🏥The Inconsistencies of the Healthcare System and What They Mean for You
🏥The Inconsistencies of the Healthcare System and What They Mean for You
Of UTI, eye infection, psilocybin, alcohol and cigarettes 🍷
Are you a law-abiding citizen who drinks a few glasses of alcohol a week, but is concerned about microdosing psychedelics? Are you a respectable tax-payer adult who encounters roadblocks in their personal mental health management? If the answer is Yes, this newsletter is for you! And if you are not sure, read-on nonetheless, it will get your critical thinking going!
I am Peggy Van de Plassche, a former banker and VC who now speaks and writes about the psychedelic industry & the benefits of microdosing psilocybin. I created The Microdose Diet - the 90 Day Plan for Success and Happiness.
From a health perspective, last week has been an interesting one for me. As you can see on the picture above I got a nasty eye infection. I also had to refill my birth control prescription and access antibiotics for an UTI…a busy week!!
Let’s start with the stye that I have been sporting for the last 3 weeks (The Spring Collection 2023). After several days of warm compresses, advil and homeopathic drops I tried to appeal to the compassion of my pharmacist to access stronger remedies as my eye was turning a very hot and bright red. Unfortunately, had I had a pink-eye they could have helped me but a stye was not falling under their purview - the first arbitrary decision of an incomprehensible health system. After several more days of pain I decided to see a doctor to get an antibiotic eye ointment, the best kept secret in the medical industry, why? I have no freaking clue. After 20 years in Canada, I still have no understanding of the inner workings of the public health system. I have never been able to get a family doctor, and I abandoned the file after multiple unsuccessful attempts. What I understand though is that if I want something I have to directly pay for it. After much complexity which I will skip for the sake of brevity I finally was able to chat online (not chat as in speaking, chat as in texting) for 90 seconds with a doctor who prescribed me the eye-saving medication. After another 24 hours, I was finally able to put the precious cream in my eye. One week later my stye is still there but at least it is not a festering infection anymore.
This adventure led me to think about one of the two biggest pushbacks I get from people considering microdosing psychedelics - it is not accessible legally, aka OTC (the other pushback being; I am not sure it is safe in the long run).
👩⚕️ Microdosing psilocybin is not accessible OTC
The interesting thoughts resulting from my, thankfully infrequent, brushes with the medical system are 1) the arbitrary way of “who delivers what, when, where and how”; and 2) what qualifies as “legally accessible” (meaning OTC without having to wait, beg and pay a doctor or a pharmacist for a script).
You will tell me that it is important for medical professionals to oversee the administration of drugs. To which I will answer that texting for 90 seconds with a MD doesn’t qualify to me as oversight. Nor does the 10 minute annual visit that costs me an arm and a leg in the private sector, when the all-powerful doctor barely listens to my concerns and is lukewarm at the idea of a physical examination (I am not 20 anymore after all😉). My cats actually have better (and cheaper) healthcare than I do. Last month, I spent 45 min with the vet for a routine visit for my cat Twinkle; longer than any doctor had ever spent with me in similar circumstances. Sometimes I wish I was my cat.
On another hand, you might tell me that the powers that be in the healthcare pyramid know better what drugs should be OTC and which ones should be prescribed. And this is when my unfortunate brushes with the medical system led me to believe that no, the categorization is not thoughtful and certainly not in the best-interest of the citizens. Take UTI as an example. It was the number 1 reason hospitals in Canada were clogged up. So suddenly, to free up capacity (thank you Covid), patients are now able to access antibiotics to heal UTI at the pharmacy. I am very thankful for that change that I got to test last weekend. It doesn’t prevent me to wonder why this sudden change. If it has been so dangerous all along to give access to patients to the precious medications directly in pharmacy, why isn’t it the case anymore? And if we push one step further, what would make it so dangerous to offer them OTC? If these medications were so harmful to the patients, I would think they would have to be administrated under medical supervision, right? No matter how I look at it, inconsistencies abound.
Our blind trust in the medical system is interesting. I was for the longest time the most obedient person you could have found, I was extremely respectful of rules and fearful of authority (you don’t study at Catholic institutions for 20 years for nothing!). If my doctor would have told me to jump by the window I would have. Now, not so much. And not because I was mis-diagnosed with a brain tumor at the tender age of 15 resulting in many unpleasant trips to the hospital to be “cared for” by the most uncompassionate staff. Nor it is because my mother almost developed a liver cancer due to the wrong administration of iron while she had an aggravating condition (that could have been detected extremely easily). Just to name 2 of the many incidents in my close vicinity. No, I am now questioning the medical system (globally, not just in Canada) due to my better understanding of the incredible lobbying and wealth at play in the industry. Following the money and the power is always the best way to understand why decisions are made and why situations unfold as they do.
Why would a drug be accessible OTC in France but has to be prescribed by a doctor in Canada (and vice-versa)? Why would the same medicine be awfully expensive in the US and not in the rest of the world? Want an answer?! Ask the associations of medical professionals, Big Pharma, the politicians financed by the the healthcare industry and so on. Rarely the well-being of the citizens is the first consideration.
FMP, psilocybin for microdosing should be available at health centers (such as it is the case at my fabulous next-door wellness center), pharmacies (OTC), versus licensed stores (such as alcohol, cigarettes and cannabis) or pharmacies (behind the counter) - or not at all. The swift reclassification’s wave of psychedelics we are seeing globally confirms my opinion that their previous (and hence current) classification was / is totally arbitrary.
My Dear Reader, I might not have convinced you to start microdosing psilocybin, but at least I hope the above will make you think twice about the legitimacy of what medicine is available to you OTC, via prescription or not available at all.
Three 1-on-1 Coaching Spots Available with Me for The Microdose Diet - the 90 Day Plan for Success and Happiness.
If you are ready to move forward, reach out at peggy.vandeplassche@gmail.com
👩⚕️ We don’t know if Microdosing psilocybin is safe on the long term
There are many things that we know for sure are not safe in the long run; alcohol, cigarettes and sugary / fatty food!😉 And I would argue gambling. But they are all legal and widely accessible (assuming you look older than a teen). They are also widely socially acceptable, and actually pretty “cool” when it comes to alcohol. Everyone knows that drinking alcohol, smoking and mindless eating will bring a long list of health challenges from depression, anxiety to diabetes and cancer. Nonetheless we are pretty much all doing it to some degree or another. Yes but it is legal. But should it be? If you believe it should be because you are a responsible adult in charge of your choices (and I am with you on this one), why would access to psilocybin be any different while it actually has proven benefits and no proven harm so far? If you believe that psilocybin is bad (again despite the proven benefits and no proven harm), then to be consistent shouldn’t alcohol, cigarettes, fatty / sugary food be illegal too?
Ah, ah! That is an interesting conundrum! Or is it? Once again following the money and the power will give you all the answers your need to an irrational situation. As you can imagine no government will ever go in the direction of ruling out unhealthy products such as alcohol and cigarettes Not only there is way too much money and power at play, but you can be sure that there will be more people on the streets than in France when reforming pensions (or to defend democracy in developed countries for that matter).
If this conundrum is getting your critical thinking going, have a look at the side effects of Prozac (aka Fluoxetine) and ask yourself; does it feel safe now and in the long run? Even with a doctor prescription and “oversight”. I have to say, they got me at decreased sex drive, nervousness, anxiety, difficulty sleeping and uncontrollable shaking! Who would not want to trade depression for anxiety and impotence?! 40 million people take Prozac worldwide. Despite the fact that, in 2008, a major scientific review concluded that Prozac does not work and nor do similar drugs in the same class. Why is it then still prescribed despite a long list of side-effects and no conclusive evidence of efficiency?! I will leave it to to make your own conclusions!😉
On another hand, the entire world, or almost, got vaccinated multiple times over the past 3 years and we have, obviously, no freaking clue about the long term effects of the various shots we all received. To make an astrology parallel, I am a Moderna Sun AstraZeneca Moon with Pfizer rising. This combination seems promising!!
So if your biggest fear re microdosing psilocybin is “will it be harmful in the long run?” (despite all the scientific evidence gathered so far), ask yourself if this is where your attention should go. Towards a totally unsubstantiated maybe, versus a certain yes when it comes to alcohol, cigarettes, food, prozac and potentially Covid vaccine.
Are our trust and fear of authority figures blinding us? And when I say “our” I mean Gen X, it seems to me that younger generations are way more apt at questioning the legitimacy of the status quo. We all know very well that decisions are made for money and power, not for the well-being of citizens; however we still think and act as if we were living under the rules of servant leaders, while we are not even governed by paternalistic leaders.
I am a responsible adult and in view of the systemic (and systematic) inconsistencies of the healthcare system due to the special interests ruling the industry and thus preventing the best decisions to be made for the citizens, I don’t see why I would have to subjugate myself to any rules preventing me to make the best decisions for my own health. Call it civil disobedience.
Others have crossed the Rubicon from passive to active resistance; On July 27th, 2022, patients suffering from cancer, depression, cluster headaches and other serious health concerns, as well as one healthcare practitioner, sued Canada’s federal government. In the lawsuit, they’re asserting a constitutional right to medicinal “magic mushroom” access rooted in s. 7 of Canada’s constitutional Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Why is the Canadian government spending our taxpayer dollars on fighting this case is the billion dollar question.
3 Individual Coaching Spots Available with Me for The Microdose Diet - the 90 Day Plan for Success and Happiness.
If you want more from life, reach out at peggy.vandeplassche@gmail.com
😎Key Takeaways:
The two biggest pushbacks I get from people considering microdosing psychedelics are; 1) psilocybin is not accessible OTC; 2) I am not sure psilocybin is safe in the long run.
The availability of medicines OTC, via prescription, or not at all, is highly arbitrary and inconsistencies abound. Medicines can be available OTC in some countries and not others. Medicines change classification over time. Costs of medicines vary widely across geographies.
Following the money and the power is always the best way to understand why decisions are made and why situations unfold as they do. The decision to offer (or rather not to offer) psilocybin OTC has nothing to do with protecting the health of the citizens.
Psilocybin for microdosing should be available at health centers, pharmacies (OTC), versus licensed stores (such as alcohol, cigarettes and cannabis) or pharmacies (behind the counter) - or not all.
There are many things that we know for sure are not safe in the long run; alcohol, cigarettes and sugary / fatty food! But they are all legal and widely accessible. They are also widely socially acceptable.
Assuming you are a responsible adult in charge of your health choices, why would access to psilocybin be any different than access to alcohol, cigarettes and unhealthy food - while psilocybin actually has proven benefits and no proven harm so far?
Have a look at the side effects of Prozac (aka Fluoxetine) and ask yourself; does it feel safe now and in the long run? Even with a doctor prescription. The entire world, or almost, got vaccinated multiple times over the past 3 years and we have obviously no freaking clue about the long term effects.
So if your biggest fear re microdosing psilocybin is “will it be harmful in the long run?” (despite all the scientific evidence gathered so far of the contrary), ask yourself if this is where your attention should go.
I am a responsible adult and in view of the systemic (and systematic) inconsistencies of the healthcare system due to the special interests ruling the industry and thus preventing the best decisions to be made for the citizens, I don’t see why I would have to subjugate myself to any rules preventing me to make the best decisions for my own health.
This newsletter is designed to entertain and inform, not provide medical advice. You should always consult your doctor when it comes to your personal health or before you start any treatment.