GunnyFreedom
03-07-2009, 05:04 AM
I know that anecdotes rarely if ever prove anything, but allow me to share a personal anecdote from my life which demonstrates a major failure of the War on Drugs.
Last year, about a week and a half before the NC State GOP Convention, I was helping a friend move into a third story apartment. I helped carry a dryer up to his apartment.
The next morning, I woke up with an intense pain in my lower back. The next day it got worse. I could feel my muscle groups locking in spasm, and after a quick diagnosis and a significant amount of research, I determined that I had slipped a disc.
By the third day, I could not move across a room without help, or a lot of things to hold on to.
For some background: I am a self employed network and Point Of Sale field service engineer. I was making great progress with my company until I dropped my life in 2007 to volunteer for Ron Paul. Money became very scarce, and I had no health insurance of any kind. I am not complaining - it was my own choice to go traipsing off to three states on a whim and a prayer.
After arriving at my diagnosis, I researched treatments. Intuitively, I thought I'd need a muscle relaxant to end the muscle spasm, and a pain killer to function until it could loosen and I could stretch out my muscles and my spine and heal up. My research on the internet confirmed this.
But I could not go to the drug store to buy 2 weeks of vicodin and a muscle relaxant.
After a week of being crippled with a slipped disk, I had to borrow money from my family to pay a doctor to tell me what I already knew: I had slipped (a light rupture) the L5-S1 disk, and the only difference between his scrip and mine, was that he added a steroid to promote healing.
So I buy the scrip myself, of my own money minus the Prednesone (I didn't want it) and three days layer I am on the podium at the NC State Convention running for RNC National Committeeman.
Were it not for the government regulation of drugs, I could have began proper treatment within 72 hours of the injury. Why must I be penalized for being intelligent and doing my research, into paying $250 dollars begging a signature for what I already knew?
I do know that my situation is not unique; although I was certainly over-affected on account of my financial situation, going a week between a ruptured disk and treatment, only 3 days before the state convention where I had an active role.
So what has the modern policy of drug regulation and prohibition done for me? If America were truly free, then I would have been free to treat myself. I say the failed and counter-productive War On Drugs must end. What say you?
Last year, about a week and a half before the NC State GOP Convention, I was helping a friend move into a third story apartment. I helped carry a dryer up to his apartment.
The next morning, I woke up with an intense pain in my lower back. The next day it got worse. I could feel my muscle groups locking in spasm, and after a quick diagnosis and a significant amount of research, I determined that I had slipped a disc.
By the third day, I could not move across a room without help, or a lot of things to hold on to.
For some background: I am a self employed network and Point Of Sale field service engineer. I was making great progress with my company until I dropped my life in 2007 to volunteer for Ron Paul. Money became very scarce, and I had no health insurance of any kind. I am not complaining - it was my own choice to go traipsing off to three states on a whim and a prayer.
After arriving at my diagnosis, I researched treatments. Intuitively, I thought I'd need a muscle relaxant to end the muscle spasm, and a pain killer to function until it could loosen and I could stretch out my muscles and my spine and heal up. My research on the internet confirmed this.
But I could not go to the drug store to buy 2 weeks of vicodin and a muscle relaxant.
After a week of being crippled with a slipped disk, I had to borrow money from my family to pay a doctor to tell me what I already knew: I had slipped (a light rupture) the L5-S1 disk, and the only difference between his scrip and mine, was that he added a steroid to promote healing.
So I buy the scrip myself, of my own money minus the Prednesone (I didn't want it) and three days layer I am on the podium at the NC State Convention running for RNC National Committeeman.
Were it not for the government regulation of drugs, I could have began proper treatment within 72 hours of the injury. Why must I be penalized for being intelligent and doing my research, into paying $250 dollars begging a signature for what I already knew?
I do know that my situation is not unique; although I was certainly over-affected on account of my financial situation, going a week between a ruptured disk and treatment, only 3 days before the state convention where I had an active role.
So what has the modern policy of drug regulation and prohibition done for me? If America were truly free, then I would have been free to treat myself. I say the failed and counter-productive War On Drugs must end. What say you?