AHS Views

Winchester, a New England town, has launched a campaign to protect its citizens from prescription drugs. The Winchester Medication Take Back Program encourages those with prescription drugs in their medicine cabinet to clean them out and turn them in. The idea is to keep drugs out of the water supply and landfills, and to stop young people from experimenting with them - which can lead to the need for addiction help, or worse.

 ”Unfortunately, we’re seeing more young people go down a path that’s difficult to come back from,” Liz Silva of the Substance Abuse Coalition told wbztv.com. The article goes on to say that “drug experimentation is a destructive path that often begins in a medicine cabinet at home. It’s a path that ends with addiction and sometimes death. In Winchester police are seeing teens experimenting with prescription drugs like oxycodone. ”

Winchester is not the only town with the problem - it’s happening all over the U.S.  Kids getting drugs from their parents’ medicine cabinets also sometimes wind up giving them to other kids or taking them to parties where the drugs are dumped into a bowl and everyone just takes what they want. Getting off the drugs can be hard without professional addiction help.

Of course, the kids need to be educated on the dangers of prescription drugs but, in the meantime, making them inaccessible is a good solution. Let’s hope other towns adopt a similar program - there would be a lot less need for addiction help services, and our kids would be safe.

According to a report by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, the states with the highest percentage of its citizens addicted to prescription drugs are Tennessee and West Virginia. West Virginia just took over the number one spot, and drug rehab centers will probably be inundated with people needing addiction help. 

We’ve talked about “West Virginia and OxyContin” in this blog in the past, as well as “Tennessee and OxyContin.” You could also talk about “Florida and OxyContin.” in fact, you could pretty much relate OxyContin to any state in the country.

You can also say “Kids and OxyContin.”

One young lady named Jenninfer, from yet another state, Ohio, landed in drug detox at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in January 2007. Neither Jennifer’s parents nor teachers knew she needed any addiction help. Jennifer’s parents were lucky; Jennifer came forward and told them she was addicted to OxyContin.

Jennifer’s not the only kid in trouble in Ohio - 50 other children also received drug detox in Children’s Hospital in 2007. “Ohio and OxyContin.”

Fifty kids from Columbus going through drug detox should be an eye opener for parents. Keep your prescription drugs out of the reach of your kids. And get them the addiction help services they need if they’ve already discovered them.

Laconia, New Hampshire, where eight people died last year from methadone, is playing hardball. The man who sold the methadone to one of the victims has been sentenced to a minimum of 15 years - which could turn into 40. He will be able to get out after 10 years if he gets addiction help through a substance abuse program.

While it’s good to see someone being held responsible for this tragedy, I can’t help but think of the all the hundreds or thousands of people dying from OxyContin overdoses while the Purdue execs are snug in their beds. How come they aren’t also in prison? They not only sold the OxyContin to those people, they even lied about how dangerous the drug is.

The way I see it, this is a travesty of justice.  I’m still hoping they will be further prosecuted or made to do more to fix the problem they created. Helping get people the addiction help services they need would be a good start.

In Glenn Falls, New York, heroin abuse is on the rise. According to Police Chief, Joe Bethal, the problem may be caused by people switching from OxyContin and other prescription painkillers to heroin when what they really need is addiction help.

“One of the reasons may be because of prescription drug abuse. The pharmaceutical companies have manufactured quite a large amount of prescription opiate-based painkillers and we know they’re out there in the homes and the medicine cabinets,” said Chief Bethal.

He hit the nail right on the head. Pharmaceutical companies (Purdue Pharma, when it comes to OxyContin) are producing endless amounts of pain killers, and they will sell as many as they can.

If you can sell OxyContin to 34 internet pharmacies - enough OxyContin to fill 100 million prescriptions - you know there isn’t any discrimination. Anyone can become addicted to prescription pain killers. Warren County Undersheriff Robert Swan said, “It’s not just seen in one area, one group or a specific gender. It covers everyone”. Switching from prescription painkillers to heroin is a bad choice. As the Chief says, getting addiction help services is not a crime.

Diane Finch from New Hampshire Public Radio (NHPR) has written an important piece about prescription drug dealing. 36 online pharmacies sold 100 million prescriptions in 2006. The main drugs sold were OxyContin (big surprise) and Hydrocodone. The drug dealers from the internet pharmacies in Tampa, Florida had to have a piece of the action. Another company benefiting from this was Purdue Pharmacy the company that brought us OxyContin and all of the subsequent addiction help necessary for the addicts.

Cardinal Health, the distributor for many of the narcotics, may have also had a hand in this. Cardinal’s license to distribute narcotics in Florida was suspended last year by the FDA. The amazing thing is that the drug companies must just sell these drugs to anyone who orders from them. If a pharmacy is delivering millions of prescriptions, shouldn’t the manufacturer or distributor have a responsibility in finding out where these drugs are going? Florida is mentioned, along with Puerto Rico, Israel, Colorado and Pakistan, as shipping locations. Some doctors in Florida are getting $25 dollars a pop for writing prescriptions. That could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars.

If you follow the money, I’m sure you can find out who is writing the prescriptions - at least in Florida and Colorado. Addiction help services are available for Oxycontin or Hydrocodone is available.

Merrill High School in Lincoln County, Wisconsin has a prescription drug abuse problem. Last Monday, the Merrill school board expelled six students for prescription drug-related charges. That could mean possession, selling them, and/or passing them out to their friends. Most likely the six students were high. You can be sure that two or three of those kids will end up needing addiction help at some point in the future.

The City of Merrill has a population of about 10,000 people and Merrill High School has about 1,100 students. This wasn’t the first such incident for that school: Earlier in the year 10 other students were expelled for prescription drug abuse - sixteen students out of 1,100 suspended for prescription drug abuse in the first three and half months of the year doesn’t sound like much but that’s actually the highest number of students expelled that I’ve seen recently. For such a small community it shows the problems prescription drugs are causing and the need for addiction help.

Wisconsin already has an alcohol problem among high school and college students, and adults. The school district superintendent, Sally Sarnstrom, says “It’s extremely frustrating not only for the students and their families but for the school district and the community. There are issues.” This is another example of how far the prescription drug epidemic has spread. Addiction help services are needed in even a small city like Merrill, Wisconsin.

Ronnell Brandon, a student athlete at Harrisonburg High School, was recently accused of selling drugs to his teammates. Brandon supposedly sold drugs “to take away the pain of hits.”  Since it happened in Virginia and the pills were to take away pain, I’ll make a wild guess and say he was selling OxyContin.  It is alleged that 10 of his teammates used the drugs. If the law of averages holds true, at least two or three of the ten will need drug addiction help.

Authorities have confirmed that coaches had knowledge of the transactions. “It is also apparent that this information and knowledge was known by not only the players themselves but also several coaches of the Harrisonburg High School football (team),” said Harrison Police Sgt. Chris Rush of the Charge Gang Task Force in his affidavit.

The head coach, Tim Sarver, was tipped off on at least two occasions and apparently asked the player about it. Coach Sarver says he hears rumors every year. He also said he checked it out and the player denied it. Another coach, David Long, talked to Brandon and he again denied it. Let me think … hmmmm, a potential drug dealer lying to an authority figure about drug dealing. Shocking. Hopefully, the coaching staff wasn’t more concerned about winning than finding out if student athletes were on drugs. How many kids on that team actually need addiction help and their problem is being ignored to win games?

If you think this is an isolated incident of painkiller abuse in high school sports, well please wake up. Not only are many high school athletes taking drugs – in this school, the 10 players probably represent 20% of the team - a good percentage of them probably even need addiction help.

What does this mean for college and professional sports?  I promise it isn’t going to be a pretty picture. Parents of student athletes should be alert to the possibility of drug use, especially if your son or daughter is injured. This holds true for cheerleaders as well. You don’t want to be looking for addiction help services for your teenager.

Here’s the million dollar question for today: Why does the University of Pennsylvania want more people on drugs? 

On one side we have sites like Addiction Help Services trying to help people stop using drugs and alcohol, surveys such as the Monitoring the Future Survey, the DEA and local law enforcement trying to end drug trafficking - we even have President Bush and the National Institute of Drug Abuse trying to end prescription drug abuse in this country.  All of these activties are trying to stop drug abuse and prevent the need for addiction help.

On the other side we have schools like the University of Pennsylvania and their Center for Cognitive Neuroscience promoting more drug use.

The idea that Ritalin might make you more focused is not really in question; it will, it is speed, similar to cocaine, crack and methamphetamine.

But there are broader issues about prescription drug abuse that come into play. I certainly can’t say I’m smarter than a neuroscientist or even a rocket scientist, but if any of the psychologists or psychiatrists from the University of Pennsylvania read the news , they would see that controlling prescription drug use among the young has become a huge problem. Perhaps they think it will go away if everyone is on drugs with a prescription from their doctor.

From Harvard to Stanford to the University of California at Santa Barbara, Ritalin abuse is rampant. It is clear their advertising campaign is working. Some surveys say that 30% or more of college students use prescription stimulants. One in five high school students are using them and, in one Florida high school, Ritalin and Adderall are the drugs most used by the student body.

To promote the use of Ritalin for everyday “cognitive use“ is outrageous and dangerous. The tests may work in a lab, but does the lab take into account all of the risks to our society? Is anyone in the lab aware of the casualties of prescription drugs and the number of people who now need addiction help services to get off them? Do they know how many people wind up in the hospital or the morgue?

Perhaps the school president, Amy Gutmann, should look into this to see if some “vested interest” is paying for this research. It is ridiculous to see scientists, professors and leaders promote this concept - and they promote it proudly as the wave of the future.  If anyone from the University needs addiction help services they should find them - now, before they become one of the casualties.

I read two articles about the same subject today - both promoted the idea that ADHD drugs don’t add up to the need for addiction help. One was entitled “ADHD drugs not linked to future drug abuse,” and the other was “Without Substance: ADHD meds don’t up kids’ drug abuse risk.” I found the articles interesting. The headlines would make you think that ADHD drugs are safe - except that both articles say that if you start taking ADHD drugs at the ripe old age of, say, eight, you may be at higher risk. My bet is that if you start taking them at age 12, it’s worse. But I haven’t read the studies yet. The other thing the headlines don’t say is that 44% of kids who started taking Ritalin after age eight had substance abuse problems. I would guess they needed or, perhaps, still need addiction help as well.

The studies were reported in the May issue of the American Journal Of Psychiatry. Psychologist Salvatore Mannuzza concluded that the 44% have other problems that caused the drug abuse – that the drugs (Ritalin or Adderall) were not the problem.

However, his quote shows that his ideas are speculative: “These volunteers likely became adult abusers because of this condition, not because of stimulant treatment as children.” This sounds like a conclusion based on opinion - not really very scientific. Also the study was started 17 years ago, long before the problem of prescription drug abuse became the problem it is today. There are millions of kids on Ritalin and Adderall - let’s hope 44% don’t need addiction help services.

If you live in Tennessee and go to a pharmacy in Ringgold, Georgia, there’s at least one pharmacist there who will know you’re doctor shopping -  Chuck Gass. Tennessee has a prescription drug monitoring system so doctor shopping is almost impossible and if you get caught doing it  using TennCare you can go to jail for two years. While it is better to get drug addiction help than resort to going from one doctor to another faking symptoms, most addicts will simply drive to Georgia, or possibly Florida, to get the OxyContin they need.

Doctors in Tennessee have become very clever about this sort of thing: If they suspect someone of doctor shopping, they’ll use drug testing and common sense before prescribing pain pills. Dr. France Barnett, for example, of Jasper, Tennessee has implemented monthly drug testing. If you ask for a prescription and your test doesn’t come up positive she kicks you out of her practice. Another doctor, William Hays of Cleveland, Tennessee, watches for patients traveling long distances to get a prescription and recognizes it as a tell tale sign of doctor shopping.

I wonder if anyone will wake up and bill Purdue Pharmacy for all of the new regulations state governments have to put in place to combat prescription drug addiction. OxyCodone ranks second behind marijuana as the most abused drug in the U.S. Get drug addiction help servcies if you are addicted to OxyContin, don’t doctor shop.