Ken and Esther Scarborough Carry the Torch
I want to congratulate my clients and friends Ken and Esther Scarborough of Kountze, Texas for their tireless efforts to end prescription drug addiction. As many of you know, Ken and Esther lost their only son Chris to an accidental prescription drug overdose. Chris, who was only 25 at the time visited a store front "pain clinic" and was prescribed huge quantities of the popular cocktail of hydrocodone, Soma and Xanax.
Ken and Esther enlisted my services to fight for them in the Courts and that battle continues. However, Ken and Esther didn't stop with the filing of a lawsuit. They have formed an advocacy group called Parents Against Prescription Drug Addiction (PAPDA).
Their story was first featured on Dan Rather reports and yesterday they were featured on ABC's Good Morning America and Nightline.
I encourage everyone to view these stories to gain a better understanding of the flagrant practices of "pill mills" and what is being done to try and eradicate them.
Ken and Esther are my heroes. They have taken the tragedy of their son's death and turned it into a passion for helping others avoid a similar fate. I imagine there are times when the pain of their grief makes it hard to carry on, but they do.
Thank you Ken and Esther for fighting the good fight and for spreading the word about pill mills. Congratulations on bringing the national spotlight onto the epidemic of prescription drug addiction.
Ken Scarborough, Esther Scarborough, pill mill, prescription drug addiction, prescription drug overdose, Good Morning America, Nightline
I feel that the Scarborough's have suffered one of the most painful experiences that a parent can ever experience..However I assume that this blog will also allow a refutation that is devoid of personal attacks and that my comment will hoprfullly be printed at some point. After all we are all entitled to our own opinion that's the great thing about this country we live in.
I respect the fact that she is doing something to keep her son's precious memory alive, but I feel that his memory would be better served by allocating funds for state run outpatient suboxone clinics to get the people that are abusing these drugs off of them painlessly and cost effectively.
Closing the clinics down with no warning to the patients that have patronizing them for years at a time especially when they are required to have Mris, bloodowrk and physical therapy is going to make life very tough for a lot of undeserving people. Many of these people lack insurance and turn to the clinics as an affordable means of pain control.
These were always be a "few bad apples in the bunch" who chose to sell their meds or partake in some sort of other illegal activity...those people should be punished, as well as people who combine their pain drugs, muscle relaxants, and anti anxiety meds with alchohol. These people wind up overdosing and their grief stricken relatives go after the easiest people possible....the doctors and clinics. I'm not naming names but that seems to be going on now. My son almost died when he was 2 due to a negligent nanny who let him slip unnoticed into our pool. He was pulled out unconscious, but thanks to the God above, suffered no ill effects as he was only in the water about a minute. I blame no one but myself for this (for hiring lazy help). If my son would have died on that May afternoon he would have inevitably become another tragic statistic of a child drowning during the summer months in a home swimming pool. Would askung the good Senators Brady and Williams for some sort of anti swimming pool legislation....say requiring that all homes that have young children also are required to hae certified life guuards on the premises brought my little angel back? The answer is a resounding no, just as all of this pain clinic legislation will not bring back Chris Scarborough or Anita Goodman's son or the countless others that have overdosed. The ony way to mkae sure another family does not have to suffer what these families have suffered through is by allocating funds to A. Suboxone rehabs, and B. Naloxone traing. Naloxone is a medicine when given within a certain time period of an opiate overdose throws the opiates off the receptors in the brain that cause them to depress breathing. It's a similar injection to an epinephine injection that can be administered intramuscularly if someone has an insect or peanut allergy. If you know your loved one is abusing opiates this is something that would be worth getting certified in (the certification is similar to a CPR course). If given to Chris Scarborough at the right time it would have undoubtedly saved his life and countless others. New York has a naloxone certification program, I'm not sure if Texas does but it also would be another tool to use against overdoses.