Will fewer people need drug rehab or drug detox when the new tamper-resistant painkillers come to market? I wonder if these new pills will come with a guarantee that you won’t become addicted and won’t need drug detox or drug rehab to get off them?

That’s an interesting concept but, most likely, it won’t work that way. While the new design may prevent the pills from being crushed and snorted, you don’t actually have to do that to get addicted. Taking the pills whole will do the job. And people who become addicted or dependent will still need drug detox and drug rehab.

Purdue Pharma wants to rush a new drug to market to beat out their competitors. Their pitch to the FDA will be that it will be a tamper-resistant pill that addicts can’t abuse. I don’t understand why the FDA would even listen to their pitch. One pitch they made to the FDA in the 90s has led to the greatest epidemic this nation has ever seen. I won’t believe what I read if anyone from the FDA gives the ok to Purdue. How can they believe Purdue when they say it is tamper-resistant? The last lie Purdue told cost them $634 million, the cost to the country has been far greater.

Drug rehab has become a growth industry since OxyContin was released. The owners of Purdue are very rich, though. I hope the door is slammed on Purdue - give the concession to someone else. One expert estimates the market for painkillers at $6.37 billion a year and growing. That’s up 52% since 2002 according to IMS Health Inc. And 10 billion doses of painkillers will be sold in the U. S. this year: and Purdue’s share is estimated at more than $1 billion per year.

Just last summer the top executives of this company were on trial for the lies they told. Purdue made billions offf those lies and the execs also made a pretty penny, and now they get to bring a “new, safer” design to the market. And they’ll make billions on that.

Drug detox for OxyContin dependence is the easiest and safest way to stop taking it. And if you’re addicted, you’ll need to follow that with a drug rehab program.

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Here’s an unusual story about one man’s heroin addiction. He started with speed, which he quit taking because he knew it would kill him. But, after he stopped, he couldn’t sleep and had anxiety attacks. Had he gone through a good drug detox and drug rehab program at that time, that might have been the end of it. Instead, he decided to use a little heroin.

“One day I met this heroin user and asked him all about it – it was all because I wanted to sleep and I wanted relief from the anxiety attacks,” he told the Esperance Express. He got much more than he bargained for. His life became a living hell. His heroin habit eventually cost him everything he had - his habit reached $400 a day, he lost his job, his family and his friends.

He tried drug rehab several times and also got involved in a methadone program. What none of this programs did was find the deep-seated problems that drove him to drugs. When he finally found one that did that, he turned his life around.

If you know someone with a drug problem and want to help them, make sure you really check out the drug rehab programs you’re considering. Only by getting to the root of the problem can you be sure things will turn around.

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Is Purdue Pharma up to their old tricks? On May 5th, the FDA will hold a hearing regarding the possible approval of a new “safer formulation” of OxyContin. Obviously, the new pill is being presented by Purdue as ’safer.’ Do I hear a big deja vu? How many people will the ‘new’ OxyContin turn into drug addicts desperate for drug rehab to save their lives?

Larry Golborn, host of The Prescription Addiction Radio show out of Tampa, Florida (WGUL 860 AM), will be airing details at 9:00 p.m. May 4th.

“The FDA is on notice that Purdue Pharma made false claims that led to thousands of deaths and devastated lives. An approval by the FDA of Purdue’s unproven claims will lead to even greater numbers of deaths and ruined lives because more doctors will mistakenly believe that it is safe to prescribe OxyContin, ” said Golborn.

I would tend to agree. ‘Once bitten, twice shy’ may not generally be a healthy way to live your life but, in the case of Purdue Pharma, I’d say the caution is more than warranted.

Drug rehab centers all over the U.S. are working to get people off OxyContin. Really, we don’t need any more people on it - no matter what Purdue says about the new formulation, it’s not going to be good. After all, it’s legal heroin. It’s basically the same drug, just as addictive, and just as tough to kick unless you get into a good drug rehab program. What could possibly make it safe?

I, for one, sincerely hope that this new formulation of OxyContin is disapproved. Purdue Pharma’s credibility is in the toilet, and the FDA’s isn’t far behind. 

If Purdue wants to do something useful, let them figure out how to fund the thousands of addicts they’ve helped create so they can get through a good drug rehab program and get their lives back. 

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If you believe spokespeople from Cambridge University or the University of Pennsylvania, there is no ethical problem in using Ritalin or Adderall as stimulants: Both schools would have you believe it is perfectly natural to take these drugs and really no different than having a hearing aid or an artificial leg. I haven’t seen any comments from either school about the potential for Adderall addiction or the needs for drug rehab.

If you can use Adderall the same way you use an artificial limb, why not also use steroids to hit more fast balls or gain more strength for football? Here is your perfect drug cocktail: steroids for strength, OxyContin to numb pain, Xanax to get rid of butterflies in high pressure situations and, of course, Adderall  to focus. If you really believe drug rehab is a stepping stone to greatness, you should ignore the warnings, call the staff at either college and find out how to get started.

If you think these ideas are far fetched, take a look at the headlines - that’s exactly what you’ll find. And it’s happening in high schools and colleges all across the country.

How big a deal is it, really? Read Olga Campus’s story about Faye Crossett and her daughter, Tracy. Tracy became addicted to Adderall, which she used as a study aid. Faye didn’t understand the problems Adderall could cause. Who can blame her? A major drug company that’s selling highly addictive drugs is doing whatever it can to hide the facts. Sadly, the Adderall led to heroin for Tracy and she died at age 17.

If you know someone who is using Adderall or are abusing any drug, help them stop or get them into a drug rehab program.

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When Purdue Pharma started marketing OxyContin as safer and less addictive than Percocet and other opiates, the Appalachian states were among the hardest hit. What started as taking painkillers turned into prescription drug addiction and abuse and, now, the annual deaths from prescription drugs in Tennessee equal that of murders. In fact, considering the fraudulent marketing that started the whole thing, it’s hard to think of the prescription drug problem as anything less. Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee citizens and authorities are in an uproar - struggling to provide the education, law enforcement, prescription drug monitoring systems and drug rehab facilities needed to handle the problem.

The former Purdue executives who pled guilty to misleading doctors and the general public and started this epidemic got off easy - they paid millions of dollars, but the salaries for positions like that are very high and, chances are, the fines didn’t make much of a dent in their personal wealth.

But lives are ruined all over the U.S, families are ruined, and lives are lost - and it will continue for some time to come.  Drug rehab is the only solution for those already addicted - let’s hope other efforts pay off to curb the problem in the future.

If this devastation had been carried out by drug dealers, cartels, or terrorists, the country would be all over it like white on rice.  And we’d be jailing the perps as fast as we could find them. But the Purdue execs are right this minute probably sitting in their very nice living rooms while drug rehab specialists, law enforcement officials, community leaders and parents and family members are trying to save the lives of thousands of people.  Justice is often hard to come by.

If you or someone you care about is addicted to or abusing OxyContin or other prescription drugs, get help in a drug rehab program fast. Don’t let the bad guys win.

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Prescription stimulants have made inroads into college campuses and high schools across the country. And they’re being used by students for recreation, weight loss and study aids. One young woman, 15-year-old Tessa Japhet, became addicted to Adderall and had to go to drug rehab. “I just started using it before classes - boring classes - to make me hyper.”

“We live in a medicated society. Everything that happens to us there is a pill for it,” said drug counselor Terry Adams. Mr. Adams thinks if you did a poll in high schools, 50% of the students would have tried prescription drugs.

Tessa is from Grass Valley, Nevada and we already know that at least 20% of the students at one high school in Florida - clear across the country - have used Adderall or Ritalin. The trend gets worse in colleges where it is estimated that 30% of the students are using Ritalin or Adderall.

How many will end up needing drug rehab is unknown. An academic figurehead from the University of Pennsylvania would have you believe that taking Ritalin for an extra boost is no different than wearing glasses or getting a hip replaced. It is unlikely you will end up at a drug rehab after wearing glasses, although you might end up in a drug detox or drug rehab after a hip replacement surgery if you become addicted to Oxycontin. When prestigious Universities promote the use of prescription stimulants it sends the wrong message to the youth of this country. It opens the door for more drug use among the young and old. As the message gets louder, you can be sure more young people like Tessa will end up in a drug rehab program.

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Lorne

Thank you for your comments to my post. Obviously, I hit a chord and you are not pleased. When drug rehabs start closing I’ll have my evenings free to do other things. This is not my day job.

Virginia – the state the original blog was about - does have a meth problem; The Attorney General has a webpage dedicated to it. There are links on that page regarding meth use among kids. For example, according to a survey done in 2007, Monitoring the Future, 1.8% of eighth graders, 2.8% of tenth graders, and 3.0% of twelfth graders have reported using methamphetamine. There are problems with kids using meth in many states, including Nevada and Iowa. I’ve put some links at the bottom of this post. You may want to have a look at them.

Let me explain my thinking: Cheese heroin has been a problem in Dallas, and dealers do target young kids. It’s mostly a problem in the Hispanic community but, relative to other opiates, it is a rather small problem. It is sold for $2 a hit - cheap enough for a ten-year-old and certainly for a 12 or 13-year-old. Since 2006, 22 kids have died from overdosing. Relative to methadone deaths, 22 is not a big number - unless you’re a parent of one of those kids.

Flavored meth had not been found before last year although there were rumors of its existence. It has now been found in California and Virginia. Today, at a high school in Minnesota, one student was found with meth (not flavored). That had never happened before at that school.

Is that a statistically important event? No, it is not. Should parents from that area be aware that there is meth in the area? I think they should.

One of the reasons meth is expensive is because the government has cut off the raw materials needed to make it. Most of the meth in the U.S. comes from Mexico. Drug trafficking organizations are clever - my guess is they will figure out a work around at some point.

Of course no ten-year-old has $50,000 dollars, and perhaps it won’t ever be a problem. However, flavored drugs that have color could get a young person interested. If a drug trafficking organization can sell heroin to young children, why wouldn’t they find a way to sell meth to young children?

I do not see an epidemic like there is with prescription drug abuse. I don’t see thousands of 10 year old kids strung out on meth. On the other hand, approximately 25% of high school students don’t see a risk in trying it. According to one study, seven or eight out of every 10 people who use meth once or twice become addicted. I had two girls go through rehab for meth use. In fact, it took two tries. I am lucky -they have been drug free for 6 years.

I am not ashamed to write what I write, it isn’t propaganda and I try to make it fact-based. I don’t operate from fear at all. I want parents to be alert, and that’s all. When parents are faced with kids and drug problems, it is overwhelming. I am optimistic about life, and about the idea that someone may read this blog, and that it may save a life or the need for drug rehab.
 
Nathan Harris

http://presspubs.com/articles/2008/04/21/columns/doc480d0fa1326ea379057332.txt
http://www.lasvegasnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=5904080
http://www.cesar.umd.edu/cesar/pubs/20070806.pdf
http://www.methproject.org/News_Events/press.php
http://www.bdtonline.com/local/local_story_100202536.html
http://www.oag.state.va.us/METH/index.html

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Finding a drug rehab and drug detox may be what is in store for many Oregonians. More women than men and quite a few teens are becoming addicted to prescription drugs, according to Dr. Darryl S. Inaba. Dr. Inaba thinks that a larger percentage of the population abuse prescription drugs in Oregon than anywhere else. He says that Oregon ranks number one for prescription drug abuse. The drugs most abused drugs are the usual suspects - OxyContin, Vicodon, Ritalin, Adderall and cough syrup with DXM. No surprise; they’re abused all over the country. And the number of people in drug rehab centers trying to get off them are climbing.

This ties in with another story: a sad one from Reed College near Portland where one student died and another is on medical leave from heroin overdoses. The President of Reed College, Colin Driver, says “This is not working. We have to get help.” Mr. Diver may understand the problem of not only street drugs but also prescription drugs. It doesn’t really matter whether it is prescription drug abuse or heroin addiction. Mr. Diver knows he needs help, or many of his students will end up in a drug detox and drug rehab program.

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PalmBeachPost.com in Florida has an announcement about a town hall meeting to curb underage drinking. They want to do something about the fact that kids are drinking at younger and younger ages. Those starting their binge drinking at 12 or 13 will probably need a drug rehab as they get older.

From TheDay.com in Connecticut there is an article “Skeptics ask: Does Setting Drinking Age at 21 Save Lives”? I don’t know if it saves lives, but it probably saves some from needing drug detox or drug rehab for heavy drinking. My co-workers talk to enough people who need drug rehab because of alcohol abuse for me to be certain of that.

There is an online petition to sign if you think 21 is too old to start drinking legally. One man compared the age limit to the death penalty for juveniles. I guess he meant if you can die for killing someone at age 17 you should be able to drink. I don’t think the two are comparable. College and high school students think the law is absurd and they should be able to drink. The statistics speak for themselves: If you drink at an early age, and often, you are four times as likely to need drug rehab.

If you are a parent don’t let your kids drink, it is healthier. If you are a teenager learn more about drugs and alcohol, if you understand them you won’t be so eager to get stoned. You can avoid needing a drug rehab program by learning for your self.

Popularity: 18% [?]

The State of Florida released the 2007 Youth Substance Abuse Survey yesterday. The numbers say that drug use is down - fewer kids are smoking pot, drinking and taking prescription drugs. If this is the case then the population of drug rehabs out there today will decline. However, the statistics in this survey seem to conflict with other information we read about every day. Florida is called the pill state: You don’t get a nickname like that for nothing, and I suspect that there will be plenty of need for drug rehab for some time to come.

One of the first things I did when I opened the survey results was see how many students participated. Of approximately 850,000 Florida middle school students (grades 5-8), 4,643 completed the survey. The number of high school students is about the same, and 3,748 completed the survey. Here are some of the results:

Binge drinking by 6th graders is at 9.9%; binge drinking by high school seniors 30%. The progression from 6th grade through high school is steady – kids binge drink more as they get older. Chances are two out of three of the younger ones will develop a long-term alcohol problem and will need drug rehab.

Inhalant use goes from 4.7% for 6th graders - they can’t get their hands on drugs and alcohol as easily as older kids - to 1% for high school seniors. They’ve moved on to other drugs.

Marijuana use grows from 1.3% for 6th graders to 20% for high school seniors.

Prescription drug use by high school seniors, according to the survey, is in the 4% range. This number is suspiciously low. Drug detox and drug rehab centers are seeing at least as many admissions for prescription drugs as streets drugs, so that doesn’t make much sense. Prescription stimulant abuse at 2% of students is also too low. There are too many surveys with much higher numbers. There were also articles recently in various Florida papers with numbers more in the 20% range for Ritalin and Adderall abuse. For college students that number jumps to about 30%, but I doubt 2% is correct. Many of those college students are also likely to need drugs rehab.

Prescription pain killers (OxyContin and Vicodin) – which are the number one prescription drugs abused in many states and are a major reason people go to drug rehab centers, the ER, and the morgue – are also used by more than 4% of students according the survey. That’s more than likely in the 15% range as well.

I am going to keep reading the survey, but I think the need for drug detox and drug rehab programs will continue to grow.

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