Legal, prescribed painkillers can be as addictive as heroin

Contra Costa Times ^ | Mon, Oct. 20, 2003 | Jeff Donn - AP

[WackyKat]

In the War on Drugs, there are two types of junkies:
1) Rush Limbaugh
2) Everyone else.
Type 1 is to be the beneficiary of every sort of denial, excuse, rationalization, and conspiracy theory, to such a point that even the Clintonistas would have blushed.
Type 2 is to be scorned, persecuted, and imprisoned.

[Zipporah]

"If this is the case, then why do rehab centers promote this thirty days business?"

..insurance. Insurance companies will limit the number of days covered. Most will not cover being admitted for 30 days and the number of times you can be admitted is limited as well.

[tdadams]

That's a very good article from Reason, a very good magazine.

Federal bureaucrats should not be in a position to interfere with a doctor/patient relationship. For one, who are they to second guess a trained medical doctor, and two, federal agencies like the DEA just attract too many power-hungry people who get their kicks by wrecking people's lives.

A doctor's career shouldn't be at the mercy of a 25-year-old DEA agent trying to get a promotion.

[Hugin]

Rush has certainly confronted "addictions" before. He also said that when he lost weight, he realized that he had to eliminate all "adult beverages" (sugars and carbohydrates).

Didn't Rush's wieght loss happen about the same time he started taking pain medication? Could be related. You don't see a lot of herion addicts.

[Britton J Wingfield]

My dad was addicted to hydrocodone and morphine. This was by far the lesser of two evils, the other being excruciating pain from multiple myeloma. Thankfully his doctor did not knuckle under to the DEA about 'sending the wrong message'.

Addiction is the least of many people's worries.

I do realize that there are many people abusing oxycontin as a recreational drug, just like there are people who abuse just about every single thing on earth.

[Hugin]

That sould read "fat herion addicts".

[weegee]

Don't see many heroin addicts playing golf either.

[Hugin]

I'm not so sure. Addiction among doctors is higher than you might think.

[weegee]

Legislators can't even come to a decision on when life begins. What makes you think that they could come to a rational decision on prescription medications?

If they get their way and approve a prescription medication entitlement, all such medications will have to have a finite period of treatment (call it "diminishing beneficial returns" or "protection against addiction").

At the same time all of this is going on, ADD medications are seemingly being prescribed to kids like there is no tomorrow. We also saw the recent ad campaign to convince everyone that they sufferred from depression and needed chemical treatment to correct this "imbalance". Talk about addictive medications and overprescription...

Even Lenny Bruce was able to find a doctor to write him all the prescriptions (and "medical" letters) he needed to feed his addiction. Funny thing is that the left doesn't see Lenny Bruce's denials of addiction to be hypocritical; he's a patron saint. Actually he's the man of La Mancha, comicly striking at windmills.

[thulldud]

Rush is self-insured, so this wouldn't apply in his case.

[weegee]

I don't know about heroin abuse by doctors but will say that nurses seem to heavily use Xanex to relieve the stress at the end of the day (and prescriptions are easy to come by in their profession).

There have been some cases raised by patients/families in the care of drug addicts but largely the problem goes unnoticed.

When I went to the hospital for my dad's heart surgery, I wandered to one area and found the outdoor gather place where doctors and nurse (and other largely medical staff) smoked cigarettes. No crime in that, just that one would think that they would see enough sick people to put them off that habit.

Cigarettes don't notably affect job performance although the case could be made that Xanex and other prescription meds (used by medical staff) do.

Rush was not operating heavy machinery sitting at a table behind a microphone either. Ed McMahon may have gone on the Tonight Show bombed on drinks at times but did it really affect his performance? A number of people seem to "fondly" recall those nights. If you are the captain of a boat, have a few too many, and let someone else command the ship, you are liable to get some flack about it (even if you weren't behind the wheel).

[MrLeRoy]

In the War on Drugs, there are two types of junkies:
1) Rush Limbaugh

And Noelle Bush.

2) Everyone else.

[cricket]

"His critics will continue to shout and wail. They are also a bunch of lying liars."

. . .'lying liars' aka 'Liberals'. . .

Guess they save all their compassion for the likes of Robert Downey, Jr.; and have forgotten just how addicted JFK was to pain medication as well.

Do worry about Rush's pain however; and hope that he is able to resolve that one; and yes, perhaps more alternatives now.

Hope as well, that he is 'as up' for taking on the painful negatives of our daily 'body politic' as he was before.

[annyokie]

He was probably hospitalized for a minimum of three days to make sure he didn't suffer too badly from the initial withdrawal and to monitor his vitals and watch out for seizures.

The rest of the stay is usually a 12-step kind of program with a lot of group meetings and homework to help understand the scope of the addiction.

Many rehabs have dorm style rooms (usually two clients share a room) and community meals.

[Hugin]

I am of course using "herion" in the broad sense. Oxycontin, demoral, morphine, etc. are all basically the same as herion. A good deal of abuse of those drugs by medical professionals has been documented.

[berserker]

why do rehab centers promote this thirty days business?

Because that is the time limit most employee health insurers set for paying for drug rehab services.

[weegee]

Reminds me of the reports of Spring ShadowsGlen in Houston in the 1980s. They would take "difficult" kids in and milk the insurance companies for awhile. When the insurance ran out, the kids were "cured".

[1st-P-In-The-Pod]

I think it has mostly to do with the length of time insurance will pay for the trip.

[Zipporah]

True..

[TomB]

Regards, and I will be sure to mark the occasion with a pint of ale over dinner tonight!

Careful, they tell me that stuff is addictive.