Is this how our country repays their service to our country to protect our way of life ?
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Opioid Drug Misuse: Emerging Trends and Alerts Webcast on Thursday, July 27th at 10a EDT
Posted on July 16, 2017 by Pharmaciststeve
The Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH), in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), will provide an overview of opioid drug epidemic trends.
To view ISDH webcasts, please test your access to view streaming videos several days prior to the event. Please use the following link for the test and to view the webcast: http://videocenter.isdh.in.gov/videos/
To test, simply “click” on any of the thumbnails. The video should play, but your network may have restrictions that prevent you from watching streaming content. If you experience problems with accessibility, please contact your system administrator. Also, please be aware that WiFi connectivity should be avoided given variable connection speeds and the risk of buffering problems. At the appointed date and time, the webcast will be available via the Live Video options at the top and right side of the webpage.
This will be a great educational opportunity and allow you to ask questions. Questions can be submitted to: indianatrauma@isdh.in.gov
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CONCLUSIONS: reached using FACTOIDS, OPINIONS, QUESTIONABLE DATA ?
Posted on July 16, 2017 by Pharmaciststeve
Study: Opioid Rx were down in Waynesboro in 2015. but still thrice national average
WAYNESBORO — A recently released study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says opioid prescriptions peaked in the United States in 2010, but adds that narcotic painkiller prescriptions remain high nationally — and more than three times the national average in Waynesboro. Staunton’s figures also were high, nearly two-and-a-half times the national average.
According to the CDC, the average amount of opioids prescribed nationally peaked in 2010 at 782 morphine milligram equivalents (MME) per person. That number had declined to 640 MME in 2015.
While the numbers for Waynesboro and Staunton show similar declines, figures for both years were still well above average. The CDC study indicates 1955.1 MME for Waynesboro in 2015, and 1592.8 MME for Staunton in 2015.
In 2010, the figures for the two cities were 2232.7 MME per person in Waynesboro, and 1967.1 MME for Staunton.
Area police and health officials say coordination has improved in combating opioid abuse in Virginia, including a prescription monitoring program that allows physicians to look at a patient’s controlled substance prescription history. And one local police officer said an area drug task force he is a member of is now working with a physician to stem the tide of valid prescriptions being used to illegally sell opioid pain pills such as Percocet, Vicodin and Oxycontin.
While the study doesn’t touch on non-prescription opioid drugs such as heroin, which makes up a significant portion of the opioid epidemic, doctors and law enforcement say prescription drug abuse is nonetheless a big part of the problem. In many areas, in fact, it’s a far worse problem than heroin and other so-called “street” drugs.
The acting director of the CDC, Dr. Anne Schuchat, said “the amount of opioids prescribed in the U.S. is still too high, with too many opioid prescriptions for too many days at too high a dosage.”
Schuchat said healthcare providers “have an important role in offering safer and more effective pain management while reducing risks of opioid addiction and overdose.”
Dr. Laura Kornegay, health director of the Central Shenandoah Health District in Staunton, said there are some potential drawbacks and limitations of the CDC study, though she notes that those issues are acknowledged by the report’s authors. The drawbacks, Kornegay says, include the fact that the data was gathered from a third party warehouse and has not been validated. She also points out that the county-level analyses in the study are aggregated by the county where the opioid is dispensed, and not where the prescription is written or where the patient lives.
Nevertheless, Kornegay said “the issue with opiates is a significant public health emergency in our state and country as a whole,” and that any data that helps to shed light on the problem, and potential solutions, are welcome.
Last December, Virginia’s health commissioner declared opioid addiction a public health emergency in the commonwealth and issued a standing prescription for any resident to get the drug Naloxone, a drug used to treat overdoses, without a doctor’s specific OK.
Kornegay said there have been multiple actions taken by the Virginia Board of Medicine and medical societies, hospitals and clinics with the goal of ensuring the proper prescribing of opiates.
Police in the area are also working with medical professionals on opioid abuse. Capt. Mike Martin is the commander of the Waynesboro Police Department’s special operations division and a member of the Skyline Drug Task Force.
He said one area physician has reached out to the task force to identify people who are abusing and selling their prescriptions, including opioid prescriptions.
“For the first time we have created a direct line of communication between the prescribers and the enforcers,’’ said Martin. Now officers can let doctors know when one or more of their patients is selling their prescriptions — information the doctor can use to ensure that those patients either receive no more opioid prescriptions, or, if it’s absolutely needed, such as in the case of terminal cancer, that it is dispensed and monitored under strict guidelines.
Previously, the CDC has provided guidelines for prescribing opioids for chronic pain. Those guidelines include using the drugs only when the benefits outweigh the risks, and starting with the lowest effective dose.
I am seeing more and more evidence that the “powers to be” are using questionable data and ignoring other more solid data to come to a conclusion(s) that may be preconceived and/or feed an agenda.
Highlighted text in this article – IMO – clearly demonstrates this. I see – all to often – where people – on both sides of the issues – are jumping to conclusions after reading a HEADLINE and/or after reading certain words, sentences or paragraphs.
Federal officer or employee may NOT exercise any supervision or control over the practice of medicine A 1935 federal law recently came to my attention – link above. It appears that this federal statue would put into question the legality of a number of federal laws, regulations, guidelines that is attempting to compromise appropriate therapy for those with chronic health issues… especially those with subjective diseases. There is an increasing number of various bureaucratic entities on the city, county, state, federal level that are determined to impose their will on those suffering from subjective diseases. Getting a law declared unconstitutional, will cost several millions of dollars and will not have any monetary payback… it will only mean that the laws can no longer be enforced. This means that unless those suffering from subjective diseases starts putting their dollars together and hire a law firm to take this on… Nothing will be reversed … will only continue to progress on the path which is currently on.
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IN CASE OF A MEDICATION OVERDOSE – WHO TO CALL !
Posted on July 15, 2017 by Pharmaciststeve
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Careful what you ask for.. insurance will offer end of life meds in place of treatment
Posted on July 15, 2017 by Pharmaciststeve
(BIVN) – An Oahu circuit judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit asking the court to prevent existing Hawaii criminal laws from being applied to medical aid in dying practices.
In its decision, the court relied upon state legal precedent that prohibited it from issuing such relief, the state attorney general said in a media release. The attorney general opposed the suit, filing the successful motion to dismiss.
The lawsuit seemed to hinge on what the legislature would decide on the divisive matter this year. The House ended up killing the bill after it passed through the senate. From the AG’s office:
Legislation was introduced this year to legalize medical aid in dying in Hawaii and establish a regulatory process under which an adult resident of the state with a medically confirmed terminal disease may obtain a prescription for medication to be self-administered to end the patient’s life. The bill was deferred on March 23, 2017. Noting that the legislation generated 2,613 pages of testimony and comments, the court said “this underscores that the relief sought by the plaintiffs is political, not judicial, in nature and should be addressed by the political branches of government.”
Proponents of medical aid in dying have not given up. Last month during a community meeting held in Pahoa, Mountain View resident Ron Hart delivered a heart-wrenching account of the agonizing death of a friend (video above), and urged those gathered in the room to get involved with a new grassroots group.
Assisted suicide being ENCOURAGED by INSURANCE COMPANY rather than TREATMENT ?
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I am being mistreated horribly by a pharmacy
Posted on July 15, 2017 by Pharmaciststeve
I am being mistreated horrible by a pharmacy
Chronic pain treatment.
I have several severe illnesses.
Endometriosis
Pcos
Ra
Lupus
Glacoma
Migraines
Post concussion syndrome
I am a chronic pain patient.
I am being messed with to help deal with pain. What. Can be done. I’m in so much pain , can you help.
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When the pt’s well being is not a healthcare professional’s top concern ?
Posted on July 15, 2017 by Pharmaciststeve
My name is D. S. I’m 36 years old I have four children and 
I’m on social security. I’ve had six knee surgeries and I’m currently in a medical malpractice lawsuit with my knee surgeon. My surgeon caused me to have a chronic osteomyelitis in my left knee by leaving behind metal and lying about cultures! This has now caused me grand mal seizures.
The pain I get is intense . If I don’t sleep due to pain I can get a seizure!
I lost my driver license because my temperature gets to high from chronic infection.
I went to drop of my script at Ansr pharmacy in hollister CA. I absolutely love this pharmacy never had any issues. The pharmacy has wonderful people. As I dropped of my script which had my seizure meds, my pain meds they didn’t even look at my script and said we can’t help you!
I was in shock , confused, and literally on a break down of crying.
I’m at the mercy of Walgreens to help me. They stated that the DEA shut them down from dispensing too much narcotics. Today is sat July 15th. Come tomorrow I’m out of my pain meds , my seizure meds which nothing can be filled. There is something that needs to be done and I feel like each month being a Chronic pain patient I feel as though I’m getting treated worse. Do you have any where you would suggest I can file a complaint?
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coca production in Colombia has surged to levels not seen in two decades
Posted on July 14, 2017 by Pharmaciststeve
UN: Production of coca leaf surges in Colombia
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/07/14/un-production-coca-leaf-surges-in-colombia.html
BOGOTA, Colombia – A new United Nations report shows that coca production in Colombia has surged to levels not seen in two decades, complicating the South American country’s efforts to make its vast, lawless countryside more secure following a peace deal with leftist rebels.
The report Friday confirms U.S. government findings from March that production is skyrocketing. The culprits are varied and include President Juan Manuel Santos’ decision in 2015 to stop using crop-destroying herbicides over health concerns and unintended incentives created by the peace deal for farmers to grow coca.
The amount of land where coca was cultivated last year jumped 52 percent to 146,000 hectares, the U.N. said. Potential cocaine production rose 34 percent to around 866 metric tons.
While the bumper harvest is worrisome, the U.N. said conditions for a sustained eradication campaign have improved dramatically thanks to last year’s peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The rebels had long funded their insurgency by levying taxes on drugs produced and transported in areas they dominate but as part of the accord to end their half-century war against the state they’ve committed to helping the government persuade farmers to voluntary eradicate the crops.
However the agreement has also provided a perverse incentive for farmers to grow coca. Those growing coca will be awarded subsidies if they agree to renounce the crop and grow products like potatoes and fruit instead. Cocaine production began increasing in 2014, after the government and FARC announced the new drug strategy that would go on to be ratified in the final accord, and has steadily risen every year since.
“The report shows a complex outlook with data that indicates a worrisome situation but also a scenario that looks propitious for a sustainable solution,” said Bo Mathiasen, the UN drug agency’s representative in Colombia.
Longer term, there’s doubts about whether the state can really assert itself in long-neglected territories. Early evidence suggests that criminal gangs are seeking to fill the void left by some 7,000 withdrawing FARC rebels.
In recognition of those risks, and increased pressure by the Trump administration to curb the flow of drugs to the U.S, Colombia is also stepping up its forced eradication program. So far this year, police and army eradication crews have destroyed by hand some 21,000 hectares of the crop — almost half of this year’s goal. Seizures of cocaine also rose 49 percent to 378 metric tons last year.
Another key finding of Friday’s report is that cocaine production is increasingly concentrated to a few lawless areas, allowing authorities to focus more sharply their eradication efforts.
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Instead of getting drugs from Canada, we got dangerous and ineffective counterfeit pills from other countries.
Posted on July 14, 2017 by Pharmaciststeve
U.S. lawmakers should say no to drug import legislation
www.pressherald.com/2017/07/14/maine-voices-u-s-lawmakers-should-say-no-to-drug-import-legislation/
BANGOR — U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders recently introduced a bill that would allow Americans to import prescription drugs from Canada. The legislation is intended to curb the costs of prescription drugs.
But it would come with a huge cost. Lawmakers need just look at Maine to see why.
It proved to be a big mistake. Instead of getting drugs from Canada, we got dangerous and ineffective counterfeit pills from other countries. Maine’s disastrous experience with counterfeit Canadian drug imports should serve as a lesson to our lawmakers to say no to drug importation legislation.
The globe is awash in counterfeit drugs. The World Health Organization estimates that 10 percent of all drugs worldwide are fake, a number that rises to 30 percent in parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Thousands of sites sell these drugs to consumers – in 2014, more than 10,000 websites selling counterfeit drugs were shut down.
Counterfeit drugs can be deadly. Sometimes, they contain dangerous ingredients that kill, but far more often, fake drugs contain no active ingredients at all. Patients take these duds expecting them to have positive effects. But instead, patients only grow sicker. Worldwide, officials estimate that counterfeit drugs kill more than 700,000 people each year.
The United States bans most prescription imports in order to prevent smugglers and counterfeiters from shipping unapproved, unsafe products to American patients and pharmacies. In the early 2000s, the Food and Drug Administration stepped up enforcement of the ban after finding that nearly 90 percent of drug shipments to the United States were not up to par. Many of these illicit shipments contained medications that hadn’t been approved by the FDA. Others had not been shipped at the proper temperatures to prevent spoilage.
Despite law enforcement’s best efforts, some counterfeit drugs still wind up in our drug supply. The FDA warns that medical professionals have injected hundreds of patients with counterfeit cosmetics in recent years. Fake treatments for HIV and cancer also have turned up hundreds of times at American medical practices.
And when counterfeit blood thinners from China made their way into the U.S. drug supply in 2008, as many as 81 people lost their lives.
Mainers experienced these hazards firsthand in 2013. That’s when state lawmakers legalized drug importation from developed countries such as Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and New Zealand.
Many of the drugs that entered our state were not legitimate. To show how unreliable imports could be, Kenneth McCall, then president of the Maine Pharmacy Association, ordered drugs from Canada Drug Center, an online pharmacy claiming to be Canadian. McCall found that the drugs actually had been manufactured in facilities in Turkey and India. Lab testing found that the supposed “Canadian” medications contained “only a tiny percentage of the active ingredient.”
Worse, some of the imported drugs contained dangerous ingredients. The generic blood thinner Clopidogrel, for instance, was contaminated. It most likely contained methyl chloride, which can damage genetic material and even cause cancer.
There is simply no way to ensure the safety of drugs reportedly coming from Canada. Indeed, Bernie Sanders’ proposed law has no mechanism to stop counterfeiters from shipping fake drugs from developing nations, through a Canadian check station, and then on to America. FDA officials have repeatedly warned that they cannot vouch for the safety of drugs that cross the border. And making matters worse, Canadian officials have said that they would not inspect drugs that pass through Canada en route to America. They only monitor the safety of medicines that are prescribed to Canadian citizens.
Americans would be wise to learn from Maine’s mistake. Drug importation is not a worth risk taking, for in the quest for “cheap” foreign drugs, patients could pay with their lives.
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Healthcare DISCRIMINATION… some “classes of people” get to sue ?
Posted on July 14, 2017 by Pharmaciststeve
Lawsuit claims discrimination against millions of Medi-Cal patients, especially Latinos
California’s Medicaid patients lack access to health care and are therefore facing discrimination, because doctors are not being paid enough to take them. That’s the charge in a lawsuit filed Wednesday against state regulators.
The suit, filed in Alameda County by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, or MALDEF, among others, alleges that the state’s Department of Health Care Services has failed to monitor the problem. The issue has created a system of discrimination, especially against Latinos, according to the lawsuit.
Latinos make up roughly half of the 13.5 million Californians enrolled in Medi-Cal, the state’s version of Medicaid, according to state data. In their lawsuit, MALDEF said that as the number of Latinos enrolled into the program rose over the years, reimbursement rates to physicians who accepted the insurance fell by 20 percent. California ranks 48th in the nation in reimbursement rates, said Thomas Saenz, MALDEF president and general counsel.
Because there are so few Medi-Cal providers, Latinos and others can’t get primary or speciality care in a timely manner, said Saenz and others who filed the lawsuit.
“We must ensure that Medi-Cal is administered in a fair and non-discriminatory manner that serves the healthcare needs of Latinos and all others enrolled in the program,” Saenz said in a statement.
A spokeswoman from the Department of Health Care Services said the agency won’t comment on the lawsuit. DHCS is required by law to monitor patient access to services. But no systematic problems have been identified, according to the spokeswoman.
MALDEF has raised concerns about discrimination in the past. In 2015, MALDEF, with the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center, sent a letter to the state listing the same complaints. In their response, the DHCS said they found no evidence of discrimination.
“You have not alleged and we are not aware of any evidence that Latino beneficiaries are being treated differently than other beneficiaries under the Medi-Cal program,” DHCS said in a 2016 response. “Indeed, Medi-Cal rates are uniform for all providers and patients and they do not discriminate in any way on the basis of race, color, national origin or any other protected category.”
A glance through data provided by DHCS show that almost 50 percent of all grievances compiled quarterly in 2016 had to do with accessibility issues. Latinos filed about a third of those grievances. White Medi-Cal recipients filed another 30 percent.
“In the past, when Medi-Cal was a predominantly white program, access was better because the reimbursement rates were closer to other insurance reimbursement rates,” said Bill Lann Lee, senior counsel of the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center. “That changed when the Medi-Cal program became increasingly Latino and then majority Latino. That is discrimination.”
Given the recent discussions surrounding the Senate’s plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, Saenz said Medi-Cal is still worth fighting for, but it needs to be improved, not scrapped.
Anthony Wright, executive director for Health Access, a California-based consumer advocacy group, said people who have private insurance also can face obstacles to care, but he said those with public insurance struggle more.
Still, it’s worth saving, Wright added.
“Even though there is an issue of access, Medi-Cal is still far better than being uninsured,” Wright said. “There’s data that show Medi-Cal does provide a lot of good services and care.”
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