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Regular Contributor
Posts: 186
Registered: ‎11-18-2018

Re: TINY WV town flooded with opioids

@PamfromCT  Many cases of people addicted to pain meds starts out with a prescription med.  Most are not street drugs. A Rx is given , then either the patient takes them irresponsibly or someone else gets them out of the med cabinet and takes them. It snowballs from there. 

On this board many posters who take pain meds will tell you they are not addicted but just physically dependant. The difference between these two things is only as big as a hair. It's truly only what it is being called. I have cared for many many many pain clinic patients who were "physically dependant" and overdosed. The OD is the same as someone on street drugs and the withdrawal is the same. Actually dependence on Rx drugs is worse because the drugs are purer where street drugs are cut at many levels to make $$ for the dealers.

Frequent Contributor
Posts: 121
Registered: ‎02-18-2015

Re: TINY WV town flooded with opioids

I had watched a program on the opioid epidemic, believe it was 60 Minutes, they were talking to someone who was prescribing a patient a ridiculous amount of pain meds. This patient was prescribed either 600 pills a month or 60 pills a day, It may have been 60 a day because I thought, how did the patient not die and how did that prescription not raise any flags. The kicker was the doctor thought prescribing that amount was perfectly alright 😲

Respected Contributor
Posts: 3,355
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: TINY WV town flooded with opioids


@patofl wrote:

@SahmIam I completely agree with you. This entire problem, at the base of it all, is about GREED. The addicts greedy for more drugs, the doctors greedy for money, the pharmacist, etc etc etc all the way down the line, up to the drug manufacturers.

I worked with doctors who had pain clinics during my career, as their patients often end up in ICU where I worked. All the "pain" doctors I worked with were anesthesia doctors.

I wonder where you heard they were podiatrists?


Greed.......It's the new American way isn't it?

 


'I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed man'.......Unknown
Honored Contributor
Posts: 9,139
Registered: ‎04-16-2010

Re: TINY WV town flooded with opioids

[ Edited ]

@patofl  Regarding the podiatrists:

 

I was told this by my primary care (who can not write ANY Rx for opiates; it can ONLY come from a specialist now and insurance companies can STILL deny payment if they fell the specialist isn't "special" enough. This may vary from state to state and insurance companies).

 

I was told this by one of sons' doctors who had a child who was an addict. Spent more than a million on rehab for his child. She is clean and has been for 15 years but HIS research into each clinic (she has been in many) was how he found out. He is part of a group to make it law that pain clinics MUST be part of a hospital and be run by those who specialize in pain (my sons' neurologist at Duke is an example of a doctor who specializes in acute pain and is head of the pain clinic there). 

 

John Hopkins physicians. Hopkins does not have a pain clinic so all adults who need medication and treatment are sent to Kennedy Krieger for their needs. Doctors at KK and I discussed this bizarre fact many times.

 

 

My sons' Oxy bill will be $2000 a MONTH starting January (when we hit our deductible it's $5 a month).... And that's just ONE of the drugs he takes. Where people are buying it for a $1 a pill at a pharmacy, I would LOVE to know because I'll drive there and get it filled.

 

 

The point of my posting was simply this: it's easy to blame Big Pharmacy but IMHO, that's not who we should be condemning. I'm in the trenches with this mess and I don't. It's easy to pull on the heart-strings of many but the facts are that doctors,  pharmacists, law enforcement and the dealers all make a LOT of money off of addiction and yet.....are RARELY held accountable for their actions. THAT should be making people angry and who the fingers should be pointed at.

 

Not to mention politicians who don't want to tick off potential voters and so, throw the baby out with the bathwater with the policies they're passing. 

 

 

ETA: I believe this town in WV was TARGETED by the pharmacy and scum-docs SPECIFICALLY because it was such a small town. After all, who's going to bother with some country hicks out in the middle of nowhere? Yep, lets just USE this place to push drugs and take in the money and we'll ALL get rich. What happens to those poor country bumpkins doesn't matter; they're not worth being concerned about, right?

 

A mindset that makes me sick but is VERY common.

Trusted Contributor
Posts: 1,946
Registered: ‎03-08-2018

Re: TINY WV town flooded with opioids

Seems like I remember hearing similar stories about opiod and drug abuse in WV.  Its sad to see these people living through the addiction.  I thought lots of controls were put in place for these prescriptions but obviously there are ways to get by it.

Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,967
Registered: ‎09-12-2013

Re: TINY WV town flooded with opioids


@SahmIam wrote:

@patofl  Regarding the podiatrists:

 

I was told this by my primary care (who can not write ANY Rx for opiates; it can ONLY come from a specialist now and insurance companies can STILL deny payment if they fell the specialist isn't "special" enough. This may vary from state to state and insurance companies).

 

I was told this by one of sons' doctors who had a child who was an addict. Spent more than a million on rehab for his child. She is clean and has been for 15 years but HIS research into each clinic (she has been in many) was how he found out. He is part of a group to make it law that pain clinics MUST be part of a hospital and be run by those who specialize in pain (my sons' neurologist at Duke is an example of a doctor who specializes in acute pain and is head of the pain clinic there). 

 

John Hopkins physicians. Hopkins does not have a pain clinic so all adults who need medication and treatment are sent to Kennedy Krieger for their needs. Doctors at KK and I discussed this bizarre fact many times.

 

 

My sons' Oxy bill will be $2000 a MONTH starting January (when we hit our deductible it's $5 a month).... And that's just ONE of the drugs he takes. Where people are buying it for a $1 a pill at a pharmacy, I would LOVE to know because I'll drive there and get it filled.

 

 

The point of my posting was simply this: it's easy to blame Big Pharmacy but IMHO, that's not who we should be condemning. I'm in the trenches with this mess and I don't. It's easy to pull on the heart-strings of many but the facts are that doctors,  pharmacists, law enforcement and the dealers all make a LOT of money off of addiction and yet.....are RARELY held accountable for their actions. THAT should be making people angry and who the fingers should be pointed at.

 

Not to mention politicians who don't want to tick off potential voters and so, throw the baby out with the bathwater with the policies they're passing. 

 

 

ETA: I believe this town in WV was TARGETED by the pharmacy and scum-docs SPECIFICALLY because it was such a small town. After all, who's going to bother with some country hicks out in the middle of nowhere? Yep, lets just USE this place to push drugs and take in the money and we'll ALL get rich. What happens to those poor country bumpkins doesn't matter; they're not worth being concerned about, right?

 

A mindset that makes me sick but is VERY common.


@SahmIam  You are correct with every single thing you’ve said! WV is my home and a state I LOVE and the opioid addiction here is out of control! I believe you nailed it with them doing this in a small town and they flew under the radar. 

I am a nurse and therefore have a lot of friends in the medical field and such. There are people making big bucks off of this stuff and it needs to stop! I am hoping that things will get better! It has to as it’s affecting our children and entire families. Thank you for your words as they are true! 

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 6,487
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: TINY WV town flooded with opioids

This story has been in the news for a long time. Can't remember who did a huge investigative series on it. I questioned why no "red" flags were ever raised on the number of opiates that were being shipped.

Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,650
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: TINY WV town flooded with opioids

It's interesting to me how the opioid addiction epidemic is being framed compared to other drug problems. Why do you think that is?

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. ~ Desmond Tutu
Honored Contributor
Posts: 9,139
Registered: ‎04-16-2010

Re: TINY WV town flooded with opioids

@wvumountiefan  My Daddy was from a very small town in WV. I spent every summer working the family farm up there. The kindest, most hard-working, community-spirited people I have ever known in all my travels. Smiley Happy

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 6,454
Registered: ‎01-13-2013

Re: TINY WV town flooded with opioids

[ Edited ]

@riley1 wrote:

This story has been in the news for a long time. Can't remember who did a huge investigative series on it. I questioned why no "red" flags were ever raised on the number of opiates that were being shipped.


The newspaper says it was posted 17 hours ago.

 

"McKesson Corp. supplied “massive quantities” of the painkiller hydrocodone to the now-shuttered Sav-Rite Pharmacy in Kermit, even after an employee at the company’s Ohio drug warehouse flagged the suspect pill orders in 2007, the report found. "

 

  Did anyone read the article? Just asking........