Robin's Commentary
Have you noticed something unusual this year?
**Cough**
At your job, at school, are in the mall?
**Hack** **Hack**
Doesn't it seem like more people are getting sick in larger numbers than normal?
**Cough** **Hack** **Cough**
What I'm referring to is the extra suffering caused by making what was typically over-the-counter drugs either available by prescription only or not available at all in Oregon.
I have bronchial asthma in addition to hay fever. At this time a year, my lungs are normally really full of fluid and I can't breathe. Typically, a relatively inexpensive medication called Broncaid, which I may use at most twice a year, generally takes care of the condition of clearing my lungs and I can get on with life.
Not this year!
I'm in my third week of hacking trying to clear my lungs and I have already lost three days of work because of this issue. My doctor,who has already tried numerous medications including a prescription similar to Sudafed, which used to sell for $3.95 a box and is now available by prescription only for $19 for 30 with insurance to get me cleared up.
With Broncaid, I would have already have been over this seasonal phenomena, however, I've been hacking so much that my vocal chords are so sore, that I sound like Sam Elliott doing one of those beef commercials. (And I'm a female)
Okay Robin, why not just get a prescription for Broncaid? Because I can't!
According to my pharmacist, Broncaid is not even available in Oregon. However, it is available in other states.
Why???
Because Oregon thinks that it's main active ingredient, ephedrine hcl, MIGHT be used in the creation of methamphetamines, of course ignoring the fact that the majority of the illegal drugs in Oregon comes from over the border.
How does this relate to the beginning of this article?
Something that a friend of mine pointed out. Typically, when people start to get sick, they go to their local drugstore and by the over-the-counter medicines to help take care of their health. Some of those medications are now only available by prescription only.
So, consider this scenario. It's Friday night, you're starting to get sick. Before Kulongoski's war on drugs, you could just head down to Walgreens and pick up what you need to take care of yourself and be ready for work again on Monday. Not anymore. That old reliable medication that used to get you through the weekend is now a prescription only medication, and your doctor's office is closed for the weekend. So what do you do?
What would you do if you do not have or cannot afford a doctor?
Not everybody can afford health insurance.
So personally, I think Kulongoski's war on drugs has only managed to punish law-abiding citizens by denying them the medications to be healthy, without really addressing the real source of the meth problem in Oregon, which in my opinion, is not over-the-counter medications.
so with my bag of cough drops and inhaler, I will try to make it through another day.
**wheeze**
5 comments:
Hello! I found your blog via ORBlogs.:-)
I was not aware that Broncaid has been removed from Oregon's shelves, but it doesn't surprise me. I am, like you, an allergy and asthma sufferer. (although I sound a bit like a cross between Sam Sheppard and Sally Strothers :-) )
My prescription inhaler makes me dizzy-headed and does little to remedy the symptoms once they've gotten bad enough to warrant it's use. A simple dose of Sudafed, once per day usually prevents me from getting there. The cost for this prevention is now becoming outlandishly expensive. (I paid $15 on Friday for this month's supply)
Meanwhile, the druggies across the street are still getting their drugs from somewhere... From what I can see, there has been no limitations on their supply as a result of this legislation.
Yeah, I feel safer already.
A great example of something observed by a Nobel Laureate found on Nobelprize.org:
" As early as the 1940s, Stigler studied the effects of some features of regulatory legislation in the USA, particularly rent controls and minimum-wage legislation. He indicated that far-reaching, unintended side-effects could arise alongside the primary desired effects. A later study showed that regulation of electricity rates completely lacked observable effects. As a conceivable explanation, Stigler saw that regulation can be based on erroneous perception of real conditions and thus, in practice, be difficult to implement, and on the fact that the intended effects can be neutralized by external pressures. This work on the consequences of regulatory legislation have set a pattern for numerous similar studies, performed by other researchers in many countries."
Just imagine what happens to life here in Oregon when the Governor completely screws up energy and health care.
This is another example of the governments laziness, inability and lack of desire to deal with a problem instead of just dealing with the symptoms.
My wife has the same problem. She has a purse full of inhalers, pills and a nebulizer just in order to breath. If she cannot maintain she has had to go to the emergency room-not a great way to live.
In his ill-advised effort at grandstanding on the meth epidemic, Gov. K put relief for thousands of law abiding Oregonians out of reach. How does this balance with his "concern" for those of us that lack medical coverage?
Mexico imports three times the amount of ephedrine necessary to supply every Mexican citizen with the appropriate amount of Sudafed. By making it inconvenient and costly for you to maintain your breathing, Mexico has jumped in to provide the meth for our addicts.
We have overcrowding in schools and hospitals. Our social services stretched beyond their means, 20-30 citizens per day killed by illegals that shouldn't be here in the first place, lives being destroyed by having their identities stolen, all because the government won't do their sworn duty to protect our borders. Every attempt the government makes to "protect" us only insures more illegals and less of our civil liberties. I have no sympathy for those in government wringing their hands about the current financial situation. Until they stop handing out money they don't have to people that shouldn't be here, I will vote no on every tax measure.
The best part is the states lame attempt at making the measure look like it's actually working. They claim there was a 40% reduction in meth labs due to this law. It's just too bad that was just a reduction in the FOUND labs, and it happened several months BEFORE pseudo-ephedrine was restricted. You'd almost think officers were fired or told to focus on profitable things like speeding tickets.
Or maybe the large increases in theft and burglary are do to allergy sufferers trying to pay for the for their unnecessary doctor visits.
Each year the pollen count gets higher. I, too am hacking up a lung on a daily basis. I have no insurance so I suffer. If someone does not do something fast, we are doomed to be the sickliest state in the union. I don't know how many signatures it takes, but maybe we should start the petition now. And do what anon. said in another post - send your snotty tissues to Ted.
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