Ignoring drug addicts is the real crime Thanks for the articles by Tom LaVenture about prescription drug abuse. I am a veteran family physician who used to teach young resident doctors. Our society and government cheerfully sanction the recreational use
Ignoring drug addicts is the real crime
Thanks for the articles by Tom LaVenture about prescription drug abuse.
I am a veteran family physician who used to teach young resident doctors. Our society and government cheerfully sanction the recreational use of alcohol, cigarettes and caffeine with impunity.
Unfortunately, other substances don’t fare so well, even those that are not dangerous at all (marijuana.) As long as we continue to focus on recreational use of drugs as a criminal activity, we will never solve the drug addiction problem.
Drug addicts are patients, not criminals. They need help, not jail. Doctors who over prescribe narcotics either have boundary problems (they have trouble saying “no”) or they are just plain greedy. They need to learn to say “no” with a warm smile on their faces.
The problem with prescription narcotics started in the 1990s when the drug cartels that control the medical industry started promoting “pain management.”
When I was a young doctor, pain was a natural event that gave you feedback that something was wrong.
Narcotics were for short term acute pain. Doctors might refill them once, but rarely twice.
Then the drug companies went on a marketing and lobbying spree. For instance, in California, by law, every physician has to take a mandatory class in “pain management,” even pathologists and radiologists who never prescribe anything.
All of a sudden narcotics were to be prescribed for both short term and long term pain. The medical rallying cry was “thou shalt not feel any pain.”
Addictive personalities found that these narcotics work fabulously as anti-depressants, giving a constant euphoria. Of course, when you stop a narcotic, the main withdrawal symptom is severe muscle spasm pain.
Now you are hooked and you need higher and higher doses as time goes on.
There is a lot of blame to go around: Nice guy doctors who can’t say “no,” drug company marketing and lobbying, an occasional but rare drug-pushing clinic, stupid anti-drug laws that criminalize behaviors that cause no problems to anyone but treat disturbed individuals as criminals instead of patients.
To waste tax payers’ money harassing recreational drug users and ignoring the poor, helpless drug addict is the real crime.
Let’s raise the white flag and announce that the government has lost the drug war and lets get some help for the folks who need it.
Gordon LaBedz, MD, Kekaha
Don’t duplicate
planning efforts
TGI had a notification in their Nov. 9 edition stating that “Department of Public Works has scheduled two community meetings next month to gather input on design alternatives that would improve the Kapahi, Opaekaa, and Puuopae bridges.” All three of these bridges are located in the Wailua Homesteads area.
Before we go through this exercise in futility, let’s examine some history about two of these bridges.
In 2003 our late Mayor Bryan Baptiste initiated a project to convert the Puuopae bridge to two lanes and rebuild it. The work was estimated to cost $1.1 million and would be 80 percent financed by the federal government. The design phase of the work was 80 percent completed in 2004 and programs for the construction phase were in place.
However, a group of “feel gooders” (FGs) resisted, wanting to keep the bridge “Historical” and one lane. When the FGs were successful, work on the project was suspended for the FGs to pursue placing the bridge on the Historical Register. This action caused the County to forfeit $151,700 of federal funds and $37,900 of county funds for failure to meet the scheduled start date. Federal funds are not available for one lane bridges.
As to keeping bridges one lane let me quote what State Traffic Engineer Alvin Takeshita wrote me on April 28, 2004 : “Our traffic accident records verify that two lane bridges on Kaua‘i are safer than one lane bridges. There are 12 one lane bridges and 39 two lane bridges on Kaua‘i. Our statistics show that historically on Kaua‘i there are three times more accidents per bridge on one lane bridges than two lane bridges.
“From an engineering stand point two lane bridges are inherently safer because they are wider, provide more clearance with bridge railings and do not create vehicle conflicts caused by one lane bridges, where vehicles traveling in opposite directions must yield. It should also be noted that one-lane bridges tend to be older bridges that do not have the latest engineering safety features enjoyed by newer structures.”
It is inconceivable why anyone who is concerned about the safety of our drivers would not want a bridge built to the best engineering safety standards available and why anyone would question the validity of the statistics that Mr. Takeshita has compiled. In fact it was later brought out that the No. 1 accident bridge on Kaua‘i was the Hanalei bridge.
Thus the question arises as to why are we proposing to spend thousands of more dollars on consultants and meetings to regurgitate an issue that possibly will not have the total funding (planning and building) to accomplish. Please, powers that be, do not continue to ready, fire, aim.
Glenn Mickens, Kapa‘a
