Wasping

A new recreational drug is taking flight among the meth heads:  bug spray.  More specifically, the budget party crowd is using spray that kills wasps, which can be inhaled or injected for a cheaper high when the top-shelf meth is presumably not available (this has actually been going on a couple years, bu the media is just catching up).  

The news says, “If you think someone you know may be abusing wasp spray, alert them to the dangers of the substance…” Sure, I’ll think about warning someone about the dangers of ingesting bug spray if I can stop laughing.

I’m sorry that people can be that addicted, but the larger point is that there is nothing that any of us can do to stop it.  Nothing.  Of COURSE bug spray is toxic!  Twenty-five years ago, the same worrywarts were warning about the idiots huffing Scotchgard spray, and there was media hand wringing over whether this otherwise legal product should be restricted or banned.

The War on Drugs is not only lost, but was NEVER winnable.  What does this have to do with physicians?  Doctors that lend their voices to drug control legislation, crackdowns, and all the rest are in my view, badly misguided.  You will not stop this self-harm, but merely drive it toward Chinese fentanyl and homegrown bug spray.  What you have accomplished is more government intrusion into your own practices, restricting your ability to use your own judgment regarding opioids in treating patients.  When physicians lend their sanction to self-interested politicians, sensationalist media, and public anxiety, they end up diminishing themselves without solving anything.  And that should bug us all.