A Nation Obsessed Over the Wrong Drugs

March 14th, 2008 by SHAUN MULLEN, TMV Columnist

There is a confluence between our national mania for drug testing and the news that as many as 41 million Americans are drinking from water supplies tainted with traces of pharmaceuticals ranging from anti-seizure medications to mood alterers.

Americans are obsessed with drugs, but the wrong kind of drugs for the wrong reasons, and that’s not the half of it.

I understand the rationale behind drug testing nuclear power plant operators, to name an obvious example, but why are registered nurses and many other professionals required to regularly pee in a cup in order to be gainfully employed?

Because we get a false sense of security believing that Uncle Leo will get better hospital care if Nurse Nancy didn’t have a puff of marijuana the night before.

The trouble with this “logic” is that it is far more likely that Nurse Nancy is stressed out from too little staffing and too much mandatory overtime and has medicated herself to a faretheewell with sleeping aids, anti-depressants and stimulants to get through the day that may not be caught in a drug screen, and even if they are would not necessarily raise concern that she’s going off the deep end.

And that these very pharmaceuticals are turning up in increasing quantities in those municipal water supplies. Not at harmful levels for the time being, but the long-term consequences are disturbing.

The reason for this crisis in the making is that Americans are taking ungodly amounts of drugs and peeing or flushing away more and more of them in un-metabolized or unused form.

Please click here to read more at Kiko’s House.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 14th, 2008 at 2:56 am and is filed under Environmental Issues, Health, Society, Drugs. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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