-
CycleTrack and SDN are teaming up to make medical school admissions more transparent and accessible! Read the announcement to learn how we’re supporting the future of CycleTrack’s free application-tracking tools .
drugs
Started by fizzbot
Get help with your application
Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.
happydays said:
Wow, you're gonna make the best doctor ever
happydays said:
How do you feel that your doctor DOES (most likely) use alcohol "just occasionally"? Why is it ok for one drug (and yes alcohol by definition is a drug) to be used recreationally and not another (i.e. pot)? Alcohol is horrible for you, especially when used excessively, and has long term effects on cognition and short term memory, and yet it is ok for doctors to get drunk, as long as they do it every once in a while and not when they are on the job or about to be on the job. From my time working as a server I have seen parties of doctors get sllloooooppppy, I watched 20 residents down over $1,000 worth of liquor in 2 hours! How is this different than smoking a joint (other than the legal status)? I personally do neither, when I drink it is a small glass of wine with diner and I have asthma so I don't smoke anything, but after seeing the after effects recreational use of both alcohol and pot in my friends, I would rather have the doctor who smokes a joint every now and again than the doctor who likes to get drunk on the whenever time permits.
sanford_w/o_son said:
LMAO
happydays said:
Your understanding of the realities of every day life and the difficulties many of your patients will encounter in attempting to overcome addictions will truly help you provide the highest quality of medical care. You will be an especially effective physician in a large city hospital with a large population of poor, uneducated patients. You will do a lot of good in this world with your narrow views.
This thread makes me feel better about the medical students being produced today. It may just be that some of us will be experienced and enlightened enough to understand where are patients are coming from, the addictions they suffer from, and the line that they have crossed between use and abuse. The more experience we have, the better suited we are to explain to a patient the dangers in the decisions they make. The coolest doctor I have ever met sat down with a group of stoner-idiots (not saying all stoners are idiots, but there definately is a large crowd) and helped them to make informed decisions about their drug use. He realized that these people were not going to stop their use, and told them healthier ways to use their drug. He wasn't encouraging their drug use or looking down his nose at them for their choices, but was, instead, being a real doctor and helping them improve the life they chose to lead.
Tigerstang said:
This doesn't really have anything to do with this thread, but we've *GOT* to get away from sarcastic comments about people's future doctor potential. It's beyond cliche. It's like making ten 'yo mamma' jokes in a row. To the same person. It doesn't even make sense anymore. Find a better way of telling someone his/her opinion sucks. Making an SDN diagnosis of someone's future abilities as a physician has become the SDN equivalent of Godwin's law. We just don't need it.
Now, onward with the thread. 🙂
centralline said:
If you really think this kind of experience is a big positive in a physician, then I suggest you build your PS around it. 🙄
Having a history of drug use won't make you a better doctor, but certainly could make you a worse applicant. Reality check time.
let's see. hmm. three of the drugs that are worst for us are the three main ones that are legal. alcohol. caffiene. nicotine. i won't even start into the political history of why some drugs are legal and some are not. i will, however, mention that there was a time, less than a century ago, in which alcohol was illegal, yet pot and cocaine were legal and not regulated at all.
needless to say, i think it's clear that any use of illegal drugs does not constitute abuse any more than any use of alcohol constitute abuse. and, if we want to talk abuse in terms of a real meaning, that is, where use is out of the person's control (the drug is in control) and use is having harmful effects impacting the user's life, guess what the top three abused drugs are? that's right. alcohol. caffiene. nicotine. and this is true in other countries as well, even ones where pot is legal.
as for what my doctor does in his free time, if he's not addicted to anything and chooses to shoot up every couple weeks, or take a few hits one weekends she's not on call, or throw back a few with his friends, or take a bump when she's out at a club, all the more power to him/her. as long as they show up for work with all their faculties, i have no right to tell them what to do with themselves otherwise. plus, a doc who's used a thing or two in their time might be less judgey mcjudgerson of the fact that i smoke, even though i'm try to quit. "tisk tisks" and "that's bad's" never help anyone with anything.
Long Live Harm Reduction! Whoot!
needless to say, i think it's clear that any use of illegal drugs does not constitute abuse any more than any use of alcohol constitute abuse. and, if we want to talk abuse in terms of a real meaning, that is, where use is out of the person's control (the drug is in control) and use is having harmful effects impacting the user's life, guess what the top three abused drugs are? that's right. alcohol. caffiene. nicotine. and this is true in other countries as well, even ones where pot is legal.
as for what my doctor does in his free time, if he's not addicted to anything and chooses to shoot up every couple weeks, or take a few hits one weekends she's not on call, or throw back a few with his friends, or take a bump when she's out at a club, all the more power to him/her. as long as they show up for work with all their faculties, i have no right to tell them what to do with themselves otherwise. plus, a doc who's used a thing or two in their time might be less judgey mcjudgerson of the fact that i smoke, even though i'm try to quit. "tisk tisks" and "that's bad's" never help anyone with anything.
Long Live Harm Reduction! Whoot!
noonday said:
We don't currently live in a society or profession where just showing up to work clean is the gold standard. Schools are starting to do drug tests. Likely there will be places that require this before you get licensed and access to a prescription pad as well. And medicine isn't an industry being singled out -- lots of jobs require periodic testing. So it's not an issue of being preachy, it's an issue of: this is the rules of the profession at this juncture (not to mention the country).
Rafa said:
Nah, I'll stick with the sarcasm. Thanks.
Law2Doc said:
What makes you a good applicant does not necessarily make you a good physician
happydays said:
Nope, but reading might help. Never said you had to drugs to see where your patients are coming from, but rather that tolerance is important. Making comments like "use=abuse" is a great way to alienate yourself and be absolutely certain that you become one of those physicians whom they ignore or stop seeing all together.
P.S. - What's with the "quotes" around "where my patients are coming from"? Whom are you quoting?
Zoom-Zoom said:
Chuck Norris has to eat more druggies everyday to achieve the same high.
Since I have been observing my fiance's first year of law school this year... I wonder if med students will be booze hounds like law students are. 🙄
As light drinkers from a completely different social sceen... well we feel kind of out of place. It's gross to watch people get that drunk.
As light drinkers from a completely different social sceen... well we feel kind of out of place. It's gross to watch people get that drunk.
Drinking untill you are sloppy is stupid. I do not see what the big deal is with getting blazed occasionally. Our last two presidents smoked the occasional blunt, and W did a little crack to top it all off.
Tigerstang said:
The adcoms, whose job it is to act as the gatekeeper of the profession, and to handpick who gets in, seem to see a correlation. They aren't foolproof, and there will be good doctors and bad in every class. But if you fail a drug test required to get into a school, you will have the opportunity to be neither. 🙂
I think someone should poll the general populus. Would you rather that the person that makes some serious decisions about your health a)does drugs frequently, but not when he has to work, b)does drugs, but infrequently, or c) doesn't do drugs.
I would put big money on even most drug users saying they would just assume their doc didn't use. And what is this crap about being better able to relate to your patients because you are a user too. That's ridiculous. You can understand a person't situation without being a part of it. And you can have respect for a human being and still not agree with their behavior. I would just love to go to my doc and say "I smoke marijuana on the weekends and I just can't seem to quit" and have him answer "hell, me neither. But don't worry, only some people go from recreational use to abuse. So based on the odds, you'll be ok" Dumb
I would put big money on even most drug users saying they would just assume their doc didn't use. And what is this crap about being better able to relate to your patients because you are a user too. That's ridiculous. You can understand a person't situation without being a part of it. And you can have respect for a human being and still not agree with their behavior. I would just love to go to my doc and say "I smoke marijuana on the weekends and I just can't seem to quit" and have him answer "hell, me neither. But don't worry, only some people go from recreational use to abuse. So based on the odds, you'll be ok" Dumb
Rockhouse said:
I agree entirely. I think my statement before was taken badly. I don't think doctors should be using. I think that a past history of use (don't read addiction) should not bar someone from the profession, and can be turned into an asset in their practice, assuming that they have stepped up and matured through the phase and "put the bong away." But from the quote above that doctor could suggest ways of using the drug that are healthier, and less likely to spread disease. Our job is to make people healthier, not lecture them on moral values (not that I don't think there is a moral component to the physician job).
I really doubt that my statements will sway anyone's opinion on this matter. These issues tend to be deeply ingrained into people's character. I will be the first one in line to take the drug test at medical school because I have nothing to worry about, but I really don't think that it's any of their business.
We're talking about DOCTORS doing drugs, not whether or not OTHER people in the world is doing them. I'm saying that doctors, who are responsible for the well being of others, should not do recreational drugs that will impair their judgement, not even a little bit. Doctors doing drugs=irresponsible. I'm intolerant of irresponsible doctors! I've never tried to say that I'm intolerant of people abusing drugs because they're depressed and have no other form of escape. Where did you make that connection? Every comment that I've made in this thread is about doctors.Tigerstang said:
