Rush's Dilemma: The Truth about Oxycontin

Patriot Paradox ^

[sonsofliberty2000]

Rush is not alone. Yesterday, Rush Limbaugh came out in what had to be a hard and very painful statement to tell his audience that :

Over the past several years I've tried to break my dependence on pain pills and in fact I've twice checked myself into medical facilities in an attempt to do so. But I recently agreed with my doctor about the next steps. So. Immediately following this broadcast, I will check myself into a treatment center for the next 30 days to once and for all break the hold that this highly-addictive medication has on me.

Highly-addicted is an understatement. Oxycontin is an agonist opioid. According to HowStuffWorks.com:

Opioid agonists are some of the most effective pain relievers available. Unlike other analgesics, opioid agonists have an increasing analgesic effect with increased doses. Meaning that the more you take, the better you feel. Other analgesics, like aspirin or acetaminophen, have a threshold to their effectiveness. You can see why, particularly for people who suffer chronic pain, a medication like OxyContin can be so beneficial: It can potentially provide up to four times the relief of a non-opioid analgesic, so even the most severe degree of pain can be managed.

So the more you take the better you feel. And why is it so addictive:

Rather than ingesting the pill as indicated, people who abuse OxyContin use other methods of administering the drug. To avoid the controlled-release mechanism, they either chew, snort or inject the medication to get an instant and intense "high." Frequent and repeated use of the drug can cause the user to develop a tolerance to its effects, so larger doses are required to elicit the desired sensation and the abuser gets increasingly addicted to the drug.

What can come about from oxycontin abuse. Death for one. Look at this info from the National Drug Intelligence Center:

Several deaths have resulted specifically from the abuse of OxyContin in Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia. The Pike County, Kentucky, Coroner reported 19 OxyContin-related deaths during calendar year 2000. In December 2000, seven OxyContin overdose deaths were reported in Southeastern Kentucky by two Kentucky State Police posts. The Logan Daily News reported in October 2000 that four Hocking County, Ohio, residents overdosed on OxyContin over an 18-day period. Two of the four died. There have been at least four OxyContin overdose deaths in Pulaski, Virginia, since 1998. In July 2000, The Williamson Daily reported five OxyContin-related overdose deaths in southwestern West Virginia since May 2000.

I want to talk a little more about the last bit there about southwestern West Virginia. Gilbert, WV in paticular. Why? I grew up and visit there often and I want to tell you that it is depressing. Oxycontin is the number one drug in that area, and the hell it has caused can be seen and is on the lips of everyone you talk to. Stores have closed because owners abused the drug, and lives are ruined.

One article at HealingWell.com has a blurb from Gilbert:

And Gilbert, W.V., police call the drug the worst they've ever dealt with, according to the National Drug Intelligence Center, which last month issued an advisory on the drug and similar products.

and the Media Awareness Project has an article from the Charleston Gazette about the epidemic in Gilbert:

The 41-year-old hairdresser says she has been around at least one person on OxyContin.

"It's like people under the influence are really intoxicated - highly intoxicated," says Vicki Stanley, who lives in the unlikely drug cradle of Gilbert. "Then when they're trying to come off, it's like they have the flu - - muscle cramps, body aches, sick at their stomachs.

"And that's just the physical addiction. The mental addiction is worse."

For the last couple of months, Stanley and other residents of this Mingo County town have been grappling with what they say is a narcotic epidemic.

According to families and friends, a good percentage of the town's population of 456 has developed an appetite for OxyContin, a potent opiate used to treat pain.

...

Palmer keeps abreast of the Gilbert group's activities. He said residents report people selling the pills at Gilbert High football games. Parents of students have entered the school, attempting to peddle the drug, he said.

How bad is it when parents of students are peddling this stuff? In a letter to Tommy Thompson, Congressman Frank Wolf laid out the issues better then most:

Several pharmacies in my congressional District have been robbed at gun point in recent months for OxyContin. No money was taken; the robbers only demanded the drug. Earlier this month, a prominent defense lawyer in northern Virginia who twice served as a local prosecutor in Prince William County pleaded guilty to federal drug charges linked to a large-scale investigation into the illegal distribution of OxyContin and other painkillers.

Communities where the illegal drug has taken hold are being completely destroyed. I am told there is one county in southwest Virginia where no one isn’t either using the drug, knows someone using the drug or been the victim of a crime by someone needing the drug.

When a professional baseball player recently died after taking the dietary supplement ephedra, your agency immediately issued fact sheets regarding potential serious risks of dietary supplements containing ephedra. You were even quoted as cautioning all Americans about using dietary supplements that contain ephedra.

According to fact sheets produced by the FDA, two deaths, four heart attacks, nine strokes and five psychiatric cases involving ephedra have been reported. More than 240 people have died from the abuse of OxyContin and countless numbers of families and communities have been torn apart by this drug.

What should be done? I don't know. Stricter regulations won't do anything, education might, but the hold of this drug is hard to break. Ask Rush. Ask anyone in Gilbert, "where no one isn’t either using the drug, knows someone using the drug or been the victim of a crime by someone needing the drug". Yeah, my birthplace, a place where I still have family I love, a family that if I asked about this drug would be able to tell me many stories of its horrible reign, was the county Wold mentioned. In a way it was a good thing that happened to Rush. I'm thankful he was given a wake-up call. Should he be ashamed? No, he should be thankful. Maybe Rush will put a human face on this epidemic. If left up to the media, however, it will probably be all about the smear campaign.

[nmh]

"Because it works, and works very well."

Indeed - "traditional" doctors now have a junkie for a patient with MANY repeat visits and drug companies can boost their sagging earning as patented drugs run out.

[wardaddy]

I have never taken one. I am familiar with both oxycodone and hydrocodone as well as meperidine for my back which is similar to Rush's but I have not had surgery.

I took drugs as a kid for fun.

I recognize the euphoria even today when I occasionally take one for my back or other severe pain but because of many constraints and simply my personality, I have never made a habit of any drug except nicotine and caffiene. I am blessed that way.

I have seen many folks fall prey to chronic substance abuse. This is usually accompanied by self image issues and a chip on the shoulders....particularly with alcohol. Narcotics abusers often become nihilists by default. Potheads become procrastinating delusions of grandeur types often.

I could go and on.

My best friend ever in my life is an alcoholic who now abuses these very narcotics in question since his pancreas can no longer tolerate drink.

I don't have any answers friend.

[nmh]

Wait am minute. You just spouted out the typical blame someone other than the doctor line. The DRUG becames less effective as the PATIENT builds up a tolerance to it SO more is needed and the DOCTOR KNOW THIS - hence your junkie patient is the result. Stop blaming the patient. It IS the doctor who is at fault for prescribing this crap in the first place.

[NittanyLion]

That's the ugly truth OR they wounldn't be prescribing such addictive drugs.

That's hardly a fair characterization. Pharma companies and docs are providing drugs that help improve people's lives, and then when those people abuse the drugs you blame the company itself. This is no different from blaming "Big Tobacco" for smokers' illnesses.

[Freebird Forever]

British Government is selling opium to the Chinese today, at this very moment.

If a person really wants to take a stroll down that path, you could ask why Afghanistan(US / UK) has recently bumped Burma (China) out of first place in terms of opium production? And where that cash eventually ends up?

[SarahW]

Oxycontin isn't frightening.
What's frightening is the dolts who don't "get" that people in pain shouldn't be held hostage to people who abuse the drug to get high.

The whole point of the pills formulation is to REDUCE a patient's use of narcotics, at the same time more effectively managing pain. The steady time release of a smaller amount of pain medication obviates the need for larger intermittent doses of narcotic pain reliever.

Ironically, considering all the hysteria about how dreadfully addicting oxycontin is, the fact is that it actually reduces the chance a patient will suffer side-effects from the larger doses, and it slows down the development of tolerance to the narcotic.

It's an effective painkiller in the safest, most effective form possible. The patients who need the benefits of the drug are being held hostage to "high" seekers. These are the same cretins who will get high *by any means available*, although they will seek out the cheapest, most effective way to do it....

I am disgusted that anyone would think that patients should suffer, or deal with less effective and less safe (with higher chance of addiction) methods, on account of that level-percentage of the population that will abuse something, ANYTHING, available, to get a euphoric rush.

[Dane]

Is it true Linda Blair is a libertarian? Because that's what I've heard

Have no idea, if she's a Libertarian or not, but you sure acted like her character in "The Exorcist" did when historical facts from the 70's about the leftist/Libertarian drug culture were brought out.

[ChemistCat]

I don't know how it is in most religions, but the use of recreational drugs is against the covenants we make in mine. If we have a problem with prescription or non-prescription medications, it's something we are supposed to see our bishops about.

[At _War_With_Liberals]

I misunderstood. I thought you meant that parishioners should talk about prescription drugs with priests.

[thoughtomator]

The medical industry is hardly a legion of saints. Witness the latest spate of commercials to convince adults they have "ADHD"... and while we're at it, we can also look at the perhaps unprecedented child abuse that stems from improperly medicating millions of children for ficticious "diseases" like "ADD". Then we can take a look at the government programs that encourage and subsidize this behavior...

Really, there are no clear-cut good guys or bad guys, when looking at industries or classes of people as a whole.

[rockrr]

"It is shocking the percentage of the population that has been described anti-depressents like Paxil, Prozac, Zoloft, etc."

This single comment out of this thread is the most disquieting to me. (I assume you meant to say, "prescribed", yes?)

My 10 year old daughter lives with her mother, a chronically unhappy and manipulative person. Consequently, my daughter has days when she gets pretty bummed out. Her school has taken notice of her moods and declared her "Clinically Depressed". The school district wants to get her onto a Zoloft plan so she can be "balanced". Her mother is in favor because it deflects attention from the true causes of my daughters distress - her dysfunctional mom.

So I get to be the big bad meany obstructionist (feel free to add in any other appropriate adjectives....) because I refuse to go along with this sham.

I have a healthy respect for the consequences of drug use - legitimate & otherwise. Indiscriminate prescription or use goes against the grain for me.

[Sally'sConcerns]

I've been taking one form of pain medication or another since surgery in 1994. What my pain management doctor does is to switch my pain meds periodically where no one of them becomes less effective.

Currently I'm taking Panlor SS, Fiorinal, Soma and Elavil. Most days this combination keeps my pain level in between a 3 and 4. Without these meds my pain level would be a 9. I say a 9 because I hope never to experience a 10.

[freedomlover]

All of this talk about chronic pain makes me wonder if we haven't evolved into a society which cannot tolerate any pain. How did our ancestors tolerate pain? They had very little to take for it.Have we become nothing but pampered sissies?

I had my entire colon taken out a month ago. Some things HURT. That being said my nurse (who I thought was being a busybody b#tch) convinced my not to take OC due ti its addictive nature once I was discharged. She turned out to be right.

Re the ancestors thing I simply would have died 100 years ago - a slow and painful death I might add. However for the pain alcohol and narcotics have been around quite a while. Ask the Chinese.

[NittanyLion]

Really, there are no clear-cut good guys or bad guys, when looking at industries or classes of people as a whole

Very true.

[ChemistCat]

AMEN!!!!!
Great post.

[wardaddy]

Ex-wives are a bitch. Their self obsessiveness or residual anger at the ex-husband will trump what is best for the child everytime if there is a conflict with said ex-husband.

Divorce/custody lawyers will tell you that even good women do this...it's innate.

Damn, I look so forward to being clear of child support(alimony in reality) in just 3-4 more years. Then my relationship with my daughters will be between them and I as well as my then direct financial contributions.

[Lurker]

Already done, jerk.

L

[wardaddy]

Why Elavil?

Soma is the best muscle relaxer no doubt....docs don't hand it out so readily anymore. Lots of folks abuse it too.

[bart99]

"Good article. A quick scan of Oxycontin in Google News shows what kind of a problem this drug is."

---

Do you have a url you could provide for a good article on oxycontin that shows the problems? I'd appreciate it.

Thanks.

B.

[Clara Lou]

All of this talk about chronic pain makes me wonder if we haven't evolved into a society which cannot tolerate any pain. How did our ancestors tolerate pain?
I'm very happy that you have never suffered chronic, debilitating, unescapable 24-hour per day pain. Neither had I until about 5 years ago, when I suffered a herniated disc: constant, strong muscle spasms; intense pain while sitting, standing, lying down; inability to sleep; inability to stand up straight while continuing to need to be able to teach for a living.

Re: ancestors in pain I imagine a fair number of them, in serious enough pain, ended their own pain via suicide.

Please accept that, although you haven't experienced it, incredible, unending pain does exist-- and people need help with it in order to continue a meaningful life.