Massachusetts Declares Health Emergency, Bans Zohydro
First it was the Feds making MJ a illegal product and nearly two dozen states have now made its use from recreational to medical uses legal in their state..
Now we have the FDA to approve a drug and the State of MASS.. declares a “health emergency” and bans the prescribing or dispensing of Zyhydro..
from the article:
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has declared a public health emergency in his state over the “growing opioid addiction epidemic” and ordered state health officials to take several steps to combat overdoses, help drug addicts and find a long-term solution to opiate abuse in Massachusetts.
The states have been scrambling to pass laws that gives the BOP or some other bureaucratic entity enough latitude to make any new substance illegal that they discover people are abusing… except for Nicotine or Alcohol. Who really believes that Zyhydro being available on the market will increase the number of people that will abuse some substance ? Have you ever noticed that nearly all the people that abuse some substance… is also using tobacco products and is or has been a alcoholic.. or borderline alcoholic.. but.. Nicotine and alcohol is never considered a “gateway drugs”..
The Governor’s office will also dedicate an additional $20 million to addiction treatment programs.
The estimated population of MASS is 6.6 million.. if you presume that 5% of the population will be abusing some substance at any point in time.. that means that abt 330,000 substance abusers in the state. That means that Gov Patrick’s commitment of 20 million dollars is abt $60 per person/year… Since most Psychologists charge $75 to $125/hr… those substance abuser in the state will be entitled to 30 -45 minutes of “talk therapy” IN THE COMING YEAR …BUT… substance abusers normally have substantial mental health issues.. requiring medication.. Have you ever seen the cost of mental health medications ?.. They ain’t cheap… Even if you drop the per-cent of abusers to 2%.. that would raise the amount allocated to $150/abuser/year. That amount should practically solve the substance abuse issue in Massachusetts … without a question !
But then again… Massachusetts… was the home of the New England Compounding Center.. and the state’s oversight of that operation turned out to be a complete Cluster-F .. at least in my opinion ! But you can’t ask the 60 odd people that was KILLED by the state lack of oversight.. but you could ask the 700 odd people that have or still suffering from the contaminated product they received from that company that was injected into their spine and they ended up with fungal meningitis.
Filed under: General Problems
I believe the state of Massachusetts has “Mass” hysteria. I was a community pharmacist for 23 years. I also have cfs and fibromyalgia. I have gone through a litany of meds. Contrary to what the makers of Lyrca and Cymbalta whose commercials show a woman architect happily going to her job after taking lyrica which fibromyalgia patients hate , will tell you, this disease can hurt like hell. I tried everything and now am on fentanyl. I have heard some idiotic comments who say that fibromyalgia patients who aren’t on lyrica, or gabapentin are fakers. How do you know what they tried before.? I am disabled and still fighting Cigna even though I was awarded ssi.No one wants to be on narcotics, yes about 5 percent of people are addicts. I just can’t believe how stupid, illogical and ignorant people are. What is scary is when these “professionals” are in positions of power Ps look at “reefer madness” from the 1930’s. IF you want to crack down on a drug I would go with Crystal meth.Watch the film “Winters Bone.”
Ban hydrocodone, the weakest opiate on the market, while leaving oxymorphone, fentanyl, morphine and methadone available?? None of those meds have tamper-resistance and are many times MORE POTENT, MUCH cheaper and readily available than Zohydro. Makes zero sense. Absolutely none whatsoever. What does this guy want, pain patients to take STRONGER medicines so they can’t work or function in life? There is no alternative to Zohydro for many patients. I have a ruptured C4-5 & C5-6 discs. Fusion=disability, and I cannot function on strong medicines like OxyContin, Opana or others. Are you really trying to protect criminal addicts from themselves over legitimate patients such as myself, who had no choice to be like this?? Absolutely shameful. If these are finding their way to the streets, penalizing people that need them is definitely not the answer
Per Steve
Actually Hydrocodone and Morphine are about equal mg to mg when taken orally .. IMO.. they would rather see 5 chronic pain pts suffer than one substance abuser gets their hands on a legal drug. That is because they have never really had up close – first hand experiences with a chronic pain pt.
They are concerned about abuse however, correct? Hydrocodone is has 80% oral bioavailability, why inject it? Per US PHARMACIST (link below) “Hydrocodone is a prodrug metabolized by CYP2D6, with analgesic effects dependent on its active metabolite hydromorphone.” , injecting hydrocodone would bypass the liver’s first pass and would still need to be processed through the liver to create hydromorphone, which would take time…..making injecting a moot point, except on a full stomach. Hydrocodone I understand has never been marketed as an injectable specifically because of this reason. So if they are concerned about addicts abusing, and morphine is 3 times as potent administered IV or IM, a 200mg morphine tablet abused and injected would be like taking 600mg IV. Plus 50mg of pure anything with no fillers is barely enough to manipulate. Thanks for your input, your blog is AWESOME. I was pre-pharm & worked in a hospital pharmacy before becoming a firefighter (my dream career), so I understand all this a little.
http://www.uspharmacist.com/continuing_education/ceviewtest/lessonid/105473/