oxycodone death are rising in south florida……write between 500 to 600 keywords per post, when possible include images…
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New York City and opioid prescription numbers .
NY REGIONMay 1, 2012, 10:38 p.m. ET.Few Doctors Prescribing Most Opioids
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BY MICHAEL HOWARD SAUL Roughly 8,000 New York City health-care providers—mostly doctors representing about 15% of the city’s drug prescription provider network—wrote more than 80% of all prescriptions for opioid painkillers in 2010, new data from Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration to be released Wednesday shows.
According to the data, 31% of the opioid prescriptions in the city that year were written by about 530 health-care providers, or 1% of those who prescribe such drugs. Among these prescribers, oxycodone prescriptions skyrocketed 86% between 2008 and 2010.
During the past 20 years there has been a ten-fold increase in the use of prescription opioids, commonly known …
BY MICHAEL HOWARD SAUL
Roughly 8,000 New York City health-care providers—mostly doctors representing about 15% of the city’s drug prescription provider network—wrote more than 80% of all prescriptions for opioid painkillers in 2010, new data from Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration to be released Wednesday shows.
According to the data, 31% of the opioid prescriptions in the city that year were written by about 530 health-care providers, or 1% of those who prescribe such drugs. Among these prescribers, oxycodone prescriptions skyrocketed 86% between 2008 and 2010.
During the past 20 years there has been a ten-fold increase in the use of prescription opioids, commonly known …
More on newborn addiction.
Number of Drug-addicted Newborns Soars
May 2, 2012
Sonja Isger
The past decade has seen a threefold increase in the number of babies born addicted to painkillers, a study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association revealed.
The study has more alarming news, specific to Florida, as the state tries to shed its reputation as the country’s pill mill capital: the number of addicted babies in the state has increased 500 percent in six years.
The condition is called neonatal abstinence syndrome, or NAS. Babies born with it are often underweight, difficult to feed, suffer tremors or seizures and are exceedingly sensitive to light and touch.
They became addicted in the womb to opiates from prescription oxycodone to heroin through their mothers’ drug use . Birth is the equivalent of going cold turkey.
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said she thought she was on her way to ridding Florida of its “Oxy Express” moniker and all the baggage that went with it when the legislature passed laws that cracked down on the state’s pill mills.
Then she got a call from a nurse in Tampa.
“You think you have one problem tackled and literally my phone rang and it was a nurse from St. Joseph’s Women’s Hospital,” Bondi recalled. “She said, ‘There’s another problem you need to know about.’”
“St. Joseph’s had to expand its neonatal unit just to accommodate these babies,” Bondi said. Hospital officials there say on any given day up to 20 percent of the babies in the unit suffer from neonatal abstinence syndrome. Most of their mothers are hooked on prescription opiates.
In a state where opiate pain reliever-related deaths outnumber deaths involving illicit drugs by 4-to-1, it’s not surprising that more babies are hooked on the prescription pills.
University of Michigan researchers noted that in 2005, Florida’s agency in charge of Medicaid reported 258 newborns suffering drug withdrawal. In 2010, that number hit 1,374.
“Once you see one of these babies it changes your life,” Bondi said. “Their incubators have to be covered in blankets because they’re so sensitive to the light. Instead of milk, they’re getting morphine or methadone” that they must then be weaned from.
The opiate-addicted babies have moved into hospital neonatal intensive-care units. A decade ago, these NICUs were caring for babies born addicted to cocaine, said Dr. Janet Wingkun, medical director of the NICU at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach.
The problem seems to be more dire on Florida’s west coast, where, for example, All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg reported that 30 percent of its NICU babies are suffering from NAS. One or two a month are delivered at St. Mary’s, Wingkun estimates.
The study published this week used data from 2009 that covered 7.4 million discharges from 4,121 hospitals in 44 states.
It noted the increase in babies born addicted — from 1.2 of every 1,000 in 2000 to 3.39 of every 1,000 in 2009. That’s 13,539 babies a year, or about one infant born every hour, the study’s lead author, Stephen Patrick, told USA Today.
The study also found a five-fold increase in mothers diagnosed as dependent on or using opiates at the time of delivery. Not all drug-using mothers deliver babies who are also hooked.
Babies averaged hospital stays of 16 days while being treated and weaned off the drugs, the study reported. Researchers determined the median cost of those stays was $53,400. About 60 percent of mothers with NAS babies were on Medicaid.
The report was released a week after Bondi convened the first meeting of Florida’s Statewide Task Force on Prescription Drug Abuse and Newborns, which includes lawmakers plus doctors and nurses who work with the mothers and babies.
“I’m so pleased the study was released because this validates what we’ve been saying. This is a horrible, horrible problem and there are so many unknowns,” Bondi said.
State Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, who is on the task force, says he wonders how this happened, how big the problem is, and what are the best ways to staunch the growing numbers.
Negron and Bondi both said they want to help mothers rather than arrest them.
“The last thing we need to do is lock up mothers with drug problems,” Negron said.
Source: (c)2012 The Palm Beach Post (West Palm Beach, Fla.)
Video on the prescription pills abuse please watch.
Watch the three (3) videos on the right center of the page’s main video–watch it too:
1. Abuse of prescription pain killers reaches “epidemic” levels
2. Should doctors be charged in overdose deaths?
3. Pain killer 10 times stronger than Vicodin in the works
THURSDAY, April 5, 2012 — Prescription pain medications like Vicodin and OxyContin are among the top-selling drugs in the United States, but an alarming new report finds an uptick in sales in certain parts of the country — and experts are concerned.
The Associated Press reviewed drug shipment data from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and combined it with census figures to determine sales per person. Their analysis found that oxycodone (found in OxyContin and Percocet, among others) distribution is up by as much as sixteenfold in areas of the country that hadn’t seen a problem previously — including the New York City borough of Staten Island, parts of New Mexico, and Modesto, California. Sales of hydrocodone (found in Vicodin, Lortab, and others) are up in Appalachia, the previous focus of the painkiller abuse epidemic. But they’ve also risen in states like Minnesota, Wisconsin, and South Dakota.
Perhaps the most arresting part of the AP’s report: In 2010, pharmacies dispensed enough oxycodone and hydrocodone to give every American 45 Percocets and 24 Vicodins (at a dose of 5 milligrams per pill).
News on shift from pill mills to pharmacies.
As “Pill Mills” Close in Florida, Demand Shifts to Pharmacies
By Join Together Staff | March 8, 2012 | Leave a comment | Filed in Community Related, Healthcare, Legal & Prescription Drugs
As Florida gains success with shutting down “pill mills,” demand for prescription painkillers is shifting to retail pharmacies, The Wall Street Journal reports.
In February, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced sales of oxycodone fell 20 percent last year in Florida. Officials said the drop was mainly due to the closure of some of the state’s biggest pill mills and the arrest of some of the clinics’ operators and doctors. Florida pharmacies and doctors sold about 498 million doses of oxycodone in 2011, compared with a record 622 million doses the previous year.
With the decrease in pill mills, retail pharmacies say they have an influx of customers who used to rely on pain clinics to obtain oxycodone and other prescription opioids, according to the newspaper. Pharmacists must determine whether prescriptions are fake or unnecessary, without any uniform guidelines on how to evaluate them. CVS has revised guidelines for dispensing pain medications, providing tips to pharmacists about when they should be suspicious, the article notes.
In June 2011, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed into law a bill designed to cut down on prescription drug abuse by controlling pill mills in the state. The law authorized the creation of a prescription-drug monitoring database to reduce doctor-shopping by people looking to collect multiple painkiller prescriptions. The legislation also imposed new penalties for physicians who overprescribe medication and imposed stricter rules for operating pharmacies.
Mark Perez of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said officials are looking into whether dishonest operators are responsible for the surge in applications for new pharmacies. He adds that a growing number of businesses billed as weight-loss centers or wellness clinics are prescribing painkillers. “The drug trade is a for-profit industry, so they’ll look at other areas they can take advantage of,” he said.
More on OXY war here
In Brevard County, oxycodone killed 243 people from 2006 to 2010, according to Brevard County Medical Examiner’s Office records. The drug was responsible for 77 deaths in 2010, the last year in which complete data has been compiled. That’s triple the death toll from 2006, when 24 deaths were attributed to the painkiller. Moreover, records show oxycodone was present in the bodies of hundreds more people who died, though it was not listed as the primary cause of their deaths.
Lead medical examiner’s investigator Craig Engelson said that when he goes out on a call to investigate a death not involving a shooting, stabbing or vehicle crash, prescription painkillers like oxycodone — also known by the brand name OxyContin — often are involved.
“You can almost guess when you go to the scene” that oxycodone was a factor, he said.
Oxycodone is a valuable drug when used properly, medical experts say, offering relief to people with chronic pain who aren’t helped by other medicines.
But when abused, it grips addicts in a vise they say is almost impossible to loosen. And the drug’s hold causes a cascade of other problems across the community.
Oxycodone is linked to countless crimes, authorities say, as addicts try to steal the pills directly from pharmacies or turn to theft to get money to buy the drug on the black market.
The problem cuts across all social and economic strata, experts say. In Brevard, senior citizens have died of overdoses, as well as those not old enough to legally buy a beer. Among those who have been hooked by the drug are high school dropouts and successful professionals. Last year, a surveillance tape showed a West Melbourne police officer swiping pain pills from the department’s evidence locker.
(Page 2 of 4)
“There is no boundary where it is not there. It’s everywhere,” said Brevard County Sheriff’s Lt. Alex Herrera, who heads the Sheriff’s Office Cape Canaveral Precinct, and has been in the homicide and the Special Investigations Unit that specializes in narcotics cases. “We’re not talking about a plant that is grown in Colombia. It’s so readily available that it is tough to get a grip on. It’s a main focus of the Special Investigations Unit. You can go into any high-income or low-income community, and have addicts or sellers live there. This has really become an epidemic.”
Crime connections
Herrera said law enforcement agencies can do special sweeps aimed at the prescription drug trade, but still not shut down sales entirely.
“It’s like gremlins. You can’t get rid of them,” Herrera said, which is why police agencies have included prescription medications to the list of drug dangers they try to educate school kids about.
The economics of oxycodone makes it attractive for drug dealers. A prescription retails at a pharmacy for the equivalent a few dollars per pill. But the pills can be sold on the street for up to $80 apiece, depending on dosage in the pill, Herrera said.
Even at half that much, “The profit is immense,” Herrera said. “When you can take a pill bottle, and turn the 80 pills to $500, it’s alluring.”
Typically, Herrera said, someone with a real or fake X-ray of an injury walks into several disreputable pain-management clinics that have become prevalent across Florida. The person pays a fee for the office visit in cash, gets prescriptions for oxycodone or similar pain drugs, and picks up the medicine at pharmacies.
Risk of death
Sometimes, a legitimate injury leads to addiction.
“It starts out innocently enough, as they hurt their back, and got a prescription for a pain medication,” Engelson said. “And they wind up here” on the autopsy table at the medical examiner’s office.
He said 95 percent of the oxycodone deaths he sees are accidental, rather than intentional overdoses resulting in suicide.
(Page 3 of 4)
Engelson said many painkiller abusers find that to get the same impact or euphoria, “They have to take more and more and more, crushing and snorting it,” rather than swallowing it. Some also inject the drug like heroin.
“It’s a quicker, faster high,” Lt. Herrera said.
Brevard County Health Department Director Dr. Heidar Heshmati said, when prescribed and used properly, oxycodone “is an excellent medication for pain. There are so many patients that have chronic pain.”
The problem, he said, is when the drug is abused, particular in combination with other drugs such as an anti-anxiety drug like Xanax and a muscle relaxer like Soma, or in combination with alcohol.
“The body cannot tolerate the combination,” Heshmati said.
Unfair portrayal
Paul Sloan, president of the Florida Society of Pain Management Providers, said he believes pain doctors are being unfairly portrayed by those looking to restrict the sale and use of legitimate medicines.
Sloan said oxycodone is “a very strong medication that can have serious consequences if not taken as prescribed.” He said the 99 percent of people who properly take the drug should not be punished by restricted availability because of the 1 percent who abuse it.
“This is now a war on legitimate pain patients, and it’s just nuts,” Sloan said.
Sloan, whose Venice, Fla.-based organization represents about 100 pain management practices in Florida, said he supports new state regulations providing more oversight of pain clincs.
He believes the new rules helped shut down many so-called “pill mills” that were improperly prescribing pain medications to patients who didn’t need them. He said there were roughly 50 “big players” in Florida, mainly in big cities, abusing the system.
“It’s wrong to use your script pad to make money,” Sloan said.
Sloan also has issues with data from medical examiner’s offices in Florida showing a dramatic rise in oxycodone deaths. Sloan said “everybody has a different standard” in determining cause of death, and the presence of oxycodene in a deceased person does not necessarily mean that was a contributing factor.
(Page 4 of 4)
“I think the medical examiners are misleading the public,” Sloan said. “I think this is bogus and junk science. This has become a true witch hunt.”
‘Oxy comes first’ from FloridaToday.com shortened:
Sims, who has been a registered nurse in various capacities for 15 years, doesn’t believe oxycodone should be prescribed at all. Her kids got hooked after one son was prescribed oxycodone because of injuries from a car crash. He shared the pills with his brother and sister.
Sims hopes to prompt a crusade to outlaw the drug after seeing what it’s done to her children and their friends.
Over the years, her children stole cash from her to buy drugs. They’ve taken computers, DVD players, furniture and jewelry from her, selling the stuff for drug money or trading it for drugs. Once, she had to go to a drug dealer’s home to buy back her own laptop. The children used life insurance payouts after their father died to finance their drug habits, and her son hurt in the car crash spent much of that insurance settlement to buy pills.
“The drugs mean more than eating or anything to them,” Sims said. “The drugs just twist their brain so badly. The oxy comes first and everything else comes afterward.”
All three have long criminal records, Sims said.
“My three kids all told me they don’t want this life,” Sims said. “They try and they try and they try” to kick the habit, “but they fail every time.”
A few months ago, Sims got a tattoo on her right calf. “Each day’s a gift, not a given right.” The phrase alludes to the fleeting time she and her children could have together.
Sharp drop of oxycodone sales is not enough.
Florida pharmacies and doctors sold about 498 million doses of oxycodone last year, down from a record 622 million in 2010.
Oxycodone purchases fell more after the July 1 start of a state law that banned pain clinics and doctors from selling addictive drugs and toughened the penalties against those who overprescribe.
At the same time, the DEA pressured pharmaceutical distributors to stop selling to suspicious, high-volume pain clinics that were operating in South Florida, and later Central Florida and Tampa Bay.
Figures from the state Department of Heath showed 570 active pain clinics in the state last week – down from more than 1,300 in 2010. Broward had 73 and Palm Beach 40, less than half earlier totals.
South Florida pill mill experts said it’s too early to declare victory. Oxycodone is still the leading cause of overdose deaths in the state, and some of the addicts and dealers may simply be switching to other drugs, such as hydrocodone, said Jim Hall, director of the Center for the Study & Prevention of Substance Abuse at Nova Southeastern University in Davie.
The DEA has not detected any major switch, Melenkevitz said.
Said Hall, “We still [are not] dealing with the addiction, dealing with drug treatment and trying to save lives.”
A group for South Florida parents of overdose victims, Stop the Organized Pill Pushers, still finds pain clinics to picket every month – though some of its past targets have shut down, co-founder Janet Colbert said. She criticized the DEA for allowing drug companies to manufacture 10 times as much oxycodone as they did 15 years ago.
“No one is biting that bullet,” Colbert said.
whole story from Sun Sentinel is here :http://www.sun-sentinel.com/health/os-dea-florida-oxycodone-decrease-20120131-10,0,6719156.story .
Stop The Organized Pills Pushers http://www.stoppnow.com/aboutus.html is the offical site here.
Annual Prescription Drug Abuse Task Force Report
Attached you find facts and information regarding the prescription abuse epidemic in the US and Florida:
In October 2011 the Drug Enforcement Administration on Friday announced the formation of a new squad created to solely investigate the illegal use and distribution of prescription drugs in Central Florida. That squad is investigating rogue doctors and pharmacies, and details of their first probe — involving a Winter Park pharmacy — was one of several cases statewide announced by the nation’s top law-enforcers. In this context it is of concern in June 2011, DEA received 263 applications for new pharmacy licenses nationwide. Of those, 139 were from Florida. That means that the drug dealers in white coat referring their “patients” to “friendly” pharmacies to fill their prescriptions for controlled substances. Most of these clinics are probably owned by the same business people who run pain clinics.
About 170,000 Medicare patients sought prescriptions for frequently abused drugs from five or more physicians and other health professionals in 2008, a Government Accountability Office analysis of claims data found. The Oct. 4 report accused 1.8% of the Part D beneficiary population of doctor shopping for one or more of 14 abused drugs, such as painkillers hydrocodone and oxycodone. Spending on the drugs cost the program $148 million, representing 5% of the total spent on these drugs in 2008. Some examples quoted in the report include: One Georgia patient obtained prescriptions for a 1,679-day supply of oxycodone pills from 58 prescribers, the GAO said. A physician treating the patient recalled her asking for early refills of the painkiller repeatedly; A patient in California received prescriptions for fentanyl from 21 prescribers’ in 2008. The patient’s physician later received a letter from the state prescription drug-monitoring program informing her that within a four-month period the patient had 33 prescriptions from 10 prescribers. The physician then notified the patient that she would no longer treat the patient. The best way to prevent doctor shopping is through state prescription drug-monitoring programs. Each of us by now should have access to E-FORCSE, Florida’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, and use it to look up each and every patient who is being prescribed a controlled substance.
The House of Representatives voted on 12.08. 2011 to ban synthetic drugs nicknamed “bath salts” and other compounds that mimic marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamines (http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/12/08/2537445/house-votes-to-ban-synthetic-drugs.html#ixzz1gZAWX7YG). Rep Charlie Dent, R-Pa., said his legislation identifies chemical compounds that affect the brain in ways similar to THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. They would be added to the highly restrictive Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act.
The bill also bans chemical compounds in synthetic drugs marketed as “bath salts” or “plant food” and under brand names such as K2 and Spice that have been used as substitutes for cocaine and other narcotics. They are now sold legally in some states. The vote was 317-98, with some Democrats saying the bill went too far in restricting chemicals that could be valuable to researchers looking for cures to diseases such as Parkinson’s disease. When a drug is placed on Schedule I, said California Democrat Zoe Lofgren, “It becomes difficult to obtain not only for illegal purposes but for researchers who wish to study its pharmaceutical and medical potential.
A Miami Herald editorial titled “Dangerous prescription” the Miami Herald called for a federal law banning the online sale of narcotics. Such a legislation must be enforced through a strong, combined effort. Authorities along with domain registering websites, social media networks and credit card companies need to be alert to spot online pill mills and report suspicious activity involving illegal, counterfeit and dangerous products. We should strongly support such efforts because questionable online pharmacies skillfully abuse loopholes to provide anyone with controlled substance of their choice provided they can pay. Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/12/09/2539336/dangerous-prescription.html#ixzz1gZByFnoW
New York Mayor Bloomberg to address “blues” problem in the City.
Just come up on the 13th of December article that city officials are finally starting to clamp down on the prescription drugs problem had a father of a being detoxed from oxys call me from MA the other morning,have to refer since still have no license…
New York Mayor Launches Prescription Drug Abuse Task Force
By Join Together Staff | December 13, 2011 | Leave a comment | Filed in Community Related, Drugs, Government, Prescription Drugs & Prevention
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is launching a task force to fight the growing prescription drug abuse epidemic in the city, after officials identified 21 pharmacies that account for about one-fourth of the city’s oxycodone Medicaid reimbursements.
During the past 20 years, New York City has experienced a 10-fold jump in the use of prescription opioids, The Wall Street Journal reports. The number of opioid-related emergency rooms visits jumped 40 percent between 2004 and 2009. “These drugs are being used to do more than just kill pain,” Bloomberg said in a statement to the newspaper. “They are being misprescribed and misused, resulting in addiction and overdoses.”
The task force will include health and law-enforcement officials. The group’s first round of recommendations is expected in January.
The city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will release guidelines for physicians on how to prescribe opioids safely, according to the article. The guidelines recommend that for most patients with acute pain, a three-day supply of opioids is enough, even though doctors regularly prescribe much more.
Save Our Society
I am writing to commend your efforts to curb prescription drug abuse and encourage you to pass a proposed amendment to the pain management ordinance.
Florida has redefined pain management and not in a good way. Until recently, the laws allowed pill mills to attract patients by offering free gas cards and two-for-one or half price prescription specials. The law allowed clinics to be owned by investors rather than doctors, and physicians who were disciplined for over prescribing were allowed to maintain their employment. This sounds more like drug dealing than pain management. Florida legislators agreed, and passed a bill that will help regulate pain clinics and shut down ones that operate outside the law.
Unfortunately, criminal doctors and clinics looking to take advantage of med seeking patients, have discovered and taken advantage of loopholes in the state law.
The current proposed amendment will help close these loopholes by requiring any doctor who writes more than 34 prescriptions a day for narcotics to register with the county and follow basic operating standards.
The new amendment will also provide financial incentives to doctors and clinic owners who demonstrate they are utilizing the following programs and strategies in their offices:
a. Educational programs designed to help patients recognize the signs of addiction.
b. Tools to evaluate patients for addictive tendencies.
c. Consistent utilization of PDMP.
d. Determination of pregnancy with female patients prior to prescribing narcotics.
According to the 2010 Florida Medical Examiners Commission Report on Drugs Identified in Deceased Persons, Pinellas County ranks number one in six categories where prescription drugs were the cause of death. The report indicates that District 6 (Pinellas and Pasco) tops the list where Oxycodone, Alprazolam, Methadone, Diazepam, Hydrocodone and Morphine were identified as the cause of death. Overall, prescription drugs were the cause of death for 2,710 Floridians, an 8.9% increase from 2009.
It is imperative that we do everything in our power to change this devastating reality! Please vote to pass the proposed amendments to the pain management ordinance. Let’s make Pinellas County an example of how to successfully curb prescription drug diversion and abuses.
Please visit www.Saveoursociety.org and fill out the same letter to bring the law in effect immediately!
Sincerely,
Andrey Rossin
561-336-2162