re: Judge gives guy 50 years no parole for drug charge

Too bad this guy didn't get a bullet behind the ear.

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over a drug that harms no one but themselves.

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You are purposefully ignoring facts stated multiple times in this thread.

Don't be such a hack.

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Already seeing more and more pharmacies being robbed.... For fricking VICODIN!!

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Proof? Link? Anything? Do you even know what Vicodin is or are you just parroting something you heard at church?

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You are purposefully ignoring facts stated multiple times in this thread.

Don't be such a hack.

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What facts? What are you even talking about? Not one person has given any thing that remotely resembles a fact. Only personal opinion on something they know most likely know nothing about.

You are arguing the wrong point.

I doubt seriously that any drug user is doing hard time b/c he is a 3X user.
If you can cite some examples, I will cede the point.

Even the OP abandoned ship b/c he picked TPOS to try to make his point.

This is a social problem to you?

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Williams was on probation for aggravated assault with a firearm at the time.

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If it is a personal choice then amend EMTLA to exclude medical issues related to drug use.

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Impossible. Define "drugs"?

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Stop transporting those OD's to the hospital.

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Overdoses are simple. Narcan... Done. Trust all EMS crews to be forensics experts and not transport OD's. What about a non overdose? First sketchy looking guy with a blood sugar issue who is left to die, and you have a dumpster fire.

he was on probation for agg assault w firearm

it's not like he committed another violent crime

and OK. he has to pay the stupid tax on violating probation. that charge has a max of 10 years (and i didn't look at what he got. it may be less). let's say that pos of CDS while on probation is a violation (even if it would be legal otherwise). 50 is 5x of 10

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i would like to add that most ODs are due to the inconsistency of product. a legal market would all but eliminate this issue

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Here is a good short by Stanton Peele.

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The Persistent, Dangerous Myth of Heroin Overdose
Stanton Peele



People rarely die from heroin overdoses — meaning pure concentrations of the drug which simply overwhelm the body's responses. What, then, are we to make of frequent reports of heroin overdoses from Plano, Texas and Strathclyde, Scotland? People do die while consuming heroin — but the overdose myth may actually make such deaths more, rather than less, likely.

The first popular source to tell us about the myth of heroin overdose was the classic 1972 Consumer Union Report, Licit & Illicit Drugs, written by Edward M. Brecher. Brecher pointed out that, when street doses of heroin were far purer than they are today (China Cat and black-tar heroin scares notwithstanding), drug overdoses were practically unknown.

Brecher noted that heroin overdoses began to be reported in New York City after World War II, and accelerated into the 1970s. Yet the average purity of a street dosage prior to the War was 40 times the concentration of a 1960s dose.

Research at the Jefferson Medical Center in Philadelphia in the 1920s showed that addicts could tolerate up to a ninefold increase in the concentration of their standard, already large, dose. These researchers estimated that a toxic dose of heroin would be at least 500 milligrams for nonusers and 1800 milligrams for addicts.

In the 1960s, New York City Medical Examiners Drs. Milton Helpern and Michael Baden studied heroin addict deaths. Heroin found near dead addicts was not unusually pure and their body tissues did not show especially high concentrations of the drug. Although the addicts typically shot up in groups, only one addict at a time died. Furthermore, the dead addicts were experienced rather than novice users and therefore should have built up tolerance to large doses of heroin.

The best guess as to what was killing these addicts (aside from general infection, illness, and malnutrition) were the impurities in the drug, such as quinine, which produced adverse reactions in some injectors. A related likelihood which is more evident today is the mixture of drugs, or of drugs and alcohol.

Street lore among heroin addicts typically eschewed drinking alcohol with heroin as a potentially deadly combination. Today, drug cocktails as well as drinking while shooting up are common. The majority of drug deaths in an Australian study, conducted by the National Alcohol and Drug Research Centre, involved heroin in combination with either alcohol (40 percent) or tranquilizers (30 percent).

If it is not pure drugs that kill, but impure drugs and the mixture of drugs, then the myth of the heroin overdose can be dangerous. If users had a guaranteed pure supply of heroin which they relied on, there would be little more likelihood of toxic doses than occur with narcotics administered in a hospital.

But when people take whatever they can off the street, they have no way of knowing how the drug is adulterated. And when they decide to augment heroin's effects, possibly because they do not want to take too much heroin, they may place themselves in the greatest danger.

Plano, Texas is a well-heeled Dallas suburb. For some time, we have been reading about dramatic heroin overdose statistics in Plano — 20 overdoses (17 deadly) since September 1994. In July 1998, twenty-nine people were charged with smuggling and selling heroin and cocaine that led to four fatal overdoses.

But the deaths should not be labeled overdose. Milan Malina, 20, died of pneumonia and inhaling his own vomit. Wesley Scott, 19, died at a party after inhaling his own vomit. Rob Hill, 19, was found dead in his own vomit by his parents after a party. Death by asphyxiation in one's vomit is common among people who mix alcohol with drugs, which often occurs at parties. Alcohol is more likely to cause people to puke, while additional drugs make the intoxicated individuals less able to stir themselves awake.

Strathclyde, Scotland is at the opposite end of the socioeconomic spectrum from Plano. By the end of July 1998, 54 overdose deaths had been reported in Strathclyde. As in Plano, the availability of high-purity heroin had been blamed for the epidemic. But, according to Dr. Laurence Gruer, addictions coordinator for the Greater Glasgow Health Board, "It is actually rare to find someone has died taking heroin alone — it has almost inevitably been taken as part of a cocktail with [tranquilizers] Temazepam or Valium."

Public officials can generally say any bad thing they want about illegal drugs. And they feel no doubt that labeling deaths as overdoses should scare most young people away from drugs. But this message may not have the desired effect. And its unintended consequences can be deadly. As the Australian National Research Centre made clear: "Both heroin users and service providers need to be disabused of the myth that heroin overdoses are solely, or even mainly, attributable to fluctuations in heroin purity."

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Are you seriously comparing people choosing to get dinged out of their fricking mind on drugs to incest and arson?

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No, not seriously.