One of the addictive kingpins of the (p)harma-quackery industry and the corrupto FDA are benzodiazepines (aka benzos), such as Valium Halcion, Klonopin and Xanax. Pill pusher “physicians” are prescribing these toxins as catchall drugs for the ailments “anxiety” and insomnia. Prescriptions written for five of the most commonly prescribed benzodiazepines — alprazolam, clonazepam, diazepam, lorazepam and temazepam — totaled over 126 million, according to data reported by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Growing numbers of the sheeple and pajama people are also using these drugs for pain. The drugs are so effective at inducing “sleep” that abusers fail to wake up. Benzos are highly addictive and can be fatal, especially when combined with alcohol or opioids — two more widely abused substances.
In the latest sign of the drug’s impact, the number of overdose deaths involving “benzos” rose from 0.54 per 100,000 in 1999 to 5.02 per 100,000 in 2017 among women between the ages of 30 and 64, researchers report Jan. 11, 2019, in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. That’s a spike of 830 percent, surpassed only by increases seen in overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids or heroin.
Large parts of the U.S. population are polysubstance ingesters. The enabling quack profession of malpracticing “doctors” are prescribing benzos and opioids in tandem. Opioids contribute to 75 percent of overdose deaths involving benzos.
Two harmaceuticals played a part in most of the cases, either alone or with other substances. Nearly 47 percent of E.R. visits involve misuse of benzodiazepines [SN: 2/16/19, p. 12], while prescription opioids [SN: 9/2/17, p. 5] were implicated in 36 percent.
Of the total cases showing up in emergency rooms, 53 percent also involved at least one other substance, such as alcohol or illicit drugs like cocaine, heroin and meth. Close to a quarter of the total estimated ER visits were cases in which patients were unresponsive, had stopped breathing or had suffered cardiac arrest, signs of a severe overdose, researchers report.
The misuse of prescription drugs and over-the-counter medications resulted in an estimated 358,000 trips to U.S. emergency departments in 2016 — and almost half of those cases involved young people ages 15 to 34, according to a new study reported online March 6, 2019, in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The study was based on data reported by a nationally representative sample of 56 hospitals during 2016.
Many young adults are underinsured or do not have a primary care physician. Nonetheless, the drug is so widespread because of the “pill for every ill” culture that they find ways to locate it for self-medication.
Alcohol, in turn, is a vicious cycle of self-medicating to counter benzo and opioid withdrawal. Ironically, benzos are prescribed for alcohol detox. They like to keep addicts coming and going. This is the medical “science and research” aka scientism that the plebs are supposed to without question bow down and worship. Perhaps there more to the spiritual side of human beings and these destructive addictions = than the scientists who have brought us these substances realize.
Benzo withdrawal symptoms are nasty and difficult. Any anxiety the individual was dealing with before exposure to this drug is amplified.
Just as alarming is the huge uptick in the number of synthetic benzodiazepines being imported and used in the U.S., or produced by dealers within the U.S. The user will buy it from a vendor on a Darknet market, or they will buy it on the street from a dealer making the pills themselves.
People involved in the distribution of these street drugs will normally purchase the benzo powder through an online source (either the Darknet or indexed web). They use a pill machine and binder to produce pills for their customers.
These designer drugs don’t use good controls, nor do they come with user instructions. Anybody who thinks they can tweak or calibrate benzo street drugs is deluding themselves.
Beyond the deaths and E.R. visits, here is a list of benzos’ affects:
Read “Threat to Whites: The Opioid Plague”
Winter Watch Takeaway: Avoid these harmas like the plague. Be very cautious toward doctors who prescribe them. The number of predatory and incompetent physicians can’t be underestimated.
Curcumin (tumeric) combined with black pepper is the product of choice for pain and anti-inflammation. For sleep, lavender oil has a soothing effect. Take a tablet of spirulina, chlorella and hop cone extract as a sleep aid. Thai massage will help what ails you. Increasingly this author has become a substance teetotaler- and I know longer consider that word a pejorative.
Pain pills do indeed help many people, but they also compete with CIA heroin. This is the reason behind the steady drive to reduce the amount of pain pills prescribed every year. The government is not interested in your welfare, but it does want your money.
Thank you for this important and timely article. A dear friend of mine was prescribed benzos (don’t recall which one) for anxiety after her sister was murdered. She never took more than what her doctor prescribed, but soon became addicted. Her doctor’s response was to increase the dosage. Eventually, she realized that she needed to withdraw from the drugs, and subsequently went through almost 2 years of hell, as she gradually lowered the dosage – apparently, a sudden stopping of the drug can be fatal. During her withdrawal, she suffered extreme anxiety, insomnia and depersonalization, among other symptoms. Fortunately, with the help of online support groups, supervision by a physician several hundred miles away, a supportive husband and her faith, she is free of the drug and doing very well, although still with some lingering insomnia. Some people are not so fortunate.
Thanks for sharing on what your friend went through with benzos. I’m actually going through that nightmare right now with my younger sister, who has Down Syndrome. She was given benzo for sleep due to the severe tinnitus from Lyme Disease. At that point, we were all extremely stressed by what we were going through with the Lyme, and we trusted the doctor and it turned into the greatest mistake of our lives. My sister was on the lowest dose of the poison for 6 weeks and had such horrible side effects that we had no choice but to withdraw her. Though doctors tell you that all you need to do is reduce the dose by 25% every two weeks, that’s not what happened. We had to take an extremely slow taper with many extended holds. She’s almost off the poison, but it has taken us 4 years. It was a literal horror show–worst experience of our lives. My sister endured emotional torture-the worst symptom was absolute terror. And of course, the rest of us were traumatized by having to witness her suffering. The prescribing doctor abandoned us, so we ended up joining benzobuddies,an online support group, which is the only reason we survived. Though we’ve been through hell, we’re grateful to have survived. I actually had 3 friends on benzobuddies, who (I believe) didn’t make it. And they keep all of this hidden. I’m actually a clinical psychologist and I was NEVER taught anything about how dangerous these drugs are. IMO, they should be banned.
Alcohol kept me in a self-desctructive, self-feeding loop for well over a decade of my life. I assume benzos would have the same general effect. Every weekend binging would lead to a week of nothing but shame, anxiety and depression and the only solace seemed to be found with another weekend of numbing mind and body. I lost my passion for everything else in life. Finally kicked it to the curb, luckily before almost losing everything important to me. Success and growth on a scale I have never experienced eventually followed. I can’t encourage people enough to quit booze/drugs. Exercising is great for getting good sleep. Sounds obvious, but your body needs to be tired to sleep. Good sleep leads to a host of benefits.
Our current “system” is to keep you enslaved to endless consumerism, excess consumption, escapism and debt. A good life is about bettering yourself, your environment and learning as much as you can every day. Its a cringey cliche, but you really do need to build a life you don’t want to escape from. Its short, so don’t waste it.
Very well and very honestly stated – thank you; I find it not at all “cringely”. Indeed, Emerson hardly said it better: “the only good that any man can obtain he must get by the cultivation of himself”.
Earlier, I was going to note the critical link between exercise and good sleep. Also be aware of how TV and video/internet can disrupt at a neural level falling asleep. Turn it OFF as early as possible (if you can’t turn it off period).
Sobriety is resistance! – Starting with psycho-pharama, illegal drugs, alcohol, and pot – then medi-pharma (if you can) and all the way to OTC – the post supplies some natural substitutes.
I fully understand that none of that is easy – particularly psycho-pharma (that’s the point) – once on that path, escape may be impossible.
Saw a video – wish I had the link – where an MD psychiatric-skeptic discusses the logical absurdity that there even COULD be such a thing as a pharmacological “mood enhancer”. One that lasts 2,3 months? (with some of that being mere placebo/hawthorne effect) – Yes – but not longer… which is why all the psycho pharma trials only last 2 or 3 months … they get their positive results – announce the good news to the world and the marketing commences.
I am looking for data on year-on-year prescribing trends for this junk: say Q3 2019 vs Q3 2020?
I like all what you’ve said with one exception. As a highly experienced massage therapist myself (40+ years), and having trained in more than one massage method over the years, ultimately creating my own, I must at least warn your readers about the potential danger and harm of “Thai” massage to the body.
This is a physically “aggresive” and “forceful” massage technique and although those who are very fit physically, or athletic, can “get away” with receiving a “Thai” massage and not sustain an injury as a result of it, there are far safer and better massage techniques to be on te receiving end of, and whose health benefits far surprass anything that a Thai massage can offer.
I use the term Thai loosely. There are about dozen choices, and I do not care for a pounding. I also point out spots where I have old injuries. They have a toe popping routine that can be risky, so pass on that.
Off topic!
AstralZeneca has a most important thread on Twitter today on the contrast between the conclusions of Nietzsche vs Dostoevsky. I myself would even incorporate Kierkegaard’s ideas into the mix as well, but AZ does a great job at burrowing into dilemma that those who are ‘beyond good and evil’ face in our destitute and godless postmodernity. Only those who wrestle in a similar fashion can relate to a Raskolnikov or a Zarathustra!
https://twitter.com/FlightAstral/status/1381641349955526658