Dedicating life to fight for drug policy reform. pipe dream or worthwhile pursuit?

[LucidSDreamr]

Like everyone here I am so sick of the millions of lives destroyed every generation due to the drug war, I am sick of living as a fringe criminal when i am a good person and pay taxes. Over the past few years I have keep going back and forth between either dedicating my life to this fight, or just trying to accept and enjoy my criminalized life style and hope that I don't get caged for using medicine.

I have a very good career right now. It isn't something i have a great deal of passion for though. Its fun as a job can be and pays well but its really only about having money to do fun things and fund my illegal-ciminalized healthcare, which will all vanish the day i get arrested anyways. How stupid of an idea would it be to give all of that up and go try and work for an organization such as drug policy alliance? My professional experience and academic training is in the physical sciences. However I am even considering going to law school, with the sole purpose being to dedicate my life to fighting the drug war against the government.

i don't know if i should just enjoy my life and my comfortable job, or if i should pick up this battle and possibly give up a lot in life to fight this battle for the rest of my life. Basically i need to start out somehow volunteering and talk to the people that have actually gone this route in life. I need to see what their life is like, what they have had to give up, and how their outlook is on their purpose. How can I get connected to one of these types of people and get a better idea for this?

the events that are really precipitating this finally is the eradication of opioids for the treatment of pain, as this has affected me much more than all of the other drug policy destroying everyone elses lives. But I see that this war is ruining everyones lives in so many different ways. It MUST END.

 

[JessFR]

Personally, I can respect either course of action.

I can understand and respect trying to fight the immoral war on drugs and trying to show people the truth.

And I can understand and respect that you only live once and don't want to sacrifice much of your life in a battle you'll likely be a very small part of.

I wish I could give you some advice and guidence. But I can't. You know the choices, you know the stakes.

We all have to make our own choices in life.

Personally I choose to remain as uninvolved as possible on the grounds that drugs have already stolen too much of my life as it is.

 

[Juniper Bruhmomentius]

Choosing to just enjoy your life would imho be the best choice.
However if you want to study law to possibly better those fucking idiotic drug laws, you have my total respect. You could, in best scenario, have a massive impact on the "war on drugs paid by big pharm".
'
You do you

 

[Jekyl Anhydride]

I wasn't all that aware of just how many people are committing suicide due to the uncontrollable pain this "Crisis" BS is causing. So beyond the people suffering from pain, you have families suffering the loss of loved ones who have come to the conclusion they have no other way out from under the pain. I can't advise you on which direction you should choose, but I respect your concern for this Opioid Pain Crisis.

• Phillip Kuykendall, from Statesville North Carolina, a 63 yr old man, an active member of society and hobbyist whose doctor refused pain medication for his pain disease. After a stay in hospital near Statesville, where he went to have his pain disease assessed, he was discharged on no pain medicine. His brother, who was involved with helping him get pain control, went to Phillip’s home on December 29, 2016, and found Phillip dead with a self inflicted gunshot wound. “He took the last, and only, relief he thought he had left” said a person familiar with the situation.
• Kevin Keller, a Navy veteran from the USS Independence in the 1980’s from Virginia took his own life at age 52. He shot himself after breaking into the house of his friend, Marty Austin, and took his gun. Austin found a letter left by Keller saying “Marty sorry I broke into your house and took your gun to end the pain!” Keller had experienced a stroke 11 years earlier, and he had worsening pain in the last two years of his life because VA doctors would not give him pain medicine
• Mercedes McGuire, recently ended her life after struggling with intractable pain that returned after she her pain medicine was cut back due to CDC regulations. She was in such pain she went to the ER where they gave her a small prescription. She went to the pharmacy where they refused to fill it “because she had a pain contract”. She went home an killed herself. She was a young mother with a 4 year old son, Bentley.
• Bob Mason, age 56 was denied pain medicine to treat his chronic pain after losing access to his pain control doctor and finding no one else, took his own life in July of 2016. According to Mason’s daughter, Mason “didn’t like the drugs, but there were no other options.” His suicide became the other option.
• Travis Patterson, a Texan, a decorated Staff Sergeant in the Army, combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, was injured by a road side mine, and discharged from the army in 2016. He was in daily pain. He not receiving inadequate pain treatment, tried to commit suicide and was admitted to a Topeka Kansas VA hospital by his 26 year old wife. The VA refused to treat his war wounds with pain medicine and offered instead a stress ball. Two days later he made sure of his own method for the intractable pain by killing himself. He had future with his wife and studying law but it did not matter. He showed no signs of mental illness, just the stress of failure to treat his underlying war injuries with long term daily pain.
• Former NASCAR driver Dick Trickle of North Carolina shot himself at age 71. He suffered from long-term pain. Although he went through several medical tests to determine the cause of his pain, the results could not provide relief. After Trickle’s suicide, his brother stated that Dick “must have just decided the pain was too high, because he would have never done it for any other reason.”

 

[Juniper Bruhmomentius]

I wasn't all that aware of just how many people are committing suicide due to the uncontrollable pain this "Crisis" BS is causing. So beyond the people suffering from pain, you have families suffering the loss of loved ones who have come to the conclusion they have no other way out from under the pain. I can't advise you on which direction you should choose, but I respect your concern for this Opioid Pain Crisis.

• Phillip Kuykendall, from Statesville North Carolina, a 63 yr old man, an active member of society and hobbyist whose doctor refused pain medication for his pain disease. After a stay in hospital near Statesville, where he went to have his pain disease assessed, he was discharged on no pain medicine. His brother, who was involved with helping him get pain control, went to Phillip’s home on December 29, 2016, and found Phillip dead with a self inflicted gunshot wound. “He took the last, and only, relief he thought he had left” said a person familiar with the situation.
• Kevin Keller, a Navy veteran from the USS Independence in the 1980’s from Virginia took his own life at age 52. He shot himself after breaking into the house of his friend, Marty Austin, and took his gun. Austin found a letter left by Keller saying “Marty sorry I broke into your house and took your gun to end the pain!” Keller had experienced a stroke 11 years earlier, and he had worsening pain in the last two years of his life because VA doctors would not give him pain medicine
• Mercedes McGuire, recently ended her life after struggling with intractable pain that returned after she her pain medicine was cut back due to CDC regulations. She was in such pain she went to the ER where they gave her a small prescription. She went to the pharmacy where they refused to fill it “because she had a pain contract”. She went home an killed herself. She was a young mother with a 4 year old son, Bentley.
• Bob Mason, age 56 was denied pain medicine to treat his chronic pain after losing access to his pain control doctor and finding no one else, took his own life in July of 2016. According to Mason’s daughter, Mason “didn’t like the drugs, but there were no other options.” His suicide became the other option.
• Travis Patterson, a Texan, a decorated Staff Sergeant in the Army, combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, was injured by a road side mine, and discharged from the army in 2016. He was in daily pain. He not receiving inadequate pain treatment, tried to commit suicide and was admitted to a Topeka Kansas VA hospital by his 26 year old wife. The VA refused to treat his war wounds with pain medicine and offered instead a stress ball. Two days later he made sure of his own method for the intractable pain by killing himself. He had future with his wife and studying law but it did not matter. He showed no signs of mental illness, just the stress of failure to treat his underlying war injuries with long term daily pain.
• Former NASCAR driver Dick Trickle of North Carolina shot himself at age 71. He suffered from long-term pain. Although he went through several medical tests to determine the cause of his pain, the results could not provide relief. After Trickle’s suicide, his brother stated that Dick “must have just decided the pain was too high, because he would have never done it for any other reason.”

We need to take all the fucking big companies and governments down and fast. This kinda shit makes me extra level angry.

 

[JessFR]

Why are you blaming the companies? Isn't this the governments fault?

Im sure big pharma would love to sell us all the pain pills we could ever want if they were allowed too.

It's so sad that people kill themselves over this. It's just so fucked up.
When I think about all the heroin I've used in my life. Plus all the methadone I've used since stopping...

And my pain is all psychological. Not physical.

I can't help but feel guilty. Like that it's so unjust that I've had access to so much pain killers when other people who so badly need them legitimately have had them cut off by a cruel indifferent misguided incompetent system.

 

[Juniper Bruhmomentius]

In my opinion government and big pharma go pretty much hand in hand. Yes I think opiates should be used in special cases for depression too.

Im glad you dont have physical pain.
You are not guilty of anything. Never think that self medicating oneself with drugs is something to feel guilt about. Your life is yours. and yours only.
Also, youre usage of drugs is nothing from pain patients lol.

In other words, Id bring the whole system down. What I would do then? Idk. Id just love to bring the fucking system down you know.
Im not stupid enough to think I could make a better system, but I just want to break the "wheel".

 

[JessFR]

Companies want to make money. Pharmaceutical companies want to make money.

If the pharmaceutical companies had such effective control of the government, I find it hard to believe they'd launch this crackdown of the very products they sell.

If anything I'd suspect they'd try and encourage even more people to be on opioids.

I mean that is pretty much exactly what they were doing before the government intervened. Encouraging doctors to prescribe their opioid products.

So yeah.. No. There are certainly questionable behaviors made by big pharmaceutical companies. But I can't see how they're responsible for this.

The governments responsible. It's their moralizing, and by extension the moralizing of certain members of the public, that insist that being on drugs is bad. Even if you legitimately need painkillers.

It's disgusting behavior that causes so much suffering to people, for the infuriating justification that inflicting that suffering is somehow morally right.

 

[Juniper Bruhmomentius]

Big pharma money owns the fucking government, That was my point

 

[Juniper Bruhmomentius]

Inflicting pain is never right.

 

[W1bowo]

Personally, I can respect either course of action.

I can understand and respect trying to fight the immoral war on drugs and trying to show people the truth.

And I can understand and respect that you only live once and don't want to sacrifice much of your life in a battle you'll likely be a very small part of.

I wish I could give you some advice and guidence. But I can't. You know the choices, you know the stakes.

We all have to make our own choices in life.

Personally I choose to remain as uninvolved as possible on the grounds that drugs have already stolen too much of my life as it is.

+1

 

[JessFR]

Big pharma money owns the fucking government, That was my point

But that doesn't make sense. Big pharma is wealthy because they sell drugs. If they own the government, surely they'd ensure the laws were lax and everyone was encouraged to get addicted to opioids.

You know, like how big tobacco operates. Big tobacco isn't gonna pay the government to outlaw smoking.

And encouraging people to get hooked on opioids IS basically what big pharma was doing before the government cracked down on opioid scripts.

So to me, it doesn't make any sense to blame big pharma. Not for this particular problem anyway.

I think the government is run by incompetent morons, and that's why they're doing this. Cause they're too stupid and irresponsible to see all the damage they're doing. And because they'll only let lobbiests from big businesses dictate their decisions so long as they don't think it'll hurt their election chances.

Politicians value power. The power of holding office. Money is only of value in order to campaign to get into office. As soon as they think they'll lose office if they don't do something, theyll do it. Regardless of what the lobbiests want.

That's my take on it anyway. Regardless of who's right though it's really fucked up and wrong.

To deprive all these people in pain of pain killers, whatever the reason, it's cruel and horrible.

And yeah, I know you're right that it's not rational to feel guilty. It's just hard to hear about people killing themselves because they're in so much pain, while you're using and have access to pain killers yourself that are purely for an addiction.

Psychological pain is still pain, but it still makes me feel guilty.

It's all like a sick joke.

 

[Juniper Bruhmomentius]

Big pharma lobbies some laws. That was my point. They have too much power over government.

I agree with you. All drugs should definitely be legal. But Big pharma... you know... they cant own drugs so they are illegal.

Psychological pain can be overcome. Accept it and work with it. Past must be accepted to move forward in ones life.

 

[LucidSDreamr]

i don't think drugs are illegal because of big pharma. pretty much every class of drugs has legal versions available, so i don't really understand that argument. Big pharma isn't the enemy on this one they are the ally.

what's frustrating is that the media will not report on all these suicides and pain patients. All they report on is that the president is a racist and celebreties die of "heroin" overdoses.

Besides dedicating my life to this fight...i don't know what else i can do that is not so extreme and throwing away my life for a cause that I won't likely make any progress on. I don't know what to do other than bitch about it and my mind goes to some pretty violent places when i think about what can be done about this, which wouldn't bring about change either as i'd just be written off as a deranged drug addict.

 

[Xorkoth]

Drugs are illegal for various reasons, most of which are total bullshit. I think we can all agree that the criminalization of drugs leads to the vast majority of the negative social/personal cost they exact from people and society.

I, too, can respect either course of action. I will say that we need some people to fight the fight, and right now is actually an exciting time, as some drugs (marijuana and psychedelics) are finally becoming more accepted into the mainstream. MDMA is nearly done with clinical trials for use in psychotherapy for trauma. They are studying psilocybin and LSD for similar purposes. Silicon valley employees openly discuss microdosing at work for productivity. Weed is a few years from being federally legal I think. There is a sea change happening, though of course opiates and meth and stuff are a whole different ballgame. Still, I think now is a good time to get involved, because things ARE changing, due to the hard work of some people who chose to do what you're considering.

 

[S.J.B.]

The past ten years have been an amazing time to be involved in drug policy reform, especially in North America. Attitudes are changing a lot faster than I would have predicted. I don't see this slowing down. That said, you have to realize that the nitty gritty of it may or may not be for you. I was quite involved in drug policy reform organizations for a while but eventually stepped back because the type of work doesn't really fit my personality. There's a lot of accounting and fundraising.

I think one the most direct impacts one can have in mitigating the damage of drug policies is by becoming a criminal defence lawyer, and I would perhaps have pursued that if I could have made a living off drug cases, but I just don't have the heart to defend violent criminals (although I absolutely respect those who do, as everyone is entitled to a thorough defence when charged with a crime) and focusing only on drug cases doesn't seem viable unless you are quite far along in your career. It's pretty high-stress, relatively low-paying work on top of that.

 

[cduggles]

It might be cheesy, but I think you should do what makes you happy. I think you should look at the day to day before jumping in, but I think if you have the luxury of choice, you should exercise it to your favor. ?

I’m going to let this run a bit longer in CEP&S and then move it to Drug Culture to see if we can get some more feedback for you.

 

[LucidSDreamr]

I know i would likely be less happy in life if i went this route. Less vacations, less money, less spare time. health would likely suffer as a result and could re-open a somewhat dormant opiate addiction.

i am just at the end of my rope with this shit feel like I need to do something. If it is not dedicating my entire life to this fight...i need to do something to help, i just need to figure out how.

 

[LucidSDreamr]

The past ten years have been an amazing time to be involved in drug policy reform, especially in North America. Attitudes are changing a lot faster than I would have predicted. I don't see this slowing down. That said, you have to realize that the nitty gritty of it may or may not be for you. I was quite involved in drug policy reform organizations for a while but eventually stepped back because the type of work doesn't really fit my personality. There's a lot of accounting and fundraising.

I think one the most direct impacts one can have in mitigating the damage of drug policies is by becoming a criminal defence lawyer, and I would perhaps have pursued that if I could have made a living off drug cases, but I just don't have the heart to defend violent criminals (although I absolutely respect those who do, as everyone is entitled to a thorough defence when charged with a crime) and focusing only on drug cases doesn't seem viable unless you are quite far along in your career. It's pretty high-stress, relatively low-paying work on top of that.

criminal defense for drug crimes is very important, but it feels like a whack a mole approach that won't solve the real issue. We need to get these laws off the books and the DEA needs to be shut down and members of its administration jailed for crimes against humanity.