AHS Views

When will Purdue Pharmacy and the other manufacturers of painkillers step forward to help the thousands of people who became addicted to OxyContin, Percocet or Vicodin? “Nearly a decade after OxyContin slammed into southwestern Virginia and much of Appalachia, the abuse of prescription painkillers in the region is worse the ever, police and public officials say,” (Nick Miroff, Washington Post). Who’s going to pay for the addiction help they need?

One person who could have used addiction help was Jeff Trapp. He went through $60,000 of his retirement savings supporting his habit. Jeff is now on methadone and drives 120 miles a day to a clinic to get his dose. He spends $18 dollars a day at the clinic ($540 a month) and probably $300 dollars a week on gas ($1200 a month).

Would things be different if the addiction help he needed had been available? Maybe not, 37% of the people in coal mining regions have ended up on disability. But I would say none of these people were warned about the dangers of OxyContin or painkiller addiction and that may have helped Jeff and countless others.

OxyContin addiction and dependency has cost people like Jeff far more then the $640 million Purdue Pharmacy has paid. Does anyone know how much Purdue has made selling these drugs to unsuspecting people?

If you or anyone you know needs help with any kind of drug or alcohol addiction, call Addiction Help Services.

I read an article in The Facts about the extent of prescription drug addiction, specifically painkillers, in the U.S. When I worked in a drug rehab facility the biggest problems were heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine. They’re still big problems – it hasn’t gotten any better – but, according to that article, even in 2003 there were 15 million people in the U.S. taking prescription drugs, mostly painkillers, for non-medical reasons. How many of these are going to need drug rehab to get off them?

OxyContin, Percodan, Percocet, Vicoden and Darvocet, the painkillers being referred to, are opioids, similar to heroin. They are highly addictive. I’ve known a few painkiller addicts who went from one doctor to another faking injuries, aches, pains and illnesses to get prescriptions. One told a doctor she had an allergy to the painkillers she was prescribed after surgery and asked for a different, stronger, drug. She got the new prescription she asked for, but also kept the pills from the first one. She wound up taking both of them and wound up addicted. She eventually needed drug rehab.

Is it possible for doctors to write a prescription for a drug rehab program instead of drugs? If not, that might be a solution.

The number of people seeking drug rehab for abuse of prescription painkillers continues to escalate. In fact, there was a 9 percent increase between 2004 and 2005, to 64,120 rehab admissions. These statistics were provided by the annual Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) from the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, and includes nearly 2 million drug rehab admissions to facilities that report their characteristics.

Drugs abused by those seeking rehabilitation in this category included codeine, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, meperidine, morphine, opium, oxycodone, pentazocine, propoxyphene, tramadol, and other drugs with morphine-life effects. Popular brand names in these categories include Oxycontin, Vicodin, Lortab and Percocet, to name a few.

Officials had largely underestimated the destruction caused by these drugs, but recent observances have found that between 1995 and 2005 there has been an increase of over 300 percent in prescription drug rehab admissions regarding these painkillers.