Morality is stupid - a long, rambling nonsensical diddy on Plan B.

I hate politics.

I need to get that out of the way first so that nobody thinks I have an agenda of some sort. If I'm asked if I'm a Democrat or a Republican, I typically respond by saying, "No. Hell, no."

I hate politics because it winds up being a contest of double-speak between two large groups of people whom believe their arbitrary beliefs are intrinsically ethically and morally superior and that the other "side" is basically the ultimate manifestation of evil. And what do I mean by this? Take the Republicans. Why the hell is their basic belief one of Christianity, domestic "free-market" economics, states' rights, and the use of military hegemony to help perpetuate an international economy that borders feudalism towards third world labor? What the hell do they all have in common? Jesus was a freakin' Marxist that wouldn't have said one bad word to Iraq, let alone blown the whole country to hell.

Anyway, so what am I getting at?

Well, there has been this struggle for some time between the leftists and the rightists in the US over pharmacists' right to refuse doling out certain prescriptions, namely Plan B. Recently in Washington, something has come up the pike about this very issue. Here is an excerpt from a news article:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Board requires pharmacies to fill all orders

Objections by druggists centered on Plan B drug

TUMWATER -- After years of debate, the state has made it official: Patients must get prescriptions filled even if pharmacists are opposed to the drugs for religious or moral reasons.

The Washington State Board of Pharmacy voted unanimously Thursday to adopt a policy that applies to all kinds of medications, although it clearly was aimed at Plan B, a birth control measure that critics say is tantamount to abortion. Most health experts refute that claim.

Druggists with personal objections to a drug still could have a limited escape by getting a co-worker to fill an order. But that would apply only if the patient is able to get the prescription in the same pharmacy visit.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, yeah, I want to tell the world my unique spin on the issue. And kinda like those journals you read in pharmacy school, I'm just revealing all of my affiliations....k?

Ok, so. Affiliations. I have no political party because, as illustrated above, I think they are counterintuitive towards independent and critical thought. Sometimes religion is talked about. So, yeah, I have no religion. I don't really care about it. I'm gonna be a pharmacist here pretty soon, so I guess that might affect my opinion. So no political party, no religion, profession in question. That's only a little tad bit of bias.

That's a lot of rambling up there. To my point, I hate that there are people in the country that try to legislate morality. Morality is an interesting subject because it is one of those abstract ideals that can't be quantified. Is an abortion wrong? Is gay marriage wrong? Is Marijuana use wrong? Is polygamy wrong? Is operating a sweat shop wrong? Some would say they are all wrong, some would say they are all ok, some would have mixed feelings. And guess what - that's ok - it all depends on your own personal morals. My problem with the system is that people are getting pissed off over the morality of other people. So what if Don and John down the streen get married? So what if Harry down the street has 43 wives? So what if Timmy down the street lights up a doobie at while resting alone at home? How the hell does any of that affect you? Yet we have laws against polygamy and gays getting married and using marijuana - even though these acts have zero negative effect on others in society. My personal opinion is that it is absolutely retarded to legislate morality. It destroys the freedom of one person and does nothing to the collective freedom of society.

Ah, but the question of dispensing Plan B is more complex than that. It is a unique problem that has no solution that doesn't royally fuck over the autonomy of one person or the other. It's quite simple actually. You have a girl that had unprotected sex. Was she irresponsible? Was she raped? Who knows. You are a pharmacist. She comes to you with a script for Plan B - a drug that inhibits the progression of the result of a fun night in the back of a Buick into a full-on pregnancy. You are a Buddhist pharmacist and you believe in killing no living thing, nor in participating in anything linked to the act. Ever see Kill Bill? You know the guy that refused to sell his world-class swords because they are used to kill? Same concept.

But - what do you do? Do you violate your internal beliefs and concepts or do you just go ahead and do it because it's your job?

I'm actually one empathetic mofo. I can really see how the religious would get in a hizzy when confronted with the possibility of violating their religion.

On the flip side. Say you are a girl. You just got raped. Not pleasant. You slowly drag yourself to the ER. You feel like crap. You feel used, embarrassed, and weak. They examine you and give you a script for emergency contraception. You walk down to CVS and the guy behind the counter tells you he can't fill it because he thinks it's unethical. Talk about being kicked while you are down. You are angry, maybe sad.

So whose ethical cuisine reigns supreme? No matter the solution, it's wrong. Force the pharmacist to dispense? Wrong. Block a patient from receiving urgent meds? Wrong. So what do you do? Well, you try to figure out who is the least wrong. So what's the least wrong? If you are in a large city, going to a different pharmacy isn't that big of a deal, so the pharmacist would be more wronged if he/she was forced to dispense when a solution suiting both parties is available. However, if you are in Wyoming and the pharmacist mans the only pharmacy in a 200 mile radius and the patient is 15 with no transportation, it is the patient who would be more wronged if the pharmacist refused to dispense.

So what's the answer? Fuck if I know, that's what. And any logical human being would come to the same conclusion. Yet we have leftists claiming the other side is completely idiotic and unethical, and the rightists vice-versa. Guess what douchebags, you're both being idiotic and unethical. As usual. But it clearly shows my biggest beef with politics - the insistence that every damn issue be taken with such a black vs. white tilt. That's how it always is - us vs. them, good vs. evil. Guess what. There is no us or them. There is no such thing as good or evil. They are just societal constructs that fuck with objectivity.

God I hate politics.....I need a drink....fuck it, I'm gonna go draw some more stick figure cartoons. I'll let some other poor putz figure it out.

RIP, buddy.

Sad news for all of my WVU readers. The guy in the '07 class known around school as "the crazy, loud old guy" died Friday. About one month before he graduated pharmacy school to boot. I'll let the news article speak for itself.

Big Al. I'll miss ya, buddy.

Crash in Braxton County leaves Keyser man dead

BURNSVILLE, W.Va. - A head-on collision on W.Va. 5 in Braxton County has left a Mineral County man dead.

Alan Dressler, 43, of Keyser, was heading east around 4:30 p.m. Thursday when he hit a vehicle driven by Debra Bush, 42, of Sand Fork, said Deputy Bryce Scarbro of the Braxton County Sheriff's Department. Dressler was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident, which happened near the Gilmer County line. Dressler was not wearing a seat belt.

Bush was transported to Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital, Scarbro said.

Rotation IV, Emergency Medicine: I didn't puke!

I walk into the 2W pharmacy satellite. It's 9AM. I sit down and meet my preceptor, John. He tells me he's going to give me a quick overview of the rotation. He says, "Mike, what we do he-" His pager goes off. "P1, pt unresponsive, SAH - ok, let's go."

Confused, I follow him to the ER, up a floor - jogging the whole time. I get up there and there is this lifeless woman laying in an ER bed, residents, nurses, physicians, respiratory therapists, anyway, an assorted crew. My preceptor looks in and goes, need some manitol, nimodipine?

We run back up two flight of stairs to the main pharmacy, gab some vials of manitol, 60mg of Nimotop, and we are on our way back down a flight of stairs. On the jog back down, he looks back and asks me what manitol and Nimotop do. I actually knew the answer.

So back down two flight of stairs. We get down there, they are moving her around, doing all sorts of physical examinations. My preceptor tosses me a vial without even looking at me, "Draw this up, now!" It's like the manitol seemingly instantly gave her a bit of life. I though it was cool. They take her to the CT room.

About 1/2 a second later another page comes over, "Ok, Mike, DKA, P2, ETA 5min." He calls the pharmacy and instructs them to make a standard DKA insulin recovery drip. "Mike, remember where the main pharmacy was? Go, now, and grab that bag they are making." Up two flights, grab bag, down two flights.

As they take the insulin from me, my preceptor takes me to the CT room to show me the scans. A subarachnoid hemorrhage is one of the worst things that can happen to you. "See all that white stuff covering about 1/4 of the right side of the brain? Yeah, that's bad." The neurologist did a "voodoo math trick" of his to figure her odds of mortality was roughy 1. She was deemed clinically brain dead by the next morning.

So THEN another page comes in as the CT wraps up. "Ok, Mike, P1, Car vs. Tree/ MI, 35m, vsu, ETA 15min. We gotta grab the crash cart, buddy.""

My preceptor runs back over to the ER and starts preparing epi, atropine, NaBicarb, and calcium syringes. The attending physician is there, about 20 students and residents, surgery, radiology, I think a bartender for some reason. It was a packed house. About 12 minutes until the fella got there. Then the senior surgery resident comes up to my preceptor, "John..I feel like a complete ass asking this...but can I borrow your student?"

Long story short, she was wearing heels and needed her tennis shoes she had up in her on call holding cell. As the most useless person there, it was my job to grab her shoes. Said on call holding cell with shoes was on the 9th floor on the complete opposite ass side of the hospital. So...up 6 flights of stairs, run across hospital....grab shoes...run back across hospital...go down 6 flight of stairs. I got there before the trauma. Good for me. I guess.

The guy comes in..I guess he had a nasty MI, then crashed his truck on the interstate. He died on the ER bed. They still haven't officially figured out which was the actual cause of death.

So my first hour in this place, I've ran up more steps than I can count, witnessed two people die, and become the bitch of a surgery resident. Productive day.

The first day was nutso. The others were slower, so we got chances to go over whatever diseases or treatments I wanted to go over. The previous bitching about the US education system was uprooted with this rotation. During down time, we just shot the breeze. We talked about everything from WVU football to the new Crohn's drugs.

Honestly, this was one hell of a worthwhile rotation. Every day I learned something new. Anybody who goes to WVU - I HIGHLY recommend it. It's not for the squeamish though. When I saw an open wound on a girl above the elbow about the size of a football with the bone exposed and broken in half, I about hurled. If you drive down the interstate at 75MPH, don't stick your arm out the window.

Next rotation is at Preston Memorial Hospital in Kingwood, WV.

THE COMMENTS PAGE!!!®
Positive comments:
Mike is a very intelligent individual. He possesses great knowledge in the field of pharmacy AND utilizes various references effectively to determine appropriate care/dosages of medications in the acute care setting.

Critical comments:
None

Misc verbal comments (I'm not making this up): Mike, you need to get tested for ADHD, I can tell you have racing thoughts. You need to get that squared away before you take those faculty rotations you have coming up. Get checked out.