4 ms·

The Drug That Never Lets Go

37 points by fogus 14y ago

ditonal 14y ago
He was in a treatment program for marijuana. Most would agree that marijuana is portrayed by the US government and its law enforcement as being far more dangerous than it actually is. I wonder if someone who hears this portrayal of marijuana and realizes it's inaccurate also questions our government's accuracy when characterizing other more dangerous drugs like bath salts. If he had checked less biased sources like Erowid, he might have learned that he wouldn't be the first person to have a terrible experience with MDPV. Also I liked the following quote: “It's so hard to understand how something sold over the counter can result in death,” Julie Sanders said. “I can't grasp it, I just still can't grasp that thought.” I guess she's not too familiar with Aspirin. Drug education in the United States is dangerously flawed.
- zafka 14y ago
  I agree with your sentiment on the second point, but a better example would be acetaminophen.
- makomk 14y ago
  I believe part of the problem with "bath salts" and other quasi-legal drugs is that it's impossible to characterize how dangerous they actually are. The government keeps outlawing the existing formulations and the sellers keep coming up with new formulations using tweaked molecular structures, so no formulation stays on the market for long enough to get a good idea of its effects.
deleted 14y ago
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chunkyslink 14y ago
There will always be a demand for drugs. People want to get high. If drugs were sold in stores and manufactured under controlled conditions then people would know what they were buying. Dickie Sanders just wanted to get high not die. The rules are to blame here.
The_Sponge 14y ago
I was listening to this on the audiocast version on NPR. It's very good. The image that is the four drugs side by side is hosted on imgur, which is unusual. http://i.imgur.com/P4csH.gif http://i.imgur.com/P4csH.gif (right below the line “Because it's amphetamine, it's not recovering completely,” Kim says.) Wonderfully laid out, however.

37 points by fogus 14y ago

He was in a treatment program for marijuana. Most would agree that marijuana is portrayed by the US government and its law enforcement as being far more dangerous than it actually is. I wonder if someone who hears this portrayal of marijuana and realizes it's inaccurate also questions our government's accuracy when characterizing other more dangerous drugs like bath salts. If he had checked less biased sources like Erowid, he might have learned that he wouldn't be the first person to have a terrible experience with MDPV. Also I liked the following quote: “It's so hard to understand how something sold over the counter can result in death,” Julie Sanders said. “I can't grasp it, I just still can't grasp that thought.” I guess she's not too familiar with Aspirin. Drug education in the United States is dangerously flawed.

zafka 14y ago
I agree with your sentiment on the second point, but a better example would be acetaminophen.
makomk 14y ago
I believe part of the problem with "bath salts" and other quasi-legal drugs is that it's impossible to characterize how dangerous they actually are. The government keeps outlawing the existing formulations and the sellers keep coming up with new formulations using tweaked molecular structures, so no formulation stays on the market for long enough to get a good idea of its effects.

deleted 14y ago

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chunkyslink 14y ago

There will always be a demand for drugs. People want to get high. If drugs were sold in stores and manufactured under controlled conditions then people would know what they were buying. Dickie Sanders just wanted to get high not die. The rules are to blame here.

The_Sponge 14y ago

I was listening to this on the audiocast version on NPR. It's very good. The image that is the four drugs side by side is hosted on imgur, which is unusual. http://i.imgur.com/P4csH.gif http://i.imgur.com/P4csH.gif (right below the line “Because it's amphetamine, it's not recovering completely,” Kim says.) Wonderfully laid out, however.