Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Rush's Dilemma: The Truth about Oxycontin
Patriot Paradox ^

Posted on 10/11/2003 8:30:04 AM PDT by 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.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; US: West Virginia; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: africawatch; limbaugh; lovablefuzzball; oxycontin; rush
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 181-200201-220221-240 ... 301-313 next last
To: strela
I am extremely allergic to coedine & Vicodin. I have never taken anything stronger than an Excedrin for pain. I wonder what is out there that I won't be allergic to, if I ever need it.
201 posted on 10/11/2003 3:39:07 PM PDT by Ditter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: Ditter
"I wonder what is out there that I won't be allergic to, if I ever need it."

In the hospital after botched hemorrhoid surgery, they gave me Demrol by injection. Wonderful relief.

Later--after non-botched surgery, they gave me oral Demerol. Two tablets and my arms and legs were moving on their own accord. I looked up Demerol in the PDA and "involuntary muscular tremors" was listed as a common side effect.

I have no idea why the oral form caused this but the injectible did not.

So I stopped taking the Demerol but those two tabs got me over the hump.

--Boris

202 posted on 10/11/2003 4:25:24 PM PDT by boris (The deadliest Weapon of Mass Destruction in History is a Leftist With a Word Processor)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 201 | View Replies]

To: Mo1
Now the question is .. why in the heck are doctors prescribing OxyContin???

Because this and other derivatives of opium relieve strong or sometimes terrible pain. Opium and poppies extracts were used for thousand of years and the world did not end because of that.

But neo-puritans prefer their fellow human beings rather to suffer the torture of pain than risking someone can derive a forbidden pleasure from a drug. Same with marijuana - neo-puritans rather will see millions of people in jail and businesses ruined than letting people get high or smoke tobacco. If it were up to the neo-puritans would Prohibition would be still there.

203 posted on 10/11/2003 4:58:50 PM PDT by A. Pole
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: boycott
Some drugs appear just too addictive.

Coffee is also very addictive, influences mental process and is very pleasurable. So?

204 posted on 10/11/2003 5:14:04 PM PDT by A. Pole
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: Clara Lou
Because people cannot live with terrible pain.

Then Neo-puritans would prefer them to die.

205 posted on 10/11/2003 5:15:57 PM PDT by A. Pole
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: libhunt
.lots of people are in horrible pain because the docs are too conservative or too afraid to prescribe by the guidlines-

What's bad is being new in town, getting TMJ disorder (temporomandibular joint) and finding the only dentist on your insurance PP can't see you for at least two months. The doctors at the minor emergency clinic were less than understanding. I got about 10 days worth of Lortab...and then I was on my own.

206 posted on 10/11/2003 5:18:38 PM PDT by stands2reason
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: NoControllingLegalAuthority
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.

A nonsense. Our ancestors had verry efficient and easy to get pain-killers provided by herbal medicine. Poppies extract and opium is a good example. Most of "modern" pain killers like morphine, codeine etc, are derived from poppies/opium. Our ancestors were neither masochists not sadists (with some exception of course).

207 posted on 10/11/2003 5:25:01 PM PDT by A. Pole
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: mvpel
In the days prior to prescription pain medication, people who had herniated disks and constat pain akin to a red-hot poker being twisted around in their backs went down to the local general store and bought some off-the-shelf opium, or laid in bed writhing in pain while their spouse or neighbor got the opium for them. There were no drug prohibitions until the early 20th century.

And some were addicted or using opium as a recreational drug. No big deal.

208 posted on 10/11/2003 5:27:39 PM PDT by A. Pole
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: Mo1
and yes for the record, I do know folks that have chronic pain

Sure, and you "feel their pain".

209 posted on 10/11/2003 5:34:29 PM PDT by A. Pole
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Ditter
I am extremely allergic to coedine & Vicodin.

And that's the weird part - everybody else in my family is deathly allergic to codeine except me. No idea why.

210 posted on 10/11/2003 5:35:42 PM PDT by strela ("It's about governance. It's not about sermons." Brooks Firestone)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 201 | View Replies]

To: ChemistCat
If I could buy cans of that at Walgreen's, I'd have fried my brains by now.

Oh but you can...


211 posted on 10/11/2003 5:40:45 PM PDT by stands2reason
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 71 | View Replies]

To: stands2reason
Yes, but that also fries your arteries...
212 posted on 10/11/2003 5:42:01 PM PDT by ChemistCat (Oklahoman by chance, not Californian by grace of God!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 211 | View Replies]

To: boris
>>>>after *botched* hemorriod surgery>>>>> OMG! Boris! How horrible!
213 posted on 10/11/2003 5:49:17 PM PDT by Ditter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 202 | View Replies]

To: Ditter
I've never even tried to take Vicocan, but I'm also terribly allergic to codeine.

Heck, I'm even allergic to aspirin.
214 posted on 10/11/2003 5:51:55 PM PDT by EllaMinnow (Life is too important to be taken seriously.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 201 | View Replies]

To: Dane
Are you saying the fact that opium wasn't regulated at the turn of the century makes mvpel a libertarian? He didn't say it was a good thing or a bad thing. All he was saying is that opium existed at the time. So, shall we pretend like it didn't?

Not a libertarian,
215 posted on 10/11/2003 5:52:44 PM PDT by stands2reason
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 95 | View Replies]

To: MississippiMan
I guess, but until the first quarter of the twentieth century, I'm pretty sure you could buy all manner of opiates, much purer probably, over the counter at a general store.

Apparently, since you know that fact, you are an eeeeevil libertarian.

216 posted on 10/11/2003 5:55:03 PM PDT by stands2reason
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 104 | View Replies]

To: GB
I wonder if she thinks that living in severe pain is better than being hooked on OxyContin? If there's something else that helps the pain, more power to her, but otherwise she's just a sadist.
217 posted on 10/11/2003 5:55:42 PM PDT by mvpel (Michael Pelletier)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 153 | View Replies]

To: A. Pole
But neo-puritans

Oh Goodie .. A new name to be called

218 posted on 10/11/2003 5:58:06 PM PDT by Mo1 (http://www.favewavs.com/wavs/cartoons/spdemocrats.wav)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 203 | View Replies]

To: redlipstick
The doc gave me some cough syrup with Vicodin, 1/2 teaspoon & I started having a seizure. Years ago I was given coedine & had an allergic reaction that I can't even remember now. I am sure to need something for pain someday but I am not looking forward to it.
219 posted on 10/11/2003 5:58:13 PM PDT by Ditter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 214 | View Replies]

To: stands2reason
I have a few libertarian tendencies. I guess I need to find a good treatment program for that!

220 posted on 10/11/2003 5:58:51 PM PDT by ChemistCat (Oklahoman by chance, not Californian by grace of God!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 216 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 181-200201-220221-240 ... 301-313 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson