First, you are conflating dependence and addiction. They are vastly different

Second, healthy people would rather have their heads clear most of the time. Out of 10,880 patients in the early 80s getting powerful narcotics in the hospital, there were only four new addictions. Four. Out of nearly eleven thousand. Think about that one.

Third, doctors are being heavily leaned on not to dispense these drugs to people in pain. Untreated pain is fatal, leading to social isolation, depression and suicide to make it all stop. You call the drugs "ample." They are, in fact, parsimoniously dispensed.

Fourth, adding layers and layers of bureaucracy to discourage people from seeking help with pain is driving them to the black market, supporting the most vicious criminal gangs worldwide, think about that one, too.

Fifth, all the drug war has done is suppress the safer drugs, encouraging the development of bathtub drugs like krokodil that no one, not even a desperate addict would touch if there were any alternatives available. Think about that one, too. All prohibition does is get you more of the same, only more dangerous forms of it.

The drug war, held so dearly by conservatives in both parties, is the most dismal failure of social, legal and military policy this country has ever had, wasting billions of dollars and millions of lives. You need to rethink your stand.

Andrew Lloyd Webber helps the Republcans update their debates

Concerned that viewership was dropping, the Republicans tapped him for help. And help, he did.

https://www.facebook.com/republicats2016/videos/1654433511472554/

Not on You Tube yet, so I can't link directly. Watch it, you won't be disappointed. It's from the foul mouthed knitters.

ETA: for the satire impaired, this is satire. All of it.

**LAST CALL FOR VITRIOL**

Only half an hour left to top up and hit the bricks, kiddies!

An Xmas song for the rest of us.

"But if we took the bones out...."

Someone has finally developed a credible recipe for frogless Crunchy Frog. I might have to try it one of these days: http://www.evilmadscientist.com/2009/but-if-we-took-the-bones-out/

ETA:

"Margaret, all I can say is a clown car pulled up to the Reagan Library

and a whole lot of stupid came tumbling out. And the one female representative on stage spent the evening lying while calling the front runner a liar. There were just too many asshats to talk about each of them, but here is my best attempt to talk about some of them…"

and does she ever! http://margaretandhelen.com/

Death toll after China blasts continues to rise, now at 44

The first explosion at about 23:30 local time (15:30 GMT) on Wednesday was followed by another, more powerful blast, seconds later. Shockwaves were felt several kilometres away.

The China Earthquake Networks Centre said the magnitude of the first explosion was the equivalent of detonating three tonnes of TNT, while the second was the equivalent of 21 tonnes.

Further blasts were subsequently triggered nearby, Xinhua said.

More + video at http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33900268

Pictures of some of the devastation at http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-33844086

Expect this one to keep getting worse.

Christian Shari'a

This article has everything: women as chattle, a shotgun wedding nobody wants, and marriage as equivalent to jail. Well, OK, the judge might have had a point there but it wasn't the one he thought he had.

Sharia Law, Texas Style: Judge Orders Man To Marry Girlfriend And Write Bible Verses Or Go To Jail (VIDEO)

Texas native Josten Bundy, 20, was facing a 15 day jail sentence for punching the ex-boyfriend of his girlfriend, Elizabeth Jaynes, 19, twice in the jaw.

For this crime, rather than getting sentenced to something productive like community service, Bundy was instead ordered to marry Jaynes. The probation agreement also required Bundy write Bible verses and get counseling, as well.

Jaynes noted that the Judge “embarrassed” her by forcing her to stand up, saying, “My face was so red, people behind me were laughing.”

She added:

"It just felt like we weren’t going to be able to have the wedding we wanted,” and, “It was just going to be kind of pieced together, I didn’t even have a white dress."

http://www.ifyouonlynews.com/weird-news/sharia-law-texas-style-judge-orders-man-to-marry-girlfriend-and-write-bible-verses-or-go-to-jail-video/

My own comment on the site where I found this is that the judge was considering his job security since he'll be presiding over the divorce shortly.

Ultimate July 4 dessert: the CHERBLUBLE!

I just wonder how much he had to drink before this looked like a good idea:

I'm heartily sick of the Social Justice Warriors on DU, that's for sure

Look, people, I'm old, really old, old enough to remember when "retarded" was the polite word that took the place of the pejorative "stupid," applied to children who were having a lot of trouble with school work. It was the first step on the way to differentiating things like dyslexia, autism, and other barriers to learning. It's only a pejorative to people who feel guilty for using it as such in middle school. Grow up.

I'm old enough to remember a lot of other words in colloquial English that were shorthand for groups of people that the SJWs on DU consider horrible, life threatening pejoratives.

I also notice these great warriors against colloquial English are always offended on the behalf of someone else who hasn't said s/he is offended, the SJWs apparently considering themselves the untiring champions of people out there who are just too stupid to know they've been mocked. I can tell them as a native born Florida Cracker, I am more offended by that than I am the word "cracker."

Now there are a few words that truly do offend people and I do avoid using them, calling people what they prefer to be called, which is usually their names.

Now I've used enough words in this post to give most of them serious cases of the Victorian Bowdlerist swoons and I am sure this post will be hidden. Go ahead, do your worst, some hides are definitely worth it, especially when they tend to increase readership.

Just realize that some day, when you are an elder, your language will be criticized by the young who think that the easy job of making war on words is vastly preferable to getting down in the mud to make war on real injustice.

That is all.