Off the Deep End: Prescription drug abuse is not a small problem

While working as a receptionist a few years ago at a medical clinic in Chico, I called in prescriptions for opiates such as Vicodin every day.

[Detoxer]

Katy, this is a wonderful article and tells about the real problem with opioids like Vicodin and Oxycontin--legal heroin. This problem lies with the pill pushing doctors who hand out these drugs as if they were harmless.

Our patients use Oxy interchangeably with heroin.

Steve
http://novusdetox.com

[lake lady]

This has been problem for so many years, I can't believe it has not been corrected by the medical establishment. My dad was provided with Valium by the truck load (metaphorically speaking) by military doctors for several years before his death. I watched this upstanding retired officer turn into a jellyfish as he thought that if a doctor prescribed it, it must be harmless. When I first moved to Lake County I had a colleague confess to me that she was addicted to Valium. I asked her how she got enough to support a habit. She blithely said that she had 3 or 4 doctors around the lake and that many pharmacies that would supply her anytime. Right now, my husband gets a constant re-fill on a prescription for Vicodin from his doctor. The original script was for pain from an injury that happened several YEARS ago! Hopefully having a more central record keeping system will stop the abuse!

[YEAHBEVIS]

First of all, according to HIPPA, you should not be allowed ANY patients records from ANY pharmacy. Next, most of this article is cut and pasted. Also, your story is just plain boring. Tell us something we don't already know. How long have you been "Writing"?
I bet you never worked in a Dr's office, did you?

[Concerned]

Don't get your panties in a wad. It is a problem and the article couldn't be more right on with the info supplied.
Standing at the gas pumps of Tower Mart and approached by a pill pusher is a part of life in Lake County. 2-5 bucks a pill one definetly wouldn't have to work. It use to be pot. But since that is so easy to come by now its pass say!

[Shagnasty]

Most of what the writer comes up with is 'cut and pasted'- lots of lack of living.

This is NOT new. Prescription medication abuse is a problem.

The article does the medical community a dis-service. Many physicians refuse to prescribe pain meds. for people who are not their regular patients. Yes, there are physicians who don't give a hoot, but most value their medical licenses and their patients.

[pot head]

What does Doctor Jake have to say about this topic? snicker,snicker.

[methprevention]

Shagnasty wrote:

Most of what the writer comes up with is 'cut and pasted'- lots of lack of living.
This is NOT new. Prescription medication abuse is a problem.
The article does the medical community a dis-service. Many physicians refuse to prescribe pain meds. for people who are not their regular patients. Yes, there are physicians who don't give a hoot, but most value their medical licenses and their patients.

You post as though shooting the messenger discredits the information. Is that to boost a flaw in your personality or is their a point to be made?

While the Polydrug death is not new the skyrocketing deaths nationwide are. Your declaration that prescription medication abuse is a problem is comforting to everyone, that you now say it is so.

The medical community does a dis-service to society when in six months in one county they write prescriptions for 6.5 million oxycodone pills. The medical community does a dis-service to society when there only obligation regarding pain medication is to make sure everyone is so doped up they feel no pain with very little or total disregard to the prevention of addiction. The medical community does a dis-service to society when they are in bed with the pharmaceutical industry poisoning, addicting and killing children.

[Wow]

Lets ask Dr. Phil

[Bdog]

Shagnasty likes to whine to her her/himself whine. Cut and paste yourself a personality partner.

[JOKER]

pain is a very subjective thing, indirectly if you see a broken femur on an xray you know the patient is in pain. If a patient is having chest pain is pale sweaty and hypotensive you know the patient is in pain.

But telling the difference between true chronic pain patients like back pain and drug seeking behavior is very difficult. Many times, the orginal treatment for pain turns into an addiction and it could just be a pyscological addiction. When the doctor is dependant on what the patient is describing telling the difference between these two groups can be challenging.

Another challenge found at pain clinics is ensuring the patient takes the meds they are prescribed instead of selling them. During regular drug screenings they are looking for illicit drugs but they are also want to ensure they are positive for the drugs that have been prescribed.

bottom line this is a complex problem, with no easy answers

[methprevention]

JOKER wrote:

pain is a very subjective thing, indirectly if you see a broken femur on an xray you know the patient is in pain. If a patient is having chest pain is pale sweaty and hypotensive you know the patient is in pain.
But telling the difference between true chronic pain patients like back pain and drug seeking behavior is very difficult. Many times, the orginal treatment for pain turns into an addiction and it could just be a pyscological addiction. When the doctor is dependant on what the patient is describing telling the difference between these two groups can be challenging.
Another challenge found at pain clinics is ensuring the patient takes the meds they are prescribed instead of selling them. During regular drug screenings they are looking for illicit drugs but they are also want to ensure they are positive for the drugs that have been prescribed.
bottom line this is a complex problem, with no easy answers

Great posting, bringing up the script selling patient as a way to supplement income, get rich is without a doubt a huge part of the overall problem.

I do believe that the buck inevitably stops with the doctors, they are supposed to be trained professionals in regards to all aspects of healing and medicine, including preventing substance abuse addiction.

Simply not being aware of the problematic, addictive and deadly side effects of their prescription writing or clients true intentions are not acceptable excuses. Doctors writing prescriptions creates millions of dollars of revenue not only for them but the pharmaceutical industry. This money making proposition far out ways the necessity for the medical profession to address and correct this problem. Once again unfortunately the money issue takes priority, even if it is killing our children.

[Rush Limbaugh]

This is shameful!!!!!!

[EXmethadone]

As long as these narcotics are available, some people will use them for pleasure. Based on what I've read, there are parts of the U.S. where people willingly pay $.75-$1 per milligram; $60-$80 for one 80 mg. oxycontin pill. The pharmaceutical industry has provided a huge underground welfare system for the poor. One can only imagine the amount of money that changes hands in this black market on a daily or annual basis. I've read that the drug industry, both black and white market, is second only in size to the petroleum industry on a worldwide scale. The criminalization of recreational narcotic use also fuels other industries such as the privatized prison industry and the medicalized for profit recovery industry. And then there is the assets forfeiture industry that acquires large profits for police agencies, at both local and federal levels.
Until recreational narcotics use is relegalized the status quo will remain as is.

[Vestra]

The above post by "EXmethadone" is probably the single most intelligent and insightful post I have ever read on this forum. Kudos..........

[EXmethadone]

"Katy, this is a wonderful article and tells about the real problem with opioids like Vicodin and Oxycontin--legal heroin. This problem lies with the pill pushing doctors who hand out these drugs as if they were harmless.
Our patients use Oxy interchangeably with heroin."

Doctors are only doing their job. They should educate patients receiving narcotics for pain about the possibility of acquiring an addiction. Doctors should not be held responsible for the actions of their patients. We are all free agents.

[Donna Christopher]

Did anyone happen to take into account that a doctor may prescribe pain meds to someone over a long period of time because they actually do have a condition that calls for it but lack the insurance coverage to fix the problem? I have a friend who had no insurance but was a member of the working poor (those folks that make to much for medicaid but not enough for a private policy). Her hip went bad but before she could get Medi-cal she had to spend down everything she had worked for her entire life. Not an unreasonable requirement when you go hat in hand asking for something in our current disfunctional system. When she finally qualified she then had to wait almost 8 more months before she could get the surgery. All through this 18 months of hell on earth they kept telling her they had never seen a hip that badly deteriorated in someone in their early 50's. She did do physical labor all her life, no desk jockey jobs, which probably caused the condition.

Very true Joker, complex and no easy solutions. But I'd rather see some fool work the system than see a truly needy person suffer.

[EXmethadone]

Thanks Vestra. I could also have added the street gangs and the international drug cartels as beneficiaries of drug prohibition. And from a historical perspective I could have added guerrilla armies, governments; the list goes on ad nauseam. Drug prohibition feeds corruption on a scale that is unprecedented by perhaps any other facet of human culture. And behind it all is the "easy money" profit motive made possible only by criminalizing these drugs. Unfortunately, there are many powerful interests on both sides of the law that depend on maintaining this hideous and pernicious status quo.

[Mark Grizzly]

Im so sick of people calling doctors "Pill Pushers" and "Drug Dealers".. Are you in pain? Probably not.. I AM. I have a bone marrow disease and for years i couldnt get the docs to prescribe me shit! When they finally diagnosed me they got me on Vicoden's.. Over time my tolerancce went up and unfortunatly so did my pain..
If i didnt have my Oxy's i woulda commited suicide years ago. The doctors are put in a really fucked up position because of prude square soccer moms that dont properly teach their kids about drugs.. They teach them about Heroin, Crack, Speed, LSD, BUT they dont say anything about PILLS.. Im young and i went to school through the late 90's and there was absolutely NO talk about the dangers of prescription drug abuse.. Little Timmy would NEVER touch Heroin but he's gobble up a Vicoden without thinking twice.. I agree the drugs are basically the same, BUT the education IS NOT.. Then Little Timmy DIES from an Oxycontin Overdose!! He had no idea that it was dangerous and now his Psycho Soccer Mom is calling every doctor she see's a DRUG DEALER.. Thats a bunch of BULLSHIT! People in pain, like myself need pain medicine and we dont need some bitch who, at the worst has a migrane headache, talking shit about our doctors.. Your just making the doctors afraid to prescribe medicine..
Im not trying to insensitive to anyone who's lost a friend or family member from a drug overdose.. I lost my BEST FRIEND of over 15 years to an Oxycontin Overdose a few days before Christmas in 05.. It was fuckin tragic! He NEVER drank alcohol or smoked weed. He saw his dad getting wasted on jack and coke, and he saw his brother burnt out on weed.. He figured that pills werent bad.. AND BAM.. DEAD!!

Teach yer kids not to abuse and sell drugs and the problem will stop with the next generation (yeah right)- and please stop talking shit about the doctors being drug dealers..
We should talk about what they really are.. A bunch of incompitant, greedy, insensitive fucking cocksuckers!!
They arent healers they are HUSTLERS!! I wouldnt be surprised if they sat around on Topix scamming people during their luch breaks!

[methprevention]

Mark Grizzly wrote:

Im so sick of people calling doctors "Pill Pushers" and "Drug Dealers".. Are you in pain? Probably not.. I AM. I have a bone marrow disease and for years i couldnt get the docs to prescribe me shit! When they finally diagnosed me they got me on Vicoden's.. Over time my tolerancce went up and unfortunatly so did my pain..
If i didnt have my Oxy's i woulda commited suicide years ago. The doctors are put in a really fucked up position because of prude square soccer moms that dont properly teach their kids about drugs.. They teach them about Heroin, Crack, Speed, LSD, BUT they dont say anything about PILLS.. Im young and i went to school through the late 90's and there was absolutely NO talk about the dangers of prescription drug abuse.. Little Timmy would NEVER touch Heroin but he's gobble up a Vicoden without thinking twice.. I agree the drugs are basically the same, BUT the education IS NOT.. Then Little Timmy DIES from an Oxycontin Overdose!! He had no idea that it was dangerous and now his Psycho Soccer Mom is calling every doctor she see's a DRUG DEALER.. Thats a bunch of BULLSHIT! People in pain, like myself need pain medicine and we dont need some bitch who, at the worst has a migrane headache, talking shit about our doctors.. Your just making the doctors afraid to prescribe medicine..
Im not trying to insensitive to anyone who's lost a friend or family member from a drug overdose.. I lost my BEST FRIEND of over 15 years to an Oxycontin Overdose a few days before Christmas in 05.. It was fuckin tragic! He NEVER drank alcohol or smoked weed. He saw his dad getting wasted on jack and coke, and he saw his brother burnt out on weed.. He figured that pills werent bad.. AND BAM.. DEAD!!
Teach yer kids not to abuse and sell drugs and the problem will stop with the next generation (yeah right)- and please stop talking shit about the doctors being drug dealers..
We should talk about what they really are.. A bunch of incompitant, greedy, insensitive fucking cocksuckers!!
They arent healers they are HUSTLERS!! I wouldnt be surprised if they sat around on Topix scamming people during their luch breaks!

In a six month period last year, one county in Florida alone, Doctors wrote prescriptions for over 6.5 million Oxycodone pills.

Experts say addiction to prescription painkillers — which kill thousands of Americans a year — has become a largely unrecognized epidemic. Prescription drugs cause most of the more than 26,000 fatal overdoses last year, says Leonard Paulozzi of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to CDC statistics just released overdose deaths from painkillers — opium-like drugs that include morphine and codeine more than tripled from 1999 to 2006, to 13,800 deaths that year. Prescription painkillers have now surpassed heroin and cocaine, however, as the leading cause of fatal overdoses, Paulozzi says.

Yeah, the medical profession is awesome.

[Mark Grizzly]

I live in California and i guess im blind to the problems in other states.. I wasnt really educated on the problem with Pill Mills in Florida, and i do agree - Those dotors are pieces of shit.. They know exactly what they are doing and unforyunatly the money has (and will) corrupt them so bad that there will be no way that they will ever be good, caring doctors ever again.. Now that they've made the big bucks THEY ARE LEGAL DRUG DEALERS and that is a damn shame..
It makes good docs look like scum