| Drug Use
Education (DUE) is not intended to be a single softcore course elective,
but rather a mandatory 13- year program with rather intense medical
training that graduates students with an LVN license or optionally and RN
license. The purpose of DUE is not simply to teach students that all
drugs need to be properly dosed for the individual user, but to provide
students with medical training so that they will be able to diagnose minor
illness on their own, convey information to a physician, and obtain a
healthier life by developing knowledge about the human body.
The above diagram offers a simple example
what DUE can do. Prior to the drug war, patients went to doctors,
conveyed their symptoms, the doctor would write a prescription for
medication, which the patient took to a pharmacist who would tell the
patient how to take the medication and determine if there was any
interaction with medications or food being consumed by the patient.
The drug war changed all that.
First, the drug war turned some of the most useful and relatively
safe drugs into controlled substances; the drug war then incarcerated
physicians throughout the US. if a patient needs medication that is
a controlled substance, 21st century physicians must assume their patient
will abuse the drug and therefore, they will decline to provide
treatment. There are options, however:
- For the right price, just
about any doctor can be motivated to take the risk and the
financially secure in the US have nothing to worry about.
- For those who cannot afford to
pay but have a legitimate disorder, physicians may take the option of
linking the patient with a health educator, a role that is
traditionally known to provide alternative treatments, such as
holistic therapy or massage. In the 21st century, these health
educators have come full circle and now connect patients with drug
dealers. The most obvious cases of this are cancer
patients undergoing radiation who cannot tolerate conventional pain
medication.... However, the solutions supplied by the health educator
are not FDA-approved. They are inconsistent; it is impossible to
measure a dose correctly; there are impurities in the products
provided because they are illicit.
- For those who have adequate
healthcare insurance, doctors will refer patients to specialists.
The process may take a lot longer because specialists must back their
work with tests. Sometime it can take 4-to-5 specialists to
prove what the patient has. In many cases, specialists will
first eliminate the obvious and then work towards reality. (When
I went to a sleep clinic at Stanford to get a prescription for
controlling narcolepsy, Dr. Mignot (http://www.gicomeng.com/StanfordOUT.htm)
and his cohort decided they
needed to rule out sleep apnea. They asked me if I had ever had my
tonsils removed. Since I never had a tonsilectomy, I told them I
didn't. Both geniuses took a flashlight to my throat and nodded at
how my tonsils were blocking the air from flowing through to my
throat. After spending 5 minutes, they wrapped up the session,
asking me to come up with the first $15,000 I would need for a sleep
study to determine that sleep apnea was the cause. If after that
they needed to proceed, they would need another $18,000 for the
polysomnogram that would determine I had narcolepsy. I
already had 6 test results that showed I have narcolepsy. I
rejected their strategy and their findings because what they were saying
could not be true. You see, I may not have had a tonsilectomy, but
that doesn't mean anything. I was born without tonsils!)
- Along with referrals to another
doctor is to find another doctor on your own. In a world of
science and technology, finding another doctor means opening up the
latest version of the yellow pages and throwing a dart. That is
the only unbiased way to find a doctor. It is very unfortunate.
- Delay the process to treat
the disorder,
This is the action preferred by the US Government. It is pure
Nixonian-Reaganesque policy. They would rather you take
nothing and live the rest of your life on disability than to open
Pandora's box by ending the precious drug war that satisfies their
ability to maintain control over the minority du jour. Today,
that includes the African-American males, gay men, Hispanic men,
anyone from the Middle East, and -- until recently -- American
Indians. This process of delaying treatment or the use
of drugs stems from anti-drug disorder (ADD2).
- Finally,
the last option a patient has to obtain a drug is to proactively seek
that drug out. If a patient is a chemist, they might be able to
make it themselves. There are many approaches, but the two most
most prolific in our culture are to: 1) Buy drugs from an online
pharmacy; if they are not available there, 2) Stand on any street
corner and wave both hands and head in a circular motion.
Chances are, the first person that asks what you're doing will be an
independent staff member of America's second pharmaceutical system,
prompted by Richard Nixon.
Once the patient has the medication they
need, it is up to them to use the medication responsibly. They can
chose to either take the medication according to a schedule or they can
abuse the medication. DUE will enable every US citizen to have
greater control over their bodies, their medicine cabinets, and their
lives. It will not only enable them to develop a better
rapport with physicians, but it will make them part of the decision-making
process. With greater awareness, the DUE graduate will be capable of
preventing medical malpractice, communicate with physicians and
pharmacists, detect drug interaction, maintain a healthier lifestyle,
provide CPR and life-saving assistance to anyone, including aging baby
boomers and generations thereafter.
|
|
Copyright C 2008