Zeakk1

Outside of the Star Trek universe, what other projects or aspects of your father's career do you think deserve more attention or are worth mentioning?

Heh, this isn't the case with AT&T. But, that must mean you're using different switch technology that involves actually creating a cache.

What kind of anti-union stuff did you guys get exposed to by the management?

Who you're texting is way different than what you're texting. The system was built for billing purposes not for espionage. The actual content wasn't saved or preserved once it left the switch. It's a really simple system. There did stat offering software that would back up text messages, but that was done via data sent by an app on the phone to a server that was accessible online, not by a network itself. The infrastructure for retaining text messages wouldn't even be cost effective to make and wasn't necessary for business needs.

There's also third party apps that do similar things, or automatically forward text messages. (Occasionally I would let parents know about this understanding that once they realized the volume of text messages their kids get that they would probably give up on it.)

But, this has never stopped Law and Order from pretending it is available.

Dude, the fact you're throwing other pain patients under the bus to bolster your own position is disheartening.

The reason why a person formerly prescribed turned to the black market is because their provider stopped prescription opioids. These patients "using responsibly" are not in that situation and opioid dependency can cause them to experience pain like symptoms, exaggerate the extent they are experiencing pain, and refuse to embrace alternative options or even consider alternative treatments so you wind up with people who have been popping pills for years without attempting other treatments. The best part is that a lot of those behaviors can happen without the person being aware that they're doing it.

The language you're using to differentiate between these "two types" is basically throwing other opiate users under the bus and ignoring that addiction to opiates is what drives their black market consumption and that you -- regardless of how legitimate you feel your pain is -- are now also an opiate addict.

So ask yourself, what would you start doing if you were no longer prescribed opiates? You really going to stop?

Because it sounds like you're framing this whole thing as "good opium addicts vs bad opium addicts" without taking a moment to acknowledge that your underlying pain still exists and the mechanism that opiates rely on doesn't make pain go away, but opiates sure do make you "feel" better.

I think if you're going to go further down this path of advocacy you're going to need to stop throwing other addicts under the bus and stop perpetuating stereotypes about people addicted to drugs.

Seriously, do you think other drug abusers don't work normal jobs or have families, or lives that resemble normalcy?

Drugs -- especially if they aren't prescribed-- are expensive. You need to stop imaging opiate addicts as being people on the street. That is not even remotely accurate and your advocacy seems to rely on turning people into "the other" or otherwise castigate them as being bad or irresponsible.