Free Republic

Cindy McCain is going to bat for Joe Biden, lending her voice to a video set to air during Tuesday night’s Democratic National Convention programming focused on Biden’s close friendship with her late husband, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

Americans consume 80 percent of the world's supply of painkillers -- more than 110 tons of pure, addictive opiates every year -- as the country's prescription drug abuse epidemic explodes. That's enough drugs to give every single American 64 Percocets or Vicodin. And pain pill prescriptions continue to surge, up 600 percent in ten year, thanks to doctors who are more and more willing to hand out drugs to patients who are suffering. As more people get their hands on these potentially-dangerous drugs, more are taking them to get high. Their drug abuse leads to 14,800 deaths a year --...

Three tribes lead the best practice initiative treating the epidemic of painkiller addiction in Native America, Oklahoma, the nation's leader in painkiller addiction. Treating all adults, Medicaid. Last month the Center for Disease Control called prescription painkiller addiction an epidemic in the country, identifying Oklahoma as leading the nation in both the addiction and related deaths. It is only fitting that the battle against such addiction in "Native America" be led by three tribal owned clinics, Absentee Shawnee Counseling Services, OKC; Keetoowah Cherokee Treatment Services, Tulsa; and Quapaw Counseling Services, Miami. Generally speaking, prescription painkillers are opiates. There are 14...

Federal prosecutors had what looked like a solid case against Joan Jaszczult, a Bloomfield doctor accused of writing Oxycontin and Percocet prescriptions for a ring that resold the drugs on the streets for huge profits. They had secret recordings by informants and undercover agents, a line of alleged co-conspirators waiting to testify against her, and even an eye-popping motive: she needed the cash, they said, to help pay $100,000 in plastic surgery bills. But four days after the trial opened, prosecutors suffered a devastating setback. The presiding judge, U.S. District Judge Stanley Chesler, ruled the government had improperly introduced a...

Vital Signs People who take Tylenol and other medicines that contain acetaminophen are largely ignorant of the safe dosages, a new study has found, and unaware that an overdose can cause severe liver damage. Of 104 consecutive patients at a Michigan clinic, almost 80 percent reported using acetaminophen in the previous six months, but about 63 percent were unsure whether they had been told about the dangers of high doses, and only 43 percent knew that the medicine could affect liver function. The survey results appear in the January/February issue of The Journal of the American Pharmacists Association. The maximum...