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An Alien Body

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Clarissa

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Purdue Pharma marketed Oxycontin as non-addictive, lying to doctors and consumers and saying that it couldn’t generate addiction because it wasn’t giving users a high. What I find incomprehensible is how people could trust these lies more than the evidence provided by their own bodies. 

I took Oxy a couple of times, long before I read Dreamland, heard about the opiate epidemic, or even knew Oxy was an opiate. I took a minuscule dosage and discovered that the drug was producing an immediate and noticeable high followed after a while by a very clear crash. 

And I got freaked out like hell and stopped taking the drug.

I’m sure there are people who don’t get an Oxy high. But those are not the ones who are likely to get addicted anyway. The ones who will get addicted because that’s how their brain is set up do feel the high because without it they wouldn’t become addicts. 

So the (entirely rhetorical) question I have is how alienated must one be from one’s own body to disregard what is an obvious sign of great danger and continue taking the drug all the way into a full-blown heroin addiction? People must see themselves as infants whose bodily functions are a responsibility of an adult. 

After a baby turns 1 year old, its parents begin to socialize it into taking control of its bodily functions. But it seems like too many people were never informed that the ultimate responsibility for their bodies is their own. 

9 responses to “An Alien Body”

  1. David P. Bellamy Avatar
    David P. Bellamy

    Cigarettes do not produce a high, but they are extremely addictive. Quitting was the hardest thing I have ever done.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      What do you mean? Of course, they produce a high. Blood pressure soars when you inhale smoke. The pleasure is especially intense after a break, which is why people always talk about the first cigarette of the day being especially pleasant.

      And when people combine smoking and alcohol, they play with lowering / raising blood pressure, which also gives them a high. This is why smoking is so linked to drinking.

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      1. The Dark Avenger Avatar
        The Dark Avenger

        Actually, there’s a research-based explaination of why they are linked:

        https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151027154958.htm

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        1. Clarissa Avatar
          Clarissa

          That’s exactly what I said. Alcohol drops blood pressure, nicotine raises it. And that sort of control is physically pleasing.

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          1. The Dark Avenger Avatar
            The Dark Avenger

            If you read the link to the article, you will find it says no such thing.

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            1. Clarissa Avatar
              Clarissa

              “Sleep-inducing effects” is another way of saying “lower blood pressure.”

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              1. The Dark Avenger Avatar
                The Dark Avenger

                The basal forebrain mentioned in the article regulates sleep:

                Acetylcholine is known to promote wakefulness in the basal forebrain. Stimulating the basal forebrain gives rise to acetylcoline release, which induces wakefulness and REM sleep, whereas inhibition of acetylcholine release in the basal forebrain by adenosine causes slow wave sleep.

                Adenosine acts on A1 receptors of cholinergic neurons in the basal forebrain. This results in hyperpolarization of cholinergic neurons, which inhibits the release of acetylcholine.

                The basal forebrain and adjacent areas are a focus for sleep research. Research, conducted by investigators from Children’s Hospital Boston and the University of Helsinki, ties together previous observations about sleep and finds that nitric oxide production in the basal forebrain is both necessary and sufficient to produce sleep.[1]

                https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal_forebrain

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  2. Benzion Chinn Avatar
    Benzion Chinn

    I read Dreamland a few weeks ago and loved it, particularly as so much of it takes place in Ohio, where I used to live. My problem with the book was that it did not seriously consider the extent at which government is to blame for this problem. The very notion of making certain drugs illegal has gotten people into the habit of thinking the prescribed drugs are safe when the chief difference between our Mexicans with their black tar heroin and the pharmaceutical company’s Oxy is that the later had better political connections to make their product declared legal. It is funny, I was once prescribed Oxycontin after I broke my clavicle. I ended up not using it because I was scared that it was addictive.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      I still haven’t finished but I agree completely. There was a grievous lack of regulation of what is an extremely dangerous drug. It’s incomprehensible to me how this is even possible.

      But still, what a great book.

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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