New drug may protect against opioid overdose

This week researchers announced that a new drug, repinotan, has been produced.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101006132741.htm Repinotan allows an opiate user to receive the pain-relieving benefits of morphine, for example, without risking respiratory suppression since repinotan quickly increases the respiration rate which may be slowed by opiates. Repinotan is being trumpeted as a boon to the medical industry and patients alike since inadvertant, "permanent pain relief" can now be avoided when treating patients with opiates. This boon seems obviously true.

However, I wondered that nowhere in the announcement of repinotan was a mention of the potential boon to opiate addicts. It would seem to me that if an opiate addict takes repinotan before their fix, they will have much less chance of an overdose due to possible respiratory depression. This would be especially true when the addict is incorrect regarding the possibly lethal strength of the opiate dose they are using for any given fix.

My guess is that addicts are still so stigmatized by society in general that their protection is deemed far less important than for assumed non-addict patients in need of opioid pain relief. However, from a politically progressive or a spiritual point of view, every human's life is as valuable as the next. From this vantage point, the invention of repinotan is a potential boon to every mammalian (et al?) body that experiences a reduction of pain, as well as an increased likelihood of physical demise, when their receptor sites are exposed to opioids. My hope is that within my lifetime, all beneficiaries of an up and coming medical treatment such as repinotan will be mentioned along with the usual subjects!

Forgive this Dream

Forgiveness has been defined as 'the shifting of one's perception about one who might otherwise be perceived as one's adversary or antagonist, and instead recognizing the true holiness, even within such a one.' But what if the 'one' to be forgiven is the world itself, or creation as a whole? Many there are who dislike the majority of events they receive in life. Many others hold grudges for a lifetime against predictable individuals -- parents; teachers; lovers; spouses; children; bosses; politicians; gurus...

Yet according to the genius contributors at Wikipedia, and I hope you are one:

'Scientific polls have established that the need to forgive is widely recognized by the general population as an essential element of the healing process, however the exact means of attaining such a forgiveness is not well established. For example, in a large representative sampling of American people on various religious topics in 1988, the Gallup Organization found that 94% said it was important to forgive, but 85% said they needed some outside help to be able to forgive. However, not even regular prayer was found to be effective. The Gallup poll revealed that the only thing that was effective was "meditative prayer"'

So resentment is rife; forgiveness is the way to heal resentment; and meditation is acknowledged as the effective route to forgiveness. Yet how few meditate on a daily basis!

Hafez was a 14th century Persian mystic-poet, who included the importance of forgiveness within his works. Similar to the Yogic concept of 'Maya', or the dream-nature of reality, Hafez alludes to not merely forgiving individuals in one's life but also forgiving dream-creation as a whole. His poem 'Forgive the Dream' is an enduring classic, reminding us to forgive the storm of creation's maya, both once and for all -- and every ongoing day: Meditate!

All your images of winter
I see against your sky.

I understand the wounds
That have not healed in you.

They exist
Because God and Love
Have yet to become real enough

To allow you to forgive
The dream.

You still listen to an old alley song
That brings your body pain;

Now chain your ears
To His pacing drum and flute.

Fix your eyes upon
The magnificent arch of His brow

That supports
And allows this universe to expand.

Your hands, feet, and heart are wise
And want to know the warmth
Of a Perfect One's circle.

A true saint
Is an earth in eternal spring.

Inside the veins of a petal
On a blooming redbud tree

Are hidden worlds
Where Hafiz sometimes
Resides.

I will spread
A Persian carpet there
Woven with light.

We can drink wine
From a gourd I hollowed
And dried on the roof of my house.

I will bring bread I have kneaded
That contains my own
Divine genes

And cheese from a calf I raised.

My love for your Master is such
You can just lean back
And I will feed you
This truth:

Your wounds of love can only heal
When you can forgive
This dream