Posted on 12/31/2016 7:24:13 PM PST by DBCJR
For years, Oklahoma lead the nation in prescription painkiller abuse according to SAMHSA.
Oklahoma and the nation set out to do something but it was almost totally "supply-side", regulatory and law enforcement oriented to reduce the supply of opioid tablets on the street. These measures were much needed but they did nothing to help the estimated 245,000 prescription painkiller abusers in Oklahoma, nor prevent new entries into the problem, "demand-side". Demand-side interventions are treatment and prevention initiatives. Why are demand-side interventions important?
Addiction to opiates is the most powerful addiction. If you shut off supply dramatically, without demand interventions, you have a massive population very sick and desperate. It was entirely predictable what would happen, a shift to heroin, a major game-changer for the worse. Look at what happened to the supply and street price of OxyContin during this time:
When the supply of OxyContin was cut in half the street price of OxyContin rose 5 fold! What would people do? Heroin was cheap and easy to get. The Mexican Drug Cartel was very accommodating. They built tunnels across the border with robotic rail constantly going 24/7. A million dollar investment nets $20 million the first year.
This greatly and abruptly changed the landscape of opiate addiction. So much so that in 2010 ABC 20/20 ran a series, The New Face of Heroin Addiction:
Unfortunately, the traditional treatment, according to SAMHSA is only 6-10% effective with opiate addiction. Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) improves those odds substantially. However, the vast majority of MAT is administered, as a prominent marketing campaign states, "in the privacy of a doctor's office", for a 30 day script for a a partial agonist buprenorphine drug like Suboxone. The doctor recommends getting counseling and not using other drugs. Does an addict do that? A Harvard study shows when these aspects of treatment are not included success rates fall back to to traditional treatment levels.
In addition, buprenorphine drugs are only appropriate for low to intermediate opiate dependency but methadone, a full agonist, is for intermediate to heavy dependency. Why? Because buprenorphine plateaus at 32 micrograms. Before that level it is actually more effective than methadone but after that methadone becomes far more effective.
In other words, in intermediate to heavy dependencies, buprenorphine fails to manage withdrawal and cravings effectively. And most of the time the person affected is not getting counseling or subject to clinical accountability. What happens? More often than not, the addict hits a low spot, begins to relapse, and uses the buprenorphine when they cannot get the drug - or sells it to get the drug.
Listen to what our former clients say about the difference in treatment:
Advanced Recovery offers evidence-based best clinical practices to obtain the best results. http://AdvancedRecovery.co
Until you experience having someone in your family develop an opioid addiction, you do not understand the destructiveness of it. For years, the PHD wife of a close relative of ours hid her growing addiction to a pain drug she began using after suffering an accident. 10 years and a child later, it grew to encompass the whole family as the loss of judgment due to the numbing of her frontal lobes made her into an ogre. She felt entitled to everything. She was Queen. No one else had rights. They were only useful as co-dependents. Now, after being forced into excellent rehab and all of the state-of-the-art treatments known to man, she has left a pile of destruction behind her that will never heal. Her child, now a teen, is a mess, her husband is still there, but his life has been damaged beyond repair. She still craves and the family is not sure whether she is still using to some extent. Her behavior is such that everyone knows some brain damage will be her legacy forever and probably will rule out the opportunity to ever take her career up again. My take away from being a close observer of hers is this: Opioid addiction is a problem across the entire spectrum of society and inflicts those at the highest levels of government, academia, industry, religion, etc., the same as it does those in the lower economic levels. When we see undue arrogance and insane hypocrisies and fake news coming from certain individuals in the media, exactly what is behind that? When we see outrageous narcissism emanating from high levels of academia, entertainment personalities, and government, exactly what is behind that? This nation is awash in substances which control and destroy normal brain functioning, normal human behavior and interaction. It is the main ingredient now, I believe, in our dysfunctions, in whether or not we survive as a nation. Maybe our problems are not really ideological and our politics are not really “identity politics.” Maybe too much drug addiction has formed the swamp which needs to be cleaned up. Sorry about the rant but, as a trained medical person who has seen this problem up close and personal in so many of life’s venues, I cannot fail to realize that it has a profound effect on everything around us and it has to be dealt with. It is spreading like a fatal disease and it must be controlled, whatever that takes.
Here in Maryland, Heroin is being mixed with Fetanyl (sic) to create a stronger dose. Deaths from overdoses have exploded.
Funny how Singapore doesn’t have a drug problem. It’s almost like harsh punishment works.
Now THAT’S how you fight a War on Drugs.
My ex boyfriend died from this horrible addiiction. Was hooked on Oxy.
Report: Homeland Security Officials Took Millions in Bribes to ‘Look the Other Way’ on Drug Cartels
Repetition of “we can’t arrest our way out of this problem” is obviously not validated by our absurdly ineffective punishments.
Singapore is an excellent counter to that slogan.
On some level, the people who matter don’t want it stopped.
No one has done any studies on the suicide rates that people with chronic pain turn to since their pain meds have been restricted or totally cut off by DUMBO.
Suicide and Chronic Pain
Estimates of the number of people with chronic pain who think seriously about taking their lives range from 20 to 50 percent. It is believed that out of the approximately 36,000 people who complete suicides every year in the United States, at least 10 to 15 percent are people suffering from chronic pain.
http://thepainfultruthbook.com/2015/09/suicide-and-chronic-pain/
Chronic Pain Patient Abandoned by Doctor Dies
https://www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2016/12/22/chronic-pain-patient-abandoned-by-doctor-dies
http://www.pharmaciststeve.com/?p=18350
‘My daughter’s relentless pain was so bad she committed suicide
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2961570/Jennifer-Aniston-stars-new-film-living-chronic-pain-one-father-tells-heartbreaking-story-drove-daughter-suicide.html
Chronic-pain patients at high risk of suicide
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2013-01-24/news/os-chronic-pain-suicide-20130124_1_chronic-pain-patients-chronic-illness-rheumatoid-arthritis
Suicide in Chronic Pain Patients
http://www.regenexx.com/suicide-chronic-pain-patients/
Illegaly brought into country
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/12/26/synthetic-opioids-slipping-int o-via-mail-security-experts-say/23TCEuIES8aEQYAWWHKCiI/story.html
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/12/26/synthetic-opioids-slipping-int o-via-mail-security-experts-say/23TCEuIES8aEQYAWWHKCiI/story.html
Robert Bonakdar, MD, director of pain management at the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine in La Jolla, Calif.
http://www.painmedicinenews.com/Web-Only/Article/12-16/Beyond-Opioids-Surgeons-Explore-New-Approaches-To-Pain-Control/38917
On Assisted Suicide, Going Beyond ‘Do No Harm’
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/05/opinion/on-assisted-suicide-going-beyond-do-no-harm.html?_r=0
Obama Commutes Sentences Of Nearly 100 Cocaine Dealers
http://dailycaller.com/2016/08/30/obama-commutes-sentences-of-nearly-100-cocaine-dealers/#ixzz4Tg1WI4EI
DEA WAR ON DRS
http://www.federaljack.com/is-the-%E2%80%9Cwar-on-drugs%E2%80%9D-as-phony-as-the-%E2%80%9Cwar-on-terror%E2%80%9D/
NO CONNECTION TO PAIN MEDS
ADDICTION https://www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2015/6/12/there-is-no-epidemic-of-painkiller-overdoses
DEA shortage of pain meds
http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/4/13166594/dea-opioid-epidemic-manufacturer-2017-substance-
Pain Management
https://www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2016/1/5/the-cdc-and-profit-driven- drug-testing
How Obama Plans To Combat Prescription Opioid Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/cjarlotta/2015/02/06/how-obama-plans-to-combat-prescription-opioid-heroin-abuse-in-2016/
The 12 Most Debilitating Diseases
http://www.healthcarebusinesstech.com/the-12-most-debilitating-diseases/
There is in Pain Management, a co-pay once a month is $300. Just to pee in a bottle, to get a new script for just lousy NORCO 5 mg. And that is EVERY MONTH!
Some of those gov’t rehab centers cost Thousands a month. And success rate is very little in comparison. Christian based centers have a much higher success rate.
Thank you. So appreciate all that you said.
The key is getting them safely through withdrawals which is easier to do than with an alcoholic. The Detox takes three to 5 days to get them safely off the drug and that’s where many (forced treatments) stop. Their success rate is very low with many going back out on the street. A 30 to 90 day recovery program is needed after that to help them live a life without drugs or alcohol. I counsel Vets and LEO only and with a 5 day detox and 30 to 90 day rehab my success rate is over 65%. Many of my guys have went on to help others. I’m an old school 12 stepper who had his own battle with alcohol addiction, I’m also ex law enforcement and a Veteran of the late 60’s early 70’s. During my time in Vietnam I saw many of our soldier either drinking heavily or doing heroin and most brought it home with them. The only treatment for them at the time was the VA and it was barbaric compare to today’s standards. Basically lock them up for a week, many of the alcoholics died during the treatment due to seizures. While we’ve come a long way in the way we treat addicts there will never be 100% recovery. You can not help somebody who doesn’t want to stop only those who do. This is the reason so many recovery programs have such low numbers, most of those going into recovery are being forced into it rather than volunteer. I deal only with those that come to me and ask for help, I even have a few that have come to me with recommendations from the local VA. I’ve been doing this for 2 years now and have worked with 46 men.
Usually their reality is so awful that anything is better.
Yes.
I can easily believe a success rate of 65% in heroin addicts who want to stop.
My "all-in" success rate of 15%-20% with suboxone includes all comers, most of whom, as I'm sure you know, have no desire to stop.
My criticism of our politicians is based on their lies to the public that "treatment" is able to make this slow-motion disaster stop, when that is almost surely false.
Congratulations on your work.
It is indeed horrible.
But, sadly, VERY common.
Tragic.
“My criticism of our politicians is based on their lies to the public that “treatment” is able to make this slow-motion disaster stop, when that is almost surely false.”
This coming from the same politicians who get their arse in crack when busted for DUI or DWI and then head to a high dollar celebrity rehab/country club coming out claiming all is well and to forgive their past. Then they go on with their lives doing the same things they always did. I went to detox and rehab at Origins Recovery Center at South Padre Island TX. No it’s not cheap but it is a hardcore recovery facility that doesn’t play games, basic detox is 5 days and that runs about 14,000 dollars then it’s direct to rehab which runs about a 1000.00 dollars a day with a 30 day minimum. With that kind of cost it limits the clientele to those of higher income. In my group we had a college Professor with a PHD, 3 professional athletes, 1 professional boxer (He got me started weight lifting), 1 doctor and Lawyer. All of us came in on a volunteer basis and all of us are at 100% recovered status. The truly sad part about addiction is the cost of recovery so very few can afford the full scale program. This is where the politicians need to direct their attention and work to make this affordable for those who want it. The real cost you can not avoid is detox, that takes doctors, nurses and a facility designed for detox. The rehab can be handled with volunteers and a minimal medical staff. Right now my business partner and I (Both recovered alcoholics) have been footing the bill for the rehab, and in the process of purchasing an older nursing home here locally to convert to a treatment center that can handle this at a much lower cost. We’re starting with alcoholics only but branch to other addictions when were comfortable with the treatment.
Went to school with Dr. Mash - at a reunion, she told me about her work with IBOGAINE.
I’ve heard of Ibogaine. I pray that it becomes amazingly successful at treating these addictions. I hope someone makes billions doing it.
For MAT 70-75%
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