Alternative Pain Treatment Cuts Down OxyContin Abuse
Four out of ten Americans use alternative medicine and therapy – including natural products and breathing exercises – a figure that plays predominantly in any hope that America has to reduce its population’s dependence on prescriptions to deal with pain.
While doctors prescribe painkillers to help their patients overcome often unbearable symptoms, the “cure” is often worse than the disease. Prolonged use of OxyContin and other painkillers leads to addiction. And as any Oxy addict will tell you, addiction can be far worse than the pain that they started with.
Many people who are seeking natural solutions for pain are on the right track to prevent themselves from developing a serious problem.
OxyContin rehabs are often hard pressed to deal with the problem. For many addicts, Oxy is as hard to kick as heroin. There is a reason for this: Oxy is an opioid – meaning that it mimics opiates such as morphine, heroin, and methadone. And many OxyContin abusers finally turn to heroin when their budgets can no longer support their prescription drug habit.
For Oxy rehabs to be effective, they have to take the problem of prescription drug abuse seriously. The truth is that the potency of modern prescription drugs can make them harder to quit than their street drug counterparts. Rehabs that treat both the physical and mental sides to addiction have the best chance to help an OxyContin addict to recover.
It’s a common story: from a single painkiller prescription to addict for life. That story doesn’t have to be the tale of your loved one. Intervention is possible. If you need help to save your loved one’s life, call our hotline at 1-877-340-3602. Our Oxycontin drug rehab has successfully gotten some of the toughest cases back on track and sober for life.
You may have been dealing this situation for years. It may have come to a head many times already. With the right help, you can succeed to finally bring your loved one back to sobriety. OxyContin abuse does not have to be a fact of life.
Maine Family Busted Running OxyContin Sales Ring
A family drug ring in Belfast, Maine was recently broken up by local authorities after a six-month long investigation of prescription drug trafficking.
Police stated that the drug selling group, which consisted of six people including a Maine resident and his three adult sons, pawned off OxyContin, Adderrall, and morphine.
The apparent ringleader, David Pattershall (64 years old) faces ten years in prison and fines up to $20,000.
The abuse of OxyContin and other opioids continues to be a problem as more and more people become hooked to this highly addictive substance either through drug dealers or more legitimate means. There are reports of many Maine residents getting hooked to the painkillers from a prescription and then not being able to quit them.
Unfortunately, abuse of OxyContin leads to addiction to other, harder drugs. For example, many heroin users were first introduced to the drug after seeking a similar, cheaper high to OxyContin.
Opioids such as OxyContin are prescribed for their powerful painkilling properties. Abused, they produce a high not too different from heroin. Prescription drug abuse is on a sharp rise in America. Only marijuana is more frequently abused. The common misconception is that prescription drugs such as OxyContin are safer than street drugs because they come from a doctor or pharmacy. In truth, no drug is safe unless it’s used exactly as prescribed by the person it’s prescribed to. As a matter of fact, there are many street drugs that had their origins in the pharmacy.
Obama administration wants tougher OxyContin prescription regulations
According to an article appearing in the New York Times, if the Obama administration has its way, then doctors will need to receive special training before they’re allowed to prescribe OxyContin and other powerful painkiller opioids. This measure is the most aggressive of all actions suggested thus far in an effort to curb broadscale painkiller abuse and addiction in the United States.
The doctors need the training in order to help them identify potential prescription abusers who are merely faking pain in order to get the pills. While many people (particularly those with pharmaceutical industry ties) raise objections to these proposed regulations, it can’t be denied that careless prescriptions are at least partially at the root of the current prescription drug abuse epidemic.
If doctors have to undergo training before they can prescribe these highly addictive substances, then maybe they’ll think twice before issuing a prescription to a dubious client. Of course, other laws and regulations need to go in place as well to back this up – such as a shared medical record database that prevents patients from “doctor-shopping” until they find a doctor careless enough (or corrupt enough) to give them an unwarranted prescription.
OxyContin has become the gateway drug a heroin. An opioid (which means it mimics opiates in its effects), it has come to be abused on the streets much in the same way heroin is abused. But since heroin is much cheaper than OxyContin, many OxyContin users who have developed a tolerance to the drug turn to heroin for a cheaper high.
The Difference Between Prescription Drugs and Street Drugs
The difference between prescription drugs and street drugs is that prescription drugs are given by prescription from a doctor whereas street drugs are sold by dealers on the streets.
There is no real difference, fundamentally, between the drugs falling under these two labels. Actually, there is a blending even across that line, because drugs that you’re only supposed to be able to obtain with a prescription are still available from drug dealers, and drugs that commonly sold on the street are often available as well by prescription, depending on what state that you live in.
Every drug is different in terms of its properties, its potency and its psychoactive effects. Any drug can be abused. Any drug can cause overdose and death. Almost any psychoactive drug can result in addiction and dependency.
Most drugs, whether they’re prescription drugs or street drugs, if they have a mental effect, will cause withdrawal. No drug is safe unless used in the exact dosage prescribed by a doctor by the exact person it was prescribed to.
Prescription drug abuse is a widespread epidemic, just like street drug abuse. Many street drugs were originally prescription medications. MDMA, also known as ecstasy, was developed by the pharmaceutical company Merck. Heroin was developed by Bayer. Valium and morphine and LSD, as well as cocaine, were all promoted by the medical community at one time or another.
You could say that prescription drugs follow the pattern of being advertised as a wonder drug, and then harming too many people, and then being banned and only available from drug dealers.
A cynic could say that pharmacies sell the new drugs and that drug dealers sell the “old hat” drugs. There are many medications that do help people. The potential for abuse, however, can’t be overlooked.
OxyContin and Other Prescription Drug Abuse in Florida
Florida has received national scrutiny recently about its laws designed to prevent prescription drug abuse.
Florida has some of the most lax laws in the United States with regards to the operation of “pill mills”. In a “pill mill”, an unscrupulous pharmacist fills prescriptions in such a way that drug dealers can purchase massive quantities of prescription drugs and then smuggle them across the border.
They do this using dubious prescriptions that are obviously being faked or forged for the purpose of drug abuse. Pill mills are so prevalent in Florida, centered particularly around the Miami, Orlando and Tampa Bay areas, that governors from other states have requested that Florida’s governor and legislature do something effective now to end the abuse.
Federal authorities report that the source point of much illegal prescription drug trafficking in the U.S. is Florida.
Prescription drug abuse is one of the fastest growing types of substance abuse. Part of the reason for this is that prescription drugs such as OxyContin are so broadly available. What is more, popular public misconception that prescription drugs are somehow safe even when abused contributes to both youth and adult consumption of prescription drugs to get high.
The prescription drug abuse problem is not just in Florida. Drug abuse rehabs that focus on prescription drug abuse are cropping up in Florida and in other states.