4 ms·

Heroin is a Schedule I (in the US) which means no medical benefit, and its a 20 year felony for distributing it. There is also the Federal Analogue Act, 21 U.S

by jijji 9y ago

Heroin is a Schedule I (in the US) which means no medical benefit, and its a 20 year felony for distributing it. There is also the Federal Analogue Act, 21 U.S.C. § 813, which is supposed to group similar drugs in the same category. So, how do these companies get away with selling analogs of heroin? Shouldn't the people who work there and make money off these opioid drugs be arrested? Why haven't they?

sandworm101 9y ago
Because what they sell isnt on the schedual and does have medical use. Hate opiods addiction and overprescription, but dont forget that these things have a place.
- DanielBMarkham 9y ago
  Absolutely yes. We don't want to go back to a world without drugs for chronic and severe pain. For all the hoopla around the addiction problem, we must never forget there are real people who need these things. With some of the treatment options, as I understand it, it's even possible to be an addict and a functioning member of society. I start worrying in public discussions when people ascribe too much good or evil to inanimate objects. Drugs are tools, like a lot of other things. They can do great good or evil. It's how we use them that makes the difference. Education will get us a lot further in helping folks than prohibition ever will.
  - macintux 9y ago
    > With some of the treatment options, as I understand it, it's even possible to be an addict and a functioning member of society. Absolutely. Unfortunately it's often very hard to get good treatment options. A close friend of mine has to travel 45 minutes each way, each day, to get to a clinic where she pays $20 each day. ...and she's fortunate that she was able to get a spot there after spending months buying suboxone from other addicts because she couldn't get a doctor to prescribe it because doctors are constrained on how many prescriptions they can write. When you're poor and have no reliable transportation, that's a brutal way to live. Falling into addiction is easy, and often you never truly escape.
    - icantdrive55 9y ago
      1. Suboxone (generic) should be offered free of charge to any addict. The government could stop most opioid addiction overnight. Yes--there will be those that are destined to kill themselfs. My point is we can help most people right now. 2. 99% of the addicts only need 2 mgs./day. They are fooling themselfs if they can't get down to 2 mgs. Bupenorpine has a long half life. 3. Bupenorpine is regulated weirdly. Doctors have to take a class. Which is rediculious. If a doctor can't comprehend the use/abuse of bupenorpine; they should not be practicing. Some, vary rare, doctors will prescribe off label. They are allowed 100 patients--I believe. (FDA makes them take the class. The FDA only allows 100 patients. I don't think the FDA makes the patent come in for a mandatory office visit, for a f---ing pill, but maybe I'm wrong?) That clinic is making $2000 plus insurance/daily for making patients drive to the clinic, and watch the patient take the sublingual tab. 4. At this point we don't need to regulate the drug companies, we need to regulate doctors/treatment centers that feed-greed off their patients! I hate degreed parasites--who prey off their most vulnerable patients. Sorry--the post above me just caught me off guard. I'm just picturing this women driving 45 minutes to take a pill.
  - sandworm101 9y ago
    >>> real people who need these things. That word, need, the the heart of the pain issue. Often they don't need it in the sense that they will not die if they don't get it. Pain itself rarely kills. Conversely, the stats are now pointing to patients living shorter lives on opioid than not. So an argument comes that they really have no medical need. But nobody wants to live in a world with so many people in chronic but treatable pain. That's just mean. I have no medical need for lidocaine but it sure makes having my tooth drilled less horrific. Balances need to be struck. Balance is not an easy word when dealing with addictive substances.
Alex3917 9y ago
I mean there obviously is a medical benefit to heroin, it's all just arbitrary politics based mostly on graft.
- TylerE 9y ago
  And it is used medically in many countries for things like end-stage cancer pain.
  - rwmj 9y ago
    In the UK it's given to some women during childbirth (although it's coyly known as "diamorphine"). https://www.babycentre.co.uk/a1026346/diamorphine https://www.babycentre.co.uk/a1026346/diamorphine
    - Fifer82 9y ago
      I really didn't know that is what it was. "Heroin" because it is dirty? "Diamorphine" because it is clean?
      - rwmj 9y ago
        Because it is the "British Approved Name" of the substance apparently: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin#Names https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin#Names
- bfuller 9y ago
  If I recall correctly Germany offers diamorphine opoid maintenance programs. Get daily injections of heroin under medical supervision. Sounds heavenly honestly.
kevin_b_er 9y ago
All forms of cannabis (marijuana) are also Schedule I in the US of "no medical benefit". The Schedule I is also a political tool.
- AlwaysBCoding 9y ago
  MDMA is Schedule I also even though it's proven to be a breakthrough treatment for PTSD at dosages that are completely harmless to the body. "No medical benefit" is a complete clown.
testvox 9y ago
If that is a serious question its because the drug analog act explicitly excludes certain drugs from being defined as a drug analog including drugs approved by the FDA. > (C) Such term does not include - (i) a controlled substance; (ii) any substance for which there is an approved new drug application; (iii) with respect to a particular person any substance, if an exemption is in effect for investigational use, for that person, under section 355 of this title to the extent conduct with respect to such substance is pursuant to such exemption; or (iv) any substance to the extent not intended for human consumption before such an exemption takes effect with respect to that substance.
unlmtd1 9y ago
It would indeed be extraordinary if - alone among the neurotransmitter systems of the brain - the endogenous opioid families were immune from dysfunction. Enkephalins are critical to "basal hedonic tone" i.e. whether we naturally feel happy or sad. Yet the therapeutic implications of a recognition that dysfunctional endogenous opioid systems underlie a spectrum of anxiety-disorders and depression are too radical - at present - for the medical establishment to contemplate. In consequence, the use of opioid-based pharmacotherapies for "psychological" pain is officially taboo. The unique efficacy of opioids in banishing mental distress is neglected. Their unrivalled efficacy in treating "physical" nociceptive pain is grudgingly accepted.

by jijji 9y ago

sandworm101 9y ago

Because what they sell isnt on the schedual and does have medical use. Hate opiods addiction and overprescription, but dont forget that these things have a place.

DanielBMarkham 9y ago
Absolutely yes. We don't want to go back to a world without drugs for chronic and severe pain. For all the hoopla around the addiction problem, we must never forget there are real people who need these things. With some of the treatment options, as I understand it, it's even possible to be an addict and a functioning member of society. I start worrying in public discussions when people ascribe too much good or evil to inanimate objects. Drugs are tools, like a lot of other things. They can do great good or evil. It's how we use them that makes the difference. Education will get us a lot further in helping folks than prohibition ever will.
- macintux 9y ago
  > With some of the treatment options, as I understand it, it's even possible to be an addict and a functioning member of society. Absolutely. Unfortunately it's often very hard to get good treatment options. A close friend of mine has to travel 45 minutes each way, each day, to get to a clinic where she pays $20 each day. ...and she's fortunate that she was able to get a spot there after spending months buying suboxone from other addicts because she couldn't get a doctor to prescribe it because doctors are constrained on how many prescriptions they can write. When you're poor and have no reliable transportation, that's a brutal way to live. Falling into addiction is easy, and often you never truly escape.
  - icantdrive55 9y ago
    1. Suboxone (generic) should be offered free of charge to any addict. The government could stop most opioid addiction overnight. Yes--there will be those that are destined to kill themselfs. My point is we can help most people right now. 2. 99% of the addicts only need 2 mgs./day. They are fooling themselfs if they can't get down to 2 mgs. Bupenorpine has a long half life. 3. Bupenorpine is regulated weirdly. Doctors have to take a class. Which is rediculious. If a doctor can't comprehend the use/abuse of bupenorpine; they should not be practicing. Some, vary rare, doctors will prescribe off label. They are allowed 100 patients--I believe. (FDA makes them take the class. The FDA only allows 100 patients. I don't think the FDA makes the patent come in for a mandatory office visit, for a f---ing pill, but maybe I'm wrong?) That clinic is making $2000 plus insurance/daily for making patients drive to the clinic, and watch the patient take the sublingual tab. 4. At this point we don't need to regulate the drug companies, we need to regulate doctors/treatment centers that feed-greed off their patients! I hate degreed parasites--who prey off their most vulnerable patients. Sorry--the post above me just caught me off guard. I'm just picturing this women driving 45 minutes to take a pill.
- sandworm101 9y ago
  >>> real people who need these things. That word, need, the the heart of the pain issue. Often they don't need it in the sense that they will not die if they don't get it. Pain itself rarely kills. Conversely, the stats are now pointing to patients living shorter lives on opioid than not. So an argument comes that they really have no medical need. But nobody wants to live in a world with so many people in chronic but treatable pain. That's just mean. I have no medical need for lidocaine but it sure makes having my tooth drilled less horrific. Balances need to be struck. Balance is not an easy word when dealing with addictive substances.

Alex3917 9y ago

I mean there obviously is a medical benefit to heroin, it's all just arbitrary politics based mostly on graft.

TylerE 9y ago
And it is used medically in many countries for things like end-stage cancer pain.
- rwmj 9y ago
  In the UK it's given to some women during childbirth (although it's coyly known as "diamorphine"). https://www.babycentre.co.uk/a1026346/diamorphine https://www.babycentre.co.uk/a1026346/diamorphine
  - Fifer82 9y ago
    I really didn't know that is what it was. "Heroin" because it is dirty? "Diamorphine" because it is clean?
    - rwmj 9y ago
      Because it is the "British Approved Name" of the substance apparently: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin#Names https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin#Names
bfuller 9y ago
If I recall correctly Germany offers diamorphine opoid maintenance programs. Get daily injections of heroin under medical supervision. Sounds heavenly honestly.

kevin_b_er 9y ago

All forms of cannabis (marijuana) are also Schedule I in the US of "no medical benefit". The Schedule I is also a political tool.

AlwaysBCoding 9y ago
MDMA is Schedule I also even though it's proven to be a breakthrough treatment for PTSD at dosages that are completely harmless to the body. "No medical benefit" is a complete clown.

testvox 9y ago

If that is a serious question its because the drug analog act explicitly excludes certain drugs from being defined as a drug analog including drugs approved by the FDA. > (C) Such term does not include - (i) a controlled substance; (ii) any substance for which there is an approved new drug application; (iii) with respect to a particular person any substance, if an exemption is in effect for investigational use, for that person, under section 355 of this title to the extent conduct with respect to such substance is pursuant to such exemption; or (iv) any substance to the extent not intended for human consumption before such an exemption takes effect with respect to that substance.

unlmtd1 9y ago

It would indeed be extraordinary if - alone among the neurotransmitter systems of the brain - the endogenous opioid families were immune from dysfunction. Enkephalins are critical to "basal hedonic tone" i.e. whether we naturally feel happy or sad. Yet the therapeutic implications of a recognition that dysfunctional endogenous opioid systems underlie a spectrum of anxiety-disorders and depression are too radical - at present - for the medical establishment to contemplate. In consequence, the use of opioid-based pharmacotherapies for "psychological" pain is officially taboo. The unique efficacy of opioids in banishing mental distress is neglected. Their unrivalled efficacy in treating "physical" nociceptive pain is grudgingly accepted.