Max
10-07-2001, 11:14 AM
Black market abuse cuts access to painkiller
Patients have difficulty getting drug because of its misuse as narcotic
http://detnews.com/2001/health/0110/04/a14-310071.htm
By Charley Gillespie / Associated Press
State restrictions
Several states have tightened control over OxyContin, according to the
National Conference of State Legislatures.
* Vermont won't pay for the drug unless patients have terminal cancer or
sickle cell anemia.
* South Carolina has the same restrictions, but it will pay for the drug
for AIDS patients.
* Michigan, Alabama, Florida, Maine, Mississippi, North Carolina and West
Virginia restrict the amount of OxyContin a patient on Medicaid can receive
in a month without approval.
* Louisiana and Virginia adopted resolutions to study the use and abuse
of OxyContin.
* Massachusetts and Kentucky have legislation pending that would restrict
distribution of the drug.
Comment on this story
Send this story to a friend
Get Home Delivery
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Sally Royster cried when her orthopedic surgeon said he
would no longer prescribe OxyContin for the chronic back pain that leaves
her unable to walk. She was told prescriptions for the drug were under too
much scrutiny.
Sheila Lambert sent the medical history of her degenerative spinal
disease to 25 doctors and phoned 100 others but all said they weren't taking
new patients or didn't take pain patients.
"If they hear you have been on OxyContin they treat you like an addict,"
said Lambert of Jonesville, Va.
Across the country, chronic pain sufferers like Royster, 50, and Lambert,
41, are finding it increasingly difficult to get the powerful prescription
painkiller, dubbed "Hillbilly Heroin" because of its burgeoning abuse as a
narcotic in Appalachia.
They say that abuse -- and the response to it by lawmakers and law
enforcers -- has made doctors increasingly unwilling to provide the drug,
even to the cancer patients and chronic pain sufferers who need it.
Royster searched seven months before she found a specialist in late
September near her Cincinnati-area home that would prescribe OxyContin.
Until then, her primary care physician agreed to prescribe the drug, but
only on an interim basis, she said.
While most strong pain medicines last only about four hours, OxyContin
gives a steady 12-hour release and has fewer side effects. But to addicts
who chew the pill or crush it and snort or inject the powder, OxyContin
produces a quick, heroin-like high that can kill.
Since 1998, OxyContin and oxycodone, the narcotic's active ingredient,
have been linked to more than 100 deaths nationwide.
The drug's maker, Purdue Pharma, pulled its strongest dosage off the
market in May and issued tamperproof prescription pads. But pharmacies are
still being robbed for OxyContin and the drug is still being abused. One
pharmacy in St. Albans, Vt., stopped stocking the painkiller after thieves
broke in four times this summer looking for OxyContin.
"The problem is not with the drug ... it is with our society," said Dr.
Gladstone McDowell, director of the Grant Pain Management Center in
Columbus.
He agrees that there are people who try to con OxyContin, but he said
doctors who properly document their work shouldn't have to worry. Still, he
sees fewer doctors willing to write OxyContin prescriptions and says those
who do often have waiting lists.
Police and prosecutors across the country have also been cracking down on
OxyContin abuse: A Virginia man was convicted of murder last month for
selling OxyContin to a friend who later died; a Florida doctor was charged
in July with murder and drug trafficking after four of his patients died
from overdoses.
Purdue Pharma spokesman James Heins said the states' restrictions on
OxyContin and their targeting of Medicaid recipients are unfair. The company
is working on a new version of OxyContin that would be harder to abuse but
it will take time to produce.
"Anything that restricts a patient's access to what their physician feels
is the appropriate amount or level of treatment has the potential to
interfere with medical care," Heins said.
But in areas where abuse is prevalent, some doctors say they worry that
even patients who need the drug might be selling the pills for money.
"We had a 92-year-old lady that legitimately needed these drugs but there
was none in her system because she was selling them," said Dr. Fred Evans of
Lawrenceville, N.J., a founding board member of the American Pain Society.
__________________________________________________ __
Maksim (Max) Bily
mail to : imax@odyssee.net
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------
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research info on Web
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Patients have difficulty getting drug because of its misuse as narcotic
http://detnews.com/2001/health/0110/04/a14-310071.htm
By Charley Gillespie / Associated Press
State restrictions
Several states have tightened control over OxyContin, according to the
National Conference of State Legislatures.
* Vermont won't pay for the drug unless patients have terminal cancer or
sickle cell anemia.
* South Carolina has the same restrictions, but it will pay for the drug
for AIDS patients.
* Michigan, Alabama, Florida, Maine, Mississippi, North Carolina and West
Virginia restrict the amount of OxyContin a patient on Medicaid can receive
in a month without approval.
* Louisiana and Virginia adopted resolutions to study the use and abuse
of OxyContin.
* Massachusetts and Kentucky have legislation pending that would restrict
distribution of the drug.
Comment on this story
Send this story to a friend
Get Home Delivery
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Sally Royster cried when her orthopedic surgeon said he
would no longer prescribe OxyContin for the chronic back pain that leaves
her unable to walk. She was told prescriptions for the drug were under too
much scrutiny.
Sheila Lambert sent the medical history of her degenerative spinal
disease to 25 doctors and phoned 100 others but all said they weren't taking
new patients or didn't take pain patients.
"If they hear you have been on OxyContin they treat you like an addict,"
said Lambert of Jonesville, Va.
Across the country, chronic pain sufferers like Royster, 50, and Lambert,
41, are finding it increasingly difficult to get the powerful prescription
painkiller, dubbed "Hillbilly Heroin" because of its burgeoning abuse as a
narcotic in Appalachia.
They say that abuse -- and the response to it by lawmakers and law
enforcers -- has made doctors increasingly unwilling to provide the drug,
even to the cancer patients and chronic pain sufferers who need it.
Royster searched seven months before she found a specialist in late
September near her Cincinnati-area home that would prescribe OxyContin.
Until then, her primary care physician agreed to prescribe the drug, but
only on an interim basis, she said.
While most strong pain medicines last only about four hours, OxyContin
gives a steady 12-hour release and has fewer side effects. But to addicts
who chew the pill or crush it and snort or inject the powder, OxyContin
produces a quick, heroin-like high that can kill.
Since 1998, OxyContin and oxycodone, the narcotic's active ingredient,
have been linked to more than 100 deaths nationwide.
The drug's maker, Purdue Pharma, pulled its strongest dosage off the
market in May and issued tamperproof prescription pads. But pharmacies are
still being robbed for OxyContin and the drug is still being abused. One
pharmacy in St. Albans, Vt., stopped stocking the painkiller after thieves
broke in four times this summer looking for OxyContin.
"The problem is not with the drug ... it is with our society," said Dr.
Gladstone McDowell, director of the Grant Pain Management Center in
Columbus.
He agrees that there are people who try to con OxyContin, but he said
doctors who properly document their work shouldn't have to worry. Still, he
sees fewer doctors willing to write OxyContin prescriptions and says those
who do often have waiting lists.
Police and prosecutors across the country have also been cracking down on
OxyContin abuse: A Virginia man was convicted of murder last month for
selling OxyContin to a friend who later died; a Florida doctor was charged
in July with murder and drug trafficking after four of his patients died
from overdoses.
Purdue Pharma spokesman James Heins said the states' restrictions on
OxyContin and their targeting of Medicaid recipients are unfair. The company
is working on a new version of OxyContin that would be harder to abuse but
it will take time to produce.
"Anything that restricts a patient's access to what their physician feels
is the appropriate amount or level of treatment has the potential to
interfere with medical care," Heins said.
But in areas where abuse is prevalent, some doctors say they worry that
even patients who need the drug might be selling the pills for money.
"We had a 92-year-old lady that legitimately needed these drugs but there
was none in her system because she was selling them," said Dr. Fred Evans of
Lawrenceville, N.J., a founding board member of the American Pain Society.
__________________________________________________ __
Maksim (Max) Bily
mail to : imax@odyssee.net
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------
Visit http://carecure.rutgers.edu/spinewire/index.html for best sci
research info on Web
www.thinkwave.com (http://www.thinkwave.com) -Where Teachers, Students and Parents Communicate
Play International Red Cross Lottery online
for weekly jackpot of 20.000.000 Swiss Franks tax free...
http://www.pluslotto.com/default.asp?urlref=3300003298889>
<A HREF="http://www.pluslotto.com/default.asp?urlref=3300003298889" TARGET=_blank>
http://www.lpics2.com/banners/A3.gif </A>