We can all breathe easier now.. the cure to the opioid epidemic has been found !

We know the cure to the opioid epidemic

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deborah-hersman/we-know-the-cure-to-the-o_b_9073208.html

Deborah Hersman is president and chief executive officer of the National Safety Council, an organization focused on saving lives and preventing injuries at work, in homes and communities and on the roads. Prior to joining the Council, Ms. Hersman served as chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. Among her many initiatives as chairman, Ms. Hersman focused attention and actions on distracted driving, child passenger safety and helping victims and their families.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah-hersman-6b821295

According to Ms Hersman’s LinkedIn profile.. she has ZERO experience in any medical field. Yet her post claims that  WE KNOW THE CURE TO THE OPIOID EPIDEMIC. How presumptuous with her background in TRANSPORTATION INDUSTRY.  IMO… another example of PSEUDO EXPERTS regurgitating what they have read from others who are in lockstep with the DEA/CDC/White House and the rest of the alphabet soup of various State/Federal agencies.

Like many others, Bill suffered lower back pain. He was prescribed hydrocodone and then methadone, and an overdose killed him at age 33.

Lance was prescribed opioids for a root canal, after which the Army veteran became addicted. He died in a Texas hotel room of an overdose at age 26.

Michael was prescribed hydrocodone for Crohn’s Disease when he was 18 and, after almost three years of escalating dosages, he took his own life with a shotgun after being unable to find a treatment program.

The stories of Bill, Lance, and Michael are horrifying ones, all of them beginning with a seemingly benign prescription from a doctor. The painful details of these tragedies reveal the depth of the problem. But the scope of the problem has been growing for decades as revealed in autopsies, mortality statistics and epidemiological research.

Last November, a study was released saying that white adults, ages 45 to 54, were seeing their death rate rise as a result of a substantial increase in prescription drug overdoses. The New York Times has published two articles in the last week, calling attention to the steady increase in prescription drug overdoses which has raised the death rates for white adults 25 to 34, and showing that drug overdose deaths have jumped in nearly every county in the nation.

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There are a lot of numbers that can be cited on the issue of overdose deaths. We can talk about death rates going back 15 years, about the racial breakdown and poverty and the geographic trends. We can even reflect on how the issue is gaining traction in the presidential primaries. But the central issue becomes clearest when we compare a series of line graphs, some showing a death rate trending downward and the other a death rate climbing upward.

The downward trend lines reflect the progress medical science has made in impacting threats like heart disease, cancer and HIV, extending the lifespans of thousands. The lines climbing upward reflect how the overprescribing of opioid painkillers has virtually wiped out that progress, shortening tens of thousands of lives every year.

In sum, our medical science is helping people live longer, but medicines are helping people die.

Every day in the United States, 52 people die from an overdose of prescribed opioid painkillers. In 2014, there were more overdose deaths from opioids than from heroin and cocaine combined. Most agree on the causes behind the problem, citing uneven prescribing guidelines, marketing of the drugs by the pharmaceutical industry, few limitations on access to the drugs, economic factors and an inadequate number of treatment facilities for drug misuse, abuse and dependence.

The causes behind these trends are complex and intertwined, varying from place to place and from person to person. The solutions are far more straightforward though.

The National Safety Council has joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other national organizations in calling for broader and more consistent use of state Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs to reduce the availability of opioid painkillers. We also are supporting the publishing of clear guidance for prescribing opioid painkillers for a simple reason: the risks of opioids are outweighing the benefits.

Over-the-counter medicines such as ibuprofen, naproxen and acetaminophen can be as effective or more effective than opioid painkillers, but without the risks of abuse or addiction. Opioids are more expensive, can delay recovery from injury or surgery, and have side effects that pose a safety risk in a work place or on the road. Further, research indicates 80% of new heroin users started with prescription painkillers.

These are good reasons to be thoughtful, if not outright resistant to using opioid painkillers. Opioids are killing more than 18,000 people every year, so asking your doctor, nurse or pharmacist about the alternative options for pain relief and whether opioids are necessary.

At the National Safety Council, we know if we are going to eliminate preventable deaths in our lifetime, people like Bill, Lance and Michael might be alive today if they had known to ask these questions and had the opportunity to make informed decisions about managing their pain.

10 Responses

  1. Hersmann you go slap to hell!Wait till you hurt.Opiods are made for valid purposes.If you a damn fool who guzzle half a bottle at a sitting,dont make me pay!Ididnt ask for my health issues,you slovenly frauds.F@@k you.When will you come back,Jesus????Pls.hurry!

  2. Here’s another useless, Agenda driven fraud, do we even want the National safety council, those stats are the most outrageous that I’ve yet encountered. Really, 80 percent of people on heroin started on prescribed medication? Hello yah maybe by taking someone else’s prescribed medication. Damn what a bunch of kazariIan jackasses we have running the show

  3. You want to know the “cure” for the so called opioid epidemic? Easy, COMMON SENSE, which sadly, is not common! I can tell them exactly how to save many lives & get control of this crisis.
    1. END THE DRUG WAR! Decriminalize all drugs & put that 18 billion+ given to the DEA each year, into treatment, programs, & education that helps people addicted to better themselves & take control of their lives!

    2.Easy access to mental health services as most people start abusing drugs to self medicate for health & emotional issues that MUST be dealt w/ for them to have success.

    3. Docs need to be open & honest about the pros & cons of all meds & treatment options & treat patients w/ compassion to build trust.

    4. Long term opioids should be considered as a last resort & patients be made aware of the very real risks involved. When the patient gets to this option, they need to be told about early warning signs that they may be in danger of addiction & be reassured by their doc, that they can be open & honest w/ him w/o fear that he will punish or dismiss them! (fear is what keeps cpp’s from being completely open & honest w/ their docs & that MUST change!!)

    5. Docs & pharms. have the tools & means to verify a legit/compliant patient if only they would use them!

    6. Give affordable & easy access to other treatments to go along w/ or w/o meds. as there is no 1 thing that can take away their pain. Patients also need to be given REALISTIC outcomes when managing chronic pain. It is VERY rare for a cpp to be “pain free” as the goal should be to reduce it down to a level that they can manage w/ & still have life quality. It is usually those that are looking for total relief that find themselves in danger as they think they need more & more because they still have pain.

    7. Not every pain nor every patient can be helped by opioids. Like dental pain & especially a toothache, will usually lessen more w/ motrin than say oxycodone. So it is VERY important to treat patients on a case by case basis & start low. Many people are given vicoden routinely after having a tooth pulled & while it does hurt, the majority will only need it for the 1st day or 2 as after that, an otc can handle it. Maybe even Tylenol 3 would be enough instead of vicoden, if not, then they could be put on it then, instead of starting w/it.

    It is indifference by good docs & greed by bad docs that created addicts during the pill mill crisis. Now the pendulum has swung way too far to the other side & we, the innocent cpp”s are paying for it w/ our lives!!!

  4. Interesting that there are 16,000 deaths per year from deaths related to acetemenoohen too!!! People are too much with all their calculations!! Use things responsibly and we wouldn’t have such issues

    • Yes, & 480,000 die every year from tobacco!
      300,000+ from obesity!
      And someone dies from alcohol every 15 seconds!!
      Yet no one is demanding ANYTHING be done about these massive amounts of death!!
      I guess it is because these people CHOSE to drink, smoke, & eat doritos & oreos, while “EVIL” docs. forced people to take & abuse drugs!!
      It is funny that since the crackdown, overprescribing has plummeted along w/ legit prescribing & abuse of RX opioids by those under 25 has dropped by 40%! So why has the death rate from opioids gone way up?
      Hmm, could it be because, gee I don’t know, that maybe the ones that are dying now are LEGIT/COMPLIANT CPP’s that had their badly needed meds. taken away & left them nowhere to turn but st. drugs like heroin & deadly fake fentanyl or suicide?

      The goal of the crackdown was to cut out overprescribing & abuse, which they have done, so what is the reason to keep going? $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$!!!!!!

  5. this makes me lauh and feel angry at the same time. It is the fault of the docs in this part they are the ones woh start this beginning of this or if not them it is because these kids or people maybe already addicted to alcohol already. that is more of a problem to me the opioids themselves. i really wonder what mental illness she has, which i can say yeah to i worked a peers support for many years in the mental health community. It was run by mentally ill individuals and was working mostly well. i have seen more suicide in this time from every aspect of the why to who does it. if you all get the addiction centers better and i mean every one of them including ones run by the govt., then i will talk to this hair brained mentally delusional woman. I know people who died from strokes, and from overdoses, and my brother who gets flack for wanting pain relief who may be dying sooner than we want. He has chrons and may have cancer now. you are worried about three people you saw i seen more of the other side. People dying because of negligent care.

  6. They don’t care about suicide rates. They don’t care about pain and they don’t care about quality of life. The only thing these people care about is money. Chronic illness sufferers cost the nation money. We will never pay into insurance what is paid out for our care. As soon as the ACA went into play, mandating coverage for preexisting conditions, at an “affordable” rate, our fates were sealed. It is genocide. They will take away all avenues of care that provide us with quality of life until the majority of us commit suicide and end the financial drain our existence puts on the general public. It also doesn’t help that opiates are sold on the street for at least 100% markup of what is paid at the pharmacy. Add to that, the fact that for the majority, insurance paid for the opiates either partially or in full, the same opiates which are then turned and sold on the street, with the same chronic illness patient putting that 100% profit in their pocket, the same chronic illness patient who is using more insurance payout than they will ever pay in. A side note to this, when Michael Jackson’s prescribing doctor was sued for, lets call it, malpractice and negligence…it set a precedent. THAT’S the big convoluted picture.

    • Tragically true. After 2 years in Vietnam and working my ass off at 68 and still viable I keep getting treated like a leper because my primary dropped me cold turkey from Klonopin and causing me untold grief, causing a ripple down the chain of low doses of pain medication. One bad decision to basically derail a life that was going really well. I won’t let these people beat me. I experienced one war and looks like I have to fight another. Pain is my copilot. I used to feel sad about my condition. Now I’m pissed off. I will prevail. Damn them all to hell.

  7. How many Suicides involving alcohol? How about phsycological help for those suffering from depression and other mental problems that make people want to commit suicide in the first place. How about access to guns for those that commit suicide using guns? Erghhh

  8. I am learning how to better my ability to laugh and cry at the same time. I have a few questions for Ms. Hersman, one being, “How did you get that job?” I sincerely hope she never has a high-level pain condition, for she would have no sympathy nor help.

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