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There was a time when the opioid crisis was blamed mostly on prescription painkiller abuse. But new data suggests that opioid deaths in America are now largely due to an illegal synthetic form of the drug smuggled into the U.S. One America’s John Hines has more from Washington. Visit us at: Website: https://www.oann.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OneAmericaNe… Twitter: https://twitter.com/OANN
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https://www.facebook.com/TheCJPearson/videos/880278375679432/
The above link is to a very interesting 5 minute video attempting to address the reason(s) we are UNABLE TO VOTE THE BUMS OUT !
Last Monday Linda Cheek had a on line meeting https://doctorsofcourage.org/ with the Jeff Scott who is a Libertarian ( https://www.lp.org/ ) running in a special election for the 9th district in NC. He seemed very open minded to listening to the issues of the chronic pain community.
The next morning, the election day in NC, I was listening to one of the morning shows and they were talking about this special election in NC and only the <R> and the <D> candidates in the race were discussed. So is the media, in lock-step with promoting our TWO PARTY SYSTEM ?
Is it just me, or does things seem to validate that we have a TWO PARTY SYSTEM and it would take a major upheaval to even attempt to break it up ?
As the person in the video point out to the senate committee that he is addressing… Congress works for us… and WE THE PEOPLE want term limits on those in Congress.
It took 4 yrs for 75% of the states to ratify the 22nd Amendment. A Republican dominated Congress passed the 22nd Amendment on March 21, 1947. I am sure that the fact that FDR – a democrat – got elected for his four consecutive terms had little to do with him getting elected to his FOURTH TERM in Nov 1944.
Congress functions on a seniority basis, so unless all the members of congress with the most seniority are toss from office at the same time… with the exception of the House of Representatives … it is nearly impossible to accomplish this with the Senate since 33 or 34 members are up for re-election every 2 yrs.
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A joke for my Biker Friends that ride a Harley. They rest of you can laugh about it too.
An inventor of the Harley-Davidson motorcycle, Arthur Davidson, died and went to heaven.
At the pearly gates, St. Peter told Arthur, “Since you’ve been such a good man and your motorcycles have changed the world, your reward is, you can hang out with anyone you want in Heaven.”
Arthur thought about this for a minute and then said, “I want to hang out with God.”
St. Peter took Arthur to the Throne Room and introduced him to God.
God recognized Arthur and commented, “Okay, so you were the one who invented the Harley Davidson motorcycle?”
Arthur said, “Yep, that’s me.”
God said, “Well, what’s the big deal in inventing something that’s pretty unstable, makes noise and pollution, and can’t run without a road?”
Arthur was apparently embarrassed, but finally he said, “Excuse me, but aren’t you the inventor of the woman?”
God said, “Yes.”
“Well,” said Arthur, “professional to professional, you have some major design flaws in your invention too:
A. There’s too much inconsistency in the front-end protrusions;
B. It chatters constantly at high speeds;
C. Most of the rear ends are too soft, and wobble too much;
D. The intake is placed way too close to the exhaust;
E. And the maintenance costs are enormous!”
“Hmmmmm, you have some good points there,” replied God, “hold on.”
God went to His Celestial supercomputer, typed in some key words and waited for the results. The computer printed out a slip of paper and God read it.
“Well, it may be true that my invention is flawed,” God said to Arthur, “but according to these statistics, more men are riding my invention than yours.”..
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The number of robberies and burglaries of pharmacies is increasing in Alabama, the State Board of Pharmacy says. eDrugSearch encourage everyone to share their own personal Canada pharmacy ratings and reviews so other consumers can easily read the online pharmacy reviews check here the online website https://edrugsearch.com/online-pharmacy-directory/ and find valuable Canadian online pharmacy coupons so they make an informed decision before they purchase
In the last two days alone, there have been two armed robberies and four burglaries of Alabama pharmacies.
One of those armed robberies happened at a Walgreens in Pelham Wednesday night on Highway 261. Now Pelham police are asking for the public’s help identifying the suspect.
Pelham police say the suspect presented a note to the pharmacist with a list of the narcotics he wanted. He then showed him his gun. A few minutes later, he left the store with the drugs.
“I’m sorry to hear about that robbery,” said Neal Damron, who owns Neal’s Pharmacy off Highway 119 in Shelby County.
Damron can relate to the feelings of the pharmacist robbed.
He remembers it like it was yesterday. He says about 30 years ago, a man came into his pharmacy with a gun demanding pills.
“I just went from zero to 100 in far as anger,” Damron said. “We’ll never let that happen again.”
Damron shot and killed the man.
Emotions came back while talking about Wednesday’s armed robbery in Pelham.
“It makes me mad,” said Damron. “It really irritates me. Somebody’s going to get killed one of these days and I hope it’s not the pharmacist.”
The Alabama Pharmacy Board says the amount of burglaries and robberies is increasing.
“The access to drugs is getting harder so that’s why we’ve had these increases in burglaries and increase in robberies,” said Chief Investigator Edward Braden.
Braden has seen 30 robberies and 49 burglaries in the last year in Alabama.
“They’re being sold on the black market or out on the street or being used by addicts that rob or burglarize themselves,’ said Braden.
While Damron prefers to fight back, Braden encourages both pharmacists and shoppers to comply with the robber.
“Be cooperative, provide what they want so they leave and everyone’s safe,” he Braden said.
“We would advise anyone finding themselves in that situation to comply and give the robber whatever he/she is asking for,” said Pelham Police Detective Mike Bellanca. “Items can always be replaced.”
“Try to pay attention to any unique facial or body features, clothing items or vehicle descriptions, including tag numbers, as best you can, and write it down or note [it] on your phone as soon as it is safe to do so,” added Bellanca.
“The thing that we’ve even thought about if this continues to get worse is put in bullet proof glass around the pharmacy,” said Damron.
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“The five opioid substances were subject to special scrutiny following the enactment last year of the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act, known as the SUPPORT Act, which requires DEA to “estimate the amount of diversion of the covered substance that occurs in the United States” and “make appropriate quota reductions. DEA’s estimates of the amount of diversion that took place for each of these five opioid substances and how those estimates were calculated appear in the Notice.
Interested parties may submit public comments on the proposed APQ until 11:59 p.m. on October 10, following the instructions in the Notice. After taking the comments into account, DEA will publish another notice later in the year informing the public of the established APQ. After that, DEA allocates individual manufacturing and procurement quotas to those manufacturers that apply for them. DEA may revise a company’s quota at any time during the year if change is warranted due to increased sales or exports, new manufacturers entering the market, new product development, or product recalls.”
We have to act VERY QUICKLY & MAKE THOSE COMMENTS! PLEASE SHARE TO ALL!
DEA proposes to reduce the amount of fentanyl produced by 31 percent, hydrocodone by 19 percent, hydromorphone by 25 percent, oxycodone by nine percent and oxymorphone by 55 percent. Combined with morphine, the proposed quota would be a 53 percent decrease in the amount of allowable production of these opioids since 2016.
DEA proposes to increase the amount of marijuana that can be produced for research by almost a third over 2019’s level, from 2,450 kilograms to 3,200 kilograms, which is almost triple what it was in 2018. This will meet the need created by the increase in the amount of approved research involving marijuana. Over the last two years, the total number of individuals registered by DEA to conduct research with marijuana, marijuana extracts, derivatives and delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) has increased by more than 40 percent, from 384 in January 2017 to 542 in January 2019.
“The aggregate production quota set by DEA each calendar year ensures that patients have the medicines they need while also reducing excess production of controlled prescription drugs that can be diverted and misused,” said Acting Administrator Uttam Dhillon. “DEA takes seriously its obligations to both protect the public from illicit drug trafficking and ensure adequate supplies to meet the legitimate needs of patients and researchers for these substances.”
The Proposed Aggregate Production Quotas and Assessment of Annual Needs being published in the Federal Register addresses more than 250 Schedule I and II controlled substances and three List I chemicals, which include ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, and phenylpropanolamine. This reflects the total amount of substances needed to meet the country’s legitimate medical, scientific, research, industrial and export needs for the year and for the maintenance of reserve stocks. DEA endeavors to set production limits at a level required to meet these needs, without resulting in an excessive amount of these potentially harmful substances.
In setting the APQ, DEA considers data from many sources, including estimates of the legitimate medical need from the Food and Drug Administration; estimates of retail consumption based on prescriptions dispensed; manufacturers’ disposition history and forecasts; data from DEA’s internal system for tracking controlled substance transactions; and past quota histories. As a result of new laws and regulations that took effect in 2018, the number of factors that DEA considers in setting the APQ has increased. Information on these factors and how they were assessed appears in the Notice.
The five opioid substances were subject to special scrutiny following the enactment last year of the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act, known as the SUPPORT Act, which requires DEA to “estimate the amount of diversion of the covered substance that occurs in the United States” and “make appropriate quota reductions. DEA’s estimates of the amount of diversion that took place for each of these five opioid substances and how those estimates were calculated appear in the Notice.
Interested parties may submit public comments on the proposed APQ until 11:59 p.m. on October 10, following the instructions in the Notice. After taking the comments into account, DEA will publish another notice later in the year informing the public of the established APQ. After that, DEA allocates individual manufacturing and procurement quotas to those manufacturers that apply for them. DEA may revise a company’s quota at any time during the year if change is warranted due to increased sales or exports, new manufacturers entering the market, new product development, or product recalls.
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It has been reported that abt 11%-12% of all households in the USA watch this debate.. lack of interest or just plain old apathy ?
Isn’t it amazing that 10 candidates can spend THREE HOURS talking about not much more than availability of health and our second amendment right to own a gun.
The only time that opiates were mention was by Sen Booker when he stated that people of color get longer prison terms than others when drug offenses are involved.
If the opiate crisis is such a HUGE ISSUE… these candidates can talk for THREE HOURS and not mentioned once ? Is that because they know that there is no such thing as a real opiate crisis or that they have no intention of changing the course of the DEA…. after all, many on that stage are ATTORNEYS… part of the same judicial system as the DEA … wouldn’t want to do anything that would compromise their “fraternal brothers and sisters” in our judicial system and cause many to become unemployed or put in “harm’s way” forced into doing their job and going after those distributing illegal opiates.
The candidates description of “Medicare for all” seems to be describing what is now MEDICAID… no deductibles, no copays, no premiums
The 3.2 Trillion/yr cost seems pretty realistic… as a country we spend about $10,000 per person and there is some 320 million people in this country…. the dollar math is pretty simple.
Of course, currently the ENTIRE FEDERAL BUDGET is some 4+ trillion/yr and federal revenue is abt ONE TRILLION LESS than what Congress is currently spending.
They all promise that “middle America” will not be touched… all the extra money will come from the VERY< VERY RICH and BIG BUSINESS… what they are not talking about is if BIG BUSINESS makes less profits… they will be able to pay less dividends to the people that own stock in these companies and the company’s stock price will probably drop… What they are not addressing is the vast majority of middle America’s 401K, Roths, mutual fund, annuities and other retirement vehicles are invested in the same stock market. So how is those considered middle America not going to be affected ?
Who in the chronic pain community believes that they will be entitled to any appropriate care for their chronic pain ? Of course, this will take several years for Congress to put everything together and if the DEA continues to cut opiate production quotas 20%-30% per year going forward… there won’t be any opiates available to treat much of anyone.
Then BETO wants to start confiscate a particular type of gun/rifle … there are bullets available for handguns that will do a similar type of bodily damage as the bullets that he described… so where is the line going to be drawn in whittling away our gun rights provided under the second amendment ?
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Fellow Warriors,
Dennis Prager reaches an extremely large audience on his radio show and online. He also produces online educational videos through Prager U.
Since he knows about our plight first hand, I believe we can convince him to produce a video depicting the immense suffering of millions of intractable pain patients to amplify our cause in observance of #PainAwarenessMonth and to honor our fallen brothers & sisters in pain who chose #suicidedue2pain as his sons’ stepfather Bruce chose in 2017.
We need to act fast!
Please contact him by phone or email to submit your request:
Call in line: 877-243-7776
Email: Dennis@dennisprager.com
Watch/Listen to his Radio Show: https://www.dennisprager.com/
About Dennis Prager:
A American conservative radio talk show host and writer.
His views generally align with social conservatism. He founded PragerU, an American non-profit organization that creates videos on various political, economic, and philosophical topics from a conservative perspective.
Link to Column: https://www.dennisprager.com/why-my-stepsons-father-killed-himself/
Tue, Jan 31, 2017 • Column by Dennis Prager
Last week, my two stepsons’ father, a man who loved life, killed himself.
I would like to tell you why.
Two years ago, a 62-year-old father of three named Bruce Graham was standing on an ladder, inspecting his roof for a leak, when it slipped out from under him. He landed on top of the ladder on his back, breaking several ribs, puncturing a lung and tearing his intestine, which wasn’t detected until he went into septic shock. Following surgery, he lapsed into a two-week coma.
In retrospect, it’s unfortunate that he awoke from that coma because for all intents and purposes, his life ended with that fall. Not because his mind was affected — it was completely intact until the moment he took his life — but because while modern medicine was adept enough to keep him alive, it was unable or unwilling to help him deal with the excruciating pain that he experienced over the next two years. And life in constant excruciating pain with no hope of ever alleviating it is not worth living.
As a result of the surgery, Bruce developed abdominal scar tissue structures known as adhesions. Adhesions can be horribly painful, but they are difficult to diagnose because they don’t appear in imaging, and no surgery in America or in Mexico (where, out of desperation, he also sought treatment) could remove them permanently. Many doctors dismiss adhesions, regarding the patient’s pain as psychosomatic.
The pain prevented him from getting adequate sleep. And he could not eat without the pain spiking for hours. By the time of his death, he had lost almost half his body weight.
Prescription painkillers — opioids — relieved much of his pain, or at least kept it to a tolerable level. But after the initial recuperation period, no doctor would prescribe one, despite the fact that this man had a well-documented injury and no record of addiction to any drug, including opioids. Doctors either wouldn’t prescribe them on an ongoing basis due to the threat of losing their medical license or being held legally liable for addiction or overdose, or deemed Bruce a hypochondriac.
The federal government and states like California have made it extremely difficult for physicians to prescribe painkillers for an extended period of time. The medical establishment and government bureaucrats have decided that it is better to allow people to suffer terrible pain than to risk them becoming addicted to opioids.
They believe it is better to ALLOW any number of innocent people to SUFFER hideous pain for the rest of their lives than to risk any patient getting addicted and potentially dying from an overdose.
Dr. Stephen Marmer, who teaches psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine, told me that he treated children with terminal cancer when he was an intern, and even they were denied painkillers, lest they become addicted.
Pain management seems to be the Achilles’ heel of modern medicine, for philosophical reasons as well as medical. Remarkably, Dr. Thomas Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, wrote in The New England Journal of Medicine last year, “Whereas the benefits of opioids for chronic pain remain uncertain, the risks of addiction and overdose are clear.”
To most of us, this is cruel. Isn’t the chance of accidental death from overdose, while in the meantime allowing patients to have some level of comfort, preferable to a life of endless severe pain?
Though I oppose suicide on religious/moral grounds and because of the emotional toll it takes on loved ones, I make an exception for people with unremitting, terrible pain.
If that pain could be alleviated by painkilling medicines, and law and/or physicians deny them those medicines, it is they, not the suicide, who are morally guilty.
Bruce was ultimately treated by the system as an addict, not worthy of compassion or dignity. On the last morning of his life, after what was surely a long, lonely, horrific night of sleeplessness and agony, Bruce made two calls, two final attempts to acquire the painkillers he needed to get through another day. Neither friend could help him. Desperate to end the pain, he picked up a gun, pressed it to his chest and pulled the trigger. In a final noble act, he did not shoot himself in the head, even though that is the more certain way of dying immediately. He had told a friend some weeks earlier that if he were to take his life, he wouldn’t want loved ones to experience the trauma-inducing mess that shooting himself in the head would leave. Instead, he shot himself in the heart.
An autopsy confirmed the presence of abdominal adhesions, as well as significant arthritis in his spine.
May Bruce Graham rest in peace. Some of us, however, will not live in peace until physicians’ attitudes and the laws change.
Blessings,
Andrea Patti
PainWarriorsUnite.com
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State mandates that require both prescribers and dispensers to enter and use prescription drug monitoring programs led to greater reductions in opioid prescriptions and opioid-related hospital use compared with states that had less strict or no mandates, according to a study published in Health Affairs.
“Our findings contribute significant evidence in support of comprehensive mandates for reducing the use of opioid prescriptions by Medicaid patients, a population with an elevated risk for opioid misuse and overdose compared to patients with other insurance status,” Yuhua Boa, PhD, associate professor of health care policy and research at Weill Cornell Medical College, said in the press release.
According to Boa and colleagues, prescription drug monitoring programs are a promising strategy for curbing opioid prescriptions and slowing the epidemic.
“These statewide electronic databases collect and monitor prescribing and dispensing information on controlled substances to help providers identify high-risk people and high-risk patterns such as high-dosage prescriptions, dangerous drug combinations, and multiple-provider episodes,” they wrote.
To evaluate the effects of prescription drug monitoring program mandates on opioid prescribing among Medicaid patients, the researchers reviewed CMS data from 2011 through 2016. They used a separate database to collect information on opioid-related inpatient stays and ED visits during the study period.
They found that, between 2011 and 2016, states with prescription drug monitoring program mandates experienced an 8.92% reduction in the number of opioid prescriptions. During that time, there was a 4.7% reduction in opioid-related hospital stays and a 17.75% reduction in opioid-related ED visits.
Similar reductions were not seen in states with noncomprehensive mandates.
The reductions in opioid-related hospital stays and ED visits associated with comprehensive mandates equates to 12,000 fewer hospital stays and 39,000 fewer ED visits per year, according to researchers, who estimated that these reductions could save approximately $155 million in Medicaid spending each year.
“This is one of a few studies that have examined the downstream effects of prescription drug monitoring mandates, using data that capture recent experience with comprehensive mandates,” Bao said in the press release. “We hope our findings will inform state policy discussions for strengthening prescription drug monitoring programs to address the opioid crisis more effectively.” – by Erin Michael
Disclosures: Bao was supported by a pilot grant from the Center for Health Economics of Treatment Interventions for Substance Use Disorder, HCV and HIV (CHERISH). Please see study for all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.
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FROM: Linda CheekI am seeking professional help from experienced writers to help with a BIG project for pain management. I have sent out blind copies of this to 17 others, and I hope all of you will forward the request to everyone in your professional loop–ATIF, HP3, AAPS, USPF, etc., as I do not have the individual emails to all potential supporters.
I am trying to create a questionnaire to send out to state and federal legislative candidates, and presidential candidates to find out their positions on areas of our concern. By doing so, we also tell them those areas of concern, and hopefully get them to be vocal about their position on the campaign trail. It’s time that the topic of the war on doctors and patients no longer be ignored by the political parties and their candidates.
This is a major undertaking, of which I have no personal experience. We should get back thousands of replies, and this could go well for us in creating media attention. But I can’t do it by myself. So. PLEAZZZ, if you have any expertise or desire to help in this creation, let me know.
We will need to have a data-evaluation service, which might be built in to the survey program. I think someone on this list has offered help in this area, but I would appreciate more detail.
I also do not need personal recognition for this survey. In fact, I think it would be responded to better if a large, well-known organization was the name attached to the survey. Or any/all organizations helping could sign. I’m open to whatever people think is best. So if you are a member of a large organization and want to use that name, just let me know. If you think of an organization that you think might be interested in helping, send the suggestion to me. If they aren’t already included in this email, I will add them in the future.
It might be that some of the larger organizations in this email already have a database to communicate the survey to federal and state candidates. If so, please let me know. If we don’t have that, I will enlist other help–CPPs, individuals, etc–to help get those contacts and send out the survey to their state candidates. Like I said, this it BIG, and any and all help will be greatly appreciated.
This is being sent out on September 11. I do respect the recognition and honor given to those who died that fateful day in New York. But I also hope someday, that recognition and honor will be given to all those who have died, or will die, as a result of the government’s failing war against drugs.
—
May the Lord bless you and keep you.
Linda Cheek <lindacheekmd@gmail.com>;
Teacher of The Seven Steps to Healing
Best Selling Author of Target: Pain Doc
www.sevenpillarstotalhealth.com
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The CDC’s August 30, 2019 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report documents changes in opioid involved overdose deaths by opioid type combined in the presence of benzodiazepines, cocaine, and methamphetamine for 25 states, July–December 2017 to January–June 2018.
Overall they report about a 5% decrease in Prescription Overdose Deaths when compared to the time frame 2014-2017. Yet in this same time frame, overdoses from illegally manufactured Fentanyl are up 11% with 63% or nearly 2/3 of all illicit overdose deaths reporting combination of Fentanyl with benzodiazepines, cocaine, or methamphetamine.
The reader should note though, that when overdose deaths are counted, one individual who overdoses on a combination of hydrocodone or oxycodone and Fentanyl, is counted as both an illegal opioid and a prescription opioid death, even though the actual source of the hydrocodone or oxycodone may not be known and could have come from an illegal sources. Until States start cross referencing every opioid overdose death with Prescription Drug Monitoring Data, the real sources of these medication will not be known.
The CDC goes on to say, from 2013 to 2017, the number of opioid-involved overdose deaths (opioid deaths) in the United States increased 90%, from 25,052 to 47,600. This increase was primarily driven by substantial increases in deaths involving illicitly manufactured fentanyl (IMF) or fentanyl analogs† mixed with heroin, sold as heroin, or pressed into counterfeit prescription pills, some of which contain hydrocodone or oxycodone. Italicized and bold words are my own, not the CDC’s and are based on reports from Ohio law enforcement and exit interviews with street drug users coming out of treatment.
The report goes on to say Methamphetamine-involved and cocaine-involved deaths that co-involved opioids also substantially increased from 2016 to 2017, confirming what law enforcement officials reported during that same period. All of which goes back to what has been reported for more than seven years, that enterprising black market individuals, are mixing Fentanyl into every street drug sold as a means of increasing profits due to its low cost and ready availability.
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