TBI warns of dangers of buying drugs on streets after 10 overdoses in Rutherford County

http://wkrn.com/2016/07/07/tbi-warns-of-dangers-of-buying-drugs-on-streets-after-10-overdoses-in-rutherford-county/

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WKRN) – If you get pain pills from anywhere other than your local pharmacy, you may want to think twice before taking them.

Authorities said the number of people found unconscious and then rushed to the emergency room, after taking fake Percocet, is increasing in Middle Tennessee.

Nearly a dozen overdoses have occurred in Rutherford County. Of those, one person died.

News 2 spoke with Tyler Bowman who said he knows what it’s like to hit rock bottom.

“I’ve been to the lowest places,” Bowman said. “I know what it’s like to struggle and to feel like you need something to cope with life.”

The former baseball player suffered an injury and was strung out on pain pills and heroin for years.

“I learned quick that the quick fix was to continue taking the pills, so I wouldn’t have to go through the symptom of withdrawal,” he said.

Bowman said he isn’t surprised to hear about the increasing number of drug overdoses in Middle Tennessee.

“These people are already miserable, they are empty, they are a hollow shell and they don’t know who they are anymore and they are overdosing because they are just trying to make it through,” Bowman said. “It really just breaks my heart.”

In Murfreesboro alone, there have been 10 patients rushed to Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital for drug overdoses in recent days, and at least one death, according to police.

“The addict overdoses, their friends hear about it and they want the same drug because in their mind it’s supposed to be good stuff,” Bowman said. “That’s just the addict mentality. That’s how they think when they are in active addiction.”

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is now warning people about fake Percocet pills being sold on the streets.

“There’s a very serious, immediate danger to taking any kind of pills other than what you get from your pharmacy,” TBI spokesperson Susan Niland said.

The pills are being manufactured in clandestine labs and made to look like the real thing.

“Some of these elements contained within these drugs can be lethal and can be potentially deadly and these people that are taking them honestly don’t know what they are taking,” Niland said.

TBI drug agents are not sure what the Percocet pills are laced with, but back in May of last year, a law enforcement agency confiscated several oxycodone pills during a traffic stop.

Those pills turned out to be counterfeit and contained fentanyl, a pain killer 50 times more potent as heroin, according to the TBI.

Murfreesboro police said they are investigating each one of these overdose cases, first to see if they are connected, and then try to find the person who is selling the fake pills on the streets.

Bowman has been drug-free for two years and he hopes people will get the message.

“We have drug dealers that are on the streets killing people to make profit,” Bowman said.

Bowman now works for Waters Edge Recovery, and is planning to have a Drug Epidemic Town Hall Meeting at Lane Agri-Park in Murfreesboro on September 8 at 6:30 p.m.

The purpose for Town Hall is to give drug users options and help them find the resources they need to become drug free.

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Is our “gene pool” deteriorating or have we reached a “critical mass” of security cameras and/or smart phones that very little slips by without having a video of  citizens “acting badly”.

Those “citizens” can be both police and civilians. The last 12 months have been quite lethal between citizens and cops and cops and citizens.

We have a estimated 50,000 homicides in this country EVERY YEAR.. and just in the city of Chicago:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/07/05/more-than-60-shot-chicago-over-july-4th-weekend/86707218/

CHICAGO — At least 64 people were shot in the nation’s third largest city over the Independence Day weekend, including four people who were fatally wounded.  The grim violence in Chicago, which has recorded 329 homicides already this year. Illinois/Chicago has some of the most strict gun ownership laws. So this would suggest that the call for reducing our 2nd Amendments every time that there is a mentally disturbed idiot goes on a shooting rampage would produce little/no change in these horror stories now and in the future.

America use to be referred to as a “melting pot” … one nation under God… now more and more groups tend to self segregate themselves both geographically, language and other means.

All too many in our society identify themselves as a hyphenated-American … not just an AMERICAN !

Maybe it is just me, but.. I find it hard to believe that those two police depts where an officer basically MURDERED two individuals in to different states over the last couple of days… that many in the force knew, should have known or highly suspected that those cops involved with those MURDERS were “bad eggs” already.

We all know that there are a lot of good cops… but.. isn’t it about time that those “good cops” help clean their own house of those “bad eggs”… to put a stop to these progressive hostilities.

Otherwise, we may end up just ramping up the military hardware on local police force and we end up with an escalated war … much like the last 46 yrs of the war on drugs. Good intentions that leads to bad outcomes.

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20 veterans a day committed suicide in 2014, new data show

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2016/07/07/veterans-suicides-young-men-women/86755132/

An average of 20 veterans a day committed suicide in 2014, a trend that reflects record high rates among young men fresh out of the military and growing numbers of women taking their lives, the first actual count of suicides among former service members shows.

The Department of Veterans Affairs previously had only estimated suicides, saying in 2010 there was an average of 22 a day. The 2

014 data released Thursday is based on a precise tabulation of the 7,403 deaths.

David Shulkin, VA undersecretary for health, noted the slight decline from the 2010 estimate, but added, “it’s still far too high.”

The 2014 count is the first slice of a massive examination of 55 million veteran death records dating back to 1979. Shulkin said that a final report due in several weeks will detail more suicide trends.

The VA found the worst suicide pattern among male veterans, ages 18-29. Their suicide rate was 86 per 100,000 people,  nearly four times the rate among active-duty service members last year.

By contrast, the overall U.S. suicide rate is 13 per 100,000 people, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

USA

TODAY

Experts worry high military suicide rates are ‘new normal’

The new figures show the suicide rate among young female veterans, ages 18-29, was 33 per 100,000 — more than double the overall U.S. rate.

Shu

lkin said the suicide rate among all female veterans was more than double that of women who didn’t serve in the military.

“It is difficult to understand why that is happening. It is one of the things that I think will become a central research question for us,” he said.

Shulkin said more research is needed to determine whether women who served closer to combat or experienced sexual trauma in the military put them at greater risk of taking their own lives.

USA TODAY

VA suicide hotline workers ripped for failing vets

He said the VA has taken several “aggressive” steps to deal with the high suicide rates. They include adding staff to the crisis hotline for veterans (800-273-8255), identifying veterans at high risk, increasing mental health counselors and expanding mental health

therapy via telephone.

In 2014, veterans accounted for 18% of all suicides in the United States, but made up only 8.5% of the population. In 2010, veterans accounted for 22% of U.S. suicides and 9.7% of the population.

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Here is the “official definition” of C-II & C-III drugs… HHS is encouraging the prescribing of Buprenorphine a C-III medication in place of a pt taking a C-II medication..  I wonder how the DEA determined what a medication’s “potential” for abuse is/was. Since measuring a person’s degree of an addictive personality disorder is very subjective… not like taking someone’s BLOOD PRESSURE, BLOOD SUGAR, CHOLESTEROL… I guess it is like trying to guess how many times you can split a hair ?

Schedule II substances are those that have the following findings:

The drug or other substances have a high potential for abuse
The drug or other substances have currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, or currently accepted medical use with severe restrictions
Abuse of the drug or other substances may lead to severe psychological or physical dependence.

Schedule III substances are those that have the following findings:

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CMS angers hospitals with plans for site-neutral rates in outpatient payment rule

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20160706/NEWS/160709964

The CMS has responded to calls to eliminate patient satisfaction on pain management from Medicare’s value-based purchasing program. The agency angered hospitals, however, with plans to stop paying their off-campus facilities the same as hospital-based outpatient departments.

Both policies are included in the proposed rule for the 2017 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System issued Wednesday.

The CMS’ actuary has estimated that so-called site-neutral payments for ambulatory care, which Congress called for a 2015 spending bill, would save Medicare about $500 million in 2017. The American Hospital Association quickly issued a harshly worded statement criticizing the CMS for declining to include support for hospital outpatient departments.

The AHA was among several prominent healthcare associations that had called on the Obama administration to stop incorporating patients’ responses to pain-management questions in the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) in the value-based purchasing program. HCAHPS results are a significant factor in how hospitals fare under value-based purchasing, and providers have complained the program gives them a financial incentive to over-prescribe painkillers to keep patients happy.

The survey asks patients if they needed medicine for pain, how often their pain was well controlled and—of most concern to the healthcare industry—if the hospital staff did everything they could to help with the pain.

“Some stakeholders believe that the linkage of the pain management dimension questions to the Hospital VBP program payment incentives creates pressure on hospital staff to prescribe more opioids,” the CMS said in the proposed rule. The agency said removing the questions from the survey would “mitigate even the perception that there is financial pressure to overprescribe opioids.”

However, the CMS also said in a news release that it still believes pain control is “an appropriate part of routine patient care that hospitals should manage.” The agency is currently developing and field-testing new questions to add to the program.

The CMS is proposing to increase the rate for hospital outpatient services by 1.6%, or $671 million, and ambulatory surgical centers by 1.2%, or $39 million, in 2017 compared with 2016.

In response to the rule’s provisions on site-neutral payments for outpatient services, AHA Vice president Tom Nickels said in a statement that the lack of support for outpatient care provided by hospitals “does not reflect the reality of how hospitals strive to serve the needs of their communities.”

Nickels also called it “unreasonable and troubling” that the CMS does not plan to continue paying hospitals their current rates if they relocate or rebuild outpatient facilities. “Taken together, it appears that CMS is aiming to freeze the progress of hospital-based health care in its tracks,” Nickels said.

The draft rule does include exceptions for dedicated off-campus emergency departments. The CMS notes in its news release that the higher payments received by hospital-owned facilities are a long-standing concern among the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, HHS’ Office of Inspector General and lawmakers. Many policy experts believe hospitals are acquiring physician offices at a rapid clip because of the higher rates.

America’s Essential Hospitals, a trade group that represents safety net providers, said the CMS “appeared to ignore Congress’ intent” to use a different payment system for new hospital-owned outpatient facilities. “Hospital systems that otherwise would seek to enhance access by establishing new clinics in underserved areas will not do so, as this damaging payment policy makes new outpatient centers economically unsustainable,” the organization said in a statement.

The 764-page proposal also includes changes to the Medicare incentive program for hospitals’ use of electronic health records, including allowing hospitals to use any 90-day period in 2016 to attest that they’ve met the requirements.

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Long-acting opioid therapy linked to increased mortality risk

http://www.clinicaladvisor.com/pain-information-center/increased-mortality-risk-with-long-acting-opioid-therapy/article/507694/

Prescription of long-acting opioid medications for chronic, noncancer pain is associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality when compared to alternative medications, according to research published in JAMA.

Wayne A. Ray, PhD, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort study of Tennessee Medicaid patients with chronic, noncancer pain between 1999 and 2012. Patients had received either long-acting opioid therapy or comparable therapy with either an analgesic anticonvulsant or low-dose cyclic antidepressant. Patients had not received palliative or end-of-life care.

The researchers found 22,912 new episodes of prescribed therapy for both long-acting opioids and control medications; 185 deaths were recorded in the long-acting opioid group, compared to 87 deaths recorded in the control group. Data analysis showed that patients who were prescribed long-acting opioid therapy had a 1.6 times greater risk of all-cause mortality and a 1.9 times greater risk of out-of-hospital death.

“More than two-thirds of the excess deaths were due to causes other than unintentional overdose; of these, more than one-half were cardiovascular deaths,” noted Dr Ray. “These findings should be considered when evaluating harms and benefits of treatment.”

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McDonald’s Management Responds to Lawsuit

http://www.nwahomepage.com/news/mcdonalds-management-responds-to-lawsuit

A company that manages a Bentonville McDonald’s responded on Wednesday to accusations it fired an employee for being HIV positive.

According to a lawsuit filled by the U.S. Equal Employement Opportunity Commision, the restaurant violated federal law by firing the employee for having HIV, and it also violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by maintaining a policy of requiring all employees to report the use of prescription medication.

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We are all aware of the push to try and get Naloxone (Narcan) into as many pockets as possible. And who has the most a need for Naloxone… substance abusers… and as of 1917 our court system decided that the mental health disease of addictive personality disorder is going forward a CRIME.

So what happens if the DEA gets a hold of wholesaler records of what pharmacies are purchasing above average units of Naloxone and/or gets insurance records of what pharmacies and/or which prescribers has been writing or selling Naloxone.

Could that information be used to suggest that the prescriber or pharmacies is prescribing and/or selling Naloxone to people that the Pharmacist and/or prescriber had concerns that the pt was “abusing” their opiates.

So the DEA could come to the conclusion that the Pharmacist or Doctor is writing/filling Rxs for pts that don’t have a legit medical need.. and thus breaking the law.

Given previous actions of the DEA .. all they need is the OPINION that one or two pts are not legit for them to raid a doc’s practice and/or pharmacy.

All that talk about “doing good” and helping save lives of those suffering from addiction… could it be just “bait on a hook ” ?

We probably won’t see any action out of the DEA on this issue until all the states has put regulations in place for Naloxone to be OTC… which may be another year or two.

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