A new white paper released by Columbia University’s CASA (The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse) reveals that the vast majority of Websites selling narcotic painkillers (OxyContin, Vicodin, etc.) do so without requiring a prescription.
While this does not surprise me, it is somewhat startling to see it printed in black and white by a major research university. What I’ve been calling the Painkiller Epidemic is essentially a rising tide of patients developing powerful addictions to prescribed opiate-based painkillers. Like it or not, these illegal web merchants are simply responding to a very real surge in demand.
If the failed “War on Drugs” has taught us anything, we should know that shutting down these Websites will not fix the problem. Fundamental changes in the way narcotic painkillers are used and prescribed are needed to combat this problem in the future. As for the present, the needs of these addicts will be addressed one way or another—either through treatment, or through the criminal—and often violent—machinations of the black market.
it had been a natural high for quite some time. i found sobriety invigorating and all was well.
a trip to the dentist.
a root canal. the initial anasthetic.
the prescription for 8 vicodin. 18 mos sober, but i had a prescription.
my wife has a prescription, but i had stayed out.
a few months later i broke a rib.
a prescription for 30 vicodin. then 30 more.
then they cut me off...
but get this and this is an i shit you not
godshot
my wifes prescription was screwed up in this fashion..
instead of sending her (in the mail) 30 vicodin
they sent her 300.
it was obscene.
the electricians came and we had to empty most the furniture out of the room where she hid the pills
and they were easy to find.
it was on.
there were days i took 1
there were days i took 5
objectively speaking
more than 1 is a waste.
it went on for months until i confessed to the wife
she was pissed
i'm an addict and i share who i really am with god and another person./
i went on still/
she doled them out and i was lifting weight just enough to keep my manboobs at bay and then....
i hurt my back.
this was around oct 2007.
i got my own prescription and i truly believe that vicadin caused me to hurt my back and caused me to GET MY OWN FUGGING PRESCRIPTION.
i just emailed it in
once a week
30 vikes.
and was it ever on.
and i was dreaming and dialing just now
my grandsons voice was there
he called me "great grampa"
and i said "hey boy" in that funny voice that he liked
and his mom took the phone from him
and it was on
i woke up and grabbed a beer
i started drinking again
i started drinking again
the worst thing is my self esteem
and i still have the prescription but the drinking cut the vicodins vicadins down to size 2 a day
i began a 1 a day regimen
but on the second day i crashed
on the third day we went to a concert
i'll bet i took 3
or 4
today i took 1
fuck
Readers of this blog already know my opinion on this ridiculous “Hillbilly Heroin” moniker—so I’ll ignore that for now. The real story here is that the illegal use and sale of painkillers like OxyContin in Australia has exploded from practically non-existent, to representing nearly half of the users at some safe injection sites*—just within the past 2 years.
I really don’t need to elaborate further as the original ABC article is excellent—except to point out that this painkiller epidemic, though already rampant in the U.S., is becoming a truly global problem. As the worldwide “War on Drugs” remains steeped in constant failure, we must find new solutions to combat what is truly a new form of deadly addiction.
View other
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*Safe injection sites or "supervised injecting centers" are clinical facilities where illicit drug use is permitted; often clean needles and other injection equipment is supplied.
A study conducted by Dr. Ana Rose Childress and Dr. Charles O’Brien of the University of Pennsylvania shows drug craving “triggers” are activated in the part of the brain responsible for emotions and rewards.
Cocaine addicts were shown a series of images for 33 milliseconds each—not nearly enough time to register consciously—yet brain imaging of the study participants showed activity in the limbic system (the area of the brain that is directly associated with reward) that coincided with the images.
“[The study] is the first evidence that cues outside one’s awareness can trigger rapid activation of the circuits driving drug-seeking behavior.”
CNN, in a recent “mainstream” CNN.com/health article, included prescription drug addiction in their list of . This mention not only represents a very real danger, but may mark the first time a major news outlet has addressed the subject of prescription drug addiction alongside relatively commonplace health concerns like a large belly and frequent urination.
In my opinion, this is further evidence that the "story" I’ve been calling the Painkiller Epidemic is very big, very real, and very likely to rear its ugly head on the national stage very soon. Once a concern only on the radar screens of addiction counselors, the subject of painkiller addiction finally seems as though it may be slowly working its way, via the mainstream media, into the public consciousness.
JACKSONVILLE, FL – An article on today’s asserts that legal prescription drugs have surpassed illegal drugs in terms of demand on the street—and as Florida Department of Law Enforcement Special Agent Dominick Pape says, “Prescription drugs aren't flooding the streets because of curious kids raiding the medicine cabinet.” Dear readers, we are talking about an escalation to serious organized-crime-level operations here—from your basic doctor shopping and forged prescriptions, to armed robbery and smash-and-grabs.
"This is out of control… There's a whole new type of junkie out there that wants these [prescription] drugs, and they're carrying guns."
—Pharmacist Denise Stiles-Yount
In this space just a few days ago, I wrote a about a study which showed that, in Florida in 2007, prescription painkiller use resulted in 300% more deaths than the usual “street drugs”. Now we are finding that, in Florida at least, painkillers are not only gaining in popularity, but are in greater demand than so-called “hard drugs” like cocaine and heroin. Florida may well prove to be ground zero for the unfolding of the painkiller epidemic story.
In a recent blog post, Stanton Peele, Ph.D. (author of Love and Addiction), looks at all alcohol and drug related deaths in Florida in 2007. According to the post, prescription painkillers Vicodin and OxyContin were responsible for more deaths than all other substances combined. Even tranquilizers, often used in suicide attempts, came in a distant third.
Peele doesn’t mention the source of his data, but seeing as he has been a respected author on the subject of addiction for over 30 years—I am inclined to accept his numbers. If Dr. Peele is correct, as I suspect that he is, the Painkiller Epidemic is further advanced than even I had imagined.
Update: Peele's data comes from an analysis of autopsies in 2007 by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission. See thisarticle for details.
Happy Father's Day to all my Dad readers out there. Give yourself a hand...you're doing a great job (unless you're not and then "shame on you")!
Nothing big to blog about today. I'm taking it easy.
My doctor (my "regular" doctor is an orthopedic surgeon) thinks I've herniated another disc (or rather, the same one AGAIN) and it's terribly not comfortable. I have an MRI coming up and in the meantime, I have drugs, but I hate to take them for many obvious reasons (mostly cuz they make me retain water...ugh!).
So, I'm NOT out playing golf or doing anything dadish that I might normally do. Instead, we're having family time in the form of a dual father's day dinner for me and CareerMom's dad and it involves ribs...lots of ribs...and beer. Yum!
Take care all!
(By the way...if I've sent you a weird e-mail, or given a strange-sounding response on your blog, it was probably the influence of the drugs. At least, that's the excuse I'm going with for a while)
In the past week alone, there have been three news stories covering armed pharmacy robberies in Pennsylvania. My original goal in launching SWALLOW was to raise awareness of what I refer to as the painkiller epidemic. I continue to be very concerned about this issue, and will include regular updates on this blog.
6/9 Rite Aid Pharmacy; Butler, PA
Police say a man who robbed a Butler Township pharmacy wasn't after money - he wanted narcotics.
6/9 Rite Aid Pharmacy; Johnstown, PA
Johnstown police captured the suspect in an armed robbery at Rite Aid Pharmacy.
6/2 CVS Pharmacy; Scranton, PA
Christopher Quinlan... [allegedly] handed a pharmacist a note demanding that she hand over all the oxycodone or he would kill her or cause serious injury.
While heroin and methamphetamine addiction garner the lions share of the traditional media's attention these days—with the exception of the Rush Limbaugh story a number of years ago, painkiller addiction has gotten comparatively little press. In the meantime, we are seeing more and more desperate acts, by more and more desperate addicts, some even going so far as robbing pharmacies for narcotic painkillers—in particular OxyContin.
