Free Republic

A member of the family that owns OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma told people at the prescription opioid painkiller’s launch party in the 1990s that it would be “followed by a blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition,” according to court documents filed Tuesday. “The launch of OxyContin Tablets will be followed by a blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition. The prescription blizzard will be so deep, dense, and white,” he said, according to the documents.

I know this proposal will be met with strong opposition, but it is my firm belief that the 108-year old 'War on Drugs' needs to come to an end. It has turned into a decades-long war on millions of our young people. It would be replaced with FDA-supervised quality control systems for supplies of comparatively safe recreational drug forms, probably reducing the number of overdose deaths by over 98% (~50,000/year -> ~1,000/year). Manufacturers, distributors, retailers and customers would have to get DEA licenses. There would be three forms of customer DEA licenses: casual user, habitual cocaine user and habitual opiate...

Much has been said about developing cultural competencies among clinicians in recent years. However, there are many cultural contexts not addressed in such workshops, books, and training resources. Perhaps the most influential is the culture of addiction, itself. http://nativehc.com http://ASCS-OKC.com http://KCTXS.COM

Historically, opiate addicts have had a very poor track record for recovery. But evidence-based clinical best practices, known as Medication Assisted Treatment, have been identified by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration that have nine times better effectiveness outcomes than traditional treatment. SAMHSA found certain types of psychotherapy combined with medications like methadone or Suboxone enhance the probability of avoiding relapse substantially... Medication Assisted Treatment is a very effective treatment for opiate addiction like painkillers or heroin... On MAT, you substitute a once daily dose of a medication like methadone or Suboxone (buprenorphine) for the opiates you usually...

Prescribers and the public have been misinformed about the risk of addiction when chronic pain is treated with opioids. This has led to overprescribing of opioids and the worst drug epidemic in U.S. history. Even when taken as directed, patients receiving long-term opioid therapy for chronic pain can become addicted.Physicians who find their patients addicted, i.e., experiencing higher and higher tolerance requiring higher and higher dosing, should consider a referral to a SAMHSA evidence-based best practice Medication Assisted Treatment program at a SAMHSA CSAT certified Opioid Treatment Program. In Oklahoma call 877-341-3017

Despite low-quality evidence supporting practice change, use of opioids for chronic pain increased dramatically over the past two decades. Concurrently, there has been a sharp increase in opioid analgesic overdose deaths, addiction, misuse and diversion. Opioids may provide modest, variable short-term pain relief for some patients with chronic pain. Long-term benefits for chronic pain have not been established. Potential medical and behavioral harms of opioids are an important concern, particularly at higher dosage levels and in higher risk or medically complex patients. While opioid therapy at lower doses may be a useful treatment for some patients, it should only be...

How do I know when a prescription becomes an addiction? This is a critical question. Many Oklahomans have a legitimate need for prescription painkillers for the relief of pain from surgery or an injury. Unfortunately, even legitimate reliance on medication can easily and unintentionally turn into physical dependence. That can be confusing, as the medications ARE prescribed by a doctor, so doesn’t that mean that they are needed and safe to use? Alarmingly, the most commonly prescribed drugs including OxyContin, Vicodin, hydrocodne, hydrocodone, Darvocet, Lortab, Lorcet and Percocet can cause one to start "needing" the drugs in order to feel...

Quapaw Counseling Services, an outpatient substance abuse treatment clinic specializing in methamphetamine and opiate addictions, located at 1301 SE 59th St in Oklahoma City, has been sold to the Absentee Shawnee Economic Development Authority of the Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma. “The reason for the sale...is that the Absentee Shawnees have the jurisdiction here that the Quapaws did not. However, under Absentee Shawnee Counseling Services, we will continue to offer the same excellent treatment to all people, native and non-native, that we have for the past four years here.” Four and a half years ago the Quapaws expanded their operations...

Confession time. It always bugs me when I see a politician darken the doorway of a church. This is counterintuitive, of course. I mean, here's the one door politicians should darken more frequently, in my opinion. Most politicians need a whole lotta churchin'. But the reason it bugs me is I always wonder if they're darkening that door for sincere spiritual reasons, or for photo ops. Too often it's proven to be the latter, not the former. The distinction can generally be made by how many news cameras are on hand and how much the politician smiles and waves. I...

Pondering The Telescreen A Tale Of Two Cities August 15, 2004 Denunciations of television have become as routine as breathing: the programming is crass, stupid, propagandistic, so bad that only an idiot would watch it yet everybody does. Actually things are worse. They are much worse. To see what is happening, start with what may be the crucial truth of our times: People will watch a screen. They will watch anything in preference to nothing, watch programs they don’t really like, comedies so unfunny that only the laugh track tells them when to respond. The bright know that the fare...

The word's out on the street. People addicted to heroin or prescription painkillers are passing the word. There's a new treatment where you don't have to go through such a miserable withdrawal. It sounds too good to be true. Some are calling it a "miracle drug."...(snip) "The vast majority of patients - especially if they've been through withdrawal before - expect four days of hell," says Dr. Rick Caesar, Serenity Lane's medical co-director. Over the last two months, he has treated close to 30 patients using the new drug. After going through withdrawal with it, he says, most "can't believe...