Into The Vault: There's No "C" in Killer: Part 1

I had already touched upon what this entry will cover in a previous blog, but let me recap basically what is going to be discussed. Before any medication can be released to the public it must go through numerous tests before the Food and Drug Administration can give the drug it's official approval. One of the things that is studied during these tests is the addictive factor on patients. If the FDA feels that the drug has a rather high addictive factor, the drug will be labeled as a controlled substance. Drugs that are classified as controlled substances are closely monitored by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and in the wake of rising number of prescription drug abuse cases, we have seen the DEA, doctors, and pharmacists trying to put a tighter grip on these controlled substances. This is a good thing that most of us like to hear, but monitoring controlled substances is not enough. An overdose of an antibiotic or cough medicine can be just as harmful as overdosing on Vicodin.

Unless you count the laws pertaining to the purchase of pseudophedrine, the average person is generally uninformed about the potential dangers of non-controlled medications. A few months back there was some widespread panic among people, when it was revealed that taking a high dosage of Tylenol may cause liver problems. For years, the effects of acetaminophen, the key ingredient in Tylenol has been known to potentially cause liver damage. Therefore I've decided to take it upon myself to make the public aware of the over-prescribing and overdosing of non-controlled medications that often go under the radar. I did a little research of my own and found some pretty interesting things, which I will gladly link for you at the end.

For the first part of segment, we will be taking a closer look at the overuse of Over-The-Counter (OTC) drugs. We will look at the major plot hole in the "Combat Meth Act", which put pseudophedrine behind the counter.

The most commonly abused OTC drug is Tylenol, which kills roughly 500 people a year. However, some people don't always realize that they might be overdosing especially if they're taking a medication that they don't realize has Tylenol in it. In fact, Tylenol is found in Percocet,Vicodin (and all of it's variants), Darvocet, Excedrin, and Sudafed. Tylenol PM is the result of mixing Benadryl and Tylenol, which is a potentially deadly mix in itself. So if a person gets his tooth pulled and takes a Tylenol and a Vicodin to ease the pain then they're most likely taking double the maximum daily strength. So does this mean we need to make it a controlled substance, absolutely not. However, I think there should be a much greater effort to make people aware of it's effects on the liver. When a person goes to the local pharmacy to pick up Tylenol, they should be told about the effects of the drug on your body.

In 2006, the Combat Meth Act was passed, which put all medications that contained pseudophedrine behind the counter and puts a limit on how much of it a person can purchase. Unfortunately, there's a loophole in the system. There's only a limit on how much pseudophedrine ONE person can purchase, which means that a person can send someone else in to buy pseudophedrine for them. There has been a lot of talk about making pseudophedrine drugs prescription only and I'm in full support of it. Making customers show Id and sign for the medication is not enough and there are still plenty instances of pseudophedrine abuse cases. Let's say that pseudophedrine laws were perfect and people weren't able to scheme of ways to get an overabundance of it. There's no heavy limitation on products containing Dextromethorphan (DM), which teenagers have also found uses to get high from. This leaves me with a puzzling question. Why is it so much of a hassle for a patient to buy pseudophedrine products when Robitussin DM, features a tiny warning label? If Tylenol Severe Cold and Sinus and Robitussin DM can be used in potentially harmful way, both of them should be placed behind the counter. Dextromethorphan doesn't have any limits on how much a person can purchase and even if a person gets the max amount of pseudophedrine, a person can have a field day with the no limits on how much Robitussin DM they can purchase. I'm not suggesting to make Robitussin a prescription only medication, but the laws have to be tighter because prescription and OTC drug abuse is pretty high compared to other illegal substances.

Tylenol, Pseudophedrine products and Dextromethorphan products are just a number of OTC products that can be deadly if used improperly. It's important to always ask questions about the medications that you put in your mouth. If you would like to find out more information on OTC drugs and other statistics check out the links below.

For information on all medication check out medline plus.
http://medlineplus.gov/

SAMHSA - Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association.

NSDUH - National Survey on Drug Use & Health

This has been Ian Feldman speaking words of wisdom.

Into The Vault has a Rain Delay

I've put the Into The Vault on a short rain delay due to a lot of stuff that has been going on in the past few days. Maybe I'll be able to get it up either tommorrow or monday night by the latest.

Anyways school is back in session, which will give me a lot more material to cover. Also The Banner, the official newspaper of The College of Staten Island just had it's first meeting for the Fall semester and the paper is going to be fantastic this year.

This has been Ian Feldman speaking words of wisdom.

Just A Teaser

Before the FDA releases any medication to the general public it must pass through the DEA in order to determine, whether it's effects are strong enough to warrant a controlled substances. If the DEA classifies a drug as a controlled substance, than it must go through a certain process of being labeled and monitored. This puts a limit on how much medication a patient can receive, how much of a certain drug can the physician prescribe and how much pharmacies can dispense of a given medication. The DEA does this to keep everyone in check and most of the time it works. Since controls and narcotics are what they are, doctors, pharmacists, and the DEA, in general, try to keep a closer eye on these medications and luckily the problems have slowly subsided over the past year.

However, I wish I could say the same thing for non-controlled medications. Since non-controlled medications are what they are as well, the DEA specifically does not put enough regulation on these medications and that's a problem. A simple, improper dosage of an antibiotic or a cough medication can do just as much damage as an over-prescribing of Vicodin. The over-prescribing of antibiotics and OTC's has been bugging me a lot lately. I think this calls for another trip into the vault and see what happens when your body takes too much of that bubblegum flavored Amoxil. While we're in there, we'll take a look at medications, like Tramadol, that for some reason the DEA won't classify them as a controlled substances. Remember, there's no "C" in killer, so sometimes what society prefers us to take may not always be the safest choice.

Until tomorrow, this has been Ian Feldman speaking words of wisdom.

Ian Rewrites The New York Post

There comes a time when I start to question if the media is really serving the interests of the American public. Then I remember why I started this blog in the first place. It irritates me when I come across a newspaper tries to be serious hard news source, while in reality it's just a half step above a tabloid magazine. The New York Post is definitely a newspaper that comes to mind. A number of people criticize the Post because of it's extreme conservative viewpoints but their political stance doesn't really matter to me. My problem with the Post is that it has the mentality of a 10 year old and is a serious version of the Sun. The New York Post, like the Daily News is a tabloid newspaper and both like to jump all over novelty stories. However, The Daily News does a much better job with taking prominence and impact into consideration when structuring their paper. This was evident when I scanned the Friday edition of both the Post and Daily News. having taken a journalism class, I was disgusted with how the New York Post was structured. In fact, it has led me to start a brand new segment called "Ian Rewrites the Post." Although the title explains the purpose of this segment, this is the opportunity for people to see how the New York Post could be smartened up. Maybe Rupert Murdoch can gain some good tips from this.

Ian Rewrites The Post.

First, look for the Friday, August 21 edition of the New York Post. Click here to look at it online.

Ok so yesterday's front page feature two articles. The top was one titled Skank War, which is about a feud between a model and a blogger. The second is about a subway theif, who wears a Boston Red Sox cap. First off, does a feud between a blogger and a model really need to be front page material. I know it's a case of committing libel but I'll make it plain and simple. There was no actual malice committed because it was an opinion. Anyway, this is not a groundbreaking story and we're going to cut it from the page and leave it on the side.We also have the Red Sox robber story. Now this might be more important considering he's committed 13 robberies since January and this Red Sox cap is the only thing we know about hm. However, there might be bigger stories so let's cuts this out for now but we can always put it back.

We open the paper and on the left hand side, is an article about 5 ways Obama can save on Health care. Opinion articles should never be on page 2. Whether it's a political or social issue, it goes in the op-ed section and that's where we're going to put this article in the op-ed. So what do we put in it's place? The best bet is to do a local story that will effect enough people, but not everyone. Most people tend to ignore Page 2 for some reason and that's why you rarely see your major stories there. I think the ending of cash for clunkers might do very well.

There was a small article about the Clintons on vacation in Bermuda and this is the Post when they're in their tabloid mode. This is nothing for us to be concerned about. Hillary's taking a break and the Clintons are rekindling whatever they have left. All this really need is the picture with a nice detailed caption. Speaking of tabloid stories there was also another photo of Gerard Butler throwing Jennifer Aniston into a trunk for a new movie. This little tidbit story only has the novelty value to rely on and even that's not strong enough. So this is going to be cut altogether. In fact, I think Page Six should be a pullout. It'll save the Post space and a lot of money.

Here's my favorite part. We turn the page and there's an article about Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, a Libyan terrorist, who was released from prison on Thursday and greeted with cheers from his homeland. Al-Megrahi was responsible for blowing up a Pan American Flight in 1988, which killed 270 people and he was released since he was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer. I want to know why a story about a train thief or a libeled blogger is more prominent than Scotland's decision to let a terrorist walk free. You don't have to answer that question because it's not. So we're going to take this article and make it our front page story. I like the headline "Cheers For a Monster" and the photo of him stepping out of the plane is great. Maybe we'll put the lede on the front page too. So that's done.

On pages 6-7 we find our former front page story, which takes up a full two pages. I think this is a good time to point out that the Daily News did not have this story. So if the Daily News didn't cover than chances are it's not that important. So this story will be pushes back a few pages as a nonsense local news story. So what do we put here? Well we can wait and see if there's another interesting story or we can put the front page story right here. Let's hold off and go to the next page. There's an article about Plaxico Buress, who will face two years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted gun possession. I'm quite disappointed that this wasn't on the front page as the Post usually loves this stuff. Buress has one of the quickest rise and fall to power in the sports world and this isn't major news. I know that carrying around an illegally owned gun is not as hard hitting as Michael Vick's cruel treatment of dogs but it's still big news. A story like this earns the bottom bar of the New York Post. Hey I would have been happy if it made the bottom bar of the sports page but it wasn't and shame on the post. Anyways, we're going to put this story on page 5, where the Libyan terrorist article had been. The Plaxico issue can be delved in further in the sports section. We're going to put our cover story on pages 6-7. On Page 9, we can put the story about the train robber and that's how you fix up the Post. Pretty much everything else is fine the way it is. I know it's not a lot of changes, but what I did alter really changes the perception of the Post.
Feel free to comment on my version of the Post and tell me which do you prefer? Try having some fun on your own and see if you can rewrite today's Post.

This has been Ian Feldman speaking words of wisdom.

Three Days Of Peace, Music, and Townhall Meetings?

The bitter war on health care reform remains a dark overcast on a weekend that commemorates Woodstock and it's messages of peace and love.



Since the beginning of the summer, people have sported peace signs and flowers in anticipation of the anniversary of the Woodstock Festival, which started 40 years ago this weekend. However, the aggressive debate on Obama's Health Care Reform makes the message of spreading peace and love seem dismal right now. The Obama plan, which pushes for a nationwide health care system and would require patients to receive a mandate, has been getting a lot of sharp jabs, as many Americans fear that their loved ones might have to be placed on a waiting list for them to be treated. This has lead to a number of town meetings, where people feel they have to yell and scream that Obama wants to take away certain medical priorities.Ironically, not all of these protesters were against Obama during the election. If this is the case, why are so many democrats waking up now and realizing that this is a bad idea.

I think many people still don't understand every aspect of the Obama Plan and this is one of the reasons why there is so much anger and protest. The public should have more access to the parameters of the Health Care Plan and it should be explained in simplest forms how each parameter will be executed. I don't think that the Republicans and Democrats at these town hall meeting are clearly explaining the parameters of the Obama Health Care Plan. In fact, both sides seem to be egging on these protesters even more and it's becoming too ugly.

When it comes down to the truth, the Obama Health Care Plan is not much better than our current health system. In fact, Universal Health Care is one of my criticisms of the Democratic Party. The number of Americans who are able to enroll in Medicaid and Medicare are at a high. The following is statistics taken from the 2008 New York State Medicaid Data Book. As of July 2007, a little more than 4 million New Yorkers were enrolled in New York State Medicaid. 28% of New York State health care expenditures were going to people with Medicaid. About 18% of Health Care Expenditures in New York are going to people with Medicare. That means almost half the money used for Health Care in New York is going to people with either Medicaid or Medicare. However, our current health care system is not that much better and we can't expect the perfect resolution to come quickly.

It's upsetting to see a cancer patient shell out $140 for medication and the worst part is that they have no choice but to take that medication. Who's to say that a cancer patient will get a break under the new Obama Health Care plan? Maybe the Health Care Plan will be better for Americans as a whole or maybe it will destroy Medicaid recipients. I wish I had a simple answer to solve our health care situation but I don't. What I do know is that people have to stop screaming and protesting on both sides of the fence and listen to what people have to say. There should have been protests and questioning on this scale when we noticed problems within our economic system. I just don't see the point of all the arguing and yelling, which will get people nowhere.

Woodstock will always be remembered for the music, the messages, and the legacy that it has left on American culture. However, what we sometimes forget is that Woodstock was all about the listening. The music, the messages and the legacy were made specifically for us to listen to during a time where America was unsure of who to listen to. Now we find ourselves once again in a time where we're unsure of who to listen to and it's important for us to find something to listen to. I therefore would appreciate it if all readers could post in a civil manner how you feel about Obama's Health Care Plan? How you feel about our current Health care system? and What suggestions you might have to improve Health Care in America? SO please don't hesitate to comment and make your friends and family aware as well.

While were in the Woodstock mode here's a couple of things for you to hear.

The Who - Tommy Set



Crosby, Stills, and Nash - Woodstock



This has been Ian Feldman speaking words of wisdom and love.

The Power Of Love: Pharoah Sanders

I'm someone who always like to discover new music and share it with others, who may be interested in having a listen. Recently, I have discovered jazz musician Pharoah Sanders and there's one song in particular that I've become addicted to. I discovered the song at my brother's music concert back in May and Jazz Band performed an amazing rendition of it. The song is titled "The Creator Has A Master Plan." Paul Corn, the AP of the music department at my brother's high school has described the song as being "spiritual, but not in a religious sense." The repetitive jazz progression sticks in your head for a long time and it's a song you'll want to hum over and over again. The original recording runs a little over 30 minutes and I was able to find a 19 minute version of the song. The song sounds much better when it's played live. This summer, I had the pleasure of hearing my brother play it in his jazz improv group up at camp. Anyway, I'll attach the video for you to listen to and tell me what you think. Click on the title of the song for a different version.

Pharoah Sanders - The Creator has a master Plan
Uploaded by blackmoon0808. - Explore more music videos.

This has been Ian Feldman speaking words of wisdom.

Sweeping Things Underneath The Carpet

One of the biggest stories within the past few weeks was the tragic car accident on the Taconic State Parkway, which left eight people dead. When the story first broke, it was certainly a bizarre situation. A woman, who was complaining of dizziness, drives the wrong way on a expressway and collides with another vehicle. Then yesterday it was revealed that a bottle of vodka was pulled out of the wreckage. Police have said that the woman was drunk and stoned while driving her car. Strangely everything makes a lot more sense now. A few thoughts came to mind when I first read this. Newspapers seemed to be thinking the same thing this morning. Diane Schuler, who killed her daughter, three nieces, three people in a SUV, and herself, should have never been allowed behind that wheel, especially with children in the car.

Some people are not going to be happy with what I'm about to say, but there's no way that the family had no idea about her drinking or drug problems. The husband is still sticking to the claims that she was not well.Even if that was the case why didn't she wait for someone to help her. Maybe she didn't want the EMT's to see her dilated pupils. The family is continuing to push these problems underneath the carpet and that's where I start to have problems. There's a reason people say it's bad to hide things and this is an example of what happens when you let negligence become a guilty conscience. Had the husband or the brother put their foot down and made sure that those children were safe, there's a good chance that those eight people would still be alive today. It wasn't some freak accident that could have not been premeditated. Someone had to know that this woman suffered from all of these problems and whoever that person is, they will have to live with the guilt for the rest of their life knowing they allowed a person in that state of mind to get behind the wheel of the car.

It also raises the question should we be able to take away a license from someone if we feel that they'll be a danger on the road. I think it would be a difficult task to enforce because you can't always judge a person's state of mind. This story will continue to make the front page as more things develop and I'm sure that the toxicology reports will uncover more details. When I heard the new development of the story yesterday, it totally shook me that this was all because of stupidity and negligence. I hope that Schuler's family hires an excellent lawyer because the family of the other three people killed have a pretty strong case.

This has been Ian Feldman speaking words of wisdom.