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Monday, January 01, 2018

Recreational drugs and our Society

   So Marijuana now enjoys freedom from criminality in California also
 Well With the nation already facing opioid epidemic it is not surprising. Some times back I wrote about Pain as a new medical "vital sign" in addition to age-old  pulse-BP-Temp and its "ridiculousness" calling it a sign for it is NOT. However what was most difficult in my practice was prescription of pain-relieving medicines especially narcotics because as physicians ( at least in VA System) we were advised to prescribe  for pain and all the demands for narcotics among the patients increased as many of the patients leaned to count from "one to ten levels" of the pain description. I had predicted that narcotic use is going to increase and sure enough we are now experiencing the results of it as we will about Marijuana soon.
 Frankly speaking however Alcohol has also bad side effects speaking dispassionately and more scientifically,? and Marijuana may be almost equal to it though Alcohol enjoys much better status in society here. Back home (Pakistan) Alcohol is almost similar to Marijuana in society But Marijuana (Bhang) is also known for spiritual enhancement or something like that. We are familiar of its widespread use in the "Mazars" and the mujawars etc. You can compare the effects both immediate and longterm and make your own conclusions of alcohol and marijuana Surely it is abuse of Alcohol that produces un acceptable results but when legalized how are we going to control the use of marijiuana. May be I am "prejudiced" about alcohol because I have seen the terrible devastating effects of short term and long term "abuse" of alcohol in my practice-- not only of the person but also the destruction of family relations etc. all
 I personally never wanted to experience Bhang in my youth and stayed away from the "pleasures of it along with most of my close friends while some others were of more adventurous nature.  There was a time in early days of Pakistan when alcohol was "prescribed" by doctors (or they were asked to prescribe) and the store would sell it if you tell them "doctor has prescribed for me" (you did not have to produce a written prescription) It sounds funny but that is the truth
 So may be it will become available in legal form if doctors start prescribing marijuana here in USA(and they already have started to: especially in specific diseases cases like cancer pain or even MS)


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