DEA Partners With Pharmacists To Combat National Heroin Epidemic
http://wesa.fm/post/dea-partners-pharmacists-combat-national-heroin-epidemic
They continue to use the 120 deaths a day… ADMIT half are from opiates.. but don’t admit that the other HALF is from OTC meds … like Tylenol !! They also state that 80% become addicted to prescription opiates… but.. don’t say if they were legally prescribed, stolen, purchased on the street.
As drug and law enforcement agencies find a growing link between prescription pain killers and heroin use, they’re trying to attack the problem of abuse and overdose from multiple sides.
Among their allies are those doling out prescription medication: pharmacists. A little more than 200 southwestern Pennsylvania pharmacists are in Pittsburgh through Friday for a conference hosted by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.
“Eight out of 10 new heroin users in this country say they’ve used heroin after becoming addicted to prescription opioids,” said Gary Tuggle, special agent in charge with the DEA Philadelphia division. “These opioids are highly addictive. About 120 a day are dying from overdoses. Half of those, more than half of those, are dying from the misuse and abuse of prescription opioids.”
Opioid addiction is leading to an uptick in heroin users and has spread the addiction to people in all socio-economic, age and ethnic groups. That’s because heroin is less expensive than prescription opioids, he said. For someone who is addicted and can’t get a prescription, a 30-mg tablet of Oxycontin would run about $30 on the street, according to Tuggle. A bag of heroin runs between $5 and $10, which consists of one-tenth of a gram.
So where do pharmacists come in?
“They are oftentimes the first line of defense with it comes to identifying folks who are doctor shopping or practitioners who are running pill mills,” said Tuggle.
“Doctor shopping,” meaning addicts and people who want to sell medications illegally visit more than one physician looking for multiple prescriptions. Another issue is theft of pharmaceuticals.
Conference speakers have emphasized pharmacists’ responsibility to ensure secure inventory and vigilance when verifying prescriptions are legitimate, as there has been an increase in forged prescriptions nationwide, according to Tuggle.
The conference is part of the DEA’s 360 Strategy, an effort to stop the cycle of prescription opioid and heroin abuse by going after drug trafficking organizations and partnering with social service organizations and health care professionals. In November, the agency announced that Pittsburgh would be the first pilot city to implement the plan.
“It is an epidemic, and we’re losing 120 a day,” Tuggle said. “If we were in a war zone, those (numbers) would be considered mass casualties.”
Filed under: General Problems
Counterfeit prescriptions are another reason that a national medical database would be helpful. If a prescription is written in a doctor’s office, a electronic confirmation would automatically be sent to the patients pharmacy.
Further more, it’s real easy for the DEA to put these numbers out there for court of public opinion. How many of these people were patients at one time that are now denied needed medications?
How many of these admitted addicts illegally obtained pain medication either by stealing it from someone or by purchasing it on the streets?
How did these people really become addicted to opioids?
Were they prescribed at one time or another?
Was the addicts first experience with opiates peer pressure?
Did their use start as a quest for fun?
We’re the opioid abusers already addicted to something else?
How many of the victims of overdoses were chronic pain sufferers or terminal patients who committed suicide?
It’s questions like these that need to be asked before a judgment can be made. You can’t just blame modern prescription pain medications for an addiction problem of a drug that’s been around since before recorded history. This mindless which hunt is almost the same thing as when the AIDS epidemic was blamed on the homosexual community alone, and we all know how that played out.
The DEA and other government agencies are targeting a very small factor in what is a much bigger problem. It’s like firing a BB gun at a M1 Abrings tank, you can fire all your BB’s at it but watch out when it fires back at you. In other words, the small amount of legal drugs you remove from the streets the more illegal drugs like heroin will explode on to the streets.
Alcohol causes 205 deaths per day…. should my corresponding responsibility at counter be to check LDMP, Oh wait, that doesn’t exist because it’s no one’s business how much one drinks.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/6089353/ns/health-addictions/t/alcohol-linked-us-deaths-year/
And Tobacco/Nicotine kills 450,000/yr
I wouldn’t trust 1 word out of the DEAs mouth they have an agenda and it doesn’t include helping pain patients. Wake up america government doesn’t work for you!