When Gov. Rick Scott says he wants Florida open for business, who knew that he also meant the deadly pill mills that have ruined so many lives?

Scott’s move to scrap a prescription narcotic database intended to temper the excesses of South Florida’s rogue pain clinics makes no sense.

Unless the governor somehow likes the drug tourism, overdoses and other human wreckage spawned by our pill-friendly culture. Prescription drug abuse is blamed for an estimated seven deaths a day in Florida.

The database can help law enforcement, pharmacists and health officials pinpoint patients who abuse or traffic in powerful pills like oxycodone by getting multiple prescriptions in a short timeframe, a practice known as doctor-shopping.

The Legislature approved the database in 2009, with private grants paying for it.

It was supposed to launch last December, but has been delayed by a dispute involving a contractor who didn’t win the bid.

Forty-two other states have databases.

Now along comes Scott, who took office last month, trying to scuttle Florida’s database before it begins.

And in the cryptic style that’s becoming his trademark, the public can’t get a detailed answer about his rationale.

Last Tuesday, Scott told reporters, “That program has not been working.”

Huh? The program hasn’t even started. He went on to say he was working with Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to deal with the pill-mill issue. He didn’t get into specifics.

That was after his spokeswoman said Scott didn’t think the database was a function best performed by government.

Say what? If it’s not government’s role to monitor controlled substances, then why bother monitoring anything? Let’s just do away with driver’s licenses, vehicle registrations and concealed weapons permits too, since cars and guns are legal.

The database had support from just about everyone — legislators, law enforcement, responsible doctors and pharmacists and legitimate pain clinics.

And it’s not like it would cost taxpayers anything, since the money is supposed to come from private sources.

Scott baffled everyone with his request to repeal the database, filed in documents with his proposed budget. It follows his decision last month to abolish the office of drug control, whose chief was spearheading the database efforts.

Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti, who saw Scott a few days earlier and emphasized the importance of the database, said he was “very surprised.”

Pain clinics have mushroomed across South Florida in the last decade, with many dispensing prescriptions and drugs to cash-paying customers after cursory exams.

Some customers — known as pillbillies — travel from Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia.

Some Broward and Palm Beach County cities, tired of complaints about the clientele, have put moratoriums on new pain clinics. I know a beauty salon owner who recently moved because she no longer felt safe in a Hollywood strip mall she shared with a pain clinic. Tamarac is trying to shut a pharmacy that has dispensed more than 2.8 million oxycodone pills in two years.

Broward Sheriff’s Office Tamarac district chief Marc Duguay said it’s a public safety issue, even though the pharmacy is not doing anything illegal.

“Tallahassee needs to do something,” Duguay said.

But the governor fiddles while the pill epidemic rages on.

It wasn’t a banner week for Rookie Rick. He played accounting games with his budget numbers, trumpeting a $5 billion reduction while conveniently lopping off hefty items that still exist, like university tuition and court administration fees.

He backed off his ambitious plan to expand private-school vouchers, finally acknowledging it wouldn’t be legal without changing the state constitution.

And he ticked off state workers with proposed job cuts and a pension revamp that would cut into their paychecks, while giving big tax cuts to … wait for it … corporations.

Of all the inscrutable things Scott has done, the database stance is hardest to swallow.

The governor needs to explain himself better.

And if Scott’s notion of hands-off government precludes common-sense measures like a narcotics database, it might be time for all of us Floridians to reach for a prescription pad and some pills. This could be a long four years.

Hi,

We wanted to tell you about one of the hundreds of thousands of children who has been helped by your donations.

Kiiza was brought to us at the age of 13.

He was born to a cattle keeping community in a very poor region of Uganda. His clan believes that a child born with a craniofacial deformity brings a curse to the herd which results in loss of cattle.

Others like him are traditionally buried alive in a heap of cow dung at birth, and never see the light of day.

Luckily he was delivered in hospital, and by the time his clan took a decision about his fate, the health care providers had already assured his mother that Kiiza would grow up like any other boy, if he receives care.

Care, however, didn’t come early since this community lives in the country side. An attempt to send him to school failed because he easily became a laughing stock in class being mocked and ridiculed.

His mother didn’t lose hope for her son. She heard an announcement, inviting all children with this deformity to come in for free surgery sponsored by Smile Train, including a promise to assist with transport. She borrowed money from her neighbors and brought Kiiza in for surgery.

After his free cleft surgery, Kiiza was so full of joy and promised that although he was starting school late in life, he would work hard and become a doctor to help other children with similar problems!

These simple surgeries – that take as little as 45 minutes – are SO important to the millions of children with cleft lips and palates.

From all of us here at Smile Train.

Only a few of the 6 Rapid/Ultra Rapid Detox Centers in the country talk about giving male patients supplemental Testosterone after a detoxification treatment from opiate drugs.

It is not uncommon to see low levels of Testosterone in our male patients. RDD Center does not believe in supplementing Testosterone. We realize that those levels will return back to normal and is part of the healing process of the body once opiate use stops. Turns out, there is a whole list of side effects, serious side effects with testosterone replacement therapy.

This information addresses the untold dangers of exogenous (external and synthetic) Testosterone Replacement Therapy.

One of the most undesirable side effects of exogenous testosterone replacement therapy is the shrinkage of the male genitals, including the testes. The medical term for the condition is “testicular atrophy”.

As a matter of fact, the renowned Mayo Clinic lists the following side effects with exogenous (external and synthetic) testosterone replacement therapy:

• Causes skin reactions
• Causes fluid retention
• Causes baldness
• Causes or aggravates sleep apnea (brief, repeated cessation of breathing during sleep)
• Stimulates noncancerous (benign) growth of the prostate and cause or worsen urinary symptoms
• Stimulates growth of prostate cancer that’s already present
• Enlarges breasts (gynecomastia)
• Stimulates growth of breast cancer if that’s already present (rare in males)
• Causes testicle shrinkage (testicular atrophy)
• Limits sperm production (infertility)
• Stimulates excess blood production (polycythemia)

The number of prescriptions for testosterone replacement therapy has increased over the years. The primary reason is we believe the lack of emphasis by doctors and pharmaceutical companies on the negative side effects of the treatment and because of the increase in drug use, typically the levels of Testosterone will show up low in males using opiates.

It seems like the treatment purported to give your manhood back is actually robbing you of it. Once off of opiate drugs the levels will slowly return to normal, typically within a few months. Even if a patient decides to supplement, it should be monitored very closely by your personal physician. This treatment should never be prescribed unless frequent blood work is done to check levels.

The abuse of hydrocodone (Vicoden) is a major problem. Compounding the addiction issue is the toxicity of the acetaminophen contained in the drug. Users consume many times the safe amounts of acetaminophen attempting to experience the euphoric effects of hydrocodone. Acetaminophen is hepato-toxic. It damages the liver, leading to irreversible liver damage and death. The dangers are increased with underlying conditions such as alcoholism, malnourishment or dehydration. These conditions can lower the toxic threshold of the drug. A tolerance is developed; the physical addiction to the hydrocodone in the drug causes the user to require a higher dose to achieve the same effect. This increase in acetaminophen levels leads to acute liver toxicity, causing liver necrosis and cell death. Acetaminophen poisoning is the leading cause of liver damage resulting in liver transplantation in Britain, and has replaced viral hepatitis as the leading cause of acute hepatic failure in the U.S.

Suboxone/Subutex, which is Buprenorphine, is a controlled schedule III opiate drug which is 20 to 30 times more powerful than morphine (see the letter from the FDA). It is a very common replacement opiate drug that most drug rehab centers across the United States and a few of the 6 rapid detox centers use to maintain an opiate addiction as part of their opiate detox treatment.

This drug causes dependence/addiction very quickly and once a patient is addicted to this drug it is very difficult to “just wean down and get off of it with mild withdrawal” as we have heard many people were told by a physician when they were prescribed this drug. Once a patient is on this drug and they consult with their physician that they want to stop the drug, it is very common that doctors will tell their patients “you will be on this drug the rest of your life” or “you need to stay on it for another year”, etc. Most physicians will not tell their patients the truth about the addictive nature of this drug leading them to believe it is a “MIRACLE DRUG” and is a cure for their opiate addiction when the truth is they are still addicted to an opiate that for most patients is far harder to detox from than a traditional opiate. Suboxone physicians are an advocate of this drug and the ability to have 100 patients at a time on it, with monthly visits ranging in price from $100 to $300 per month make monetary sense for doctors to prescribe this drug.

Even the pharmaceutical company claims the drug has mild withdrawal and is easier to come off of than a traditional opiate, yet the company claims they have never done any studies to determine that. Why is that?

RDD quotes below from the pharmaceutical Professional Prescribing Information for physicians, also known as the insert that comes with each bottle supplied from the company:

Buprenorhine is a partial agonist at the mu-opioid receptor and chronic administration produces dependence of the opioid type, characterized by moderate withdrawal upon abrupt discontinuation or rapid taper. The withdrawal syndrome is milder than seen with full agonists, and may be delayed in onset.

Reducing dosage and stopping treatment:

The decision to discontinue therapy from SUBOXONE or SUBUTEX after a period of maintenance or brief stabilization should be made as part of a comprehensive treatment plan. Both gradual and abrupt discontinuation have been used, but no controlled trials have been undertaken to determine the best method of dose taper at the end of treatment.

For most “the end of treatment” never comes without suffering long lasting withdrawals  or “does not come with “mild withdrawal” and again the patient is faced with yet another addiction which can be equally or even more difficult to detox from.

This is reminiscent of the sales tactic the Bayer Pharmaceutical Company used in the late 1800’s when they came up with the “miracle drug” for the cure for morphine addiction, which they named Heroin.

I have been on suboxone for the last few years after being addicted to pain pills from my many surgeries. I was never told about the many negative side effects from this drug. After reading about them I realize I suffer from all of them. I went from a happy, confident, popular guy to now having no friends, very depressed, and isolated, basically feeling like hell. I’ve been trying to get off of it for more than 6 months now and every time I stop taking it, the month or two of withdrawal outlasts my will.

I need help to get off of it and if I don’t, my fear is I won’t be alive in a year. It has ruined me in every way; most of all financially. I need advice, please help me.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved a new formulation of the controlled-release drug OxyContin that has been designed to help discourage misuse and abuse of the medication, including OxyContin addiction.

OxyContin is made to slowly release the potent opioid oxycodone to treat patients who require a continuous, around-the-clock opioid analgesic for management of their moderate to severe pain for an extended period of time. Because of its controlled-release properties, each OxyContin tablet contains a large quantity of oxycodone, which allows patients to take their drug less often. However, people intent on abusing the previous formulation have been able to release high levels of oxycodone all at once, which can result in a fatal overdose and contributes to high rates of OxyContin abuse.

The reformulated OxyContin is intended to prevent the opioid medication from being cut, broken, chewed, crushed or dissolved to release more medication. The new formulation may be an improvement that may result in less risk of overdose due to tampering, and will likely result in less abuse by snorting or injection; but it still can be abused or misused by simply ingesting larger doses than are recommended.

“Although this new formulation of OxyContin may provide only an incremental advantage over the current version of the drug, it is still a step in the right direction,” said Bob Rappaport, M.D., director of the Division of Anesthesia and Analgesia Products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

“As with all opioids, safety is an important consideration,” he said. “Prescribers and patients need to know that its tamper-resistant properties are limited and need to carefully weigh the benefits and risks of using this medication to treat pain.”

According to the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health, approximately half a million people used OxyContin non-medically for the first time in 2008.

The manufacturer of OxyContin, Purdue Pharma L.P., will be required to conduct a postmarket study to collect data on the extent to which the new formulation reduces abuse and misuse of this opioid. The FDA is also requiring a REMS (Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy) that will include the issuance of a Medication Guide to patients and a requirement for prescriber education regarding the appropriate use of opioid analgesics in the treatment of pain.

Purdue Pharma is based in Stamford, Conn.

The RDD Method provides relief from those suffering from an OxyContin addiction by providing OxyContin detox. Contact us today.

FDA Press Release from www.fda.gov.

Symptoms

When someone has overdosed on the following Opiates:  Opium; oxycontin, heroin; morphine; Suboxone, Methadone®; codeine, etc.

Treatment

Detox patients hooked on street drugs often addicted to legal meds first,  study found

(HealthDay News) – Prescription medicines are the way that many drug addicts first get hooked, making these legal medicines the new ”gateway” drugs, new study findings show.

University at Buffalo researchers interviewed 75 patients hospitalized for opioid detoxification and found that 31 of them said they first became addicted to legitimately prescribed painkillers.

Another 24 patients said their addiction began when they used a friend’s left-over prescription pills or stole drugs from a parent’s medicine cabinet, while the remaining 20 patients said they got hooked on street drugs.

But the study found that 92 percent of the patients said they eventually bought illegal drugs (usually heroin) because street drugs are less expensive and more effective than prescription drugs. Their reasons for continuing to use drugs included to feel “normal,” to feel “like a better person” or to ease emotional pain and stress.

“We are seeing an increase in the number of patients addicted to prescription drugs, so we wanted to better understand how they first got hooked,” study senior author Dr. Richard Blondell, a professor of family medicine, said in a University at Buffalo news release. ”This information suggests that there is a progressive nature to opioid use, and that prescription opioids can be the gateway to illicit drug addiction. It also tells us that people who use prescriptions illegally may be at greater risk for subsequent heroin use than those who use prescriptions legally.”

The study was published recently in the Journal of Addiction Medicine. The U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse has more about drug abuse and addiction.

– Robert Preidt

In this Peabody Award-winning edition of Vanguard, correspondent Mariana van Zeller travels to South Florida–the “Colombia of prescription drugs”–to expose a bustling pill pipeline that stretches from the beaches of Ft. Lauderdale to the rolling hills of Appalachia.

“The OxyContin Express” features intimate access with pill addicts, prisoners and law enforcement as each struggles with a lethal national epidemic.

Current.com