Bunk Benzedrex & FDA Fuckery

Ahh, the good old days.

I was recently informed that the makers of Benzedrex reduced the dosage in their inhalers from 250mg of the active ingredient (propylhexedrine) to a mere 175mg.  Makes sense, as I was blowing through twice as many as in the "good old days."  Unfortunately they still cost just as much as before which is bullshit.  Never mind that the vast majority of people who attempt to abuse this particular substance find it far too repulsive to ever repeat the experience, shuddering forevermore at the smell of menthol or the mention of lavender.  (See all the nightmare trip reports online for proof).  

Even non-stimulant ADHD drugs are in shortage circa April 2024

Is there anything too petty for the FDA to bother tampering with?  This is particularly offensive considering we're in the middle of the worst national stimulant shortage in U.S. history, with every single ADHD medication in critically short supply as of March 2024.  Ritalin/Focalin/Concerta/Metadate?  Check.  Adderall IR & XR?  Yep.  Desoxyn aka methamphetamine?  That too.  And Vyvanse?  YES.  Even non-stimulants like guanfacine & atomoxetine are out of stock.  Why not concern yourselves with THAT, assholes?  The fuck are people like me supposed to do, crystal meth?  You'd like that, wouldn't you fuckers:  Another barely-functioning-adult-turned-statistic that you can throw in your prisons & rehabs for a profit.  Another scare story for the media, also known as the propaganda arm of the state department.  

Weak-ass Gen Z Benzedrex.  Thanks, FDGay.

And that's just ADHD patients.  I feel particularly bad for Type I narcoleptics with cataplexy who literally fall asleep in their soup, going limp without warning at random times and relying on these meds to not do that.  Fuck them too, right?  I was preemptively diagnosed with Type II narcolepsy back in the day and lemme tell ya, that's no walk in the park either.  My little cousin is on Adderall for a one-in-1 million sleep disorder (Kleine-Levin Syndrome)--we hit the genetic lottery in that regard.  He sometimes sleeps 11 days in a row and has to be woken up to eat, go to the bathroom & drink water.  He does bizarre shit while sleeping like drawing on his face with markers & talking like a baby or crying out in agony.  He lives in fear of another episode & gets incredibly depressed every time one happens, having to scramble to catch up on school work after the fact.  Heaven help him & his family during this man-made drug shortage.  

But even he's got it better than the diabetics, heart disease patients & cancer patients who rely on GLP-1 agonists, anesthetics, anti-clotting agents, antibiotics & chemo drugs that are nowhere to be found in the U.S. drug market right now.  Docs & pharmacists are having to make "tough choices" that translate to KILLING patients who otherwise wouldn't be dying if only we lived in a developed nation with passably decent healthcare.  This is a preventable situation & nobody's being held legally accountable for the slaughter--a fucking Level 10 crisis that requires all hands on deck: pharma companies, the FDA, legislators, suppliers of raw medication ingredients, physicians, hospitals & the DEA in the case of Scheduled medications.  I've sat back and watched as it's steadily grown worse for the last 3 years.  Where the fuck IS everybody?

Oh, that's right:  doing things like hounding the makers of an OTC inhaler to change their formulation because a few desperate people might use it to catch a buzz (read: self-medicate).  A medication that's been on the national market since 19-fucking-49, mind you, and is incredibly safe even when abused orally by healthy people.  Nobody fucking asked for this.  




Symptom of a Bigger Problem

"Watchdog" agencies' impotence/corruption is symptomatic of deeper breakdowns

It's shit like this that makes me apathetic when people chant "death to America."  While I'm not out there burning flags myself, I empathize.  The owners of this nation & those who work for them (i.e. our "representatives," a cruel & ironic title if ever there was one) don't give a shit if we live or die as long as they get paid.  They ARE "America".  The things that made this country worth being proud of:  our first-class education, healthcare, space program, public institutions like the US Postal Service, Social Security & the CDC (the latter of which lost credibility with anyone who had even a rudimentary understanding of germ theory during COVID when they adopted Trump's anti-science policies) have gone to shit, and the voting masses have their faces buried too deep in sportsball stats & Kardashian gossip to do anything about it.  It only gets worse from here.

If that sounds hyperbolic, you don't understand how serious a shortage of 323 prescription drugs by the third month of the year is, or how much we rely on other countries for our medications, food, textiles, electronics, vehicle parts, petroleum (crude, gas), medical supplies & other vital goods... countries our leaders routinely shit talk & fear-monger about.  It's why the shelves were bare during much of the pandemic:  because when the other 9/10ths of the world actually locked down like rational intelligent humans, the cargo ships we rely on to bring our EVERYTHING weren't moving. 

There might've been a time when those things could've been largely supplied by our own farmers & manufacturers within U.S. borders, but NAFTA and other insidious bills put a stop to that by allowing greedy corporate pigs to outsource their labor to the lowest bidder in sweatshops overseas, prisons at home & undocumented immigrants at our borders.  Never mind the whole "American job loss" situation.  (Those jobs are never, ever coming back btw).  Slavery is the cornerstone of U.S. economics & capitalism as a whole, hence the 13th Amendment.  

All this to say: do your actual fucking job, FDA.  There's a long-standing crisis in the form of drug shortages & you continue to focus on shit that nobody's asking you to do.  There's also a massive problem with tainted vitamins & supplements in this country but due to the corrupt DSHEA of 1994 ruling, you've decided supplements aren't "your jurisdiction."  Therefore it's just fine & dandy to allow the shelves of major retailers and online stores to carry supplements that contain unlisted drugs--some of which are not approved for use in this country and others that are outright illegal--and contain dangerous levels of heavy metals, combinations of unlisted psychoactive chemicals (i.e. synthetic cannabinoids) in products advertised as one thing like "tianeptine" and every other kind of contamination you can imagine.  

This is a fucking scandal, yet you continue wasting time & taxpayer money on nonsense like Benzedrex & kratom.  Hell, you could go after the manufacturers of deadly pet food that contains unsafe levels of pentobarbital from all the euthanized animals it's made out of.  Or the pet treats containing an unknown deadly substance that's killed hundreds of dogs yet remains on store shelves.  The fact that people get rich off these products that literally KILL people & animals yet don't spend a day in prison for their crimes should earn them more than just a place on your annual "naughty manufacturer lists."  Are you saying it's legal to poison people to death if it's done under the guise of dietary supplement commerce?  🤔

Is it really any wonder people are skeptical when they're told a new vaccine or other product/procedure is safe when you're the ones saying it?  

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