Tag: drugs

So ask yourself today: Could I have elm blight?

Eli Lilly & Company were kind enough to put this brochure in my doctor’s office. Actually, what they did was fund the University of Michigan who did it. It has things all over it saying how approved by all doctors it is, etc.

As you’ll see it consists of wan, blurry folk-art people wondering if they might have depression or if their medical problems might be getting worse due to depression. The message is “you quite likely have depression even if you think you don’t”. The best part, I think, is the series of scripts for convincing your doctor that you need treatment.

Faux naive iconography and suspect language behind the cut:

scans

The End of Zero Tolerance: That 16th time

At least in the FBI.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5333345,00.html

My favorite favorite favorite quote:

Current rules prohibit the FBI from hiring anyone who used marijuana within the past three years or more than 15 times ever. They also ban anyone who used other illegal drugs, such as cocaine or heroin, within the past 10 years or more than five times.

“That 16th time is a killer,” McCaffrey said.

Brain notes

This set of brain adjusters (300 mg Wellbutrin XR, 10 mg Lexapro, 20 mg Adderall XR) is the best I’ve had. The combination of the Wellbutrin and the Adderall seems to jack my dopamine levels up to something like normal, and the Lexapro keeps me from completely losing my shit with anxiety fits or sliding into day-long fits of obsessive depression. I’m going to call that a win.

too much information about my psyche here

Junkie Nation update

Hurray, the new Microgram report is out! Highlights of this one include:

  • Heroin-saturated paper
  • Blotter acid with 5-METHOXY-ALPHA-METHYLTRYPTAMINE instead of LSD in it
  • Cocaine in granola boxes
  • Opium chocolates

Plus of course a dissertation on people who take multistate car trips buying the maximum quantity of Sudafed at each drug store.

It’s the bestest government publication ever. Infrequent, but syndicated as microgram so you can see when the next one comes out and click through.

BRAAAINS (dopamine mechanism)

Looks like I’m not the only one with issues about dopamine. My ADD/depression/anxiety/self-hatred galaxy revolves around the stuff, and of course it’s the mechanism of addiction. But these poor bastards found out that the medication they were taking for Parkinson’s disease was turning them into pathological gamblers.

When the drug was discontinued, the urge to gamble disappeared. The AP story is here at Salon.com and the full scientific article from the Archives of Neurology is here.

That’s a Holy Shit Moment, that a dopaminergic drug can cause that specific an addiction to a behavior.