Why Can't We Talk About Heath Ledger's Drug Addiction?

As a follow to my prior comments pointing out that the press reports on Heath Ledger’s death were unnecessarily devoid of neuropharmacological perspective, I’ll note that the report on the drugs found in Heath Ledger’s body after his death is now out. Abel Pharmboy has the call:

this report is just in from AP on Heath Ledger’s toxicology report:

The cause of death was “acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine,” spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said in a statement.

The opiates oxycodone (OxyContin^TM) and hydrocodone (Vicodin^TM and a host of other products) did not appear, to my knowledge, in the news that leaked out in the days following Ledger’s death. This is an interesting twist.

Why Can’t We Talk About Heath Ledger’s Drug Addiction?

As a follow to my prior comments pointing out that the press reports on Heath Ledger’s death were unnecessarily devoid of neuropharmacological perspective, I’ll note that the report on the drugs found in Heath Ledger’s body after his death is now out. Abel Pharmboy has the call:

this report is just in from AP on Heath Ledger’s toxicology report:

The cause of death was “acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine,” spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said in a statement.

The opiates oxycodone (OxyContin^TM) and hydrocodone (Vicodin^TM and a host of other products) did not appear, to my knowledge, in the news that leaked out in the days following Ledger’s death. This is an interesting twist.

Hey! New PI! Submit That R01 NOW!! (UPDATED)

As a new PI, your single most important task (by quite a margin) in the first three years of your faculty appointment is to obtain an R01 research project grant. Getting that first R01 is essential to the ongoing viability and productivity of your lab, and is also the single most important factor (for research-focused faculty appointments) in performance assessments generated in relation to promotion and tenure both internally and by outside letter-writers.
In light of this fact, PhysioProf has recently been discussing with some colleagues exactly when a newly independent PI should submit her first R01 application. Apparently, there is a lot of contradictory advice floating around out there, emanating from a variety of sources: senior colleagues, Program Officers, and fellow junior faculty.
The first step in assessing this advice is to consider its sources, and PhysioProf is going to be very frank here. Your senior colleagues are in denial about what is really happening right now as a result of severe budget problems, and are stuck in old ways of strategic and tactical thinking that just don’t work any more. Program Officers are shell-shocked right now, spending the overwhelmingly vast amount of their time over the last four years talking to investigators whose careers are dying because they can’t get funding. Under these extreme conditions, the only things a Program Officer has to tell you that are of use to you are (1) her impressions of the discussion of your grant at study section and (2) whether you are getting funded. (You do, however, need to at least pretend to take everything else they say very, very seriously as well.)
You can find out who to listen to, and what those people are likely to tell you below the fold.