SpankyMcFarland
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Posts posted by SpankyMcFarland
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I divide my time between Atlantic Canada and southern Ontario, and am well aware of the problems. However, cancer is not the only time opioids are indicated for pain.
The reason few Drs have been disciplined, is because they are doing their job of helping their patients. Should they not help a person in pain on the gamble that person may decide to misuse medication? How does a dr know? They are not psychic. As I've said, I've had three accidents and one oral surgery where I have required narcotics, and am thankful for them.
It's not the only time (heart attack, renal colic etc.) but you've got to be very careful using opioids for CHRONIC non-cancer pain. In Britain, for example, physicians are much more cautious about this and their death rates prove it.
I've quoted two examples where physicians were not stopped by their medical boards. In one of those cases the physician WAS disciplined but was allowed to return to practice and went straight back to doing what he was doing before until the police stepped in years later. It's a little hard to believe these are the only examples.
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There are a lot of people in the world who would love to sue the US. Doesn't this set a precedent?
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^^^^^^^ not off topic at all
The regulations are in place and there are very serious consequences to the few Drs abusing this for their own purpose. There seems to be this big kick on to blame Big Pharma and Big Medicine for a abuse issues. These medications are meant to relieve pain and auffering. If a person misuses them, that's on them. I've been in several serious accidents in my life where pain meds were necessary and was very thankful for them. I've also seen friends and family dying from cancer, and the pain meds were their only coping mechanism.
Their use for cancer pain is widely accepted across the world. What distinguishes North America is their use in many other situations where they are both less effective and more liable to cause addiction. This has created a cohort of young addicts.
In Atlantic Canada, we have seen a massive in opioid use that we are only now getting to grips with. Relatively few doctors have actually been disciplined. Some of the criminal cases were previously neglected by the regulatory bodies.
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A story that hit the headlines in NL last week:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/hollohan-drug-arrest-1.3783772
This is the same clinic as that used by Dr. Sean Buckingham, an extraordinary coincidence?
What strikes me is that the local medical board (CPSNL) has not been involved in disciplining many doctors for prescribing offences. In both these cases, it was left to the police to make the bust and, in Buckingham's case, the whole story was widely known long before anything happened. Canada has a very serious problem with opioid abuse and some doctors must be crossing the line but our regulators down here don't seem to be very pro-active.
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That's how it works...you really have to want it badly. Ex Canadian blowhard Ted Cruz did not have the 'right stuff'.
Do you really think Cruz was less qualified to be President than Trump?
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No example from Britain? Start with Walpole and work forward.Lot's of "bad choices" in the UK and Europe....they could teach Trump a thing or two about scandals before and after taking office.
Example from Italy: Silvio Berlusconi
Berlusconi is widely despised in Italy as a corrupter of the system and an utterly despicable person. There are people as awful as Trump in other countries but that seems a rather poor reason to vote for him.
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So you prefer an empty airhead? Canadians, eh.
A person of good character, yes, to a lying jackass and serial fraudster.
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Thank you...that's how we like it. Separates the contenders from the pretenders.
Not necessarily. I'm sure it also deters some excellent candidates.
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But by your own admission, Canadians pay lots of attention to the American election, just as it watches so many things 'south of the border'. Trump's name rides high above Canada's major cities, and in the collective Canadian consciousness.
He's on the TV every night with some new car crash revelation. Pretty hard to avoid.
Your process has become ridiculously long.
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Trump is not my candidate, but he is constitutionally qualified to be U.S. president. Millions of American voters, Republican and otherwise, have exercised their right to vote for Trump. The process will be completed through to the general election.
Europe and Canada have nothing more to brag about about when it comes to political candidates and elected leaders.
OK take the example of UK PMs. Which one of these people was as poorly informed as Trump on what their job entailed? Which one of them had his swarm of scandals BEFORE taking office?
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Thanks but Canada only matters in a teeny tiny way like a lot of other countries, as your strained examples illustrate.Where do you think the requisite uranium fuel/weapons cycle started for many of the nuclear weapons in the United States and United Kingdom ?
The point is that Canadian choices do impact the U.S., but American voters still largely ignore Canada's very boring election cycles and candidates.
Americans do not stay up late to see which party won the most seats in Parliament.
One I will say in our defence. How any American can call our election process boring is a mystery given the years you take to choose a leader. Your elections never end down there.
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Lying in federal court about sex in the Oval Office is public vulgarity. Clinton was impeached for it.
So you really think Trumpf is fit for the office of President? He would encounter hostility, ridicule and contempt in any European country he dared to visit, apart from Belarus maybe. He has betrayed US allies on the frontline with Russia. The man is a walking disgrace and all you can come up with is whataboutery on somebody else. Last time I looked Bill Clinton is not running this time. Are you not willing to defend your candidate?
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There is a world of difference between private misdeeds and public vulgarity. Hypocrisy is the essential political virtue.If vulgarity is a problem, then Bill Clinton would have never been elected and impeached.
Most candidates have a few skeletons to explain; with Trump, you'd need a cemetery to accommodate them. Each week, some new, weird story appears.
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Canadian choices do have consequences for Americans, as seen with refugee and immigration policies that resulted in an attempted bombing of LAX (Millennium Bomber). Canadian illegals in the USA overstay their visas more than any other foreign nationals, and that includes Mexico. Sons of a Canadian diplomat sold drugs and committed felony murder in Florida.
These and other issues are front and center for a Trump campaign that is big on protecting the border and deporting all illegals.
So the American is arguing Canada matters. We all know it doesn't. Compare your examples with, say, nuclear war.
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Yet canada has a buffoon for a prime minster. i don't get you canadians and your hypocrisy. Are you telling me being a part time substitute drama teacher made justin knowledgeable about politics? He's as vapid as they come. But I guess it says A LOT about Canada, eh?
There is no comparison. Trump is an unstable, vulgar goon who would disgrace the office. That's why so many Republicans have repudiated him.
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Do you think Americans care who is elected in Canada, even though "bad things" could happen ?
No I don't because it won't affect them. The consequences for Americans of any Canadian choice in this regard are very small. That's kind of obvious.
BTW this is a discussion site and we are talking about US politics.
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The same could be said for FDR, Truman, JFK, Nixon, Reagan, etc. One U.S. election does not a superpower's world make.
OK on the public discussion of matters pornographic at 3 am, can you see any of those guys being stupid enough to do that in the middle an election campaign? It's pathetically vindictive and immature.
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So how well have all the very "experienced" politicians worked out so far for "America" ? Trump's inexperience is a virtue.
There are many scenarios far worse for a country than gradual decline. Trump could cause all sorts of catastrophes.
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But on the temperament issue, would you really equate Obama (or Romney or McCain etc.) with Trump? Can you see any of these guys tweeting at 3 am about porn tapes? He is grotesquely unfit for the job he seeks. Usually, the US result does not affect us much - they're mostly good guys and gals - but Trump would represent a paradigm shift and not in a good way. Anybody who praises a sickening thug like Putin has to be of concern to the whole world.Because logic has never been a strong point for wannabes in Canada concerning American elections, candidates, and resulting presidents. President Obama actually started more wars and he is still loved "north of the border". He even got a Nobel Peace Prize !
The Iraq war divided Canada and the US but we got over it. Friends differ on these things.
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Trump's peculiar success points to a deep malaise within America but he is certainly not the cure. It's like getting somebody to operate on you who talks like a surgeon and even has some legitimate criticisms of surgical practice but is not actually a doctor. Politics is complicated - it requires a lot of knowledge and Trump lacks that.
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Second problem? He's a notorious adulterer himself.
Yes, indeedy. Trump, Newt and Rudy are a very unlikely trio to lecture anyone on fidelity.
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The Lewinsky etc. angle wil not endear a candidate like Trump to women (believe me). First problem, he's not running against Bill. Second problem...
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Two quotes from the interview I referenced above:
AMT: Well, let me ask you. Has there been enough discussion in your community about the problems caused by alcohol?
HAROLD R. JOHNSON: No, we're trying to open up the conversation. Let's talk about it. Let's bring it out into the light and talk about it. It's really hard for white people to talk about Indians and alcohol, because the fear that someone is going to point a finger at them and call them racist. The opposite occurs in my community, where we don't want to talk about it publicly, because we're afraid people are going to point their fingers at us and call us lazy, dirty, drunken Indians. I firmly believe that the solution is in bringing it out and talking about it. And the people will find the answers. I'm not offering a whole bunch of solutions. I'm not going to go and tell my people you have to do a, b, c, and things will get better. We've had people come into our communities forever telling us how to do things and having solutions for us. And then they leave and the solutions don't work. The solutions will come from the people, but we have to have a conversation first.
AMT: You have written this book as a conversation among Indigenous people and you say that non-Indigenous people are welcome to listen. What do you want those of us who are not Indigenous to think about or do when we listen to you talking about this?
HAROLD R. JOHNSON: Mm. That’s hard. You are not responsible. Don't feel guilty about it. Speak honestly about it. Talk about your own issues with alcohol. Be part of the conversation.
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WOW!!! Another hit piece by a far left source, keeping the simple-minded in their sights.
So you see him laughing somewhere on a regular basis? Where would that be? The guy has a permascowl.
Doctors and opioids, a troublesome connection.
in Local Politics in Canada
Posted · Edited by SpankyMcFarland
Here's one article that mentions the difference between US and UK which would apply to Canada too:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25190034
Here is another one:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23692335
PubMed is a good place to look.
I will look for better references.
Here's a scary article that relates max prescription dose to risk of death:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21467284
We certainly have a prescription opioid crisis in Canada:
http://healthydebate.ca/2014/01/topic/politics-of-health-care/prescription-opioid-crisis-canada
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/david-juurlink/opioid-addiction-epidemic_b_8691624.html
One of the problems is that we have been very slow to gather data nationally on this problem and usually compare ourselves to the world's worst performer, the US.