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.

[steve86]

anti depressants are used for chronic pain though

That's true; although not an analgesic, SSRIs somehow interfere with the individual's neural processing of chronic pain, marginally improving the quality of life. AFAIK, they don't work at all with acute pain.

[NittanyLion]

"Traditional" doctors if you are lucky MAY tell you side effects on what to expect but they NEVER tell you NOT to take them or what will happen to your liver and kidneys AFTER you have taken them for a prolonged period of time. "Traditional" doctors also despise you knowing that they ONLY SUPRESS symptoms which of coursecreates more problems.

First of all, that simply isn't true.

Even if it was true, ultimately it's your responsibility to either ask your doctor or read for yourself what the side effects are. Whatever happened to personal responsibility?

[wardaddy]

I think Ludes were kind of hard to get addicted to as a maintian drug since they were so powerful and sloshy. I never took enough for a period of time to see if tolerance was possible....I assume like most drugs, it was.

We did Ludes to party...and fairly infrequently. Even though I enjoyed them I'd prefer not to see my own children behave as I did.

Acid is another drug nobody ever got addicted to...lol...for obvious reasons but I have seen some folks take enormous amounts. I knew an old hippie from Kali who was an original Brotherhood of Eternal Love member. He would take an toothpick and dip it into liquid LSD25 and then chew the pick....and repeat that all night and hardly look fazed. That much would have put me in a straight jacket.

I saw a movie recently about a kid at Harvard who does too much Sidney and the movie displays very accurately I thought the pitfalls and effects of such...supposedly about 10K micograms. I think it is called Harvard Man....it gave me the willies. I consantly warn my girls about LSD.

[wardaddy]

desyril has a very interesting property known to have profound effects in men....priapism...which at times can be quite dangerous (locally speaking)

[Sally'sConcerns]

I promise I didn't share any with my fiance. (not even for a short time)

[Terridan]

Just be careful... when my sister, now deceased, was coming off of DOCTOR PRESCRIBED Oxycontin, she developed an anuerysm in the esophagus, mouth of the stomach, bled out and was lost within 2 minutes. She wasn't on them for 2 months, but the vomitting and pain in the stomach was just listed as, "withdrawl from morphine". You must pay attention to symptoms, be educated about them. We lost her for no reason, and have absolutely no recourse. She was just shy of 54 years old, and beautiful.

[steve86]

I took a 90 day supply of Oxycotin (3 per day leagl) and never even thought about wanting another one.

Individual susceptibility must vary greatly. I still have a longing for them after taking fewer than ten prescribed by a dentist, yet I was able to leave the remaining tablets in the bottle after the pain subsided.

Yet, I have no tendency to become dependent on smoking or alcohol. Those who posit a general tendency toward addiction for those different classes of drugs are wrong, in my opinion.

[NittanyLion]

My aunt was a diabetic and was prescribed medicine that caused her liver to fail. She died because of this liver failure. There is a major class action lawsuit involving this drug. Should her family not have any recourse from the drug company that profited from selling this drug?

If you utilize a drug exactly as told, and are harmed as a result, there should be a recourse. When Oxycontin users abuse the drug (as Rush has here) that's a failure on their part and no one else's. Make sense?

BTW, I'm sorry about your aunt. What drug was she prescribed?

[wardaddy]

LOL.

[wardaddy]

I'm sorry for your loss.

[HateBill]

Speaking of Ludes ...

Did any of you know that Ben Stein wrote a novel called "Ludes" (which was made into the movie, "The Boost", starring James Woods and Sean Young) describing a young couple's descent from a comfortable middle-class lifestyle into addiction and despair?

[radiohead]

Oh, I had forgotten about the acid... : ) What can I say, I went to UMichigan, where you could get bumper stickers that said, "Ann Arbor, Dope Capital of the Midwest."

But you're right, I wouldn't want my son to do what I did. Thankfully, I guess stupidity skips a generation, because he's a straight arrow FReeper.

When he went to Michigan (mid 90s), they had introduced 'substance free' dorm rooms - no drinking, drugs, or smoking - because of the large numbers of kids coming in who were in AA (already!)and needed to be away from the college drinkers.

As it turns out, a lot of kids really liked the idea and opted to be in the rooms even tho they didn't have a substance problem. They just didn't want to deal w/a roommate coming home wasted every Friday and Saturday.

I can laugh about some of the things I did in college, but my son and I were very close to someone w/significant drug problems which cost him his life. We're all free to choose, but to say drug use (maybe the better term here is 'drug addiction') is victimless is just wrong.

[wardaddy]

I remember the movie...it was about coke frenzy wasn't it?

[MisplacedVirginian]

The arguement being that Rush was not a hypocrite because he was using it for therapeutic purposes (to relieve pain) and was not a recreational user (to get high). Obviously, this ignores the question of legal/illegal drug usage and focuses on his *reason* for the drug abuse.

Rush has always believed in taking personal responsibility for one's actions. To blame the drug, the drug companies, the doctors, or even the pain, is to blame anyone or anything rather than the individual. Rush acknowledged that he chose to manage the pain with medication rather than further surgery. He has made a profession of being informed and to be ignorant to the pitfalls of a prescription drug is inexcusable - especially for a person in his position, and especially when he made the decision to obtain this drug through illegal channels. I don't think he was ignorant, and I don't think Rush would like anyone making excuses for him. The bottom line is that he is a drug addict - and that makes him no better or worse than any other drug addict. People turn to drugs for all sorts of different reasons, but in the end it is their choice. Emotional pain can be every bit as excruciating as physical pain.

[wardaddy]

We are of the same mind on this.

[bart99]

Thanks for the link...... had done my own search and read a few articles, but it seemed they were all from 2 or 3 years ago. *shrug* Your list is current. Thanks.

[Khurkris]

http://www.ohsinc.com/Quaaludes_in_various_forms.jpg

[Khurkris]

http://www.ohsinc.com/Quaaludes_in_various_forms.jpg

Quaalude link.

[SVTCobra03]

BTDT. After 25 years of lifting weights and three shoulder operations in the last five years, my orthopedic surgeon says to never, never do behind-the-neck presses or pull-downs. I may have to switch to a bowflex machine. My last surgery was three weeks ago and I sleep in my recliner. Thank God for Ambien; its much better than oxycontin for promoting sleep.

[dozer7]

Just checking in. Some years ago I crushed L1 and L2 and the disc in between. I had previously thought that all those that complained of back pain were slakers. What a revelation. Folks it hurts. After 30 days in traction and lots of Demerol I checked myself out of the hospital. I live with it every day when it gets out of hand I go see the doctor get a script for three days and if it persits I go back. Mostly I just live with it. Have I ever got used to it NO but I am terrifed of surrending myself to opaites.

My next life experience was when my son got his leg practially torn off in a motor cycle accident, they removed his spleen also. I sat with him in the ICU for a week while he was on the morphine pump having him sleep for a few minutes and wake up and ask me when he could push the button. I can not imagine his pain. The docs would not put him on a regime that would let him get some releif for a longer period as it was pain protocal driven by the feds. I aged years that week watching my son. There has to be a middle ground. He is better now and does not crave drugs, having been through the gauntlet but I know he is in pain. But then he is a MARINE, family tradition. Value, character, motivation and family support has a lot to do with it I expect.

just houghts from the old guy