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.

[Stew Padasso]

"This thread is about Oxycontin. If you'd prefer to discuss libertarians, why don't you go find a thread on that topic?"

That is impossible. No matter the topic he/she will always bring libertarians.

[NittanyLion]

Yep. In Dane's mind, an evil cabal of libertarians is responsible for the majority of society's ills.

LOL.

[Jim Noble]

The big worry for me in all of this, is that Oxycontin will get such a bad name that the people who desparately need it won't get it

That, unfortunately, is a certainty.

[wardaddy]

I'm not a Libertarian, just someone who experimented with drugs as a kid 25 years ago.

My only vices these days are cigars, desserts, and my wife.

[NittanyLion]

Your first two posts on this thread referenced libertarians three times. Now I realize libertarians are somehow related to virtually everything in your mind, but this thread simply doesn't apply.

[Stew Padasso]

Either they are the insignificant .5% of the electorate or a vast conspriracy run by Soros and Hillary.

[jocon307]

"All this publicity is going to send Oxycotin the way of Quaaludes....banned."

When did they ban Quaaludes? I know all the methadone junkies used to used these, also Elevil (sp?), back in the bad old days of NYC, in the 70's.

When my brother died of AIDS we had morphine on hand, prescribed of course. Long story, but to skip to the chase the Police came to the house. Surprisingly, they did not confiscate the morphine. In our case they chose well because we poured it down the sink. However, many people would not be so concerned with "karma" as we were. And I must state, in an effort to be totally honest, that had we known someone who needed morphine and for whatever reason couldn't get it, we would have given it to them, improper though that might have been.

[Dane]

Yep. In Dane's mind, an evil cabal of libertarians is responsible for the majority of society's ills.

LOL

Yawn, NL, now going the ad hominem route in desperation. Oh well, I guess I should also be banned for pointing out the "morning after" abortion pill commonly known as RU-486, is basically an acromym of "Are you for 86".

86 being the proper vernacular within CB talk as ending a conversation.

[Proud_texan]

"Have we become nothing but pampered sissies?"

It depends on what you call pampered sissies. If you can imagine having an amputation with nothing more than a shot of whiskey then yes and thanks, I'll be a sissy.

[joesnuffy]

His "outing" might be the best thing that could have happened to him....

Much better than being found dead...lying in your own vomit with a bottle of spilled pills lying along side...and worse when they find a ship load of pills in your sock drawer... God's grace...on Rush

[At _War_With_Liberals]

"Our drug use should be between us and our doctors and pharmacists--and clergy."

The clergy?????

[Lurker]

That's a pretty bad one to bring up there Dane my boy.

The British went to war for the 'right' to sell opium to the Chinese. It turned the British government into the largest drug cartel in the world at the time.

And the 'devestation' was mostly caused by British troops, not opium.

L

[Freebird Forever]

Are you suggesting that they not prescribe it because people misuse it?

IIRC, that's why the Feds took "Disco Biscuits" aka Quaaludes off the market.

[At _War_With_Liberals]

"Pill addicts are a nightmare in your practice. They are expert liars and decievers, whose entire day is structured around scoring off of you in a fifteen minute encounter, which for you is one of twenty to forty such encounters-one right after the other."

Then don't treat drug addicts whose ailment is a need for more drugs, Doctor.

From your post, you can obviously see them from a mile away... And you still deal with them?

[Dane]

Your first two posts on this thread referenced libertarians three times. Now I realize libertarians are somehow related to virtually everything in your mind, but this thread simply doesn't apply

Uh dude, mvpel's reply #39 was from the Harry Browne Libertarian talking points.

"In the early 20th century any 8 year old could go into a pharmacy and buy heorin laced Bayer aspirin, yada, yada, yada".

All I did was suggest to mvpel and lurkers on this thread is that they do a google search about the "opium wars" in 19th century China and read about the devastattion opium did to China.

Just burn me at the stake for pointing out history.

[WKB]

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

[At _War_With_Liberals]

How come the media is consciously and deliberately avoiding the mention of the drug co that makes OC?

I have heard/read over 100 reports and have not seen the name once...

[Buggman]

The problem here is the WOD! Oxycontin and other opiates need to be legalized without a prescription! But instead we have a Statist, goose-stepping, jack-booted government who thinks that Rush has no right to be addicted to this stuff if he wants to be! END THE WOD NOW, IT'S STOMPING ON OUR CONSTITUTIONAL FREEDOM TO BE HOOKED ON PAIN-KILLERS!!!

/libertarian "I-want-my-bong" rant mode

[wardaddy]

Quaaludes were banned in the mid 80s....worldwide eventually. I hear some countries still have Mandrax which uses methaqualone with larger doses of belladonna and is not nearly as enjoyable...from a buzz perspective.

Elavil is a tri-cyclic anti-depressant I think.

Methadone/dolophine is arguably the most powerful of the older analgesics as far as weight to dosage goes.

[rhema]

BTTT