Jonesin for an Overdose.

In Christian Morales's article "Vicodin is One Hell of a Drug," many loopholes in pharmaceutical prescription drugs are discussed. Apparently Travis County is pumping up its game to inform people of the dangers of overdosing on prescription drugs. Mr. Morales states that he works at a pharmacy and sees firsthand the abuse and problems with filling prescription orders. He states it is a little disturbing when you see people regularly pull up in their expensive cars to get their pain killers every two weeks (or whenever the prescription needs filled). They keep coming back due to some “pain” that they are currently undergoing. It is such an easy system to cheat by going through multiple pharmacies. Point being, it is real easy to get pharmaceutical drugs that are very popular these days. That is easy money for some people. I agree with Mr. Morales that some sort of system needs to be tied together to track all prescriptions so that they are not filled multiple times. Overdosing should not be on the doctor or pharmaceutical company. The company or doctor cannot hold the patient's hand at home and force them to take the correct or prescribed amount. The label and doctor clearly states the correct amount that is all they can do and should be accountable for. Frivolous lawsuits really piss me off. In the end, regulating drugs will always be a very difficult task at hand.

The Evaluation of Evaluations

In this article "Senate Oks Teacher Evaluations," Andrew Weber talks about a bill the Senate passed that will insure all public school teachers to be evaluated. The bill was issued by Sen. Florence Shapiro and it has a very controversial segment that basically states that school board can pull the trigger and fire teachers who have poor "turn outs." They also can fire these teachers without informing of the reason. Sen. Gallegos feels that teachers, who go to school and pay good money for that degree, are not completely being treated fairly. Sen. Gallegos also believes that the teachers need to be evaluated and given the chance to better themselves. Nevertheless, the teachers who have been "pinked slipped," should get an opportunity to have their job back. Shapiro retaliates by saying that issues that Gallegos states should be addressed to work out the flaws and kinks in the evaluation system. Regardless, the bill still needs to pass in the Senate to actually be final.

In my opinion, this bill has the potential to be a stepping stone for a lot of future lawsuits. I have a strong feeling that a lot of teachers who are young and new to a certain areas, will have to deal with the "good ol' boys" situation. Hypothetically, if the other teachers do not like the new teacher due to any reason, they can influence the school board to fire that person for a "poor" performance. The board would not have to disclose the reason as well, allowing the real reason for firing that person to go undisclosed. Another problem I see with this bill is what is going to be the "measure" for performance. Texas already has an epidemic with its k-12 education tests that forces a teacher to prepare their students for the tests, rather than actually giving a good quality education. The teachers have no choice due to the fact that their job is on the line. This bill seems to pose a possible "clone" problem. In the end, I do not really like this bill, unless more specific elaborations are brought to my attention, I might change my mind.