Pill Mill Monitor : Personal Injury Lawyer & Attorney : Kay Van Wey Law Firm : Prescription Drug Overdoses & Pharmaceutical Abuse

New York Senator Charles Schumer has seen the effects of prescription drug addiction in his state and has vowed to fight it.  He warns that a new painkiller promising to be 10 times stronger than Vicodin could lead to more violent and deadly drug store robberies.

In June 2011, New York resident David Laffer was charged with robbing a Long Island drug store of more than 10,000 highly addictive prescription painkillers and killing four people in the pharmacy.  He and his wife had been doctor shopping before the robbery in an effort to get prescription pain pills like hydrocodone, which is highly addictive.

Nationwide, more than 1,800 pharmacies have been robbed in the past three years alone.  Long Island alone has experienced a 125 percent increase drug store robberies.

“It’s tremendously concerning that at the same time policymakers and law enforcement professionals are waging a war on the growing prescription drug crisis, new super-drugs could well be on their way, flooding the market.  The FDA needs to grab the reins and slow down the stampede to introduce these powerful narcotics” Senator Schumer said.

The new painkillers, which contain pure hydrocodone, could come onto the market as early as 2013, with big pharmaceutical companies looking to cash in on the $10 billion prescription painkiller market.  At present, hydrocodone is classified as a strictly controlled Schedule II drug under the 1970 Controlled Substances Act. 

Products that contain hydrocodone and another painkiller like acetaminophen fall into Schedule III, which is less strictly controlled.  Some experts argue that because of this, highly addictive hydrocodone has been given to more patients, which has increased abuse of the drug and overdose rates in the United States.

A prescription painkiller that contains pure hydrocodone could lead to more accidental overdoses, leading to more emergency room visits.  Experts say that already thin hospital emergency room resources could become even more strained if this new drug is allowed on the market.  In 2008 alone, emergency room visits related to hydrocodone abuse totaled more than 86,000, up more than 400 percent from 2000 when an estimated 19,000 visits were recorded.

To learn more about prescription drug addiction, read my article “America’s Growing Addiction” at www.vanweylaw.com. 

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Far too many families have been devastated by a loved one’s addiction to prescription drugs. Unlike the images we conjure up when we think of a typical drug addict, the faces of prescription drug addiction are the faces of ordinary Americans. One of the casualties of prescription drug addiction was Christopher Scarborough, the 25 year-old son of Ken and Esther Scarborough of Kountze, Texas.

I came to know the Scarboroughs when I represented them in a legal case, which sought to hold the negligent parties accountable for Christopher’s death and to raise awareness about these pill mills, which often masquerade as pain management clinics. In the lawsuit, we alleged that the healthcare providers and clinic owners were nothing more than “drug dealers” who were trying to pass off their “pill mill” as a legitimate pain management clinic.

When Christopher went to this walk-in “pain management clinic,” he was prescribed a cocktail of more than 300 highly addictive narcotic pills, without even receiving an exam or seeing a doctor. Shortly thereafter, Christopher tragically died of an accidental overdose.

Rather than dwell on their son’s heartbreaking death, the Scarboroughs have chosen to help other families who have lost loved ones to prescription drug addiction and accidental overdose.

Since their son’s death, the Scarboroughs have worked every day to fight against the prescription drug epidemic in their son’s name. In 2009, they founded Parents Against Prescription Drug Abuse (PAPDA), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation. They have also testified before the Texas Senate, worked to pass legislation to regulate the so-called pain clinics, given countless talks, and comforted other parents who have also lost their children to prescription drug overdoses.

The Scarboroughs need your help to continue their fight. You can help by making a tax deductible contribution to PAPDA at www.papda.net. Your contribution, no matter how slight, will help Ken and Esther keep fighting every day to prevent the reckless prescribing of narcotics from claiming another innocent life.

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Pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma and three other companies have announced a new prescription drug that will contain pure hydrocodone, a highly addictive narcotic painkiller.  The pill is expected to be 10 times stronger than Vicodin, one of the strongest painkillers available on the market.

Hydrocodone is an opiate much like heroin, oxycodone, codeine, and morphine.  The United States is the largest consumer of hydrocodone prescription pills, using 99 percent of what is on the world market.  Much of the hydrocodone available today is combined with other painkillers like acetaminophen.

Over the years, these pain pills have been criticized for being too addictive.  For example, OxyContin, produced by Purdue Pharma, is the most abused pain pill in the United States. When OxyContin was first introduced onto the market in 1995, abusers quickly learned that they could get a stronger high from the time-release caplets by crushing them.

Today, prescriptions that contain hydrocodone are a quick second to oxycodone in terms of abuse.  A stronger painkiller that contains pure hydrocodone could be disastrous for a nation already suffering with substance abuse and addiction.

The market for pain pills is $10 billion, and pharmaceutical companies are coming up with new drugs to get into the lucrative market. But big pharmaceutical companies are marketing the new drugs as safer, arguing that fewer patients will experience liver problems like they do with drugs that contain acetaminophen.

A form of pure hydrocodone could be on the market as early as 2013, but with an even more addictive prescription on the market, more patients may become addicted to the drugs, leading to numerous overdoses that will strain hospitals resources.  Abuse of hydrocodone alone has led to an uptick in the number of emergency room visits related to hydrocodone abuse.  In 2000, more than 19,000 visits to the emergency room were related to hydrocodone abuse, but in 2008 that number grew more than four times to more than 86,000 visits.

Prescription drug addiction is a brain disease that can be fatal if undetected or untreated. To learn more about America’s prescription drug addiction epidemic, visit www.vanweylaw.com.

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(Image: Michelle Meiklejohn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a new report detailing that as many as 40 Americans die each day from overdosing on prescription painkillers.  That amounts to nearly 15,000 deaths each year.

Deaths due to prescription overdose are now more common than deaths caused by heroin and cocaine combined.  And the problem does not look like it will be ending anytime soon.  Prescription painkiller overdose deaths have increased three times over within the past decade.

80% of the World’s Painkillers are Taken in the U.S.

Director of the CDC, Dr. Thomas Frieden, blames irresponsible doctors for the uptick in prescription painkiller abuse.  He and other CDC experts have estimated that in 2010 enough painkillers were prescribed to supply every American adult with a one-month supply.

More than 600,000 doctors are licensed to prescribe opiate-based painkillers.  Vicodin is one of the most popular prescription painkillers, because it is not as strictly regulated as its counterparts, making it easier for doctors to prescribe.  In fact, 99 percent of the entire world’s supply of Vicodin is used by patients in the United States.

Accidental Overdoses from Prescription Painkillers Now Kill More People than Car Accidents in 17 States

The overprescribing of prescription painkillers is not only causing death, it is also costing an estimated $72.5 billion.  And, three of the hardest hit states are Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Florida.

The federal government has proposed expanding statewide prescription drug monitoring programs to monitor electronically the number of painkillers prescribed in each state.  But critics say these programs will not work alone.  Patients need to be educated about the dangers of abusing and overdosing on prescription painkillers.

National Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske says doctors need to be retrained on writing prescriptions for narcotic pain relievers.  He adds that people with moderate pain, such as back pain, should not be prescribed these highly addictive painkillers.

To learn more about America’s epidemic of prescription drug addiction, read my article “America’s Growing Addiction” at www.vanweylaw.com.

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We hear the reports on the news all the time about military service personnel who have survived bombings in Iraq and Afghanistan, but who have also lost limbs or have been seriously injured. They remind us of the great sacrifice they are making to protect our freedom. But the news media do not tell us about the stories of service personnel who were injured and have subsequently become addicted to prescription pain killers.

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Rural adolescents are 26% more likely than urban adolescents to have used prescription drugs nonmedically, concludes a groundbreaking study that Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine published online this month. The article, Nonmedical Prescription Drug Use in a Nationally Representative Sample of Adolescents, highlights factors thought to influence nonmedical prescription drug use ("NMPDU") and related intervention points:

• School enrollment correlates with lower likelihood of NMPDU. Increase school retention and prevent initiation of NMPDU.

• Residing in a two-parent household correlates with lower likelihood of NMPDU. Develop interventions aimed at family involvement.

• A history of at least one major depressive episode and lower health status correlates with a higher likelihood of NMPDU. Increase access to health care among rural adolescents.

• Use of other illicit drugs and alcohol strongly correlates with higher likelihood of NMPDU. Aim interventions at adolescents who have already initiated substance use.

At a time when teens are abusing prescription drugs at rates higher than any other drugs except marijuana, with NMPDU increasing 212% from 1992 to 2003 alone, this study prods us as a society to wake up, to take notice, and to intervene to curb the problem. If we do not, today’s teenagers who abuse prescription drugs in lieu of less accessible, more stigmatized street drugs become tomorrow’s prescription drug addict who leave broken lives, broken families, and broken communities in their wake.

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 A recent Pentagon study revealed alarming rates of prescription drug abuse among active duty soldiers. The study revealed that an alarming 1 in 4 soldiers admitted to abusing prescription drugs, most commonly pain killers.  A spokesman for the military stated that the prescription pain killers were being used for pain and also for "behavioral health issues".

Without question, the wounds of war include those that are physically painful. The horrors of war  also create an environment ripe for self-medicating psychological wounds. 

There is no doubt that most, if not all, of the men and women reportedly abusing prescription drugs present with some sort of physical pain or psychological injury. However, there are many alternative  ways to treat pain other than dolling out powerful addictive narcotics. Narcotic pain killers are not and never have been an acceptable treatment for psychological conditions. Moreover, prescribing powerfully addictive narcotics to persons who have co-existing mental health issues calls for greater vigilance on the part of the prescribing physician. 

USA TODAY reported last year that narcotic pain-relief prescriptions for injured or wounded U.S. troops jumped from 30,000 a month to 50,000 since the Iraq war began.This suggests that military doctors may be throwing prescription pain killers at  problems which require a more thoughtful and deliberate approach.

Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, the Army surgeon general, created a task force to review the service's pain management practices. Creating a task force is a great start, but so much more is needed, such as education of the physicians who are prescribing these drugs.

The Army says it is expanding programs to treat and educate soldiers about drug abuse. But according to  Gen. Peter Chiarelli, Army vice chief of staff, the service struggles to provide enough drug counselors and needs to hire 270 to 300.

The problem is that a) we the taxpayers are paying for all of these prescriptions; and b) these fine young men and women who have served our country will now be returned to  society with not only physical and psychological wounds , but also a drug addiction that may have been created and/or enabled by the military itself.

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