And how about alcohol, dear addled-brained Elton? IMO, it’s far worse than weed (and FTR, I think both can of course be beneficial, including for harmless fun).
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As I said to my sister who had addiction problems and opposed legalization:
So, you think you belong in prison?
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“ Mace also shared a photo of herself wearing an arm sling and a brace on social media Thursday. The photo was immediately ridiculed by Natalie Johnson, a former Mace staffer, who called it “a pathetic ploy for attention.”
“This is the same woman who told staff, myself included, during Jan. 6 that she wanted to get ‘punched in the face’ by a rioter so she could get on TV,” Johnson said on X, formerly Twitter.”
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The majority of the most dangerous drugs are legal:
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Sounds like Mace is also hoping to get maced.
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Some of the things on the list can indeed be dangerous, like cocaine and heroin. But a lot of them are dangerous but used for genuine medical problems. Some combinations are also dangerous. But to put these on the same list as cocaine and heroin is ridiculous IMO. And are we sure the author picked the most dangerous ones?
For example, I had to stop taking tylenol for an antibiotic I’m still on (for another 33 days). This combination can lead to serious liver damage. Alcohol is another problem but I don’t drink. I have to get periodic blood tests of my liver. (The infectious disease physician said I have a “beautiful liver.” I swear this is a direct quote.) Tylenol and alcohol is also not good.
Doctors should look at your prescribed drug list to make sure a new one is not going to interact in a major way with any others. And if a new drug interacts with aspirin or alcohol or any other over the counter drug, the patient should be told to avoid them.
And it’s a good thing to Google “Drug1 Drug2 Interactions” anyway, to investigate pairs of drugs. Physicians may not know all the bad combinations. Results will likely include websites like drugs.com and webmd.com. Medline.gov and some health departments might show up too. It depends on the drugs involved.
So I don’t think this article particularly helpful, and the headline is a little misleading. There are about 19,000 FDA approved drugs in the US. Thus there are 18,000,000 2-drug combinations out there* (if I did the math right, i.e., used an online calculator properly). Some of the combinations are dangerous, but how can all the most dangerous ones be listed in one article? And why are really dangerous illegal drugs like heroin on the same list??
*Don’t get me started on more than 2-drug interactions. And I’m on a bunch more than that.
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I feel pretty qualified to speak on this, as a recovering alcoholic and addict. Alcohol is a far more dangerous drug than cannabis, by any way you want to measure it. If weed is a gateway drug, alcohol is even more so, and not just because it’s legal. It’s way more widely available and socially acceptable. Hell, my dad gave me a sip of beer when I was 5 or 6.
Alcohol abuse has way more short and long term health complications than does marijuana abuse. You can overdose on alcohol. We usually call it alcohol poisoning instead of overdose, but it can be deadly. Of course, long term alcohol abuse destroys your liver. And your brain. Alcohol withdrawal is one of the few drug withdrawals than can literally kill you. Sudden, uncontrolled withdrawal after long term heavy abuse can cause seizures and even death. People think of heroin withdrawal as bad, because it has been depicted in tv and film forever, but alcohol withdrawal is worse. I would wish a lot of things on my worst enemy. Broken bones, disfiguring diseases, who knows what else, but I would not wish alcohol withdrawal on them. It’s really indescribably bad. And then, of course, alcohol makes you lose inhibitions and make terrible decisions, like driving a car, and that can be deadly to other people.
There is no rational argument for prohibiting marijuana that wouldn’t also necessitate prohibiting alcohol, if you wanted to be consistent. We know alcohol prohibition doesn’t work. We now have just as much evidence, if not more, that prohibition of other drugs, from weed to heroin, also doesn’t work. And worst of all, prohibition declares that people who suffer from the disease of addiction (and it is a disease and I’m not going to waste my time with anyone who wants to argue otherwise) are criminals. They are not. They are sick. They should be treated medically (I’m not saying they shouldn’t be held accountable for any harm they did while addicted and under the influence…they absolutely should).
Elton John should know better, but I’ve run into this attitude a lot among older alcoholics and addicts. It’s typical boomer bullshit.
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There is a term I want to use here to describe this deplorable woman, but I won’t, because it’s an insult to those lovely people workin in the sex trades…
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I think the point of that listicle is to raise awareness that these frequently prescribed/common drugs are dangerous. Both on their own and in combination. And the point of posting was to show many drugs are far more dangerous than pot, particularly alcohol
I had been on antidepressants for probably ten years before anyone warned me about serotonin syndrome.
I was pretty damned old before I learned how things the line between helpful and poison is for acetaminophen.
I agree everyone should check interactions before taking a new med! Especially with supplements. Doctors ane pharmacists can make mistakes! I had a doctor call me frantically because he’d prescribed a migraine medication that could interact with my antidepressants. He was kind of mortified but glad I hadn’t tried it yet.
Congratulations on your beautiful liver 
and that you can stop taking what sounds like a long treatment of antibiotics!
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That’s a darn good point.
Did you get a lot of twitching when first on an SSRI? I did and it was really irritating. I guess that’s one of the milder symptoms of serotonin syndrome but fortunately I never had any of the others.
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Not really? But I was actively suicidal when I first began. My perceptions of that time are really messed up!
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Hope you’re doing much better. Paroxetine really helped me.
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I am doing immensely better, thank you! TMS treatment was a game changer for me. I’d always been resistant to the various medications I tried. I do the TMS treatments and one med now. I’m working to incorporate more yoga, because that helps a lot when I do it consistently. I’m glad you have something that works for you too. It’s really awful that it takes so much work to find what works. And some people never do
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I think I have found the fault in your logic. Consistency is the enemy here, they need to find ways to punish their enemies while not causing inconvenience to themselves. Weed is largely not a choice of C-suite types, while booze most certainly is. See differential between crack and powder cocaine for reference.
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