Posted on 08/10/2017 5:03:23 AM PDT by Kaslin
DENVER–The Left views The American Legislative Exchange Council as a pawn of corporate influence. There were some protests at the organizations annual meeting in Denver, Colorado in July. They were mild. No fires were started, and no vandalism occurred. They came, they chanted, and then they dispersed. That was it. While progressives chanted the usual liberal talking points outside of the Hyatt Regency in downtown Denver, a significant number of state legislators were figuring out a way to knock out what seems to be an unstoppable killer: opioids. Around 1,700 people attended the event held in July, where the topic has taken a rather disturbing trend. It’s now the deadliest drug crisis in American history. It’s killing close to 90 people a day. No racial or ethnic group is safe. According to The New York Times, the Midwest, Appalachia, and New England are the hardest hit regions. The introduction of fentanyl into this crisis, coupled with the over-prescription of opioids, has led to an astronomical increase in overdoses. Fentanyl is often mixed in with heroin to reduce the price, but offers a dose that’s 50 times more potent, leading to lethal results. Simply touching fentanyl has sent members of law enforcement to the hospital. In Ohio, one officer merely brushed off the substance off his uniform after answering a drug-related call in May. He overdosed an hour later; fentanyl can seep into the bloodstream through skin contact. In Florida, a ten-year-old boy was suspected of accidentally touching the substance at his community pool. He later overdosed and died. Authorities said contact could have come when he touched a towel.
Is it a problem with Big Pharma or is it an offshoot of the larger issue with heroin addiction? Some had different opinions about the source of the matter. Over-prescribing seem to be the area that the media focuses on, but other experts noted how prescriptions have gone down 15 percent over the past 15 years, and how the overwhelming majority of people who are given opioids by their doctor are not addicted. At the same time, we’re the nation that consumes the most opioids, and at the rate we’re going—650,000 people will be killed as a result of this epidemic. Reuters reported that in 2015, one third of all U.S. adults were prescribed opioids. Right now, the number of DUI deaths from opioids has increased seven-fold, the biggest spike since 1995, based on studies done by Columbia University. USA Today wrote recently, “In a paper published last month in the American Journal of Public Health, researchers found that the prevalence of drivers with prescription opioids detected in their systems at the time of death surged from 1.0% in 1995 to 7.2% in 2015. The three most commonly detected opioids were oxycodone, morphine and codeine.”
We’ve seen bits and pieces of this story that often put on the backburner due to other news emanating from the Trump White House, like his former White House communications director going off on profanity-laced tirades against senior staff, health care, and special elections. In the meantime, state legislators have to fight a war using every available resource afforded to them in combating this epidemic. Townhall was given a pass into the various ALEC workshops at the conference to see how this crisis is impacting the states, and how they’re fighting back.
Opioid Abuse: Epidemic Levels In U.S., Study Finds | NBC Nightly News
It’s Not Just An Inner City Problem
Maryland State Sen. Michael Hough and Wisconsin Rep. John Nygren spoke at the first workshop, where they discussed how their respective states are responding to the heroin/opioid epidemic. Hough said that deaths from heroin overdoses are equal to that of cancer and stroke. Concerning fentanyl overdoses in 2007, there were only 17 deaths in Maryland. The first nine months of 2016, there were 738 deaths. By the end of the year, over 2,000 people had died from fentanyl or heroin overdoses. It’s not just in the rural areas, where Hough’s senate district is located; he represents Maryland’s Frederick and Carroll counties, which are outside Baltimore. In Baltimore, an estimated 29,000 people are addicted to heroin.
Hough has worked with Gov. Larry Hogan to increase penalties, for those who willingly sell fentanyl, people who mix it, cut it, and sell it. While scores of people are dying, the drug dealers are making insane profits from this method. Sadly, the state mandated that Naloxone (Narcan) be available at schools. It also mandated that addicts charged with drug offenses must be given treatment within a 30-day timeframe. Prior to these changes, an addict would be charged and then have to wait six-to-seven months waiting for a bed at a treatment center, plenty of time to do more drugs in the interim.
Criminal justice reform was also a topic where Hough said that Maryland had very strict mandatory minimum law after Len Bias overdosed on cocaine in his dorm room at the University of Maryland in 1986. At the time, he was selected to play basketball for the Boston Celtics. He also worked to reform those sentencing laws, where those who had small amounts of narcotics would be handed down 10-year sentences. There’s also a RICO statute carved out for drug dealers. It’s redirects enforcement and punishment to the big fish and gives judges more flexibility in handing down sentenced for low-level offenders.
Recovering heroin addict now helps others
Rep. Nygren knows the epidemic all too well. His daughter, Cassie, is struggling with heroin addiction, being arrested and incarcerated over the past three years for her drug use. In 2013, Nygren went public with this family matter. He noted that there are 28 bills that are aimed at combating this problem in Wisconsin alone, with 11 signed into law by Gov. Scott Walker last Monday. All but one was passed unanimously. Nygren said there is a fiscal and human side to this issue. On monetary matters, on average it costs the state $38,000 ($35,000 for men, $41,000 for women) to keep an inmate incarcerated. The recidivism rate with drug offenders is virtually 100 percent. One of the things Nygren saw we must do as a society is recognize we have a culture of addiction in our midst. The state also passed Good Samaritan laws, so that those who call for help when an overdose does occur are not charged with a felony. Narcan has also been adopted on an optional basis for first responders and some 4,000 lives have been saved in the process.
Rep. Nygren also stressed that this wasn’t a partisan effort. You don’t get that with drug reform bills passing unanimously, all hands were on deck for this. Three treatment centers, called Hope Centers, were established, targeting the underserved and rural regions. Now, three more are being established to exclusively serve the underserved. It’s been a success and those on the state’s Medicaid rolls are eligible.
Prevention is one of the biggest obstacles in this fight. The old D.A.R.E. campaigns and “just say no” do not resonate. Nygren found that working with the medical community is highly effective, especially when it comes to prescription drug monitoring. Early results of the program, which went into effect in April of this year, found that there was a reduction of 11 million prescriptions between October 1-December 31 of 2016 compared to the same time from the previous year. The over prescribing of opioids has certainly contributed to this problem. Law enforcement has been participating, but Nygren said they weren’t the major player. Educating students is another key aspect, as the schools are part of the front lines in fighting the opioid crisis. He noted that their attorney general is using whatever resources at his disposal for his Dose of Reality campaign.
Opioid Epidemic: Inside A Police Raid To Take Down A Drug Dealer | NBC Nightly News
What Colorado Is Doing To Fight Back
In Colorado, Dr. Rob Valuk, director of the Colorado Consortium for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention, noted that the state really didn’t take notice until a 2011-12 survey showed that six percent of Coloradoans twelve and older were using opioids for a non-medical reasons (i.e. the leftover pills in our medicine cabinets). Dr. Valuk spoke at the panel concerning how a collective approach to the opioid crisis was essential to finding solutions at curbing drug abuse.
The number of those with leftover drugs is quite startling. Dr. Mark Bicket of Johns Hopkins University conducted research that showed out of 810 patients who were prescribed opioids for various surgeries—caesarian section, oral surgery, lung, and shoulder—two thirds had leftovers. Bicket’s findings found that more than half of the pills prescribed were unused, less than one third had disposed of the pills, and less than 10 percent had considered following proper protocols for disposal. This was one of the main objectives for Dr. Valuk: proper disposal.
As a result, Gov. John Hickenlooper created the Consortium in 2013, with over 400 members from various health professions, state agencies, and other task forces dealing with this issue working on reducing abuse. It was given a budget of $1 million from then-state Attorney General John Suthers. Their mission is straightforward: develop and execute policies and programs dealing with prescription opioid abuse, reduce overdose deaths, and increase treatment for addicts, reduce non-medical use of opioids. Dr. Valuk added that this is all done through public-private partnerships; no new government programs or agencies were created to deal with this problem.
Concerning public awareness, the campaign began in 2015; it increased awareness for safe usage, storage, and disposal. Concerning the latter, Dr. Valuk mentioned that the “behavioral intent” to use a safe disposal program showed much improvement. Concerning the safety disposal boxes, the official name is TakeMedsBack. It began with a $300,000 budget, with the goal of having a box in every one of Colorado’s 64 counties by 2017. Right now, there are 80 boxes in 41 counties. The purchasing for Narcan for first responders was launched in 2016. In all, this is bottom up approach centered on safe disposal sites and public awareness campaigns. Almost every dollar that they spend is on advocacy. Their goal for 2016 was to prevent 92,000 people in this age group is misusing opioids.
As we grapple with how to deal with this problem, and there are many opinions on what to do first. ABC News reported that Attorney General Jeff Sessions wants a war on prescription drugs, sending 12 federal prosecutors to areas heavily impacted by addiction. The legal mandate will focus on opioid scams and health care schemes. Ohio, where almost 10 people die a day, is the guinea pig for this effort, which is officially called Opioid Fraud Abuse Detection Unit. Yet, there are a few problems. For starters, Ohio has reportedly already done this (via The Columbus Dispatch):
Cameron McNamee, spokesman for the Ohio Board of Pharmacy, said that to his knowledge, nobody at the U.S. Justice Department has contacted his agency, which has long been fighting improper opioid prescribing in Ohio.He said the board already is required by state statute to look for aberrant prescription practices. In fact, enforcement agents in his office who go after dirty docs and pharmacists are funded by federal grants.
“We try to coordinate and use data analytics to identify medical practitioners who might be over-prescribing,” McNamee said.
Despite the efforts already in place, the board of pharmacy would welcome additional help, McNamee said.
“It’s an all-hands-on-deck situation,” he said.
Antonio Ciaccia, director of government and public affairs for the Ohio Pharmacists Association, an industry group, said, “I’m not sure how much the feds will be able to do with it other than duplicating efforts.”
He said the state created the Ohio Automated Rx Reports System in 2006 to help identify “doctor-shopping” patients. He added that state licensing boards in recent years have tightened professional rules and monitoring.
“The state of Ohio has been a leader when it comes to data analytics for prescription-drug modeling,” Ciaccia said.
Will this be declared a national emergency? A White House panel, led by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, recommended calling our opioid crisis just that. At a press briefing yesterday, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price was asked repeatedly if President Trump would make it official.
“Well, the President certainly believes that we will treat it as an emergency -- and it is an emergency,” said Secretary Price. “When you have the capacity of Yankee Stadium or Dodger Stadium dying every single year in this nation, that's a crisis that has to be given incredible attention, and the President is giving it that attention.”
When asked again whether it’s a national emergency would be declared, Price said that as of now, it’s not in the cards, but “all things are on the table.”
Secretary Price added:
“Most national emergencies that have been declared in the area of public health emergency have been focused on a specific area, a time-limited problem -- either an infectious disease or a specific threat to public health. So we believe that, as this point, that the resources that we need, or the focus that we need to bring to bear to the opioid crisis at this point can be addressed without the declaration of an emergency, although all things are on the table for the President.”
Declaring the opioid epidemic a national emergency would give states access to the federal Disaster Relief Fund and temporary suspend the rules and regulations from other federal programs. Keith Humphreys of Stanford University said one of those waivers, no Medicaid reimbursements for large drug treatment centers with 16 beds or more, would be temporarily disregarded. Frankly, before deciding whether the states and or the federal government should play the key role in addressing this issue, it seems all parties involved need to form a consensus about whether this is a Rx-centered problem or one that's an offshoot from our war with heroin. There were two schools of thought that were represented at the ALEC conference, each with very compelling evidence. The libertarian movement will certainly take the position that government needs to continue reforming drug laws and get out of the way. In Ohio, you saw that states are already doing some of the things proposed by the attorney general. For now, it seems the state legislators at the conference recognize the problem, they’re proposing legislation to deal with it, and any help from the federal government would probably be well received, albeit they need to talk to state officials to avoid duplicating efforts. In the meantime, scores of Americans succumb to overdosing on opioids every day, and the Trump administration is not yet convinced that this is worthy of a national emergency designation.
So by all means, we must protect the poppy fields of Afghanistan with the lives of our brave young soldiers.
If it were, the "solution" would be the same as it was before it spread to the suburbs: Prison or death.
The way it works here is that a prescribing physician is identified, a person claiming pain gets a prescription, goes to a specific Walgreen’s store, has it filled, returns to their automobile where they are met by the drug dealers that buy the pills.
Everybody makes money. It’s all legal except for the final payment. The dealer in the Walmart parking lot stays there to collect from the people getting their prescriptions filled. In Tennessee several manufacturers have been taken to court but the matter has not yet been heard in court.
The other end of this is the situation I have come face-to-face with. Due to age and unfortunate genes, I am subject to bouts of back pain that Tylenol, et al, simply won’t resolve. So, in April, I got a five-day course of Percoset from my family physician. Three months later, when an orthopedic surgeon was getting ready to give me another five day course of the same, he stopped himself because he was afraid of having his license pulled for acting as an adjunct to my theoretical “drug seeking” behavior. Two five day courses of an opioid three months apart is “drug seeking”? Pure stupidity. So, the only answer is to gut it out. Once again, lawyers pretending to be doctors get in the way of the people they claim to be helping.
“Between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, 2016, the number of opioid doses dispensed decreased by more than 11 million from the same quarter of 2015.”
And how many lives were saved. Did heroin deaths go down. Nothing is said of course. I guess we’ll need to reduce opioid prescriptions by another 11% to see if anything good happens.
I think that the Gestapo agents at the DEA and state DHS want the war against doctors and patients. You know, they could just work with doctors and pain patients to create clear and easy to follow rules, but it’s always more fun to send in SWAT teams to doctors offices.
Now if you were a DEA agent getting up in the morning what would you rather do? Get all dressed up in SWAT gear and raid a doctors office where the only weapon you’ll find is a pen or go into a drug house where there’ll be a few guys in the back waiting for you with ARs?
TN will not allow prescribing over 200 MEDD. For a person in severe pain from nerve damage two 60 mg morphine ER pills is all he/she will get plus one 30 mg morphine IR for 150 total MED a day. Cancer types can get 6 15mg oxy IR for 90mg’s= 120 MEDD + one 30 Morphine ER at night for 150 MAX. Morphine ER DOES NOT last 12 hours. Try 7 3/4 to 8 MAX.
They won’t be satisfied until people living with chronic pain are forced to do without pain medications.
Mark
Opium comes from............
...............AFGANA(bleeping)STAN................!!
So-nuke ‘em ‘till they glow, then pi$$ on the ashes.
Fortunately for her, she was able to eventually manipulate the system to get what she needed. I probably wouldn't have been able to do it myself. Eventually, it got to the point where she was taking enough painkillers to kill a horse and it would barely take the edge off enough to even get some rest. They certainly weren't making her 'high'. One of the big problems was finding what would actually work. Some did, and some didn't. Some would actually make things worse.
Then you have the other side, scammers who make claims of back pain or whatever just to get the drugs. The doctor can't prove the person is faking anything because we don't really have the tools to actually measure pain. In some ways, our ability to produce medicine has outstripped our ability to diagnose it's need. Of course, the government feels that it must get involved, because control is the only thing they know. It is the hammer they have, so they want to pound some nails.
All part of that “quality of life” thing so they can convince the weary to ask for death. Not me, baby! Going out kicking and shouting.
You are correct. Cancer types do not hurt any worse then those with GSW’s, or real severe chronic pain like 4 out of 5 lumbar spine discs (L2,3,4,5) have severe left or right foraminal stenosis. You have stinging pain in your lower spine plus it radiates into your buttocks plus it shoots down your sciatic nerve etc. Add the nerves from each disc gets worse as does the pain. Yes, these damn pain pill limits do not control serious pain and the countless, worthless, nerve blocks, plus the caudal ESI’s’s done by regular MD’s are more dangerous then patients know. You can end up with arachnoiditis fast. No damn 200 MEDD will control arachnoiditis. Young punks getting a buzz off their parent’s lortabs and percocets graduated to stealing their oxycontin. They do not have the damn guts to sweat the crap out. Who pays-those over 65 mostly. Pain MD’s are not all anesthesiologists or even trained to stick a needle in your spine. They are getting rich off pain and BS spinal stimulators.
If you are a real MD trained in Neuro or Ortho you can damn well read a CT myleogram or MRI. You can test for PN. Stop the BS.
All I could tell you is what I saw with my own two eyes. My wife was dying from her disease, but she had to work the system to get what she needed to help her live a somewhat normal life while she could.
YOu can call it BS all you want. That doesn't change the facts.
Your post #10 is what is replied to. Yes MD’s can damn well tell if a person has nerve problems in their spine or PN in their legs. Anyone with cancer who goes to a cancer clinic can get pain meds. My wife has had cancer twice, PN, add charcot foot plus her life has been saved 9 times.
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