Depriving Patients Of OxyContin Is A Crime

The Hartford Courant ^ | December 26, 2001 | Alen J. Salerian

[Tyrannosaur]

As a psychiatrist, I have treated many desperately ill patients suffering from depression and other psychiatric problems as they struggle to cope with serious and often painful illnesses and injuries such as cancer, AIDS and gunshot wounds.

The drugs used to keep these patients alive and to control their pain are strong medicine - they have to be to work. But unfortunately, the very strength that makes these drugs so helpful to people who need them makes them harmful to people who don't need the medications but take them anyway to get high.

[Tyrannosaur]

Millions of people need this drug to lead normal lives free from unbearable pain. I can't believe anyone would consider doing anything that might keep this drug from those who need it. We should be going after those who abuse this drug, not those who depend on it. To punish pain patients because a few drug addicts abuse OxyContin is unforgivable.

[catonsville]

There was unbelivably sad story of an old woman who was dying from very painful bone cancer who could not understand why her Oxycontin tablets were not working.

The doctor found that the woman's daughter was substituting aspirin for the narcotic and taking the pain killers herself.

[RobbyS]

To punish pain patients because a few drug addicts abuse OxyContin is unforgivable. The carry nation mentality still prevails in public policy toward drugs. The whole right-to-die thing arises out of the refusal to let doctors treat pain effectively.

[hobbes1]

No one would argue in favor of banning all drugs because of their potential for abuse. And even if society took such an absurd step, it would do nothing about the problem of drug abuse. If simply banning a drug kept it out of the hands of abusers, no one in America would be abusing heroin, cocaine or marijuana.
Alen J. Salerian, M.D., is medical director of the Washington Psychiatric Center and teaches at the George Washington University School of Medicine.

Hmmmmm....One wonders what the good doctors position on Gun Control is....

Just Curious.

[strela]

Unless the author can cite the statute number and/or law that makes it a "crime" not to make a particular medication
universally available to anyone who asks for it, the title of this piece is misleading and ridiculous. Yes, some people
endure pain, and pain sucks. But to pillory the maker of a particular medication in the court of public opinion
for cooperating with authorities who are trying to keep the product from being abused by druggies is wrong-headed.

[harpseal]

To punish pain patients because a few drug addicts abuse OxyContin is unforgivable.

Having cared for a couple of cancer patients in my lifetime where even a full grain of MS sub cutaneous failed to ease the pain of breathing for any period of time I find the thought of forcing people to endure pain for the sake of some misguided anti-drug abiuse campaign abhorent. Doctors are reluctant to prescribe sufficient pain medications to many patients and the suffering many go through is unspeakable. All of this is due to the war on drugs. No I do not use drugs other than nicotene and alcohol but that is my decision.

I only hope that those who sould restrict the use of drugs to alleviate pain in order to make it more difficult for drug abusers to get ahold of drugs may suffer the agony that many patients do without sufficient pain killers.

Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown

[Lurker]

Before my first wifes death she was a chronic pain patient.

What pain patients are put through to get medication strong enough to control (net end, just control) pain is unbelievable.

I can't count the number of times I was hassled at pharmacies, told "We don't carry that because we don't want the hassle from the Government." (DEA)

A few months before her death, she finally located a pain clinic which had it's own pharmacy. Fortunately for her, it was only 120 miles, yes 120 miles one way from home.

So, twice a month (they couldn't prescribe more than two weeks worth of her meds, rules you know) she had to bundle up our son for a 240 mile round trip to the clinic.

If she was having a particularly bad day and neeeded to increase her dosage, well it was just tough beans when she ran short. The only solution was to make a trip to the ER and have them contact her primary doctor so he could beg for some morphine or dilaudid.

To the people who do these kinds of things to pain patients I wish a long slow case of bone cancer, the really painful kind.

L

[Dane]

To the people who do these kinds of things to pain patients I wish a long slow case of bone cancer, the really painful kind.

Oh you mean like the druggie daughter who stole her mother's oxycontin and replaced them with aspirin.

[tacticalogic]

But to pillory the maker of a particular medication in the court of public opinion for cooperating with authorities who are trying to keep the product from being abused by druggies is wrong-headed.

"If we call the method regulation, people hold up their hands in horror and say ‘un-American,’ or ‘dangerous,’. But if we call the same identical process co-operation, these same old fogeys will cry out ‘well done’.... cooperation is as good a word for the new theory as any other."

-FDR

[Lurker]

Her too, but mostly DEA jerks who hassle doctors for prescribing sufficient quantities of medication for pain patients.

I wish bone cancer on all of them.

Making people suffer needlessly should be a crime.

Hope that clears things up for you.

L

[Lurker]

Here's hoping you get to walk a couple of miles in my moccasins kimosabe.

L

[Lurker]

You and me both my friend.

L

[WindMinstrel]

You know, your post "You and me both friend" is much more amusing coming right after the "Drugs don't kill people, drug dealers do." post!

[Psycho_Bunny]

Not even near a quarter of the "whole right-to-die" issue arises from lack of pain medication.

[strela]

Here's hoping you get to walk a couple of miles in my moccasins kimosabe.

Hope you had a merry Christmas as well.

[Scully]

Some years ago, a young patient of mine was dying of brain cancer. Her physician withdrew her morphine because it was "addicting". She died a few weeks later in terrible pain. My contempt for any individual or system that withholds analgesics from terminal patients is boundless.

Of course, I'm a card-carrying member of the compassionate lunatic fringe who thinks heroin should be included in the US version of Brompton's Cocktail, so my opinion really doesn't count.

[Lurker]

Yea, it was great explaining (again) to a 7 year old that his mommy is dead and she wouldn't be around for any more Christmases.

Other than that, it was great.

Ho ho ho.

L

[IASKTHEREFOREIAM]

Oh you mean like the druggie daughter who stole her mother's oxycontin and replaced them with aspirin.

Are you suggesting that the drugs that people need to alleviate their pain should be made unavailable because there are bad people in the world? If not, what exactly is your point?

[harpseal]

Obviously you have never had to care for someone who was dying of a truly painful disease. Bone cancer, some forms of colon cancer, certain brian cancers are only manageable by morphine and if one does not have an MD who is willing to prescribe sufficient pain killing medications then one is treated to the joy of listening to a loved one scream in agony for days on end.

There are Oncologists audited by the DEA and reprimanded for over prescribing drugs. Maybe you have not been in that position of having someonbe near you suffer so. Until you have been in that position you do not understand. Obviously Lurker has been in that position as have I. It is not something I would normally wish on anyone but I will wish that on those who force others to endure such pain. Be they officials of the DEA or politicians looking for votes from those ignorant of the reality.