AG: Addiction Treatment, Trafficker Arrests Key To Fighting Wisconsin’s Growing Meth Epidemic

https://www.wpr.org/ag-addiction-treatment-trafficker-arrests-key-fighting-wisconsins-growing-meth-epidemic

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Using Opioids and Having a Job—It’s Not Easy

www.nationalpainreport.com/using-opioids-and-having-a-job-its-not-easy-8840192.html

By Denise Hedley

Those of us with chronic pain are well aware of the new laws that have labeled the opioid crisis and thus punished chronic pain patients. We are all affected in one way or another, and a good number of us have had our medications taken from us. Just today, I was told to take Advil for my pinched nerve and three herniated disks in my back – oh and from now on, I’m supposed to basically live on my heating pad.

Those of us who have lived with chronic pain for quite a while are well aware of what it takes to hold down a job with an invisible illness. Most of us hide it for as long as we are able to work. We are the ones who are not addicts, of course, but there is a new threat to the chronic pain community in the form of proposed legislation and other movements that want to punish those in pain who are still able to work.

The fear of abuse is so rampant, that they want to make pre-employment and random drug screens add opioids to their lists of banned substances for the workplace. In those jobs that have safety concerns this might be understandable that they might worry about impairment. This move, however, seems more like a witch hunt.

What is not understood by many of the parties proposing these actions is that those of us who function only because we have this one tiny tool towards some degree of relief do not find ourselves impaired. We are better able to focus. For some, this relief could be the only thing keeping them in the workforce where they can have a benefits package and better insurance.

It is now recommended that prescription pain killers be considered a violation of the drug-free environment. Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) have now been advised to recommend that any employee who is using prescription painkillers be referred for treatment.

Companies who have thus far avoided drug testing programs may soon be required to begin one. There is a large movement towards taking the war on opioids into the workplace. Companies are now requiring employees to notify their employers if they are placed on prescription painkillers. Most will be required to take leave for the duration of their pain treatment while others may lose their jobs. Ironically, the company does not have the right to ask what those employees are receiving their pain management treatment for.

There have been some moves, as a result of the recent HHS task force activities, to rewrite instructions to primary care physicians as to the prescribing of opioids to those chronic pain patients with a proven history of staying within guidelines. The right to continue treatment seems like it is being excluded for those patients who are still able to work. If all of this new legislation passes, then the war on opioids is taken too far and it seems like it officially becomes a war on chronic pain.

This gives us one more reason why those of us in the chronic pain community need to be more vocal. Even if it is only one person at a time, our voices must somehow be heard.

Denise Hedley

Denise Hedley was initially diagnosed with Fibromyalgia in 2009. Her condition has worsened, and was diagnosed with bilateral RSD in January, 2019. She also suffers from Osteoarthritis, 2 herniated discs, and Systemic Lupus Erythematosis

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The DEA has previously stated that a Pharmacist needs to “resolve” issues that the DEA considered RED FLAGS..  One of their RED FLAGS is a pt that travels long distances to get a controlled  Rxs filled… because that is what substance abusers/diverters do… so – according to DEA logic – anyone who does this must be a substance abusers/diverters.

So according to this pt, apparently some RED FLAGS are IMPOSSIBLE for the Pharmacist to resolve USING COMMON SENSE.  The fact that the pt’s insurance company has LOCKED the pt into this pharmacy – for some reason .. makes no difference to the war on drug mafia.

This may answer my concern about pts paying CASH for part or all of the cost of controlled substances because of QUANTITY LIMITS of their insurance companies or the fact that their insurance will no longer pay for a particular medication. This is another RED FLAG according to the DEA

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Colorado’s example shows legal issues marijuana could bring to Illinois

https://wgntv.com/2019/06/25/colorados-example-shows-legal-issues-marijuana-could-bring-to-illinois/

CHICAGO – For all the back-slapping and applause as Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signs legalized marijuana into law Monday, local law enforcement is bracing for problems that could come along with it.

Legalization doesn’t suddenly remove the drug trade’s criminal element, they say, while some argue it even inspires it.

As one federal agent told WGN Investigates, “Look to Colorado for signs of some of the trouble ahead.”

Just last month, investigators in that state seized more than 80,000 plants and 4,500 pounds of harvested marijuana in the largest marijuana black market investigation in Colorado’s history.

“The legalization of marijuana has created all kind of problems,” said Jason Dunn, U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado. “These are pure black markets creating large amounts of marijuana for distribution out of state through criminal enterprises.”

In the Denver area, police say criminals have ignored limits designed to constrain production, growing so much black-market marijuana, it’s being illegally shipped in significant amounts to seven states, including Illinois.

There are also concerns about road safety. In Colorado, marijuana-related driving deaths have more than doubled since legalization. There were 139 in 2017, up from 55 in 2013. Marijuana was involved in 21 percercent of the traffic fatalities in 2017.

In Illinois, the governor and others portray the legalization of marijuana as a new revenue stream – plus a new start for people who have a criminal record for relatively minor amounts of pot possession.

Under federal law, marijuana is still considered to be an illegal controlled substance on par with heroin. But agents are more concerned with large-scale sellers, than recreational users who use these products generated out of hemp cbd flower.

As for the impact on the drug trade?

A top official with the DEA in Chicago tells WGN Investigates: “These are trans-national criminal organizations. They’re in it to generate revenue and they’re not going to stop.”

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Iowa veteran’s survivors sue over VA’s illegal hiring of troubled neurosurgeon

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/health/2019/06/25/iowa-city-va-hospital-sued-hiring-surgeon-john-schneider-license-revoked-veterans-affairs-department/1558399001/

The survivors of an Iowa veteran who died after brain surgery at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Iowa City are suing the VA for illegally hiring a surgeon with a history of malpractice allegations.

Army veteran Richard Hopkins, 65, of Davenport died in 2017 after developing a post-surgery infection. His family’s federal lawsuit, filed this month, blames neurosurgeon John Henry Schneider, who performed four brain operations on Hopkins.

Hopkins and other VA patients didn’t know that Schneider’s medical license had been revoked in Wyoming in 2014 over allegations of poor patient care. The Iowa City VA hospital hired Schneider in spring 2017 at an annual salary of $385,000 — despite a law saying doctors whose state licenses had been revoked could not work for the VA.

Schneider resigned in late 2017, after USA TODAY inquired about his status and the VA moved to fire him.

The new federal lawsuit, filed by Hopkins’ three daughters, blames his infection on “medical negligence,” and says at least three other Iowa City VA hospital patients suffered such complications.

Hopkins’ family said he developed the infection after his first surgery for a non-cancerous brain tumor. He died a few weeks later, after undergoing three more surgeries.

“Rick was strong, he was a bull,” his sister, Annette Rainsford, said in a 2017 interview with USA TODAY. “Why would you go into someone’s head four times?”

Schneider told USA TODAY that the infections suffered by his patients were complications that can occur in neurosurgery. He said Hopkins’ case was a “tragic” example, in which the patient developed two brain bleeds and then fluid buildup, each requiring another surgery.

“I’ve had a great run at the VA with zero issues,” Schneider said in the 2017 interview. “Have I had to take patients back (for surgery) for post-op infection? Yes. I mean, I can’t prevent every infection.”

Schneider maintained a Montana medical license after his Wyoming license was revoked. Generally, physicians may work at any VA hospital in the country as long as they have a medical license from any state. But under federal law, they are not supposed to be hired if they’ve had a license revoked.

Schneider disclosed his licensing history when he applied for the Iowa City job, but he was hired anyway. A USA TODAY investigation found several similar examples nationally. In response to the USA TODAY findings, the VA pledged to review its hiring practices to ensure they comply with the law.

Schneider was sentenced last year to spend two years in federal prison after pleading guilty to fraudulently hiding assets in a bankruptcy case in Montana. His bankruptcy filing came while he was facing medical malpractice judgments from earlier cases. Online records show his Montana medical license was revoked in 2018.

A spokesman for the Iowa City VA hospital declined to comment on the new lawsuit. 

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FDA releases millions of adverse event reports on medical devices

https://www.modernhealthcare.com/safety-quality/fda-releases-millions-adverse-event-reports-medical-devices

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Nazi soldiers used performance-enhancing ‘super-drug’ in World War II, shocking documentary reveals

https://www.foxnews.com/science/nazi-soldiers-used-super-drug-in-world-war-ii

A shocking documentary is shedding new light on just how far the Nazis and Allied soldiers went in an attempt to win World War II — including the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

“Secrets of the Dead: World War Speed,” which airs June 25 on PBS, reveals that Nazi soldiers were given the methamphetamine Pervitin, manufactured by Temmler Pharmaceutical, while American and British forces used everything they could get their hands on, including coffee, Pervitin obtained from Nazi forces and the amphetamine Benzedrine.

“In 1940, the British army discovered Pervitin in a downed German plane in the south of England, unlocking the secret to the German troops’ boundless energy, and leading the Allies to consider the same tactic for their troops,” PBS representatives wrote in a statement.

The representatives continued: “The Allied troops decided to use the amphetamine. Both drugs make users intensely alert by flooding them with a sense of euphoria. With its added methyl-group molecule, Pervitin races across the blood-brain barrier a bit faster than Benzedrine. Otherwise, the two drugs have virtually the same impact.”

Military officials (including U.S. General and future President Dwight Eisenhower, who ordered 500,000 tablets of Benzedrine) were anxious to gain an edge in the war. They wanted to push the soldiers past their limits, hoping the drugs would “defeat not just the need for sleep, but anxiety and fear among troops” as well.

LiveScience reports that in 1940, the year of the Nazis’ relentless attacks against Britain (also known as the Blitzkrieg), approximately 35 million Pervitin tablets were sent to 3 million German soldiers, seamen and pilots, citing data from the British War Office.

The findings were compiled by Nicolas Rasmussen, a professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia and published in 2011.

However, the implications of the drugs were largely overlooked, PBS reports.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), methamphetamine is chemically similar to amphetamine and can be used in a variety of different ways, including smoking, pills, snorting or injecting the powder after it is dissolved in water or alcohol.

Some of the long-term consequences of methamphetamine use include extreme weight loss, addiction, memory loss, violent behavior, paranoia and several others.

“In addition, continued methamphetamine use causes changes in the brain’s dopamine system that are associated with reduced coordination and impaired verbal learning,” NIDA writes on its website. “In studies of people who used methamphetamine over the long term, severe changes also affected areas of the brain involved with emotion and memory. This may explain many of the emotional and cognitive problems seen in those who use methamphetamine.”

The organization even cited a recent study that people who once used methamphetamine “have an increased the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.”

And though Benzedrine was determined not to be as dangerous as Pervitin (it was administered in tablet and inhalant form), the drug was still harmful to soldiers, documentary consultant James Holland told Live Science.

“It stops you from sleeping, but it doesn’t stop you from feeling fatigued,” he told the news outlet. “Your body has no chance to recover from the fatigue it’s suffering, so there comes a point where you come off the drug and you just collapse, you can’t function.”

Holland added that the full extent of the addiction and the devastating effects were not “properly understood” and that there was “very little help” given to the people who became addicted.

“By the end of the Second World War, you saw increasing knowledge of the side effects of these drugs,” Holland said. “What you don’t see is what to do with people once they become hooked — that’s something that had to be learned the hard way in the years that followed.”

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Some patients taken off opioids too abruptly amid opioid battle, lobbyist says

https://www.ksl.com/article/46575999/some-patients-taken-off-opioids-too-abruptly-amid-opioid-battle-lobbyist-says

SALT LAKE CITY — While Utah and the country take aim at the opioid epidemic, many with chronic pain have suffered as doctors take away or taper them off their medications, a lobbyist told legislators Monday.

There are people having trouble getting their prescriptions from pharmacies and others being “force-tapered” or having their opioid prescriptions suddenly discontinued, which can cause severe opioid withdrawal symptoms, said Amy Coombs, who has worked with substance use patients and serves as executive director of Prestige Government Relations and Consulting Group.

Coombs presented to members of the Health Reform Task Force as the group discussed opioids, health care costs and Medicaid expansion during a Monday legislative interim meeting.

In April, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced its 2016 opiate guidelines have been “widely misapplied” to include those using opioids for palliative care, chronic pain and illnesses such as cancer, Coombs said.

There’s been a “broad brush stroke” of tapering or cutting people off of opioids, according to Coombs, but opioids should be considered on a person-to-person basis.

Also in April, the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning and required labeling changes after receiving “reports of serious harm in patients who are physically dependent on opioid pain medicines suddenly having these medicines discontinued or the dose rapidly decreased. These include serious withdrawal symptoms, uncontrolled pain, psychological distress and suicide.”

Many do benefit from opioid therapy, Coombs said, and she’s heard “more and more of those particular stories” about people in Utah who have taken their lives or suffered severe setbacks in their pain management because of their opioid prescriptions changing too quickly.

Some have turned to illegal drugs, according to Coombs. “People are not getting the care that they need.”

Those who need opioids now face more difficulty finding access to quality care and providers willing to treat their chronic pain, she said. People who have been on opioids for years often have to wait for pharmacists to reach their doctors before dispensing prescriptions — and suffer withdrawal symptoms while they wait, she said.

Rep. Jim Dunnigan, R-Taylorsville, asked what could cause that delay.

Senate Majority Leader Evan Vickers, R-Cedar City, himself a pharmacist, explained that there’s a “disconnect” between decisions being made by health plans and pharmacy benefit managers that “aren’t necessarily medically based” but are instead often “financially based.“

Health insurance plans have taken the fight against the opioid crisis as “a hard, fast rule and they don’t allow a lot of leeway,” Vickers said.

Opioid patients prescribed high quantities of opiates need to be tapered off slowly to get long-term results, according to Vickers. But health plans often don’t allow for slower tapering.

“And that forces (the patients) into making choices that they probably normally wouldn’t make,” including finding drug sources on the streets, Vickers said.

Sen. Allen Christensen, R-North Ogden, noted that the opioid issue has been “beat to death.” But opioids are “miracle drugs,” he said.

“We have to move the pendulum back and forth a little bit. … We have to regulate it, but don’t overreact with it. … We’re trying to find that healthy medium in the middle,” he said.

Coombs said patients have also suffered because doctors have been incentivized to taper patients off opioids and de-incentivized to treat pain patients with opioids.

She urged the task force to work on creating a palliative care definition or exemption to help those who need opioids long term receive them. She also encouraged creating “bridge” opportunities for patients to receive supplies of two to four days so as not to suffer withdrawals while doctors and pharmacists work out issues such as authorization.

Several of the legislators agreed that Coombs brought up a real problem, but a potential course of action was not discussed in the meeting.

“I think it’s a problem. You have to find someone who thinks it’s enough of a problem to try and do something about it,” Christensen said, quipping that “a pharmacist” legislator would be a good person to tackle it.

Rep. Suzanne Harrison, D-Draper, said, “I think this raises the issue of: We need to make sure that we’re providing evidence-based care and enough access to those care providers who have the qualifications.”

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