As a pharmacist, I can totally agree with most of these last couple of posts. One of the little talked about national crises is antibiotic resistance. Streptococcus is one of the few bacteria still susceptible to penicillin. Bronchitis, sinusitis, pneumonia?? dont even try it!! The biggest reason for this is the complete and total overuse and misuse of antibiotics. People go to the doctor/ER with a 2 degree fever for a day and a half and wont leave without a script for micoxisphalin (also the "technical" name for Viagra) is crap. Fever is the body's natural way of fighting infection. Viruses (ie cold,flu,enteritis) cause just as many infections and ALL THE ANTIBIOTICS IN THE WORLD WONT DO SHIT AGAINST THEM.



There are a lot of scam artists, abusers, junkies and just flat out liars that go into a prescriber's office saying "oohhh myy backkk hurts" and gets a script for Vicodin. But what is really sad are the people that do have legitimate medically justifiable need for these heavy painkillers like Oxycontin that cant get them because many pharmacies wont carry them for fear of beoming a target for the abusers or worse armed robbers.
What happens when someone is on these medications for a long period of time what happens when the patient requires higher and higher doses of the medication is called tolerance, not addiction. When someone goes through withdrawal after voluntarily or involuntarily stopping the drug, this is physical dependence. Neither of these are addiction in the clinical sense. Addiction is actually a psychiatric diagnosis involving that MAY involve tolerance and dependence but the biggest difference is the seeking behavior. Doing whatever one must to get that next fix. Lie cheat steal, ignore family, friends,work, hiding your use/abuse. Sound familiar??? Anyone try to quit smoking out there?? That is an addiction with a physical dependence component.

Personally, I think Rush is a loud mouth opinionated close minded pig but I do listen to him on occasion because he irritates the hell out me most of the time and I hope he gets through this personal nightmare mentally and physically intact. Life would get too boring without that fat SOB!