Drug info - Cocaine: Good for TASER Victims?

[klaatu]

(From the investing section of The Motley Fool - Klaatu)

www.fool.com

Cocaine: Good for TASER Victims?

May 22, 2006

I swear that I'm not making this up. TASER's (Nasdaq: TASR) PR department sent me this on Friday:

TASER International, Inc. ... announced today that ... a standard electrical discharge from a TASER brand device does not induce ventricular fibrillation, and that cocaine intoxication increases the safety margin even further.

In other words, if you snort the white powdery stuff before you get shocked, you're even less likely to die of a heart attack. How reassuring.

The science behind the claim comes from a study conducted by the Cleveland Clinic and sponsored by TASER, in which pigs were given high doses of cocaine prior to receiving TASER shocks. The so-called flying pigs were apparently able to withstand eight times the normal TASER discharge.

Frankly, I'm stunned that TASER sees the need to issue such a press release. Either the company has sunk to a new low in PR strategy, or perception on the street (and the Street) about the TASER devices really is that bad.

Perhaps it's both. TASER has suffered from numerous outlandish claims in years past, such as a USA Today story that claimed its stun guns delivered shocks equal to that of an electric chair. But should such preposterous stories give TASER free license to breach the borders of reasonable PR, as I think this press release does? Not in my book.

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Klaatu

[Woodman]

I suspect they might have come up with different results if they had used the taser on a different sort of "Pig"!

Reputation Comments on this post:

does not contribute to the thread. I feel the humor is in bad taste.

[KorSare]

I find this report to be quite intriguing, largely due to the fact that beforehand, I thought that cocaine intoxication would contribute to heart attacks, due to the stimulant properties of the drug. This new report also contradicts various news articles on the web relating to taser deaths - most report that cocaine usage was a factor resulting in the fatality.

However, after doing some very brief research, I came across this article:
http://www.primezone.com/newsroom/news.html?d=99451

It states that cocaine increases the threshold of ventricular fibrillation (a disorder of the electrical activity of the heart, causing irregular, rapid contractions, resulting in the pumping of little or no blood). Apparently, cocaine has an effect similar to antiarrhythmic agents, that is called "sodium channel blocking." See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiarrhythmic_agent for more details.

Anyway, I have no real point to make here, other than contribute some additional information. To go against you, klaatu, I don't feel that TASER has breached any kind of limit to reasonable public relations. They are simply disproving the rumor that their technology is more lethal when used against criminal drug users (specifically cocaine). I think I'm more content knowing that there is a study that removes cocaine from the top of the list of reasons involved in the taser fatalities I read about (as the media and the authorities sometimes claim it to be).

But I'd like to hear your stance, if you still feel differently.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Interesting hyper-links

[klaatu]

Originally Posted by KorSare

To go against you, klaatu, I don't feel that TASER has breached any kind of limit to reasonable public relations.

It's not my point of view/argument/thesis - I was simply/merely/humbly posting an article I found on the web which I hoped would be of interest to the good folk on this forum.

Klaatu