20060512 KDDC Mothers Little Helpers

20060512 KDDC Mothers Little Helpers

May 12^th, 2006

Kevin Dayhoff

My most recent Tentacle column is up on the Tentacle website. It is titled: “A Tale a Double Standards.”

Portions of the following introduction was edited out of the piece to bring it under word limit…

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“Mothers Little Helpers”

Recently, two well-known national personalities were in the news for suffering the consequences for misuse of prescription medicines. The two events had different outcomes. You be the judge as to why.

Often when we think of “drug addicts,” visions of either the 1960s hippies or down and out derelicts from lower socio-economic backgrounds come to mind.

The idea of the upper middle class - upwardly mobile white-collar professions from the house next door is not the picture of a drug addict.

The concept of a housewife, a professional or a pillar of the local community being drug dependent did not originally surface into the consciousness of society until the Rolling Stones released “Mothers Little Helpers” on July 2, 1966.

Who can forget: “What a drag it is getting old; Kids are different today; I hear ev'ry mother say; Mother needs something today to calm her down; And though she's not really ill; There's a little yellow pill; She goes running for the shelter of a mother's little helper; And it helps her on her way, gets her through her busy day.”

The popular song explained the plight of a housewife who abuses prescription drugs to "get her through the day."

There are conflicting explanations as to what drug was referred to when the Stones sang of: “There's a little yellow pill.”

When the song came out, reports out of England were that the drug being misuse by housewives was an amphetamine - Dexedrine (dextroamphetamine.)

However, others insist that the drug was a reference to 5 mg. valium tablets, which are colored yellow to distinguish them from other dosages.

Until this song reached number eight on the chart in 1966, there was very little recognition of the abuse of prescription medicine in the medical community. Most of the concern was with misuse of cannabis and even that phenomenon was relatively new at the time.

Nevertheless, fast forward to last several years and the attention of white collar drug abuse prevention professionals has been re-focused on steroids among professional athletes and prescription drugs . These drugs are opioids such as Percodan, OxyContin and Vicodin; central nervous system depressants such as Valium and Xanax; and stimulants such as Ritalin and Adderall.

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The rest of the piece is relatively intact and can be found at: http://www.thetentacle.com/ShowArticle.cfm?mydocid=1598

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA.

E-mail him at: kdayhoff@carr.org

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Lyrics for: Mother's Little Helper

By the Rolling Stones

Released in 1966

"Things are different today,"
I hear ev'ry mother say
Cooking fresh food for a husband's just a drag
So she buys an instant cake and she burns her frozen steak
And goes running for the shelter of a mother's little helper
And two help her on her way, get her through her busy day

Doctor please, some more of these
Outside the door, she took four more
What a drag it is getting old

"Men just aren't the same today"
I hear ev'ry mother say
They just don't appreciate that you get tired
They're so hard to satisfy, You can tranquilize your mind
So go running for the shelter of a mother's little helper
And four help you through the night, help to minimize your plight

Doctor please, some more of these
Outside the door, she took four more
What a drag it is getting old

"Life's just much too hard today,"
I hear ev'ry mother say
The pusuit of happiness just seems a bore
And if you take more of those, you will get an overdose
No more running for the shelter of a mother's little helper
They just helped you on your way, through your busy dying day

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