Our View: Too many pain pills

Thanks to my lovely wife who sent me this article to comment on. The Ogden Standard-Examiner had this to say. "When it comes to treating pain, it's true that most of us don't have empathy for those who truly suffer from constant physical pain. Prescription pain killers are mercy for these unfortunates, and they rely on professional physicians for relief. However, if a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is any indication, there are too many Utahns using pain pills who either don't need them or are not receiving them in a proper, legal manner."

"The numbers are 35,000 adults in Utah who are illegally using dangerous prescription pain killers, mostly oxycodone and hydrocodone. This is a dangerous game our neighbors, family members and friends are playing. These pain killers will kill you if you take too many of them. Those who abuse the drugs have obviously developed a tolerance for the drug that long ago ceased to have any relationship with real physical pain. What happens is abusers need more of the drug to get the feeling they crave or release from phantom pain. In 2007, more than 260 Utahns died due to a prescription pain medication overdose. About half of those deaths were of persons who did not have a prescription. They were scrounging for pain pills prior to finally killing themselves."

"Although it is ultimately the responsibility of the individual to not allow addiction to occur, the CDCP numbers show that 97 percent of Utah's 35,000 illegal pain pill users got the drugs from a friend or a relative. And only about a tenth of those cases involved pills being taken without the consent of the owner. It's clear that too many of us are serving as enablers for friends and family members who abuse pills. We need to do all we can not to be enablers. We must say no, and in some cases, we may need to contact the authorities if no doesn't work. A good first step is to dispose of all unused pain pills. There are specific methods that help prevent the pills from being abused."

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Counterfeit Drugs in Developing Countries

Getting prescription medication into developing countries is hard enough. But what if the drugs that actually make it there don’t work? Or worse, they cause further harm? The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated three years ago that nearly one in four pharmaceutical drugs sold in the developing world is counterfeit, the New York Times reported this week. And recent discoveries suggest the war on fake drugs shows no sign of abating, as the pharmaceutical forgers wield increasingly sophisticated weaponry.

“The counterfeit drug business has become increasingly attractive for criminal syndicates,” according to the Times. “The profit potential is vast, yet punishment for those caught is typically much less severe than for illegal drugs like cocaine, law enforcement officials say.”

The more phony pills lining drug store shelves, the more treatment failures patients suffer. Not all are completely inert, either: drugs have been found to include low levels of active ingredients—too low to be effective, yet high enough to trigger drug resistance and to be detected in screening tests for fakes. Some can also contain ingredients used for irrelevant conditions. One purported antimalarial appeared to contain sildenafil, the main ingredient in the impotence drug Viagra.

"Counterfeit drugs continue to threaten lives in developing countries", Scientific American, 7/23/09.

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Using Dentists as Dope Dealers

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Kenny Morrison soaked in life from his beachfront home. A top chef at a trendy L.A. restaurant, he served dinner to the Hollywood stars, including A-listers.

But within a couple years, he lost it all. He got hooked on pain medication after some dental work. His fix was codeine, Vicodin and OxyContin -- all prescription medications -- to help him get through the day. At one point, he even had a tooth removed unnecessarily so he could get a prescription for pain medicines.

"At the height, I was taking probably 20, 25 a day," he says. "It got to the point where I lost the wife, the house, and I was living in a bad part of L.A. in my truck. And I went from taking a couple of codeine all the way to taking OxyContin."

Morrison didn't buy his drugs on a street corner or get them from a dope dealer. He got them mostly from dentists he had never met. He says he'd scroll through the phone book calling dentist after dentist until one would prescribe him pain medication. "I kind of found out on my own that a dentist will prescribe you painkillers over the phone, instead of a doctor who you would most likely have to go in and see," he says.

Comment:

• This use of dentists to obtain prescription painkillers may be a new trend in the continuing upward spiral of prescription drug abuse.
  
• This phenomenon is getting a lot of media attention lately and may be a problem in your area.
  

Resources:

• "Using Dentists as Dope Dealers," CNN, 7/21/09.
• "Prescription Drug Abuse", MedLine Plus, 6/17/09.
• "Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention", Office of National Drug Control Policy.
  
• "Prescription Drugs Abuse and Addiction," NIDA.
• "Prescription for Disaster: The Growing Problem of Prescription Drug Abuse in Maryland. PDF. September 2005.
  

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