prohibitionist mindset still see punishment (incarceration, living on the streets, etc.) as somehow helping a person. Part of the backward logic the DEA counts on to still be relevant.

a reply to: DJDigitalGem

Appreciate the thread and first hand information.

The DEA, FDA, FCC, BATFE, BLM, HUD, Education, Interior, Commerce, Energy etc.

These unelected bureaucrats can create rules which have the force of law.

They are political entities which are controlled by special interests without any of the accountability.

Ron Paul wanted to do away with most, if not all of them and send the power to the states.

originally posted by: CriticalStinker
a reply to: ketsuko

While I see your point I think the OP was saying that other safer options are purposefully removed to boost sales of addictive medicine. Yes we all do have a choice to take the narcotics, but we should have the choice for alternatives.

Exactly. Like kratom... and cannabis. The people have a right to choices, depending on their own individual wants and needs. People and conditions respond differently to substances. There is no one-size-fits-all.

People should not be prevented from accessing the medicine of their choice in the name of their own safety when the "approved" options are even more dangerous; and neither should we be denied because society does not "approve" of the emotional/psychoactive effects; and we especially should not be denied for the benefit of the few ($$$) at the expense of the many.

a reply to: GoShredAK
That's not a good experience. I'm glad you've found something to help with anxiety, withdrawal a bit and hope it remains available to you.

My thoughts are genuinely with you.

a reply to: DJDigitalGem

If Pharmaceuticals got you well it would destroy world financial $y$tem. They are created by design to keep you coming back with new sickness and who do you think actually create the diseases like cancer, parkinsons, seizures irregular heart beats diabetes etc?

That snake doesn't represent healing or wisdom like they say---but remember, I don't know what I'm talking about. The lucky actually get to die early to escape this clownish demonic hell hole.

a reply to: DJDigitalGem

I read that a petition was presented concerning this assinine ban on Kratom and that there "may" be a years reprieve in order to actually STUDY it and make further determination about how "highly dangerous" it is...the lunacy of it all! Has anyone heard any news about this?

Sure seems like the ban came screaming out of left field. Gotta love how the powers that be just sneak up on you and slam the hammer down with a whole 30 day warning! Yet another of Mother Nature's gifts seen as "evil", a plague to mankind, when the real plague sits in DC.

a reply to: Rubicon3
I seriously doubt the dea will release kratom from a schedule 1 classification once it's there. If they did, it would be the first substance in history. Plus the scheduling creates a whole new group of "criminals" to throw in prison and go after. More headlines, more funding.

The problem is that the government claims when they make a natural substance illegal it’s for our safety.

That is absurd in light of the dangers of legal drugs. Just look at any commercial about a prescription drug and listen to all of the bad side affects they warn you about. The narration often goes on for minutes.

So therefore we know NOTHING is absolutely safe. Everything is relative.

SO obviously it’s a government intrusion, hypocrisy and a scam to outlaw natural substances that people make intelligent and constitutional choices about.

The Kratom experience is a case in point.

Here they claim 15 people may have died and those cases have been shown to have had people using various amounts of other drugs and substances other than Kratom. Not only that, in comparison to other legal drugs, the herb Kratom, even if those weak cases were real, doesn’t come remotely close to the dangers of legal pharma drugs and heroin and coke.

In my experience legal drugs, heroin and coke can be dangerous but it was a prescription drug that almost killed me and put me in the hospital.

I’m not against any legal drugs or natural substances btw just am for ones right to choose

Also, if human beings want to use something just to get high it’s their Goddam right to do that without the government telling them they can’t. Particularly in light of the legality of tobacco and alcohol.


If something has people dropping dead every few minutes then I could understand them intervening but that’s not the case even with hard drugs.

a reply to: DJDigitalGem

I have been doing research on the drugs Dr has given me and found out that one of them is outlawed in Holland. Thats comforting.

a reply to: DJDigitalGem

The Biggest Drug Dealers in the Good Old U.S.A. have Always been the Federal Government itself in League with the Big Pharm Lobbyists . They Create the Mental Madness among the Masses , then Offer the Deceptive Cure . What Else is New ?