Our Views

Two news articles appeared today about the increase in usage of prescription painkillers. One story from Florida said there has been a 90% increase since 1997, and another story said the increase in Indiana was 584% from 1997 to 2005. But five southern Indiana counties – Clark, Crawford, Floyd, Harrison, Scott and Washington – probably hold the record with an increase of 1,234%. Drug detox and rehab center admissions are also on the rise.

The stigma attached to taking prescription drugs – including painkillers – is almost non-existent compared to taking street drugs. Unfortunately, whether those drugs are acceptable or not, the people taking them are still going to have to go through the same painful withdrawal as heroin addicts, and they’re going to need drug detox and drug rehab to handle it.

You might not find a person addicted to or physically dependent on OxyContin or Vicodin in an alley with a needle hanging out of his arm but, unfortunately, he is a drug addict nevertheless.

The good news is that the problem is finally becoming known. Hardly a day goes by without at least one news story with statistics. With all the hype, spin and outright lies often forwarded or created by the media, I think they are doing something right for a change.

OxyContin and other prescription painkillers are, indeed, killers - just as surely as any street drug. In fact, they are more dangerous: because they are cloaked in legitimacy, people think they’re relatively safe. Let’s hope the news continues so people finally realize they have a drug addiction problem and get into a drug detox center that can handle prescription drug addiction.

Popularity: 8% [?]

If you still have doubts about whether prescription painkillers are a problem, read this article in USA Today. The statistics are clear. How we are ever going to provide the drug detox and drug rehab facilities to handle this problem is really beyond me. Here a sampling of the statistics:

• The DEA’s deputy assistant administrator, Joseph T. Rannazzisi, testified in a congressional hearing that he estimates about 9,000 illegally provide prescription drugs to patients.
• A 2004 government study estimated between 2 million and 3 million doses of codeine, hydrocodone and oxycodone are stolen annually from pharmacies, distributors and drug manufacturers. That represents a lot of people who should be in drug detox.
• Sales of the five major painkillers rose 88% between 1997 and 2005. That’s also from the DEA.
• More than 200,000 pounds of codeine, morphine, oxycodone, hydrocodone and meperidine were purchased at retail stores during a one year period – enough to give more than 300 milligrams of painkillers to every person in the country.
• Oxycodone, the chemical used in OxyContin, is responsible for most of the increase. Oxycodone use jumped nearly six-fold between 1997 and 2005.

An AP investigation cited the following as the reasons for the increase:

• The population is getting older and is therefore in more pain.
• The increase in dollars spent by the pharmaceutical industry on marketing - $11 billion in 1997, $30 billion in 2005. Also, the profit margins for drug companies are three to four times higher than other Fortune 500 industries. Follow the money.
• Pain management philosophy is becoming more drug-oriented.

I’m sure all of the above is true. But what are we going to do about it? We need to cut the advertising, prosecute doctors and other offenders, educate the public, and get more drug detox and drug rehab programs going that are capable of handling prescription drug addiction. And all of it has to be done asap.

Popularity: 7% [?]

I discovered a new-to-me website today and, in the process, I also found out that someone who works for AstraZeneca, the company that manufactures the antipsychotic drug Seroquel, removed information on Wikipedia about the dangers of the drug. Unfortunately for those who take the drug, the deleted information was a warning, mandated by the FDA in May of this year, that teenagers taking the drug “may be more likely to think about harming or killing themselves or to plan or try to do so.” This, of course, could be a deciding factor for those considering taking the drug, and it’s a good reason to get someone already taking the drug into a medical drug detox to get off it asap.

Seroquel is widely used - the 2005 third-quarter report for Seroquel said earnings were $706 million – and it has a number of dangerous side effects. Suicide is obviously the worst of them, but it is not by any stretch of the imagination the only thing you have to worry about. Robert Whitaker reported in his book Mad In America that one in 145 people died during the trials for Zyprexa, Risperdal, Serdolect, and Seroquel. The manufacturers didn’t publish that information: Whitaker got it through the Freedom of Information Act.

I’m not even going to get into drug companies ethics – that’s another story. This story is about a dangerous drug.

I don’t know how many people use Wikipedia as a source of information - I know I do, although it’s not the only source - but if you’ve used Wikipedia to find out about Seroquel, you may not have gotten the whole story. However, you can get it on the Seroquel website, which tells all - including the warnings about suicide and a host of other wonderful things. Read it closely, and then decide whether you really want to be on this drug, or whether you should allow it for someone you care about.

If you or someone you know is on Seroquel and think it might be a good idea to get off it, contact a medically-supervised drug detox center for help. Don’t try getting off it alone – withdrawal from prescription drugs is dangerous.

Popularity: 6% [?]

School kids sell drugs to school kids. We know that. Parents are fighting against peer pressure, advertising, and all the various stresses of being a teenager to get their kids to just say no. But now we have another enemy in the midst – someone else to watch out for – the Pennsylvania substitute teacher selling Percocet and Vicodin. He was caught by an undercover agent he sold drugs to. We don’t know how many kids he got onto drugs, or how many kids or adults now have a problem with prescription drug addiction because of him.

Is no profession trustworthy? The enemy used to be obvious: he was on the street, he hung out in environments that were seen as unsavory, he was different than we were, probably didn’t quite fit in with the rest of the crowd, something about him was suspicious. There was something about him that you could feel wasn’t clean.

Now the pusher could be a doctor, a pharmacist, another health worker and, now, a teacher. And I know he’s not the first.

There’s a new program for dealers in Rockford, Illinois. Dealers are given the chance to do drug rehab instead of going to jai. Of the five enrolled in the program so far, two have been arrested on additional charges and kicked out. They will face the original charges, and the new ones.

I think dealers should get drug rehab. But doing a drug detox or rehab program that gets the dealer off drug does not pay his debt to society. And, clearly, every drug dealer has one. Getting himself fixed is just not enough.

Popularity: 6% [?]

I read an article today about the number of parents who are worried about their kids using prescription drugs. The results were startling – only 6 percent of parents were concerned. A survey conducted by The Partnership for a Drug-Free America found that 19 percent of teenagers in the U.S. take prescription drugs to get high. Where are they going to end up? In drug detox and drug rehab, unless their parents discover it and do something about it first.

You would think that with all the news items about young people and drugs, parents would realize that prescription drug addiction and abuse is a very real threat.

Kids don’t think prescription drugs are as dangerous as illicit drugs – they got them from their doctor, or found them in their parents’ medicine cabinet, how can they be dangerous?

Evidently, parents think the same thing. Prescription drug addiction and abuse is epidemic. You might not be taking them, but I’d bet you could check with just three or four of your neighbors and find someone who’s taking something. Unfortunately, it’s become acceptable. And it will also be acceptable to your kids.

Educate your children on the dangers of drugs – all of them. And if you’re one of the parents to whom prescription drugs have become acceptable, get yourself into a drug detox center so you can set a good example.

Popularity: 9% [?]

A recent NPR news item said that Connecticut State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal petitioned the FDA to force drug companies to add black box warnings to prescription drugs that could be harmful. His petition was motivated by the incidence of OxyContin addiction and abuse, and was filed three years ago. Good for him – getting on the bandwagon early. I would think that the Purdue Pharma hearings will give it more weight for both OxyContin and other drugs that are the subject of rising prescription drug addiction and abuse statistics.

However, I’m not sure the black box system – warnings on packaging about the dangers of the drugs are bordered with a black box – is doing much to handle the problems. For example, the FDA ordered black-box warnings on antidepressants for children and adolescents, but more young people are being prescribed these drugs.

I think it’s going to take more than black boxes to really get the point across. It’s going to doctors who won’t prescribe the drugs, an educated public that won’t ask for them, and those who already have problems with prescription drug addiction recognizing that they have a problem, and they need to get into a drug detox center and possibly rehab to resolve it.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals Inc., the makers of Suboxone, has a new page on myspace about prescription drug addiction. Of course, they have a vested interest – Suboxone is used in drug detox centers to help people withdraw from opiates, including OxyContin and other opiate prescription drugs, and heroin.

I think this is the first time I’ve seen drug advertising that I haven’t objected to. Just about every other drug advertised – including many of those used for strictly medical conditions – has something objectionable about it.
 
Case in point: a friend of mine took blood pressure medication for years. She had so many side effects she was semi-functional much of the time. It finally resolved with fresh celery juice. I’m not recommending that anyone stop taking their blood pressure medication, but when was the last time a drug company told you to try celery juice first, or exercise, or any of the other things that get blood pressure down without drugs? 

But Suboxone is different. This drug truly helps handle a condition that is very difficult to handle otherwise, and its availability is often a deciding factor when someone is considering going into a drug detox program to handle their opiate addiction. A word of warning: suboxone treatment needs medical supervision. Don’t do it alone. Contact a drug detox center for help.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Since the Purdue Pharma hearings revealed that Purdue misled the public about the dangers of OxyContin, prescription drug addiction and abuse is really making the news: Getting prescriptions from doctors by lying about your condition is now a felony for TennCare patients in Tennessee and legislation is being proposed to widen the scope. There are rumblings in other states about similar laws in the future. Educational programs are also springing up across the country to warn people about prescription drug addiction and abuse, how to recognize it, how to avoid it and what to do about it. The demand for treatment facilities equipped to handle prescription drug detox may soon exceed the supply.

The law in Tennessee, and those that may be in the cards for other states, will definitely make it more difficult to get drugs. The educational activities may also make people think twice about turning to drugs as a solution for what ails you.

The only people likely to suffer from all this attention are drug dealers – from the street to doctors’ offices and pharmacies and right up to the boardroom.

I personally don’t care whose career is ruined with this one, prescription drug addiction is a killer. And it’s epidemic. If you suspect anyone you know is abusing prescription drugs, get them to a medically-supervised prescription drug detox center asap.

Popularity: 8% [?]

The Cardinal’s Scott Spiezio stepped up to the plate earlier this week and is finally going to get help for his drug and alcohol abuse. He’s not suspended, and will be paid during his treatment. General Manager Walt Jocketty says drug and alcohol abuse isn’t a rampant problem with the team, but there’s no doubt that alcohol detox and rehab might have prevented the April death of Josh Hancock.

Hancock crashed his SUV into a tow truck – the autopsy showed a blood alcohol level at twice the legal limit, and Manager Tony La Russa was charged with a DUI in March.

News items about athletes involved in drug and alcohol abuse are getting more frequent of late. I don’t know that the situation is getting worse: it’s possible it’s just coming to the forefront.

Personally, I think that exposing the problem is a good thing. If drug and alcohol abuse in sports is out in the open, there’s a better chance of more athletes doing a drug and alcohol detox program, and rehab if needed. It would be great to clean these guys up. Sports are an important part of America’s culture and athletes have always been role models. I’d like to keep it that way

Popularity: 25% [?]

Pete Doherty’s using an experimental method to stay off drugs – an implant in his stomach. The implant contains Naltrexone, a drug that blocks opiate receptors so no pleasure is derived from taking heroin or other opiates. However, the implant does not replace drug detox or rehab, and no one knows the actual side effects of prolonged use of Naltrexone.

Blocking opiate receptors is like taking an aspirin for a headache. It temporarily handles the symptom, but not the cause. You still have whatever problem caused the headache, and, in fact, it’s still there. You just can’t feel it.

Addiction is a similar phenomenon. The physical craving for the drug is reduced, but that doesn’t mean your addiction is gone. Proof in point: Doherty took cocaine instead. Cocaine is not affected by the implant.

The implants haven’t been approved by the FDA, but Doherty is not the only person using them. A couple of years ago a news article told the story of a former college athlete who started taking painkillers so he could keep playing while injured. Fifteen years later he was still taking the drugs.

Drug addiction isn’t just a physical craving – to really handle addiction you need to address the reasons you take drugs and get to the point where you don’t need or want them. Usually, that requires a good drug detox program following by a successful drug rehab.

Popularity: 5% [?]