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Comment Re:from the PoV of someone who has actually studie (Score 1) 455

The Police Guild in my city has been fighting tooth and nail to prevent a police ombudsman (civilian oversight) from having ANY investigatory powers at all. The Guild can prevent it because the city is too scared to let their employment contracts lapse and dissolve the police department for long enough to enact a mandate for civilian oversight.

Comment Re:Painkillers, HA! (Score 1) 217

News flash: Different people react differently to some things. Just because opiates left you in a fog doesn't mean they are useless for everyone. For example, I take enough opiates daily to kill a horse. I exhibit no mental side effects. If I don't tell someone I use opiates for pain control, they'd have no reason to suspect I did.

Your anecdote is a perfect example of why anecdotes are unreliable for any situation other than that of the person from whom they come. I'm the opposite of you. Opiates control my pain without mental side effects. Marijuana, on the other hand, has no effect on me. I can consume enough to get a half-dozen people high as a kite without any effect on me whatsoever. Honestly, I wish that weren't true, because opiates don't control gastrointestinal pain in me. I would be ecstatic if marijuana could control that particular pain, but it doesn't.

Comment Re:Reason for replacing opiates - functionality (Score 1) 217

Depends on the person. I take enough opiates daily to kill most people who are opiate-naive. I was foggy for about the first 3 months of using them for pain, and then the mental effects disappeared. Only those I tell have any idea that I take large quantities of opiates to treat chronic pain from surgical adhesions.

For others, the mental effects never go away. Being able to function normally on opiates depends largely on the individual.

Comment Re:Painkillers, HA! (Score 1) 217

It all has the same effect on the brain.

While most opiates generally have the same effects, different opiates have different levels of those effects. Ask anyone who has taken fentanyl and then needed to stop taking it whether it has the same effects as hydrocodone.

Different opiates are metabolized in different ways, and produce different quantities of various metabolites. Some even have different routes based on the user's health. Oxycodone, for example, has a higher k-opioid receptor response in diabetics, while in non-diabetics the antinociceptive effects are achieved through u-opioid receptors.

Additionally, the "brain effects" wear off for most long-term users when used to treat pain.

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