This is a “platform” of a anti-opiate group that consist mostly of family members who have lost a loved one to the mental health disease of addictive personality disorder and/or those groups who operate FOR-PROFIT substance abuse facilities. I am going to comment on this platform to show how – IMO – narrow minded, self serving and myopic their collective view point is.
call on our federal government to take the following actions:
1.Take all measures necessary to ensure that opioids and other controlled drugs are prescribed more cautiously.
The steps that the Fed/State have already taken has cause the prescribing of opiates peaked in 2012 while use/abuse of opiates and OD’s continue to climb. The Feds (CDC) and a number of states have implemented “cookie cutter” guidelines… to foster treatment of pts with subjective diseases where there is no “medical yardstick test’ that can measure the intensity of how the disease is impacting the pt’s quality of life… only the pt can determine that.
2.FDA should take the following actions:
Prohibit marketing of opioids for conditions where risks outweigh benefits
Since all medications have some RISKS.. and some medications and all term benefits are not measurable .. think treating diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol and other diseases where quality of life and life expectancy itself cannot be determined in the short term.
Consult its advisory committee before approving any new opioids.
To the best of my knowledge there are advisory committees involved with the approval of all new medications… although the FDA does not have to accept the recommendation of the committee to approve a new medication
Add an upper dose and a suggested duration of use on opioid labels.
Does this suggest that they don’t want chronic pain treated or if they are only interested in acute pain limitations.. why don’t they say so ?
Designate naloxone an over-the-counter drug.
Is making Naloxone an OTC medication… encouraging/condoning the abuse of opiates ? I predict that we will still have deaths because only a single dose of Naloxone will be on hand when there is a over dose .. when multiple doses will be needed to successfully revive a person who has OD’d
Ensure that abuse-deterrent opioid formulations are NOT marketed as less addictive.
What doctor would believe that abuse-deterrent opiate is less addictive… they are suppose to be able to be harder to abuse the medication via shooting up, snorting or other non-recommended administration routes. BUT.. there is rumors out there that some have been able to circumvent the abuse deterrent in one or more opiates that include an abuse deterrent. Every time you try to make something idiot proof .. they build better idiots
3.DEA should mandate prescriber education, free of industry bias, for all registrants who intend to prescribe more than a 3-day supply of opioids.
Now they are suggesting that the DEA – a law enforcement agency – is to determine the content of prescriber education
4.HHS should immediately reduce barriers to buprenorphine treatment
They are endorsing replacing the ADDICTION to a C-II medications to the DEPENDENCY on a C-III medication. while there is an effective non-controlled medication – VIVITROL… that does not depend on the pt taking their medication daily but a shot every 28 days. If they don’t show up for their 28 day shot.. you know that they are probably going “off the reservation” as opposed to knowing/not knowing if a pt has taken their daily dose of buprenorphine and may be back on track to seriously abusing their favorite or most available substance.
5. Increase funding for evidence-based addiction treatment, especially in communities hit hardest by the epidemic.
Are they admitting that addiction is a TREATABLE DISEASE ? So are they trying to segregate pts with certain diseases that deserve treatment and others should not to be afforded treatment
6. CDC and SAMHSA should improve public health surveillance of opioid addiction and overdose deaths.
What stats can be believe from the CDC… there has been evidence that they count each drug in the toxicology of a OD as a “cause of death” … so one OD can cause stats of multiple death counts. The CDC can’t even keep track of how many people die of the flu.. all they can give you is a probability RANGE of several tens of thousands deaths between the bottom and top of the range.
7. Incentivize states to mandate prescriber use of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs
The PMP program is a concept developed in the late 20th century and we are using this antiquated concept/process trying to isolate 21st century criminals. Congress passed the NASPER act http://nasper.org/ that would create a NATIONAL PMP program and was signed into law in 2005 … but .. Congress has never passed any funding for this program. Our driver’s license system has been seriously compromised, so a determined substance abuser .. having multiple driver’s licenses… could doctor/pharmacy shop and never show up in the PMP. Right now, we have state level programs in 49 states ( Missouri has not passed a law) and maybe 45 states whose program is up and running. Some states have attempted to interconnect their PMP with other states’ PMP’s.
these anti-opiate groups fault the pharma’s for have a FOR PROFIT MOTIVE… yet this group and other groups are interwoven .. and financially supported by entities that are PROFIT DRIVEN… Maybe this is way the use of Vivtrol is not being mentioned or endorsed .. because it may not help those entities generate as much revenue or profits. Since a 28 day Vivitrol program could be handled by community healthcare providers. Perhaps, when your goals are driven by grief of a loved one… you can be mislead by those who express empathy, but whose real motives are profit driven. Sort of like “the pot calling the kettle black ” ?
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