> (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.
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.
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.
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.