Media Dustup Pits Bloggers and Wired Against NYTimes

destinyland writes "Wired magazine ran a table listing the scientific effects of prescription drugs (and one illegal drug) — leading to an accusation from the NYTimes that they were 'promoting' drug use. But this routine controversy led to a fierce pushback online from bloggers and from Wired's reporter, who discussed his past drug use on his own blog and called for an honest discussion of scientific evidence and straight talk about medical effects."

Methamphetamine is NOT illegal!

[Ellis D. Tripp]

It is listed in DEA schedule II. Truly illegal drugs (like heroin and pot)are Schedule I.

Methamphetamine is available on prescription under the brand name Desoxyn:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desoxyn [wikipedia.org]

Re:Methamphetamine is NOT illegal!

[tshetter]

All DEA Scheduled drugs are legal given proper permits.

Schedule 2-5 usually only require a prescription from a doctor with proper DEA licensing.

Schedule 1+ can also be had, but with more restrictive DEA licensing.


Alexander Shulgin may be the best known for his DEA Schedule 1 license and his ensuing discovery of numerous psychoactive substances.

Re:when haven't we promoted drugs?

[morgan_greywolf]

Then I could write a story that says "MULTIVITAMINS WILL KILL YOU!!!!"

You could write a story right now. This study [ons.org] shows that, among other things, black pepper will kill you:

Black pepper has the scientific name Piper nigrum, which refers to black and white peppers. Individuals self-medicate (orally) with pepper to treat gastric, bronchial, and cancer conditions (Leung & Foster, 1996). Early evidence indicates that black pepper may protect against colon cancer (Nalini, Sabitha, Viswanathan, & Menon, 1998). Conversely, Singh and Rao (1993) found that black pepper induces the enzymes that cause liver tumors (el-Mofty, Khudoley, & Shwaireb, 1991). Aspiration of large amounts of black pepper has caused deaths (Cohle et al., 1988; Sheahan, Page, Kemper, & Suarez, 1988). Typical doses range from 300-600 mg or as much as 1.5 g per day (Gruenwald et al., 1998); 0.25 tsp is equivalent to 1.25 g dry weight. Treat this herb with caution.

Re:when haven't we promoted drugs?

[stickystyle]

Yeah..but they are the ones that came up with name aspirin

Re:LOLOUTRAGE!!1!11!

[Bullet-Dodger]

Wired is wrong to promote drug use, especially stuff like meth. I work with recovering addicts and believe me, some gullible young kids ARE swayed by this sort of stupid publicity by those self-appointed arbiters of coolness.

Yes, wired promoted using meth by saying it causes "Parkinson's-like symptoms, addiction, stroke, psychosis, prison, death" and "Prolonged use can also make you stupid and crazy.".

How dare they make it look so cool and sexy!

Re:Methamphetamine is NOT illegal!

[Anonymous Coward]

Any schedule drug is illegal without a Rx, not just schedule II. If you are found with any schedule drug by an officer, it better be in the bottle and you better have a valid Rx.

I'm a pharmacist.

Re:"like heroin and pot"

[chubs730]

The problem with B is that a Schedule I drug rarely will have the opportunity to be accepted in medical treatment in the US, despite overwhelming evidence in support of it. (See motor disorders for marijuana).

Drugs similar to heroin (including morphine of course) do have accepted medical use in the US however, and heroin itself does in the UK. Both of these drugs can be safely used under medical supervision, but heroin is far more harmful to the body than marijuana.

You could also attribute all three of these to caffeine if you wanted to, it's potential for abuse is far higher than that of marijuana.

Re:when haven't we promoted drugs?

[joelSantaguida]

I took Ambien, prescribed, for a year. It messes with you so much, and you have to take larger doses as you progress. I couldn't sleep for 3 months after I stopped taking it. My Adderall had the same effect. And with hemp, if you speak of the unsmokable male plant, can grow 7x faster than corn, replenishes the soil, and would put a lot of industries under.

Re:when haven't we promoted drugs?

[Domo-Sun]

Unlike pot, vitamins are necessary for living. No one disputes that ODing on iron, vitamin D, etc. presents dangerous side effects. Likewise, vitamins don't have an abuse risk, while there are people who get high constantly. So why can't people report that without hippies getting outraged.

Re:when haven't we promoted drugs?

[Domo-Sun]

That's because it was hard to administer weed to animals. Advances in administration showed that it's addictive and the animals experience withdraw. Can't find the study at the moment, but you should never say never.

issue of cross-sensitisation of cannabis/opioid receptors [newscientist.com]
"research in rats suggests that using marijuana reduces future sensitivity to opioids, which makes people more vulnerable to heroin addiction later in life. It does so by altering the brain chemistry of marijuana users...rats that had been given THC during adolescence had a significantly altered opioid system in the area associated with reward and positive emotions. This is also the area linked to addiction."

Re:"like heroin and pot"

[notdotcom.com]

Nicotine is not a harmful drug???

Since when? Not only was Nicotine used widely as a pestacide (because of its toxicity), but it's one of the most dangerous drugs that the public are exposed to. 40 1/1000th of a gram is considered potentially deadly to a human. (40mg)

The LD50 of nicotine is 50 mg/kg for rats and 3 mg/kg for mice. 40â"60 mg (0.5-1.0 mg/kg) can be a lethal dosage for adult humans.[11] [12] This designates nicotine an extremely deadly poison. It is more toxic than many other alkaloids such as cocaine, which has an LD50 of 95.1 mg/kg when administered to mice. Spilling liquid nicotine on human skin could result in death.[13] [Wikipedia.org]

Sure, yeah, um, "not a harmful drug" in what sense?

Re:You wouldn't like me when I'm angry...

[Miseph]

Fun fact: many 'roids shrink your junk.

Kind of puts the whole thing in perspective, doesn't it?

Re:when haven't we promoted drugs?

[Domo-Sun]

In drug studies, they need to get the animals to self administer. There is a study, which I can not find at the moment that talks about this. I don't care what other countries have legalized. Weed has some heavy-duty side effects. Period.

Addiction is a definition in the DSM-IV or somewhere though I don't have all the details, it still has been demonstrated to be addictive. Maybe it's less addictive based on your criteria compared to heroin, but it also excites areas of the brain associated with addiction, and addiction is addiction, however much you'd like to minimize that, relatively.

Re:when haven't we promoted drugs?

[YeeHaW_Jelte]

No, it wasn't. It was a deliberate effort on the part of the British to addict as many Chinese as possible to enlarge their influence there.

What's your point? Not all drugs should be legalized because some are very addictive? I don't think GP ever said we should.

Re:when haven't we promoted drugs?

[StarfishOne]

What is it about drugs that set people on edge?

I believe the late Terence McKenna [wikipedia.org] said that it was basically the fact that drugs break down boundaries that makes it threatening to ehmm.. certain 'cultural values' and 'power structures' (politics, religion, etc.).

An interesting point that he raises is that drugs that make us more productive 'in the factory', like coffee/caffeine, are promoted, while drugs that bring us 'as close as possible to the Bardo [wikipedia.org] while still being able to return' (paraphrase) are not promoted at all.

Think DMT [wikipedia.org]: our bodies produce it naturally(!), it's not addictive and it brings out the wildest psychedelic properties. It is however one of the most illegal substances known to man...

I'm not sure in which video this was mentioned, but probably 'The World and its Double'. I've got no time to find the exact fragment, but I believe it was in one of the following videos which are great anyway!

Terence McKenna: The World and its Double:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiFD8pM4Mcs [youtube.com]

Terence Mckenna - Culture is your operating system:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c8an2XZ3MU [youtube.com]

Terence McKenna in Seattle 1999_Culture is NOT Your Friend:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOy3H4yyocQ [youtube.com]

Heroin isn't harmful to the body

[Kattspya]

Heroin gets you constipated. It's not dangerous to the body in and of itself. Look it up, you won't find any physical side effects other than constipation and perhaps itching. It's addictive as hell but its side effects are very mild compared to most other drugs.

Re:Link to Wired article?

[CmdrSammo]

Don't think anyone has linked it yet:
Original wired article [wired.com]

Re:when haven't we promoted drugs?

[Ellis D. Tripp]

They also invented and trademarked another well-known drug. It is technically known as diacetylmorphine, but you probably know it better under Bayer's tradename--HEROIN.

Re:Methamphetamine is NOT illegal!

[Anonymous Coward]

The increasingly-liberal interpretation of the "interstate commerce" clause of the constitution, post-dates the alcohol-prohibition era. In 1919, no one could have imagined that, so they bothered with amendments.