[FoRK] Welcome to the American Totality. You've been warned.

[Stephen D. Williams]

Stephen D. Williams wrote:
> ...
> Or a good model for selling legalized drugs of all kinds.  Things that 
> are legal with no consistent redeeming value.
> I suppose you could argue that that's not true in the general case: 
> Zoloft for instance could probably be over the counter.  I think I 
> read recently that Extasy is being used by psychiatrists, meaning 
> there is a case for it to be OTC.
>
> One big part of the nanny state is the assumption that only in very 
> restrictive, and somewhat random cases are you intelligent enough to 
> self medicate.  Various OTC cold medicines totally space me out, but 
> none of the prescriptions I have taken do.  Not even high-end 
> painkillers space me out in any significant way.  The logic behind the 
> rules and categories seems tortured.
Is this the counterexample?
http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/02/06/heath.ledger/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
""Mr. Heath Ledger died as the result of acute intoxication by the 
combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, 
alprazolam, and doxylamine," the office said in a short statement."

I don't think so.  Any idiot should know not to combine 6 narcotics.  
And if you do, you'd better have a Holter monitor tied to a siren and a 
remote alarm to warn of vitals falling too low.
> sdw

sdw