Sitting in the driver's seat of his Chevy Cavalier, Chris Burns gripped a 20-ounce soda bottle and waited for his "shake and bake" methamphetamine to cook.
Then came the explosion and fire.
Burns and passenger Bobby Joe Joyner fled as blazing chemicals scorched their skin.
When police caught up with the pair, they admitted to cooking meth and causing the explosion while sitting at a stop sign on a rural Fayette County road. But it was months before either faced criminal charges.
To have charged the men en route to the hospital would have shifted the burden of paying for their care to the Fayette County Sheriff's department.
Two weeks later, Burns walked out of the Regional Medical Center at Memphis owing $160,000 -- a tab he can't pay that is the problem of a much larger group of taxpayers in Shelby County and throughout the region served by the hospital.
"We took them straight to the grand jury after they got out of the burn unit because we could not afford to arrest them ...," Fayette County Sheriff Bobby Riles said. "I mean, that would bankrupt the county in a minute."
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/20 ... ical-meth/
Somebody Is Paying The Medical Bill
Somebody Is Paying The Medical Bill
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.
Looks like another case of selfishness by the users.
They unilaterally decided(or maybe more accurately, did not give a thought to future outcome and risk) for the community to have to cover their own stupidity. A good case point about drug behaviors incurring involuntary risk and burden to others.
They unilaterally decided(or maybe more accurately, did not give a thought to future outcome and risk) for the community to have to cover their own stupidity. A good case point about drug behaviors incurring involuntary risk and burden to others.
The development of atomic power, though it could confer unimaginable blessings on mankind, is something that is dreaded by the owners of coal mines and oil wells. (Hazlitt)
What I want to do is to look up C. . . . I call him the Forgotten Man. (Sumner)
What I want to do is to look up C. . . . I call him the Forgotten Man. (Sumner)
Binging on drugs is a function of prohibition. Supplies are plentiful but irregular. Might as well have as much fun as possible. Who knows what will be out there tomorrow? Plus why not get a good buzz on so you are not holding while traveling.ladajo wrote:Looks like another case of selfishness by the users.
They unilaterally decided(or maybe more accurately, did not give a thought to future outcome and risk) for the community to have to cover their own stupidity. A good case point about drug behaviors incurring involuntary risk and burden to others.
And then you have the concentration effect of prohibition.
The Iron Law of Prohibition
My advice? You like prohibition. Pay for the results gladly. Anything your government asks for.The iron law of prohibition is a term coined by Richard Cowan which states that "the more intense the law enforcement, the more potent the prohibited substance becomes." This is based on the premise that when drugs or alcohol are prohibited, they will be produced only in black markets in their most concentrated and powerful forms. If all alcohol beverages are prohibited, a bootlegger will be more profitable if he smuggles highly distilled liquors than if he smuggles the same volume of small beer. In addition, the black-market goods are more likely to be adulterated with unknown or dangerous substances. The government cannot regulate and inspect the production process, and harmed consumers have no recourse in law.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_law_of_prohibition
BTW your hope that human kindness would have some positive effect on the situation (the selfish) is most amusing. This is America with the ethos of the supremacy of the individual and your hoping for a communitarian (communist) sensibility is too funny.
But Milton Friedman had you pegged:
The Drug War is a Socialist Enterprise by Milton Friedman
Carrying all those police, lawyers, judges, jailers, petty criminals, and gangsters makes for a heavy load. If the result is what you want why not bear it without complaint?
If you are not getting the results you want why not rethink your position?
I went from Democrat to communist in my 20s. From communist to Libertarian in my 40s. And from Libertarian to libertarian Republican in my late 50s. Surely you are not too old to change.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.
From Friedman:
If we treat drug prohibition as an isolated instance, maybe the effort to repeal it will be successful, as the effort to repeal alcohol prohibition was in the 1920s. But I believe that our chances of success are greater if we recognize that the failure of the war on drugs is part of a much broader problem, that the reason to end the war on drugs is also the reason to end the socialization of medicine, the socialization of schools, and so on down the list.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.
And an excellent example of how it is the attempt at prohibition which creates the risk and burden.ladajo wrote:Looks like another case of selfishness by the users.
They unilaterally decided(or maybe more accurately, did not give a thought to future outcome and risk) for the community to have to cover their own stupidity. A good case point about drug behaviors incurring involuntary risk and burden to others.
molon labe
montani semper liberi
para fides paternae patria
montani semper liberi
para fides paternae patria
I see why you think that, but it begs the question, "If they knew it was wrong and dangerous, why did they do it?"
I do not see the illegality as the root issue. I bet they would have been doing the drugs even if it was not illegal.
I do not see the illegality as the root issue. I bet they would have been doing the drugs even if it was not illegal.
The development of atomic power, though it could confer unimaginable blessings on mankind, is something that is dreaded by the owners of coal mines and oil wells. (Hazlitt)
What I want to do is to look up C. . . . I call him the Forgotten Man. (Sumner)
What I want to do is to look up C. . . . I call him the Forgotten Man. (Sumner)
"I bet they would have been doing the drugs even if it was not illegal."
Of course they would have been doing drugs, but the odds of them making them in so dangerous a way as they did are a certain nullity. How many houses blew up last year because of the untaxed whiskey still in the basement last year?
5?
None?
I can't imagine how a sane person could think anything else.
Of course they would have been doing drugs, but the odds of them making them in so dangerous a way as they did are a certain nullity. How many houses blew up last year because of the untaxed whiskey still in the basement last year?
5?
None?
I can't imagine how a sane person could think anything else.
molon labe
montani semper liberi
para fides paternae patria
montani semper liberi
para fides paternae patria
According to what I have read from the NIDA the drug problem is 50% genetic. Without the "right" genetics addiction is impossible. So right away these "highly addictive" drugs can only affect about 20% of the population. And of that 20% only about half have that mysterious experience (trauma in fact) that makes addiction possible. So these drugs are only "highly addictive" to about 10% of the population. I guess they are not so addictive after all.
All this from the NIDA.
It is my belief that if people understood addiction (a genetic disease triggered by trauma) we would end the drug war yesterday. It is unChristian to go around punishing the traumatized.
Let me state the obvious. People take pain relievers to relieve pain. Restricting the availability of pain relievers will not make the pain go away. And pain is why the market for drugs is inelastic. People will pay rather a LOT for pain relief. Whether it is a broken leg or PTSD.
You want to do something about the trauma level in the US that is actionable (a lot is not - like car accidents or war) - do something about child abuse.
All this from the NIDA.
It is my belief that if people understood addiction (a genetic disease triggered by trauma) we would end the drug war yesterday. It is unChristian to go around punishing the traumatized.
Let me state the obvious. People take pain relievers to relieve pain. Restricting the availability of pain relievers will not make the pain go away. And pain is why the market for drugs is inelastic. People will pay rather a LOT for pain relief. Whether it is a broken leg or PTSD.
You want to do something about the trauma level in the US that is actionable (a lot is not - like car accidents or war) - do something about child abuse.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.
Yes. If you get to the traumatized within hours and work on them a few days it looks like in at least some cases PTSD can be prevented or mitigated.KitemanSA wrote:By this diagnosis, it seems the BEST thing to do would be to find a CURE for PTSD.
Researchers are making progress on some forms of it but the timing is crucial and generally needs to be applied in the short term.
What I see around here is that if you acquired your PTSD honorably (fighting a war) nothing should be spared to see that our boys and girls get the relief they need if they can't be cured. But if you were abused as a child? Well. We have no proof of that. So those folks are obviously miscreants and deserve what ever punishments can be meted out to them.
So far - the only known cure for PTSD is time. For some the fear decays with time sufficiently to stop medication. For others it decays as well. But not enough. And what can you do while the body is healing? Medicate to keep the patient comfortable. Which is against the law. Because if you have a long term need for pain medication what is to say that you are not really an "addict"?
So to deal with undiagnosed pain we are making pain meds harder to get for those diagnosed with pain. Brilliant.Federal drug agents and one of the nation's biggest drug distributors are heading for a legal showdown that will test the government's strategy of going after larger corporations to fight rampant prescription drug abuse.
The Drug Enforcement Administration moved earlier this month to suspend four pharmacies in Sanford, Fla., from selling controlled substances. The DEA said the four, including two CVS locations, were dispensing "staggering" amounts of oxycodone, a pain medication that has spawned a huge and deadly black market.
At the same time, the DEA also moved to punish the supplier of the pharmacies—Cardinal Health Inc.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 33402.html
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.
Really? And what makes them safe in any sense? Do you take them? If they are safe, and you don't, why not?but the odds of them making them in so dangerous a way
The development of atomic power, though it could confer unimaginable blessings on mankind, is something that is dreaded by the owners of coal mines and oil wells. (Hazlitt)
What I want to do is to look up C. . . . I call him the Forgotten Man. (Sumner)
What I want to do is to look up C. . . . I call him the Forgotten Man. (Sumner)
Prove your numbers. You have a bad habit of fudging numbers then glossing it over later when shown you were wrong.According to what I have read from the NIDA the drug problem is 50% genetic. Without the "right" genetics addiction is impossible. So right away these "highly addictive" drugs can only affect about 20% of the population. And of that 20% only about half have that mysterious experience (trauma in fact) that makes addiction possible. So these drugs are only "highly addictive" to about 10% of the population.
The development of atomic power, though it could confer unimaginable blessings on mankind, is something that is dreaded by the owners of coal mines and oil wells. (Hazlitt)
What I want to do is to look up C. . . . I call him the Forgotten Man. (Sumner)
What I want to do is to look up C. . . . I call him the Forgotten Man. (Sumner)
Uh. Consider manufacture in an empty coke bottle vs. an industrial setting.ladajo wrote:Really? And what makes them safe in any sense? Do you take them? If they are safe, and you don't, why not?but the odds of them making them in so dangerous a way
Are you really telling me that the industrial setting is no safer? Really?
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.