Josh and Anna 55: Settling in at Seagoville

[waltraute]

3 hours ago, Coconut Flan said:

It doesn't work that way for drugs that are legal now.  You can't just request and get all the pain killers you want, no one is funding marijuana,  I think people are seeing that as a pie in the sky type thing that insurance simply will not fund.  There will be caps and limits in the US just like there are for almost all drugs.  I hate it sometimes that I was born practical, but so it is. 

I can't even get an extra bottle of statin to take with me when I travel so I don't have to find a refill when I'm on the road. Insurance won't pay for it and the pharmacy won't fill it. I have to make a special appointment with my doctor (costs money) to get an extended subscription and then pay for it myself.

[Alisamer]

48 minutes ago, Antimony said:

Thanks! I looked this up after posting but it was one that was super new to me. The Wiki likened it to coca leaves, but less widespread in use and purification.

Kava is also a new drug about town that I learned of last week. The FDA has largely decided to ignore it because it's pretty safe. People are comparing to OTC Xanax. I've never had a Xanax but I have now tried Kava. Very mellow, body high, some physical feelings the same as novacaine and weirdest of all...Yogi tea sells  it. 

I wish you could get dried coca leaves in the US, for tea. It's super common in the Andes especially in Peru, where you just toss a couple leaves into a mug, pour in some boiling water, and add some sugar if you want it. It doesn't get you any kind of high at all, and probably actually has about the same effect as caffeine. But it tastes nice and helps a little with headaches, in my experience. And it's said to prevent altitude sickness. 

[nokidsmom]

17 hours ago, socalrules said:

I think Anna loved the idea of being the wife of someone who worked at the hate group but was also probably intimidated by the people working there. You had well-dressed, educated women, single and married, working with her husband and on the same level or higher. They probably looked right through her. Anna was used to being the smug one who thought she was better than everyone else because she married a TV star and was now on TV herself. It was likely unnerving to go to DC and find out no one cared. 

I suspect that when Josh first landed the FRC job, Anna might not have minded, perhaps saw it as a new adventure...until she got there.  And when the day Josh first reported to work, some of his sisters were at the office with him, don't remember which ones but I do remember they were walking around a professional office (in DC of all places!) in flip flops.  I can't imagine what some of Joshley's new coworkers thought of that.  To be fair, the girls would have no idea of what would be suitable wear in an office but it sure did show the difference between Joshley's world that he left behind in NWA and the world he was supposed to work in.   I can imagine Anna felt like a fish out of water in DC considering the world she had lived in and was coming from. 

I remember saying here back when Joshley went to DC, this could be a good opportunity for him to improve himself or to completely blow it.   We know how that ended up.  

[Bastet]

3 hours ago, Antipatriarch said:

YES! I wish more people understood the difference. Let's not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Similar idea (in the other direction) w/gun regulations. We need evidence-based approaches to figure out what incremental changes actually work, and the will to start implementing them.

Yes. It’s so much the part of the culture that we have to be very incremental and, as you say, evidence based. 
 My gun-owning son’s reason for opposing most gun control? He says there are so many guns out there now that it’s pointless to do anything that might restrict gun sales in the future because then guns would be acquired only by bad people willing to steal them.  I see his point, but this attitude condemns us to a worse future when even more Americans own guns. 

Edited July 6, 2022 by Bastet

[Bastet]

3 hours ago, Melissa1977 said:

I agree that the use of drugs shouldn't be illegal and that some could or even should be legalized. But I don't think ALL drugs can be legalized.  Some are extremely addictive. No Goverment can allow heroin to be sold as a recreative drug, for example, because it means producing a lot of addicts that cannot have a normal life.  Some drugs need to increase the dose again and again, arriving to not-safe doses level. I think oxycontyn is a good example of that.

Drugs like opium or cocaine were legal back in the day, when it was just a "exotic vice" for rich people or for artists. The consequences were fatal, but it was a tiny minority, so nobody cared. I agree that war on drugs had dark political goals not related to public health, but the oposite has problems, too.

A high dose of heroin is dangerous only to an addict who is accustomed to lower doses. That’s why so many addicts overdose—they don’t know the strength of what they are using. Legalizing drugs will make that rare. 
  As for not leading a normal life: some  addicts can, though many can’t.  That some can’t should be a public health rather than a criminal matter. Good treatment—and not just NA—could be had for the asking. It would be both more effective and cheaper than the billions wasted on the drug war. 
  To get to what I think is your main point: you don’t need to convince me that drugs are generally deleterious for society. Hell, if I could wave a magic wand and eliminate alcohol, I’d do it. If making drugs illegal would make them disappear, I would agree with you. My argument is that the situation is worsened all around by making drugs illegal, for the user and for the rest of us.  

[Antimony]

19 minutes ago, Bastet said:

As for not leading a normal life: some  addicts can, though many can’t.  That some can’t should be a public health rather than a criminal matter. Good treatment—and not just NA—could be had for the asking. It would be both more effective and cheaper than the billions wasted on the drug war. 

I am told that the restaurant industry only really functions because of functional dependency on drugs. (Source: Statistics, but also my roommate has been both chef and server.) This, of course, interfaces really heavily with capitalism and the demands of said industry. I mean, at over 12 hours on your feet in a kitchen making none money....bump of cocaine or unprescribed methylphenidate to finish the closing shift starts to sound like...actually really logical. 

[Jackie3]

On 6/28/2022 at 11:15 AM, ContrastingButtons said:

Great thread title.  May Josh be there many, many, many years… and counting.

Agreed!

He'll be there for 12 years. If emails cost 30 cents each, and he sends 4 a week, how much would he pay over the course of his stay?

$62  a year ($750 over 12 years). 

Since he watched babies being tortured, I really can't feel sorry for him having to fork out $62 a year.

I admire those who DO feel bad about Josh's high email costs. They have an enormous capacity for empathy.

 

Edited July 6, 2022 by Jackie3

[Father Son Holy Goat]

1 hour ago, Jackie3 said:

Agreed!

He'll be there for 12 years. If emails cost 30 cents each, and he sends 4 a week, how much would he pay over the course of his stay?

$62  a year ($750 over 12 years). 

Since he watched babies being tortured, I really can't feel sorry for him having to fork out $62 a year.

I admire those who DO feel bad about Josh's high email costs. They have an enormous capacity for empathy.

 

I agree. I really don’t care about a pedophile getting ripped off.

[Simba]

4 hours ago, Antimony said:

I am told that the restaurant industry only really functions because of functional dependency on drugs. (Source: Statistics, but also my roommate has been both chef and server.) This, of course, interfaces really heavily with capitalism and the demands of said industry. I mean, at over 12 hours on your feet in a kitchen making none money....bump of cocaine or unprescribed methylphenidate to finish the closing shift starts to sound like...actually really logical. 

I've worked in the restaurant industry for 40 years, and that is NOT the norm, unless you are a 20 year old party girl/boy server. When I was a server, I took home more money than my clientele did, and they were not poor. Shame on you for posting that bullshit!

[samurai_sarah]

5 hours ago, Bastet said:

Yes. It’s so much the part of the culture that we have to be very incremental and, as you say, evidence based. 
 My gun-owning son’s reason for opposing most gun control? He says there are so many guns out there now that it’s pointless to do anything that might restrict gun sales in the future because then guns would be acquired only by bad people willing to steal them.  I see his point, but this attitude condemns us to a worse future when even more Americans own guns. 

But, there's somewhat of a difference between using a substance that can only hurt me, versus being in charge of something that mostly might do damage to others. So, I'm not convinced.

[Antimony]

23 minutes ago, Simba said:

I've worked in the restaurant industry for 40 years, and that is NOT the norm, unless you are a 20 year old party girl/boy server. When I was a server, I took home more money than my clientele did, and they were not poor. Shame on you for posting that bullshit!

I mean, it's a concern large enough that the American Addiction Centers considers it worth writing about and notes...

Quote

In a study looking at substance use within various industries, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found the restaurant industry to be the most at risk for illicit drug use and substance use disorders and the third most at risk for heavy alcohol use.2

There is neither shame in being poor nor having a substance abuse problem, but there is a real risk factor and association between being underpaid (...which most people in food service and hospitality are) and being overworked. 

But okay.

Edit: Maybe it would be more fair to say that parts of the restaurant industry rely on overwork, which is only possible for some people because of dependence on some sort of drug. I would include caffeine in this, but the SAMHS data doesn't include that, but it's also clear from the data that this is something that's closely associated and a problem for this industry.  

Edit Edit: I also think this aligns well with a phenomeon in which people who literally just had too many responsibilities --- jobs, parenting, etc -- turning to stimulants because it made it seem possible to "have it all". Again, we're back to "capitalism and substance abuse are interwoven very tightly".  Absolutely nobody should be worked so hard, but the powers that be also shouldn't be surprised by the consequences of it.

Edited July 7, 2022 by Antimony

[Jackie3]

On 7/4/2022 at 8:13 AM, BlackberryGirl said:

Inhumane treatment of prisoners, whatever their crime harms us as much as it harms them. They are human beings who did horrific things in many cases, but when we dehumanize them, allow their humanity to be degraded we are degraded. 

Absolutely! It harms us, and our society, to treat anyone inhumanely.

[Bastet]

32 minutes ago, samurai_sarah said:

But, there's somewhat of a difference between using a substance that can only hurt me, versus being in charge of something that mostly might do damage to others. So, I'm not convinced.

The same is true for alcohol, but we don’t make alcohol illegal. There are many decisions we make that have substantial power to hurt others, like gambling or having too many babies. We can’t make everything bad illegal.  That just makes things worse. 

Edited July 7, 2022 by Bastet

[Pecansforeveryone]

Anthony Bourdain who both worked in restaurants and struggled with multiple substance addictions has spoken openly about the use of cocaine among elite chefs.  I will second and third what others are saying about legalization of drugs being about harm reduction. On the non-drug side of things automobile accidents are a major cause of death, but we don't ban them in the name of saving lives. 

[Dandruff]

16 minutes ago, Pecansforeveryone said:

On the non-drug side of things automobile accidents are a major cause of death, but we don't ban them in the name of saving lives. 

But we do require licensure, registration, inspections, and insurance or payment of a fee.  Perhaps these protections could be adapted for recreational drug use?

[Father Son Holy Goat]

5 minutes ago, Dandruff said:

But we do require licensure, registration, inspections, and insurance or payment of a fee.  Perhaps these protections could be adapted for recreational drug use?

Or gun ownership. 

[Bad Wolf]

Will Josh be paying for his emails, or will Anna or JB?  

[Antimony]

13 minutes ago, Bad Wolf said:

Will Josh be paying for his emails, or will Anna or JB?  

Interesting question.

Both emails in and out are charged, so I reckon Anna might put her own money on her own end of the account, but you can use the "Send Money to Inmate" feature. I've never used this so I'm not sure how it works. I just tried to poke around on it but I need yet another account (also owned by a private company) to see past that login page, so not sure. 

I suspect, in any case, Anna or JB will put money on his books and at this point, it's a little unclear how much money Josh has in his own name left. They mix and shuffle all their Duggar money to hide it anyway so...yes...and no? 

[Jackie3]

7 hours ago, Father Son Holy Goat said:

I agree. I really don’t care about a pedophile getting ripped off.

He's not even getting ripped off.

If I want to send an email, I need a device and electricity, at a minimum. These things cost much more than $62 a year. Josh is getting a bargain! 

I suppose there are people who think Josh and his cohorts should have free email, unlimited.

That would mean the taxpayer would pay for it.  I work hard for my money and I'm not willing to chip in so that a pedophile can have free email. 

Let Josh mop a few floors and pay for his own emails. I'm not going to coddle him the way JB did.

 

Edited July 7, 2022 by Jackie3

[IsmeWeatherwax]

My friend is in the US and she has chronic migraines, she is only allowed 9 sumatriptan every 3 months (she doesn't pay as shes gets the disability payments, sorry I dont know what its called) from her Doctor. I (UK) also have chronic migraines, and on prescription I get 36 sumatriptan every 5 weeks, which I also get free as Im on certain benefits, tho if I did pay it would be £9.35.

She just recently went on a European tour and ran out of her migraine meds in France and was panicking, I said just go to a pharmacy and ask for some, she couldn't believe that was possible until she posted a pic of her holding 2 boxes of sumatriptan after just popping into a chemist. I cant remember the price but it was only a few euros. 

She told her Doctor about it when she went home, they just said well Im not surprised but I still cant give you more than 9. 

Utterly ridiculous situation. 

Mind you here in UK they dont like giving hospice patients too much morphine, you know in case they get addicted... 🙄

[Sullie06]

On 7/2/2022 at 4:15 PM, patsymae said:

An acquaintance ran a program to prevent recidivism in an East Coast city. She said people would be doing great, no signs of anything amiss, complying with everything, and then all of a sudden most of them would be back in jail. Wait, what's going on? Well, she was told, winter is coming and its getting cold.

As a probation officer, I can say that the 180 in some people is very quick and very drastic. Some people really feel as though they are better off in jail or institutionalized in some matter. And chronic homelessness and substance use do contribute to that.

We had a young man who would do amazing on community supervision for periods of time but he always ended up in jail. I asked him one time why he was self-sabotaging and he he gave me two reasons. The first was it was harder for him to use in jail, no matter how many times he would go to rehab he would relapse and he said it's because he didn't really want to quit, he liked using drugs. The second reason was that he had nobody on the  outside that genuinely cared for him and at least in jail he felt he could have a place to sleep, guaranteed meals and access to medical care. 

[gustava]

Maybe asked and answered but will they will be able to have hand sex when she visits?

[Sullie06]

On 7/4/2022 at 10:01 AM, Four is Enough said:

Even the people who have marijuana cards will go to the streets and risk arrest and impurities to get their bud, because it's cheaper than the taxed and limited bud available at the dispensaries.

 

 

This right here! I live in a state where Marijuana is legal and people still chose to buy their marijuana on the street because it's cheaper and there is more availability of strains. In terms of probation, you have to have a medical marijuana card in order to use while on supervision, in our jurisdiction. But most people don't even want to go through the process because they are just going to continue to use street bud. 

[Four is Enough]

21 hours ago, waltraute said:

I can't even get an extra bottle of statin to take with me when I travel so I don't have to find a refill when I'm on the road. Insurance won't pay for it and the pharmacy won't fill it. I have to make a special appointment with my doctor (costs money) to get an extended subscription and then pay for it myself.

If I'm going on vacation, and will need my BP meds three days in, I can't get them because I can't re-order them 10 days out. It's frustrating.

18 hours ago, Bastet said:

A high dose of heroin is dangerous only to an addict who is accustomed to lower doses. That’s why so many addicts overdose—they don’t know the strength of what they are using. Legalizing drugs will make that rare. 

I'm beginning to wonder if you've ever been around an addict. They do not remain accustomed to lower doses. It takes more and more to maintain the original high.

10 hours ago, Antimony said:

Both emails in and out are charged, so I reckon Anna might put her own money on her own end of the account, but you can use the "Send Money to Inmate" feature.

Most prisons, detention centers, even jails, have that sort of feature. It's commissary money, or money for bigger ticket items, such as radios, televisions, game systems, books, extra clothing, etc. As a family member of an inmate, I've used the system attached to the prison, used the person's ID number, and then put money on the account using a credit card. It's applied within 48 hours, and the person can then spend it for everything from snacks to, as I said, a television.

53 minutes ago, gustava said:

Maybe asked and answered but will they will be able to have hand sex when she visits?

not completely sure but most places limit physical contact to a very short hug at the end of the visit.

[Sullie06]

On 7/4/2022 at 12:52 PM, Bastet said:

 there would be little motivation to buy or sell your methadone on the street if it and other drugs were legal and available. 

I have to respectfully disagree. Marijuana is legal here, it can be legally obtained at dispensaries by anyone over the age of 21. It is illegal to sell or grow without a license still. However, there is still a huge street market for marijuana and people still chose to get their drugs off the street. There is also a market for non-state regulated cigarettes here too.