The Language of Drug Pushers and Pimps

Misleading medical professionals and profiting from the import of dangerous drugs into the state, the pharmaceutical industry has a lot to answer for

The following article contains information regarding the alarming realities of opiod use and contains links to material which may be disturbing.

If you or someone close is struggling with opioid addiction, call the Alcohol and Drug Information Service on 1800 250 015

Bannister Law Class Actions (BLCA) is investigating a potential class action against the makers and distributors of opioid pain treatment drugs in Australia.

Bannister Law is calling for consumers and concerned doctors who purchased or prescribed opioid treatment products such as OxyContin, OxyNorm or Fentanyl between 1 April 2014 and 20 January 2020 to register for a potential consumer class action below.

The purpose of a potential class action would be to seek compensation for consumers who purchased these medications and who suffered financial loss due to the addictive proclivity of these drugs.
For further info follow this link:
https://bannisterlaw.com.au/opioid-pain-treatments/

What Frightens Me So Much About Opioids

Recently I visited a young friend who had been abusing opioids. If I had not been there he may well be dead today. When I left I feared he may be in imminent risk of an overdose, so I left him two different overdose kits and made sure someone was watching him. The next day I got a call. Turns out his flatmate did indeed use the overdose medication and it may have saved his life.

To fully understand the power of this addiction, watch this reel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgtW1gVbr5Q

The Day I met the Man Responsible For Bringing OxyContin into Tasmania

I was doing some activist work, writing about the class action mentioned above to inform the public that they are calling for people to come forward on a public blackboard in the middle of a town square in Hobart, Tasmania, when a man approached. He was a very friendly, unassuming man in a golf hat.

He claimed to be the very man who approved the use of OxyContin in Tasmania. Just came right up to me and declared it. Now, he's a smart man. Although he was smiling brightly, he must've known how I would feel about that considering what I was writing on the board. I looked at what I was writing, then looked at him and amazed by the gall of the man I said "really."

He went on to say "we know about the dangers of these drugs now" with a dismissive wave of the hand. He said they were now VERY excited about all the NEW treatments that were available for psychiatric treatment, such as MDMA and psylocibin. The penny had dropped: he read from my look that I was probably an ex drug user (or a current one) and probably fall into the category of people my age who are feeling vindicated right now about the use of these drugs in medicine. For these people the prospect of the legitimate use of these drugs frames their own drug use in a new and positive light: self-medication.

Suffice to say I am NOT one of these people. This is what I said to him: "I'm personally a fan of Social Psychiatry" he started backing away immediately "You know. People like Loren Mosher (See: The Soteria Experiment)? I personally feel before we start DRUGGING people, we should first, at the very least, make sure they are not being actively FUCKED with. Because there's a lot of that going on and no-ones talking about it. If a person is unwell because they are being ABUSED every day, perhaps we should address that before we go DRUGGING people. You know what I'm talking about. Mothers, carers, support workers. There's a lot of undiagnosed psychopaths around and we don't ask questions because they have MONEY. Instead we drug their kids, their elderly parents. No-one ever questions these monsters!" He began backing away like he was a vampire and I was holding a cross.

Pharmaceutical Companies Deliberately Mislead Doctors

Watch this reel to see how they did it with OxyContin. She says you'd have to be a trained data scientist to catch it. Personally I can't believe doctors, who we trust to be intelligent and scrupulous, would fall for this trick:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y305az3PQLk

Addiction to Pharmaceuticals is No Less Harmful Than Street Drugs

All opioids are dangerous and addiction to prescription drugs can lead to more dangerous drug use.

Profiteering Off Human Suffering

I feel the same way about the man that I met that day as I do about about corporate accountants that help the rich rob the public purse. Profit motive blinded him from seeing the harm he was causing.


To get an idea of how I feel about people profiting off human suffering, watch this video. I feel the same way as Prem Sikka:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqK4B6nf0KE

Profit motive is no excuse. People say it's just supply and demand, but that's the language of drug pushers and pimps.

A Barrier to Social Justice

Extract from Robert Whitaker & Lisa Cosgrove's 'Psychiatry Under the Influence'

“As Kriss observed in his article [in which he reviews the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM) as if it were a work of fiction], the DSM locates problems within the biology of the individual. This, in turn, is an understanding that encourages society to ignore social factors that may create mental difficulties for so many.

If depression, anxiety, and other psychiatric symptoms arise from neurotransmitters that are out of whack, then society–much like the individual patient–is not prompted to consider the social context for the distress.

Perhaps the best example of this is how foster children are regularly treated today. Such children can be understood to have drawn the short straw in the lottery of life, born into a dysfunctional family situation, where abuse of many kinds may be rampant. Yet, such children today often diagnosed with a mental disorder. Society is no longer prompted to ask what happened to the child; instead, a diagnosis is made to designate what is wrong with the child. The child is informed that he or she is broken and “mentally ill.” Medication is offered as the solution, and this is so even though the medication may squelch the child's emotions and capacity to interact with the world. More disadvantages are heaped on the child, and all the while, society sees no need to create a nurturing environment for the child, one that would encourage the child to develop a new internal narrative of how he or she is capable of loving and being loved.

In this way, the disease model encourages society to turn a blind eye to the social injustices that may cause mental distress to so many. If anxiety, depression, or aggressive behaviours are due to a chemical imbalance, or a brain illness of some kind, then questions about lousy schools, poor wages, poverty, racism, and crime-filled neighbourhoods can be dismissed.

If a school doesn't set aside time for gym, art or music, and the child gets antsy sitting in a chair all day, then that is the child's fault, and not the fault of a society that would create such a child-unfriendly school day. The DSM, all too often, breeds societal hard-heartedness toward those who are suffering because of reasons related to social injustices, and mitigates the impulse for creating a more just society.”
~Robert Whitaker & Lisa Cosgrove's 'Psychiatry Under the Influence'

Link to Work Chronicles

 WorkChronicles.com

Motivations

The blackboard in the public square owned by the Hobart City Council where I've written hundreds of quotes from various books, mostly abut economic inequality, tax evasion and corruption

People have asked what motivates me to do what I do. I have read a lot of books on a very dry topic. That's not something someone like me usually does as a hobby. I get bored very quickly if I don't have a powerful motivation to drive me. So, what does it take to produce a person who behaves in this way? Well you take a reasonably well educated young lad and set him out on his own at 17. You give him the impression that if he works hard, is an honest, loyal employee, one day it will be rewarded. At every corner this fairly talented young man is given every reason to feel as if he is under-performing (by the spoiled brat children of business owners and the like. You know, the one's that get the promotions). When he looses a job, you make sure the support systems are geared also to inculcate the idea that if you are not succeeding, you are lacking in one or more areas. You continue to gaslight this person throughout his career at work, in his social circles (mostly by those same brat children, and their like. They did, after all, learn this behaviour from their parents) and every time he is told he is lacking in any area he doubles his efforts. Educates himself. Changes industry. Expands his skillset. You end up with a very talented, but insecure and disempowered young man who has skills in a variety of industries. Very easy to exploit, but highly valuable. Then you extract every last drop of value from this person, slowly reduce the buying power of his wage while increasing his rent on the other end. Make him feel responsible for his own exploitation at all costs. Then, once he finally burns out, strip him of his money, his possessions, his social status, his dignity, his social capital, everything he has and leave him stuck in third world conditions for 10 years with nothing left to do but educate himself about what the fuck just happened. And you get me.

I'm not representing “the people” here. Nothing so high-minded. This is personal. I wouldn't have the hubris to say I have the right speak for anyone else, or the arrogance to believe anyone wants me speaking for them. Someone asked me if I ever get “imposter syndrome”. I don't claim to be anything but a bum who reads books. I'm the mad person who scrawls writing on a blackboard daily. That's not a super high pedestal to knock me off, but feel free to try. I'm not stupid. I'm aware of what this looks like. I'm leaning into it. Besides, imposter syndrome is a middle class thing. It's hard to feel like an imposter when you have nothing. You kind of wish you were an imposter when you have nothing. It would be so nice if someone came to my house and said “oh, there's been some mistake, there was a mix up with the paperwork and we accidentally switched you out with one of the useless, unproductive, creatively dead, mindless sycophants. Quite frankly he's insufferable. So we're switching you around, he's moving in here and you get his house, his boat, his nightclub, his family and his trust fund. Can you please come and work for us, we've had a lot of staff meetings this year and our heads are now so heavy and unstable from all the red wine and cheese sloshing around that we've forgotten how to program the cash register and all of our customers are very, very angry.”

Why does the US support Israel?

 Michael Hudson on the geopolitical situation in the middle east.

https://youtu.be/9AeAfFfTqMk?si=S787X9Y1dtu9_ugH

Former Finance Minister in PwC Scandal

 

"As Finance Minister, from 2013 to 2020, Cormann oversaw — and was a fierce defender of — an explosion in taxpayer funds being directed to the “Big Four”, for jobs previously undertaken by the public service."

I've noticed that a lot of people missed the news about the PwC scandal, so to understand the gravity of this news, it needs to be put into context.

Here is the ABC's great expose "Shadow State" to get you up-to-date.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pduOqZPnqVc&t=1081s

So, now that you know what the PwC scandal is, how is the former treasurer implicated? Follow the link below.

https://theklaxon.com.au/oecd-boss-in-pwc-scandal/

Blackboard Quotes On Charity Fraud

Source: William De Maria, 'Trouble in the Land of Giving: Charity, Fraud, Welfare and the State'

You can find 'Trouble in the Land of Giving' available for loan from the Hobart Lending Library.

https://librariestas.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/library/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fSD_ILS$002f0$002fSD_ILS:1429611/one