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You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Friday Evening Open Thread: Changing the Drug Laws

Friday Evening Open Thread: Changing the Drug Laws

by | 101 Comments

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Given what I know of Jackal demographics, I’m guessing most of us are familiar with at least some of these drugs, and many of us are prescribed one or more of them.


Speaking of chronic pain reduction…

From the Washington Post, Possible easing of marijuana restrictions could have major implications

If a recommendation by the nation’s top health agency to reclassify marijuana is adopted, the drug could gain wider acceptance as a medical treatment, pot businesses could see their bottom line boosted and a path toward national legalization could be charted, experts said Thursday.

The Department of Health and Human Services this week recommended that marijuana be removed from the category reserved for the riskiest drugs, such as heroin and LSD, and moved to one for certain prescription drugs. The decision to reclassify marijuana ultimately resides with the Drug Enforcement Administration, which could take months to complete its evaluation.

The nonprofit Veterans Cannabis Project has long pushed for veterans to get broader access to marijuana to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and chronic pain. Its founder said the HHS recommendation to loosen restrictions offers hope that the federal government will signal that marijuana has medical value.

“This is huge,” Nick Etten, founder of the veterans’ group, said. “This is what we have been working toward for years.”

While the measure would stop short of full national legalization as many had hoped, it has the potential to help struggling cannabis companies in states where marijuana is legal and could remove barriers to scientific research into the health benefits of the drug, experts say…

The week’s HHS recommendation became public nearly a year after President Biden, in a presidential first, asked the health agency to evaluate whether marijuana should be reclassified. If the DEA follows the health agency’s recommendation, marijuana would be placed in the same category as anabolic steroids, ketamine and testosterone — which can be obtained with a prescription…

Reader Interactions

101Comments

  2. 2.

    bbleh

    Republican consultant: “It’s bold, it’s unexpected, it’ll totally blindside the Democrats!  First, we let the states outlaw abortion.  Then, we fight for higher drug prices.  It’s a one-two they’ll never see coming!”

    McConnell:   …     …

    Senate lackey: “Okay I guess it’s settled then.  We’ll distribute the talking-points tonight.  Thanks for coming everyone.”

  5. 5.

    topclimber

    You play up this story in the BJ equivalent of a Friday news dump? I guess you are just another pundit who finds the worst way highlight a Biden win, to wit:  when the last weekend of summer begins.

    I thought you were a more effective lib-pusher than that, AL. If you are as bad as it looks, I suppose this comment will need the mark of snark. Before this, I figured you would know without my saying.

  6. 6.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Remember the TN DA who promised to prosecute a local Pride event because it would include drag queens — despite a federal judge previously blocking the TN law. (The DA had claimed the ruling was only specific to the jurisdiction in which it was issued.)

    A fellow federal judge was not amused.

    U.S. District Court Judge J. Ronnie Greer issued a ruling blocking Blount County District Attorney General Ryan Desmond from enforcing Tennessee’s “Adult Entertainment Act,” at a festival celebrating the Blount County LGBTQ+ community on Saturday.

    Greer’s order said Desmond cannot enforce, detain, arrest or seek warrants to enforce the act and cannot interfere with Blount Pride’s festival.

    That said, what are the odds that the DA goes ahead anyway. Because Republicans only follow court rulings when they feel like, amirite.

  7. 7.

    jackmac

    I’m looking at the names of these drugs (none of which I need to take, yet) and it reminds me of the weird names that IKEA gives its various products. Who makes these names up?

  8. 8.

    MattF

    Yeah, I took Xeralto for a while, when I had a blood clot in my leg. My sister also took it after a blood clot. It’s a blood thinner, preferable to warfarin (i.e., rat poison)— fewer interactions with other things, which is an important consideration when you’re taking a handful of different pills every morning. My sister and I ran into the same problem with it: physicians don’t really have well-defined criteria for when to stop taking it.

  10. 10.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    LINCOLN, Neb. — The largest crowd to witness a women’s sports event filled Memorial Stadium on Wednesday, as 92,003 fans watched the five-time NCAA champion Nebraska volleyball team beat Omaha 3-0.
    ***
    This was paid attendance too. Tickets for the doubleheader were originally priced at $25 for adults and $5 for high school students and younger. But ticket prices reached as much as $400 on the secondary market.
    (photo) 👀

    IOWA CITY, Iowa – Season tickets for the 2023-24 University of Iowa women’s basketball team are sold out, the announcement was made Monday by the UI Athletics Department. It is the first time in school history the program has sold out Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

    (photo)

    Title IX at 50

  16. 16.

    Sister Golden Bear

    To add to Friday night news dump:

    Dem Kentucky Gov Dodges On Senate Vacancy Law Requiring McConnell Be Replaced By Fellow Republican

    A reporter asked Beshear on Thursday whether, if McConnell were to step down, he would choose a replacement from one of three nominees selected by the state Republican Party, as the statute requires. “There is no Senate vacancy,” Beshear responded at the news conference.

    Beshear’s remarks raise questions about whether the governor might challenge the 2021 law and seek to appoint a Democratic senator. He vetoed the statute after the state’s Republican legislature passed it, calling the bill “unconstitutional.” The legislature overrode Beshear’s veto.

    Also too, Muskrat confirmed to his biographer that one reason he bought Shitter was to attack trans people after his trans daughter came out, cut ties, and disowned him.

  17. 17.

    M31

    so that one Proud Boy got 18 years, and another got 10: the one who got 10, this is what his wife said

    (Via HuffPo)

    During his sentencing, Pezzola’s partner, Lisa Magee, wept as she gave a statement to the court.

    “In no way am I making excuses for Dominic’s actions that day,” she said. “As I said on the stand, he’s a fucking idiot.”

  18. 18.

    Marcopolo

    Interesting side point about moving MJ off of Schedule 1.  NPR was talking to a scientist who does research on how using pot affects humans.  Because it is a schedule 1 substance she has to go through all kinds of administrative hurdles to get it from the one gov’t sanctioned supplier. Once procured it must be stored w/ pretty high security protocols & access to it is highly regulated in the lab.  The final kicker: the product that they could go out & buy at a dispensary is much more potent than what they can get from the official gov’t source (lol, and cheaper).  Pretty sure the subtext of the interview was researching how pot affects us is too damned hard & only has limited value under current conditions.

    personally, the advantage for me would be I could use my credit card when I go to the local dispensary to by edibles for my mom instead of having to carry around several hundred dollars in cash.

  19. 19.

    Percysowner

    Just to note that there are actually some decent businesses out there United Workers of Seven Seas Vote to Ratify First Contract With Seven Seas Entertainment Basically the employees of Seven Seas, a small but growing publishing company, decided they needed to unionize. Seven Seas started by hiring a notorious union buster attorney and then one month later fired him, recognized the union, without them having to vote, and negotiated a contract. Companies that do the right thing should be noticed.
    ​

  22. 22.

    Marcopolo

    @M31: saw that.  a couple of legal pundits said behavior like that might (should) have a negative effect on the two who are still waiting on sentencing (Tarrio & Nordean).  Sure hope that’s true.

  23. 23.

    Quaker in a Basement

    I recognize a couple of the drugs named on that list–and they desperately need to have their prices negotiated down.

  24. 24.

    M31

    @Marcopolo: yeah, at least one of them cried and begged for mercy and said they were reformed and then when they got their (reduced from recommended) sentence walked out with their fist in the air going “TRUMP WON”

    lol yeah, right, loser, enjoy the slammer

    I think one judge said something like “well, they have 13 years to rethink that”

  27. 27.

    japa21

    From Big Pharma

    They’re giving a single government agency power to arbitrarily set medicine prices with little accountability, oversight or input from patients & their doctors—with consequences long after this administration is gone.

    I am missing something. How does “negotiate” become “arbitrarily set”?

  28. 28.

    Ken

    @jackmac: The ending of the generic names encodes some information about the class or effect of the drug. For example all “-caine” drugs are local anesthetics, all “-olone” drugs are anabolic steroids. Then the developers add one or two syllables to the front of that to get a unique name.

    Brand names are from a drug company’s marketing department, and can be anything.

  30. 30.

    cain

    @Marcopolo:

    I think being able to use our credit cards is going to be the big thing.

    But also, there is going to be some serious consolidation as small companies start buying each other up. We’re going to probably be see a major cannabis company that will be upcoming.

    What I want to make sure is that we are able to keep our plants because that’s going to be important.

  31. 31.

    Baud

    @japa21:

    If they don’t agree on a price, then the drug company has to leave Medicare.  They don’t want to do that because Medicare is very lucrative for them.

  32. 32.

    Another Scott

    There goes Biden, being all reasonable and competent again. Where’s the drama??!!

    I think most of us have known stoners at various points in our lives. While it’s vital to rationalize the drug laws and remove the draconian punishments and take away the money and the markets from the cartels, it’s good to be careful about regulating this stuff, because it does seem to have outsized effects on developing brains and we need to understand more about it. Science.org:

    Hurd put up a slide of the human brain, its bumps and grooves tinged blue, green, yellow, and red to indicate the distribution of the receptors to which tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, binds. She showed how they exist throughout the brain—in the folds of the cerebral cortex, where much of cognition lies; the cauliflower-shaped cerebellum, the seat of motor coordination; the hippocampus, Grand Central for memory; and the amygdala, a crucial hub for emotional regulation.

    The receptors, said Hurd, who heads an addiction research lab at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, are “really critical for so many processes in the brain.” And when a person uses cannabis—in any of its edible, dabbable, smokable forms—the drug overwhelms them and disrupts their ability to calibrate neuronal activity.

    That, in turn, can be profoundly problematic for the developing brain, Hurd’s research suggests. She sees growing evidence in the field that cannabis use puts children and adolescents at risk for a variety of psychiatric problems, from dependence on that drug and others to schizophrenia. In utero exposure, she believes, can ignite mental health problems in childhood and beyond. In studies with rats, human fetal tissue, and children, her lab has begun to uncover changes in gene expression, as well as alterations in the brain’s chemical communication systems and wiring, that may underlie some of these effects.

    Hurd’s work is especially compelling because she has been able to link results across species, colleagues say. “It’s so hard to be able to go back and forth between animal models and effects in humans,” says Susan Tapert, an addiction researcher at the University of California, San Diego. “She’s really one of the leaders in the field in being able to pull those very different kinds of studies together.” Tapert agrees the evidence for harmful effects on the developing brain are concerning, although she says the harm likely varies widely from one individual to another. The risks for adults are lower, she says, as the drug’s influences on memory, mood, sleep, and motivation tend to wane within about a month of discontinued use.

    Of course, many, many things are bad when taken to excess. And many drugs need to be carefully titrated to have the beneficial effect without causing problems. Maybe free-for-all “dispensaries” aren’t the right model for cannabis distribution. Maybe “state stores” are the way to go, for some transition period. Dunno. But we’ve seen how the “free market” loves to go nuts with psychoactive compounds (tobacco, vapes, alcohol), and how they love marketing to kids….

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  34. 34.

    M31

    @narya:

    I don’t either, and I was able just to X out the captcha and login windows and just watch it

    (Firefox browser on a Mac, YMMV of course)

  35. 35.

    Elizabelle

    Here’s a sweet story of a drug in canine form:  Scout the rescue dog decided he was living at a nursing home in Bellaire, Michigan.  No ifs, ands or buts.

    He makes the residents very happy and, eerily, can tell when a resident is close to passing away; gives them extra attention.

    Gift link from the WaPost.  The Detroit Free Press covered the story earlier.

    WaPost:
    Dog kept escaping shelter to sleep in nursing home. Staff adopted him.

    In most rescue animal adoptions, the adopter picks their pet. In this case, the canine in question chose a new home all on his own.

    Scout was staying at the Antrim County Animal Shelter in Bellaire, Mich., when he started sneaking out to Meadow Brook Medical Care Facility — a nursing home across the street — in the middle of the night.

    “He climbed the chain-linked kennel,” said Heather Belknap, the shelter director, explaining that Scout — who weighs about 65 pounds — was indoors, and scaled a fence to get outside. “There’s a six-foot solid vinyl fence around the dog kennels. He jumped over that fence.”
    … Scout’s first nursing home break-in was back in 2017. He leapt over two fences and crossed a highway, then sauntered into the nursing home lobby through an automatic revolving door and parked himself on a brown-colored couch.

    … Staff at the nursing home adore Scout, but the residents are especially pleased to have a pup around. In fact, in February, they voted at a monthly council meeting to crown Scout “Resident of the Month.”

  36. 36.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    @cain: When you think about it, this mania is occurring in the  heartland, making it impossible for the haters to dismiss.

    If you build it they will come.

  37. 37.

    narya

    @M31: Thanks–unfortunately I had already clicked through that . . . but I switched browsers and it worked. And I’m glad it did!!

  39. 39.

    Mai Naem mobileI

    @M31:  Pezzola’s partner Lisa Magee also said 1/6 was for social justice in a 2021 interview. She’s finding out letting her common law husband be the sole breadwinner in her Proud Boy marriage may not have been such a good idea.

    Proud Boy Dominic Pezzola’s spouse claims Capitol riot was a ‘social justice … https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a7VOWk7OhPs

  40. 40.

    cain

    @Another Scott:

    I think there is reason to be concerned and definitely education is required for kids to realize the potential harmful effects of cannabis when taken too early.

    Once federal labs are able to do research we might see all kinds of different kinds of research.

    I did magic mushrooms last weekend – it was interesting. It didn’t do anything for me – meaning I didn’t get any of the psychoactive or hallucinogenic stuff. In fact, I was bored. My wife was going through stuff though – heavy stuff. It really benefited her from a mental health perspective. For me it just felt like marijuana – which also doesn’t do anything for me.

    All these drugs are in schedule A because of racism anyways.

  41. 41.

    BC in Illinois

    @jackmac:

    I’m looking at the names of these drugs (none of which I need to take, yet) and it reminds me of the weird names that IKEA gives its various products. Who makes these names up?

    Not IKEA – – Harry Potter.

    Two of my g’kids have Hogwarts wands. Whenever I want to cast a spell with them, I go for familiar names:

    ” Acetaminophen ! ”   ” Metoprolol ! ”   ” Atorvastatin ! “

    The kids don’t know the difference.

  43. 43.

    JPL

    @cain:  He can get out in a few years only if trump won and pardoned him.  It’s federal court so good behavior only counts a little

  44. 44.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Holy fuck, I came here to say, “Call me when they get to Xarelto.” and it’s #3 on the list. Thank you Joe, soon I hope I won’t won’t have to skip my blood thinner every 3rd day because once a week just isn’t enough.

  48. 48.

    RevRick

    @Baud: Big Pharma is deathly afraid that if Medicare can use its market power to negotiate prices, that the private insurers will demand that they get a similar deal, just as they do with other Medicare rates. They also recognize that they are standing on thin ice with the general public if word gets out about 1). The prices charged in Canada and Europe; 2). How much they spend on advertising; and 3). How much execs make and how big their profits are.

  52. 52.

    Roger Moore

    @jackmac:

    Who makes these names up?

    The manufacturers’ marketing departments come up with the trade names; there’s a special industry body that comes up with the generic name.  It’s actually harder than you think.  They have to avoid names that mean anything in any language but that still sound like real words and won’t be confused with anything else.  In some cases, the drug has to have multiple names, either for different markets or for different purposes.  For example, one of the drugs I’ve worked with a lot has different trade names in the US and Europe.  Some of the diabetes drugs that are being repurposed for weight loss have to have different names when prescribed for the different functions so people will be able to tell why it was prescribed by looking at the name.

  53. 53.

    SW

    Ban advertising for prescription drugs.  Besides being nauseating and exploitive they are where a large fraction of the money goes.  It would be interesting to compare their advertising to their research budgets.  Not a pretty picture.

  54. 54.

    Another Scott

    @Michael Bersin: Thanks for showing up, and for the report.  It’s important!

    Of course he got your name wrong.  Folks like him get just about everything wrong…  :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  55. 55.

    Jay

    @Marcopolo:

    here, at the “pot” store, cash, debit, credit cards are all used.

    But here, it’s regulated and legal, (and affordable). A weeks worth of edibles is 20% less than a box of wine.

    When we watch “Border Security”, (not under the influence), we always LOAO at the “Merkins who try to cross the border North, with pot.

  56. 56.

    Roger Moore

    @Marcopolo:

    Pretty sure the subtext of the interview was researching how pot affects us is too damned hard & only has limited value under current conditions.

    That’s exactly right.  Pot has been in a weird catch 22.  Since it was a Schedule I drug (no accepted medical use, high potential for abuse) it was unnecessarily difficult to get it for scientific study.  Because it was difficult to study, it was almost impossible to prove it had medical value and get it off Schedule I.  Of course it had only been made Schedule I for political reasons, so it’s not too surprising it requires political action to get it off Schedule I.

  57. 57.

    Viva BrisVegas

    Price negotiation, isn’t that what they call Capitalism?

    The Republicans can always try to argue that they now hate Capitalism as well as Socialism. That would leave them left with Cronyism.

    By coincidence the Australian government has halved most prescription medicine costs starting today.

  60. 60.

    Jackie

    Interesting; too bad she won’t switch parties!

    ”A Utah Republican running for a U.S. House seat in the Beehive State is poised to pull off a special election shocker.”

    “Becky Edwards, who voted for Joe Biden and bucks the GOP’s position on reproductive rights, is among three candidates competing in Tuesday’s GOP special election primary for Utah’s 2nd Congressional District.“

    “And Edwards is the frontrunner according to a Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll with 32 percent of respondents saying they plan to vote for her.”

    “The special election is being held to replace outgoing Rep. Chris Stewart, a Republican in his sixth term who is giving up his seat amid his wife’s health issues.”

    “Edwards’ House candidacy has attracted national media attention, according to the report.”

    “Since GOP gerrymandering eliminatedUtah’s only competitive House seat in 2022, the contest to replace Stewart’s safe Republican seat had gone largely under the radar.”

    “But Utah’s second district could end up electing one of the lower chamber’s most interesting new members: A Republican who expressed concerns about the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and who openly urged Republicans to vote for someone besides Trump — although neither are issues Edwards is putting front and center to voters in a district that includes a broad swath of ultra-conservative rural Utah.”

    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/becky-edwards-donald-trump_n_64f1edbce4b02f61505e9014

  61. 61.

    coin operated

    The thing that pisses me off the most about pot being a Schedule 1 drug (no medical benefits) is that we have known FOR DECADES that cannabis products have medical benefits.  One of the first class of patients to go thru clinical observation were cancer patients. One of the first things they teach you in nursing school is ‘food is medicine to a sick patient’ and those who used cannabis had better outcomes because they were able to maintain their appetites thru chemo.

  62. 62.

    frosty

    @cain: ​IANAL but I think I’ve read here that it doesn’t work that way for Federal sentencing. 13 years is 13 years inside.​

  63. 63.

    Delk

    I take Entresto and am glad to see it on the list but honestly, let me know when the $3000.00+ a month hiv drugs I’ve been taking for 30 years gets negotiated.

  65. 65.

    Michael Bersin

    @Another Scott:

    It’s funny. I showed up with my gear (cameras, tripod, audio recorders) wearing a vest with a clearly visible media ID. I introduced myself to the lead staffer, stating my name and the blog name.

    I’m not now, nor have I ever been, a Democratic Party chair (note that he used the term “Democrat Party”) for the congressional district nor the county. I have not been a member of party committee for more than a decade.

  67. 67.

    Another Scott

    @Michael Bersin: rofl.

    I mean, sheesh.  He’s really, really embedded in his tribe, isn’t he?  A blogger covering local politics just has to be an opposing party big-wig in their world, because that’s the way it works for them.

    [groucho-roll-eyes.gif]

    Thanks again.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  68. 68.

    Bill Arnold

    @japa21:

    I am missing something. How does “negotiate” become “arbitrarily set”?

    A community note on that tweet says exactly that. Also that it is only for Medicare.

  69. 69.

    Roger Moore

    @SW:

    Besides being nauseating and exploitive they are where a large fraction of the money goes. It would be interesting to compare their advertising to their research budgets.

    It’s instructive that the drug companies are always talking about how expensive it is to bring a drug to market rather than how expensive it is to develop and approve it.  Bringing it to market includes all the marketing as well as the actual R&D.

    That said, the R&D costs vary wildly.  Research is inherently unpredictable.  Sometimes you get lucky and find something easily, and sometimes you spend decades before finding something that works.  Clinical trials also vary wildly.  A drug that makes a big, obvious difference for an acute condition (e.g. a drug that prevents fatal hemorrhaging in accident victims) might take only a few dozen patients and a few months to prove its worth, while one that makes a modest improvement in a chronic condition (e.g. a anti-cholesterol medicine) might take many thousands of patients and several years.  The longer the trial and the more patients, the more expensive the trial.

  70. 70.

    oatler

    @Another Scott:

    Sounds like the “gateway drug” theory promulgated by Dragnet (and Biden).

    We were exaggerating last time when we said pot is more dangerous now, but THIS time it’s the truth! 

  73. 73.

    Roger Moore

    @SW:

    The thing with the different naming is for insurance companies.  If they see someone was prescribed Ozempic, they know it was for diabetes; if it’s Wegovy, it’s for weight loss.  It’s the same active ingredient, but the name is different.

  74. 74.

    OverTwistWillie

    I’m down to talk to my doctor about Rybelsus…

    Loved that GenX actor in the porkpie hat.

  76. 76.

    Ruckus

    I’m an old fart and I’ve never heard of any of those drugs. I looked them all up and either I’m lucky or whatever but I have none of the problems they help. That’s not to say all is well in Whovile, as an old fart, I have issues and some of them actually revolve around my physical health. Some of them seem to be there just to fuck with me. It is possible that the two things are one and the same…..

  77. 77.

    Bill Arnold

    @Another Scott:

    Of course, many, many things are bad when taken to excess.

    Like ethyl alcohol. Of the few childhood/young adult friends who died from drug use, they all died due to ethyl alcohol/auto accidents. (Also an adult friend of family died of liver failure.)
    Kills roughly 140K per year in the USA, with men about 2/3s of the total.

  79. 79.

    M31

    @Jackie: that race in Utah looks very interesting?

    I mean, it shouldn’t be surprising — essentially one-party states like MA end up with conservatives running as Dems because that’s their only chance, maybe it can happen to the GOP as well

    lol or maybe this is the new wave of GOP pol that will sweep away all the Magats and usher in an era of sanity

    hahahahaah, just about the same time that monkeys fly out of my butt

  80. 80.

    Roger Moore

    @coin operated:

    Part of the problem with cannabis is that it conflicts with the FDA paradigm.  For legal, historical, and institutional reasons, the FDA really wants drugs to be something that can be made from a defined set of well characterized ingredients.  There is supposed to be one or a small set of active ingredients that can be demonstrated to have a well defined level of purity and potency.  Those are then compounded with inactive ingredients into a drug product.

    Something like cannabis, which has a whole host of possibly active compounds and varies tremendously depending on cultivar and growing conditions, goes against that and was always going to have trouble getting regulatory approval.  To get it through the drug approval process, somebody had to isolate and purify a single active ingredient that could be tested like any other pharmaceutical.  That actually happened, and Marinol, a drug based on THC, was approved.

  81. 81.

    Elizabelle

    @JPL:  Happy that you did!  Scout has definite sweet Walter vibes.

    @Jackie:   and Miss Bianca:  I teared up at the story too, and usually don’t.

    Who is a good dog, Scout?  (PS: the dog is no slouch as a fundraiser, either.)

  82. 82.

    Jackie

    @M31: Should she actually pull off the win, I hope she has a thick skin and the fortitude to ignore the MAGA  bitches – especially since she openly admitted to voting for Biden!

  83. 83.

    Robert Sneddon

    @OzarkHillbilly: I just looked on the UK’s NICE website for Xarelto. The NHS pays £180 per 100 tablets for the 20mg formulation (the strongest offered). Of course under the NHS the price to the user is capped at £10 per prescription, assuming they are English and not exempt from paying (seniors, young people, disabled, chronically sick, pregnant etc.). In Scotland and Wales there is no charge at all for prescription drugs for everyone.

  84. 84.

    Ohio Mom

    As I recall, the IRA has a provision that caps each Medicare enrollee’s drug spending at $2,000 a year starting in 2025.

    It occurs to me that up until now, I never thought about how the expenses above $2,000 are going to be covered but maybe these negotiations over these horribly over-priced drugs are part of the equation.

  87. 87.

    lowtechcyclist

    @coin operated: ​
     

    One of the first things they teach you in nursing school is ‘food is medicine to a sick patient’ and those who used cannabis had better outcomes because they were able to maintain their appetites thru chemo.

    Let’s hear it for the marijuana munchies!

  88. 88.

    Ang

    From the PhRMA tweet –

    “They’re giving a single government agency power to arbitrarily set medicine prices with little accountability, oversight or input from patients & their doctors”

    So I should be unhappy about having no input or oversight? Can anyone tell me what input on drug prices I had before?

    Sounds similar to the health insurance industry’s warnings about ‘faceless government bureaucrats’ coming between me and my doctor. I’ll take the most stereotype government drone over an insurance agent whose quarterly bonus relies on how many denials they issue, working for a company whose profit margin and stock dividend is improved by _not_ providing the service I pay for.

  90. 90.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    This article doesn’t explicitly mention the Twitter purchase, but makes clear his anti-trans bigotry, and how it was tied to his daughter and his ex-girlfriend dating a trans woman. He’s been pretty explicit about his anti-trans hatred.

    On March 14, 2022 — soon after media outlets reported news that his ex-partner, the musician Grimes, had begun a relationship with transgender military whistleblower Chelsea Manning — Musk posted a digitally altered image of what looks like a pregnant man sitting under the words “Netflix waiting for the war to end to make a movie about a black ukraine guy falls in love with a transgender russian soldier.”

    In August, Grimes claimed that Musk’s transphobia stems from his concerns over “fertility issues” caused by gender-affirming medications.

    At the start of Pride month, Musk said that he “will be actively lobbying to criminalize” gender-affirming care for trans youth, supporting transphobe Jordan Peterson’s suggestion of “Prison. Long term. Without parole. No mercy. And maybe for the compliant ‘therapists’ as well as the butchers they enable.”

    The second specifically talks about how he bought Twitter to combat the “woke mind virus” that “infected” his daughter. British press and all, but I’ve seen the same reports from more reputable sources.

    Musk claims he was initially supportive of his daughter after coming out — despite her telling others not to tell Musk — and that it he was only angry at her because she cut ties with him because her school indoctrinated her into thinking “she went beyond socialism to being a full communist and thinking that anyone rich is evil.” But this is Musk’s version of events, and he says a lot of things, like that one his babies dying in his arms (which the mother says is a lie).

  93. 93.

    Michael Bersin

    @Another Scott:

    Years ago, the communications director of Mark Alford’s (r) predecessor (Vicky Hartzler) directly asked me how much Hartzler’s then Democratic challenger was paying me to cover the challenger’s campaign. I was almost flabbergasted.

    Habitual grifters only perceive the world in terms of grift.

  97. 97.

    Ruckus

    @jackmac:

    The names at IKEA aren’t weird, they are just a different language, that sounds really different to an American ear.

    I say, go with the flow. It’s a big world, give differences a chance.

  98. 98.

    Chris T.

    @jackmac:

    Who makes these names up?

    Marketing.

    Every drug—okay, almost every drug—has three official names these days: there’s a chemical name using the IUPAC naming scheme; then there’s a generic name like “frunevetmab” (this one’s on my mind because one of our cats gets it now), and then there’s the marketing name.

    The marketing people spend a lot of money (they have huge budgets that dwarf pretty much all the other budgets within the drug companies) to determine which names “sell”. A few decades ago, the letters C, V, X, and Z were Magical Power Totems, which gave us names like Plavix (two totems) and Vioxx (three totems!). It seems some of these have fallen somewhat out of favor lately; J must be on the upswing given Jardiance and Januvia.

    Xarelto might win a special exception award for the “power X” rule (though I won’t be quite so gracious myself) because it’s a Factor Xa (Ten-A) Inhibitor, part of the 12-step Blood Clotting Cascade and hence an anti-clot drug given to people suspected of clotting issues (ischemic, or æschemic if you’re British, strokes or DVTs or whatever).

    Jardiance is an SGLT2 inhibitor, in a class called “gliflozins”, and specifically has the generic name empagliflozin. It retails for $550 for a 30-day supply today. What would you bet that once Medicare is negotiating for it, the retail price drops to about $50?

  99. 99.

    Chris T.

    @Marcopolo:

    personally, the advantage for me would be I could use my credit card when I go to the local dispensary to by edibles for my mom instead of having to carry around several hundred dollars in cash.

    Several hundred, yikes, how much do you get at once?

    (My local dispensary’s price on the discount days runs to about $2 per edible dose; Spousal Unit finds the CBG stuff to help with numerous medical issues.)

  100. 100.

    Chris T.

    @SW:

    Ban advertising for prescription drugs.

    Already done in most first-world countries. The two big exceptions are the US and (alas!) NZ.

  101. 101.

    Glidwrith

    @SW: I’ve seen the cost charts when I worked for J&J, easily 100x more money put into marketing than any R&D dollars.

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