Seems that drug overdoses deserve sympathy when celebs experience them. Its a conscious decision to take drugs so why should we sympathize when they keep making the wrong choice for themselves? Why should they be role models and why should they tell us about gun rights again?
Hollywood has always been anti gun, when will they be anti drugs?

I was thinking the same thing with regards to the opioid epidemic.  Had a D Senator on the radio this morning talking about pushing gun legislation to curb gun suicide.  Stuff like laws that allow taking away of firearms for folks deemed to be a threat to themselves.  The discussion was about with so many guns in this nation, how effective will that be.  Well, same can be said for opioid abuse and while that seems to be getting a bunch of attention, no real solutions.  "Must do something", but still doesn't get to the root of the problem, or a big part of it, being the medical industry. 

Celebs are full of it.

Calling for the removal of Trumps star, but no mention of Cosby or Spacy's star.

I look at ODing on a non-required drug (recreational use) as the users fault and gets no sympathy from me. 

Phillip Seymour Hoffman died from a heroin overdose after many years of use.

Heroin is illegal.

He's not the first celebrity/entertainer to die from it:

Janis Joplin

River Phoenix

Jimmy Hendrix

John Belushi

Jim Morrison

Sid Vicious

Cory Monteith ("Glee" series actor)

Robert Pastorelli ("Murphy Brown" series actor)

... and the list goes on.


These are just HEROIN deaths.

Heath Ledger died from an accidental OD of a combination of prescription drugs. 

Michael Jackson died from habitual use of propofol, lorazepam, and midazolam to help him sleep.  It was administered by his personal physician.

So, it really isn't limited to people who made choices to do illegal drugs.  There are risks when taking any kind of drugs/substances.  I'm sure there are millions who've died of ODs for every celebrity that makes the news.

I was thinking the same thing with regards to the opioid epidemic.  Had a D Senator on the radio this morning talking about pushing gun legislation to curb gun suicide.  Stuff like laws that allow taking away of firearms for folks deemed to be a threat to themselves.  The discussion was about with so many guns in this nation, how effective will that be.  Well, same can be said for opioid abuse and while that seems to be getting a bunch of attention, no real solutions.  "Must do something", but still doesn't get to the root of the problem, or a big part of it, being the medical industry.

I made a graph of suicide rates in the top 20 gun owning countries compared to those with the lowest gun ownership.  It's as if people can commit suicide without a gun. 



I have a patient on the Big Island now.  elderly with mental health issues.  Lives alone and literally starving to death because he has no food at home.  Trying desperately for the state to qualify him for a care facility for the past 5 months but they insist he has to see a psychiatrist first which is a multi-month wait. 

Take away peoples guns so they cant commit suicide but not fix the massive shortage for mental health facilities and providers in the state.  Sounds like a typical political idiot 

I made a graph of suicide rates in the top 20 gun owning countries compared to those with the lowest gun ownership.  It's as if people can commit suicide without a gun. 

SNIP

I have a patient on the Big Island now.  elderly with mental health issues.  Lives alone and literally starving to death because he has no food at home.  Trying desperately for the state to qualify him for a care facility for the past 5 months but they insist he has to see a psychiatrist first which is a multi-month wait. 

Take away peoples guns so they cant commit suicide but not fix the massive shortage for mental health facilities and providers in the state.  Sounds like a typical political idiot

Wow!  Great work tracking those figures!  That's awesome.  I had an Aussie friend who tracked similar data to analyze the "facts" of effect of Aussie gun laws.  No matter how solid the data, it will still get questioned and likely rejected by many.  Still love to see those kinds of studies though. 

Yeah, my dad is encountering health care issues.  Luckily he has sufficient savings and retirement that things are ok, at least for now.  But navigating the system is terrible, especially if you don't have many options, which sounds like the case for your patient.  Damn.  Some common sense should prevail in cases like that. . .