Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Inhalers

An episode of Strong Medicine today brought up an interesting conundrum. Should schools have zero-tolerance policies even if it leads to people smuggling in illicit inhalants, or keep them all in the nurse's office even if it means that asthmatics can't always get to them.
Assuming that there isn't an easy way to resolve the problem (maybe children need to have their status as needing medication confirmed in order to bring medication into school, but can keep it with them if they have the authorization), my solution is to let the students have the inhalers.
If an idiot wants to huff chemicals and winds up dying as a result, too bad. That's his fault. Better him than an innocent who has ashthma and has no choice in the matter.
If it's a choice between letting some idiot kill himself with drugs and letting someone die from a disease they can't control, I say let the druggie die.
But then again, there is usually an "Option C," now, isn't there?

That is all.

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