Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Speaking of racist outcomes... Link CHICAGO (AP) -- Emergency room doctors are prescribing strong narcotics more often to patients who complain of pain, but minorities are less likely to get them than whites, a new study finds. Even for the severe pain of kidney stones, minorities were prescribed narcotics such as oxycodone and morphine less frequently than whites. The analysis of more than 150,000 emergency room visits over 13 years found differences in prescribing by race and ethnicity in both urban and rural hospitals, in all U.S. regions and for every type of pain. "The gaps between whites and nonwhites have not appeared to close at all," said study co-author Dr. Mark Pletcher of the University of California, San Francisco. The study appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association. Prescribing narcotics for pain in emergency rooms rose during the study, from 23 percent of those complaining of pain in 1993 to 37 percent in 2005. The increase coincided with changing attitudes among doctors who now regard pain management as a key to healing. Doctors in accredited hospitals must ask patients about pain, just as they monitor vital signs such as temperature and pulse. Even with the increase, the racial gap endured. Linda Simoni-Wastila of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, School of Pharmacy said the race gap finding may reveal some doctors' suspicions that minority patients could be drug abusers lying about pain to get narcotics. The irony, she said, is that blacks are the least likely group to abuse prescription drugs. 10:04:51 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Yup, Democratic candidates are still racist Over at Daily Kos, I respond to kos' post. I expect some fireworks. Update: I think I shocked Alex. 3:12:04 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Progressives missing the boat Matt Stoller at Open Left is not happy with the Democratic candidates -- in part because the mainstream candidates are not addressing the real issues. The issues we are dealing with today - health care, jobs, even a war in Iraq - are literally the same issues we dealt with in 1992. How can that possibly be considered progress? A real progressive candidate would take an apolitical problem and turn it into a mainstream political subject. None of our candidates have done that. Here are five easily mainstreamable problems ripe for the picking. [...] Subject: End the War on Drugs Factoid: There are 1 million people put in jail for doing what Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and George Bush have done. Marijuana is America's largest cash crop, and it is responsible for around 225,000 arrests a year. Overall, the war on drugs incarcerates around 1 million people a year. Direct spending on the war on drugs this year is $50 billion dollars, about $600 a second. Around half of high school seniors have consumed marijuana (pdf). Simply put, why do some people go to jail for marijuana and cocaine, and others run for President? [...] Subject: End the cradle-to-prison superhighway Factoid: 2 million people are in prison in America, by far the highest total of any other country in the world. Think slavery has ended? Think torture is 'new'? Think again. With two million people in prison, and tens of thousands of sexual assaults every year, prison is a huge industry and a horrendous abridgment of the idea that is America. [...] The cancerous symptoms are all around us, and leading Democratic Presidential candidates are too corrupt and morally crippled to even begin talking about them. But we'll get there. Note: the comments section shows that Matt's got some strong disagreement within his readers regarding the "end the drug war" item, and that we've still got some major work to do. 9:59:12 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

When will we end the failed drug war? Here's a good article to start the New Year -- an excellent piece by Atlanta-Journal Constitution editorial page editor Cynthia Tucker Some four or so decades into an intensive effort to stamp out recreational drug use, billions of dollars have been spent; thousands of criminals, many of them foreigners, have been enriched; and hundreds of thousands of Americans have been imprisoned. And the use of illegal substances continues unabated. With the nation poised on the brink of a new political era, isn't it time to abandon the wrongheaded war on drugs? Isn't it time to admit that this second Prohibition has been as big a failure as the last - the one aimed at alcohol? [...] The nation's so-called war on drugs recalls that old Vietnam War phrase about burning the village in order to save it. It also brings to mind Albert Einstein's famous definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Our war on drugs really is a war on people. That's true insanity. Strong words from a major newspaper. 9:49:04 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Something in the air Snow, and the promise of change The New Year beckons 8:24:58 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []