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veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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Morphine Painkillers Won't Impair Driving
#7520398 - 10/15/07 05:51 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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October 15, 2007 - HealthDay News
Morphine Painkillers Won't Impair Driving Study found no difference in motorists' reaction times
(HealthDay News) -- Moderate, long-term use of opioid pain medications such as morphine does not impair a person's driving ability, U.S. researchers report.
A team at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago compared two groups of people -- 51 long-term users of oral morphine and 49 who weren't taking any pain medication. All the participants spent about 12 minutes in a driving simulator that measured deviation from the center of the road, weaving, number of accidents, and reaction time to unexpected events.
The average amount of weaving for both groups was 3.83 feet, and the morphine group had 5.33 collisions, compared with 5.04 collisions for the control group. Average reaction time for the morphine group was 0.67 seconds, compared with 0.69 seconds for the control group.
The findings suggest that patients who require long-term pain medication may "become tolerant" to side effects that could potentially impair function, said researcher Dr. Asokumar Buvanendran, an associate professor in the anesthesiology department at Rush.
The study was expected to be presented Oct. 13 at the annual meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, in San Francisco.
Opioid pain relievers carry warning labels urging patients not to drive or operate heavy machinery while taking the medications, and drivers under the influence of pain drugs are typically subject to the same laws and penalties as people who drink and drive.
According to Buvanendran, this study's findings suggest that patients on long-term pain medication may be able to live "like normal functioning people, without the stigma and limitations now associated with long-term pain medication use."
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JT



Registered: 02/28/07
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Re: Morphine Painkillers Won't Impair Driving [Re: veggie]
#7520683 - 10/15/07 06:52 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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well if they tested 100 people it must be true.
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highdroponics
Professional Deadhead



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Re: Morphine Painkillers Won't Impair Driving [Re: JT]
#7520981 - 10/15/07 08:54 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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they are just now discovering this? i coulda told them this 3 years ago...same for pot.
-------------------- Dr says to stop trying to treat the side-effects of big government and focus on the core issues. End the Federal Reserve/audit the gold reserves at Fort Knox, abolish the IRS, end all wars and occupancies, stop the building of an empire that will inevitably fail, and cut all unconstitutional federal programs. Put the power back in the peoples' hands by ending this nanny-state.
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SunshineDaydream
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Re: Morphine Painkillers Won't Impair Driving [Re: highdroponics]
#7521352 - 10/15/07 10:16 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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then why have i nodded off driving on lortab and blown thru three stop lights in a row? thanks god it was 3 AM and no cops or people were present.
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wireless
Thizziswhatis


Registered: 11/06/06
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Re: Morphine Painkillers Won't Impair Driving [Re: SunshineDaydream]
#7521642 - 10/15/07 11:15 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
SunshineDaydream said: then why have i nodded off driving on lortab and blown thru three stop lights in a row? thanks god it was 3 AM and no cops or people were present.
Are you taking large doses everday for extended periods of time? No two weeks isn't long. Try 100mg oxycodone a day from cancer pateints. You were driving at 3am, seems like a time when most people are doing this thing called sleeping. Its not like sleep depravation was a factor at all.
Like stated above I could have told you this a long long time ago about marijuana and my grandfather and mother, if alive, could tell you this about perscription opiates they both took for 6 years and 2 years while diagnosed with cancer. I've heard the samething this study is saying out of their mouths probably 15 times
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today mylove



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Re: Morphine Painkillers Won't Impair Driving [Re: wireless]
#7521673 - 10/15/07 11:28 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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no shit, take them off their meds and then see how they drive
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WhiskeyClone
Not here


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Re: Morphine Painkillers Won't Impair Driving [Re: highdroponics]
#7522236 - 10/16/07 07:41 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
highdroponics said: ...same for pot.
Not for everybody. I drive better drunk than I do stoned. I bet if they did a similar study with pot the results would be worse.
EDIT: Worse than morphine, not alcohol
-------------------- Welcome evermore to gods and men is the self-helping man. For him all doors are flung wide: him all tongues greet, all honors crown, all eyes follow with desire. Our love goes out to him and embraces him, because he did not need it. ~ R.W. Emerson, "Self-Reliance"
Edited by WhiskeyClone (10/16/07 07:41 AM)
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero



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Re: Morphine Painkillers Won't Impair Driving [Re: WhiskeyClone]
#7522266 - 10/16/07 08:11 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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> I bet if they did a similar study with pot the results would be worse.
They have done studies with cannabis and the results indicate that people tend drive about the same on cannabis as when sober.
http://www.fcda.org/driving.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/03/990325110700.htm http://www.ccguide.org.uk/driving.php
One of the better journal papers:
http://casr.adelaide.edu.au/t95/paper/s1p2.html
Quote:
THC's effects on road-tracking after doses up to 300 µg/kg never exceeded alcohol's at bacs of 0.08 g%; and, were in no way unusual compared to many medicinal drugs' (Robbe, 1994; Robbe and O'Hanlon, 1995; O'Hanlon et al., 1995). Yet, THC's effects differ qualitatively from many other drugs, especially alcohol. Evidence from the present and previous studies strongly suggests that alcohol encourages risky driving whereas THC encourages greater caution, at least in experiments. Another way THC seems to differ qualitatively from many other drugs is that the former's users seem better able to compensate for its adverse effects while driving under the influence.
-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
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trippindad82
Trusted Cultivator of Trich



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Re: Morphine Painkillers Won't Impair Driving [Re: Seuss]
#7522332 - 10/16/07 08:55 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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I would have to agree that for the majority of people who drive stoned, they drive as well if not better than sober. I must say that I love driving stoned. I just get into my groove. Sometimes I get stoned enough that on my long country road drives, I might forget where I am for a minute or two. But that is not dangerous, that's just a stoner moment. I'd have to say the only thing I've noticed is that sometimes I will find myself cruising slightly under the speed limit in my benz when stoned, but there is no danger in that.
Also, unlike alcohol users, potheads know when they might want to rest for a few before stepping behind the wheel. Drunk people never consider themselves as drunk as they really are.
I would have to agree with the article. Probably after long term use, the body learns to adapt to what it's being dosed for the pain. I still don't agree with it, as I think a smaller dose of a less intrusive painkiller mixed with THC would do the job just as well. But of course I'm wrong since I'm not a doctor educated by the "book".
-------------------- Trying to explain a journey to someone who has never experienced it is like trying to explain what a zebra looks like to blind person who has never seen a horse. ^^^The above matter may be a complete fantasy that I concocted out of possible boredom.^^^ --------------------------------------
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badchad
Mad Scientist

Registered: 03/02/05
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Re: Morphine Painkillers Won't Impair Driving [Re: Seuss]
#7522371 - 10/16/07 09:16 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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For a variety of drugs, tolerance can develop to some effects but not others. So, even though it may seem like a silly study, it was probably worth investigating and had a sound hypothesis.
There are also other scenarios that can occur. Look at the marijuana studies
http://casr.adelaide.edu.au/t95/paper/s1p2.html
Quote:
. Another way THC seems to differ qualitatively from many other drugs is that the former's users seem better able to compensate for its adverse effects while driving under the influence.
It appears that even though THC impairs driving, users compensate for it by driving slower. Compensating for the effects of a drug is clearly different than developing physiological tolerance to it (If thats what the above study is implying, I haven't read it).
-------------------- ...the whole experience is (and is as) a profound piece of knowledge. It is an indellible experience; it is forever known. I have known myself in a way I doubt I would have ever occurred except as it did. Smith, P. Bull. Menninger Clinic (1959) 23:20-27; p. 27. ...most subjects find the experience valuable, some find it frightening, and many say that is it uniquely lovely. Osmond, H. Annals, NY Acad Science (1957) 66:418-434; p.436
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2FiNiTe
ConsideratlyKilling Me



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Re: Morphine Painkillers Won't Impair Driving [Re: veggie]
#7522523 - 10/16/07 10:24 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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I was doing between 80-300mg's of oxycontin a day for about 4 years, and I damn near died because of my impaired driving ability countless times. I was in 3 accidents as a direct results, one included me cutting a semi off in my Hatchback Ford Focus and being rear ended by the semi that was going 80mph. I wasn't wearing a seatbelt but came out uninjured somehow, my car and the semi were totaled.
Morphine I think I would agree with the study, it doesn't give you much of a impairing high at all. Shit I can't even nod out off morphine, Its damn near impossible.
Morphine=Pussyshit
-------------------- "Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war that we know about peace, more about killing that we know about living." General Omar N. Bradley
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fireworks_god
Sexy.Butt.McDanger



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Re: Morphine Painkillers Won't Impair Driving [Re: 2FiNiTe]
#7522551 - 10/16/07 10:34 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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At least you are a responsible individual.
--------------------
If I should die this very moment I wouldn't fear For I've never known completeness Like being here Wrapped in the warmth of you Loving every breath of you
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WhiskeyClone
Not here


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Re: Morphine Painkillers Won't Impair Driving [Re: Seuss]
#7522675 - 10/16/07 11:11 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
Seuss said: > I bet if they did a similar study with pot the results would be worse.
They have done studies with cannabis and the results indicate that people tend drive about the same on cannabis as when sober.
I read the studies you cited and to me it sounds as if they found people DON'T drive the same stoned as sober. They all say marijuana impairs driving ability, but the risk of accident does not increase because they are aware of their impairment and compensate with increased attention and slower speeds.
I guess I'm an anomaly then. 
I have TONS of experience being stoned, but I do not feel comfortable at all driving when freshly high. My mind wanders, especially when listening to music, and on occasion I've noticed red lights and stop signs with only a second or so to spare. I don't drive stoned anymore.
It may be an illusion; I may feel like I'm not as good a driver just because I'm paranoid. Maybe the close calls were not as close as I thought; they were just more jarring because I was cooked. Certainly I have had such close calls when completely sober too.
In any case, I think the average driver does not give due attention to the task, and I wouldn't want them to be stoned in addition to being preoccupied with their makeup/phones/thoughts.
I have no experience with morphine though.
-------------------- Welcome evermore to gods and men is the self-helping man. For him all doors are flung wide: him all tongues greet, all honors crown, all eyes follow with desire. Our love goes out to him and embraces him, because he did not need it. ~ R.W. Emerson, "Self-Reliance"
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bbl337
genetic material is Ar based



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Re: Morphine Painkillers Won't Impair Driving [Re: WhiskeyClone]
#9951704 - 03/11/09 01:22 PM (14 years, 10 months ago) |
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I know this is an old thread, but driving under the influence of anything is plain idiotic. I don't care if you endanger your own life, but the instant you endanger innocent people that's just plain wrong. I've seen enough bad crashes from driving intoxicated whether it's pot, alcohol, or anything else (we've seen them from pain killers as well around here).
--------------------
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MustNotBe
HPPDer



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Re: Morphine Painkillers Won't Impair Driving [Re: badchad]
#10156957 - 04/13/09 10:06 AM (14 years, 9 months ago) |
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When I was addicted to opiates, I drove completely fine while high. Which was always. I was even in a car accident once (I was hit, they blew a red light) and the cop, and person that hit me had no idea I was high. I wasn't nervous about anything. I didn't even think about it. I was always high. It was normalacy.
-------------------- Junkies United we stand , Devided we're sick as fuck. - - - "Hallucinations are something heroin users are not at all accustomed to," said Const. Conor King, Victoria police drug expert. "They react like you or I would react if we took Aspirin and all of a sudden the TV got up and started walking across the room." - - - Make drugs legal, or alcohol and tobacco illegal. Either way it's more fair.
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