Together we make a difference

Posted on April 7, 2016 by Pharmaciststeve

Together Walks

http://togetherwalks.org/

Welcome to Together Walks!

We’re so excited you’re here! Grab a pair of walking shoes, roll up your sleeves, and meet others who want to make a difference.  It’s time to make fibromyalgia (FM) and chronic pain illnesses visible, advocate for better access to care, and encourage and fund research that leads to better treatments. Getting involved with the 2016 Together Walks is as easy as 1-2-3! Learn how to join in below. Together we make a difference!

  1. Find a Together Walk near you or join in the virtual walk! You’ll find registration, donation, and volunteer opportunities at each location. We appreciate your generous support however you choose to contribute!
  2. Register for a Together Walk at crowdrise.com/togetherwalks  and start a fundraising team!
  3. Start raising fibromyalgia awareness today on social media, and invite your friends to be part of something bigger! Learn how here!

We’d love to see why you’re joining the Together Walks! Tag @togetherwalks or @fibroandpain and use #IWalkForFibro and #togetherwalks to share your story. Follow us on social media!

FBprof teal-purpThe National Fibromyalgia & Chronic Pain Association is joining forces with local organizations and passionate Leaders Against Pain to launch TOGETHER WALKS in 2016 in Richmond, Portland, Louisville, Central Florida, Coral Springs, Nashville, and a Virtual Online Walk.  Come stroll, roll, or walk 1K/5K or join with us virtually to create a world where people have access to treatments they need.

How do you answer a 13-year old’s questions about his hopes for the future after being diagnosed with FM?  What happens in the homes of parents with FM who cannot participate in taking care of their family?  When will better treatments and a cure for this disabling disorder be found?

Can you imagine what can be done together when there is a walk in every state and across the globe?Visit crowdrise.com/togetherwalks to register or start a fundraising team. We can’t wait to walk with you!

Interested in hosting a Together Walk in 2017?  Please contact the NFMCPA at info@fmcpaware.org.

businesscardsra

Filed under: General Problems | 1 Comment »

One of 40,000 every year … #painedlivesmatter

Posted on April 7, 2016 by Pharmaciststeve

mother and son

Opening Up About My Son’s Suicide

http://www.kveller.com/opening-up-about-my-sons-suicide/

Our son’s illness, when we finally became aware of it, was a magnitude 8 earthquake in our lives that came without any warning. It was a calm and beautiful day in July when I found him the first time he tried to end his life at age 21. The mechanics of saving him, calling 911, unlocking and opening the door for the rescue team, calling my husband, and following Jonathan’s ambulance to the hospital all happened on autopilot. The moments at the hospital crawled as I waited to hear whether my son would live and with what possible damage, and wondered in complete ignorance and fear what the next steps would be.

How could this possibly be happening? How was it possible that I, who had spent countless hours talking with Jonathan, didn’t realize the trouble he was in?

He made it through that episode alive and with minimal impairment to his body. Once out of the hospital he appeared to be the same Jonathan that he always was: kind, loving, caring, bright, engaging, witty. He begged us not to tell anyone what happened—not that he needed to. Of course we would keep this a secret, for so many reasons. We didn’t want to have our son labeled “crazy”; we didn’t want him to endure any comments or knowing glances from well-meaning people. We were private people who never revealed our innermost issues to anyone outside our family. And we certainly didn’t want our son to feel exposed.

Without realizing it, by keeping this secret, we validated Jonathan’s feeling of shame. Not only would he have to battle his illness, he would bear the burden of shame about it as well. From this point on, our family would have to present an outside face to the world that did not represent our inner reality. We didn’t comprehend the gargantuan weight we would assume with this decision. Would we have acted the same way had Jonathan been diagnosed with cancer, gastrointestinal illness, severe cardiac illness, or diabetes? Absolutely not. Ask me now and I will tell you that I wish I had shouted it from the rooftop, done anything, taken out an ad in The New York Times: “My son has a devastating mental illness. Can someone, anyone, offer me some advice to save his life?”

Five months later I found Jonathan again—this time too late. I knew the moment my eyes froze on him that his body was lifeless, but we nonetheless went through with the rescue attempt, hoping in vain that we could deny reality. Again, time raced and crawled, but this time, that space was filled with planning our son’s funeral.

In the midst of our turmoil and grief, my husband and I conferred—should we tell the truth about Jonathan’s death? Having lived with the pain of isolation for the past five months, we decided to be open about Jonathan’s having taken his own life. This way, our friends could comfort us appropriately, and more importantly, we would no longer have to bear the burden of living with a lie. It was the right decision for us.

Since then, I have been contacted by people from all over. Either their children are struggling with mental illness, or they are new in their grief for a child who has taken his or her own life. Sometimes they are seeking advice and guidance. More often, they want to share their thoughts with someone who they know can understand. Many had been secretive about the cause of their own loved one’s death. They told me that living with the truth hidden away had exacted a terrible toll on them, and they wished that they could turn the clock back.

It now occurs to me that there can be another equally vital benefit to sharing the truth about this kind of loss: Perhaps this openness would eventually be able to conquer the entire stigma of mental illness in the first place.

My son suffered the equivalent of advanced cancer—just as some cancers are incurable, so too was his illness. It was a chronic disease that would never leave him, just like diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, or multiple sclerosis. Had he lived, it would have had to be monitored and managed forever. There were no MRIs, CT scans, echocardiograms, X-rays, blood tests, or PET scans to diagnose. There were no objective treatment regimens or research protocols to test on him. Medicine failed him because mental illness doesn’t get the same respect as other physical illnesses, even as mental illness is just as legitimate a disease. Finally, because his illness was not obvious and kept a secret, our family received no extra kindness—even though we all could have benefited from it.

My husband and I are not unsophisticated people, but at the time when it was critical for us to be our son’s advocates, we were shell-shocked and ignorant. While I try not to play the “should have” game, I think it is instructive to play out the scenario that might have taken place had we been open about Jonathan’s illness and suicide attempt. Perhaps a knowledgeable person, someone with experience in this area, would have contacted us to give us advice and guidance. Just maybe, as a result, we would have obtained a more accurate diagnosis or more effective treatment. There is no guarantee that the outcome would have been any different; still, I believe that with additional knowledge the chance for a better outcome increases.

Jonathan may have been upset with this, but he might also have felt unburdened and able to speak openly with his friends about his illness. Perhaps a peer with a similar illness might have contacted him to let him know that he was not alone in his struggle. This would have helped Jonathan avoid the pain of isolation. He would have felt supported, and I am certain that this alone would have helped him.

It is unfortunate that even now, as I continue to be contacted by parents whose children are struggling with mental illness, they ask me to keep their secret. Of course, I understand their concerns and honor their request. But I wish things were different, because it is surely time for us all to be open about mental illness.

Notwithstanding the opportunity to reach for a better outcome, there was no need for Jonathan, or for us, his parents, to live in shame, and certainly no benefit in living with the weight of such a lie. Those months we spent pretending things were fine were exhausting and excruciating. We learned that lesson only after Jonathan died, and that has made an enormous difference in our ability to continue living meaningful lives.

It is my hope that by sharing these innermost thoughts about this very painful event in my life, I will help others to be open about mental illness. It requires courage, but it is ultimately healing.

Filed under: General Problems | 5 Comments »

There is so much wrong with this…but.. doubt if it is unique

Posted on April 6, 2016 by Pharmaciststeve

stevemailbox I am wondering if you could help/advise my adult son. Our family Dr who has been writing for him for 5 years or more, said he rcvd a call from the Mail order service our son uses to get his meds. Then the Dr called us to say that he is referring our son to Pain Management because Our son was Hot lined aka red flagged. Our son had been to PM years ago and really suffered when they gave him the steroid injections. Is there any way to get off the red flag list? The Dr claims that PM can write even if you are on it. We shall see when our son goes. I don’t think the outcome is going to be favorable. Our son survived stage 4 stomach and intestinal cancer and has much trouble eating. Hence he need THC which also helps with the pain. Josh had 3 failed spinal surgeries and a failed shoulder surgery. He SUFFERS all the time… Should he get a lawyer? We are in Florida.

He was red flagged by the DEA at our local Walgreens for the quantity of pills he was getting. 90 of one type and 180 of another. Walgreens called and told me. I called the DEA and spoke to a woman  and she said the agents were out in the field but would call me when they got back. Never got the call. The DEA told WAG that he must be selling or abusing with the quantity he was getting.

So much for much for the new FL regulations that requires a Pharmacist to start looking for a reason to fill a control Rxs… not start looking for a reason not to fill… Likewise, how many times have we heard from DEA agents that “.. they are not doctors … and they don’t want to interfere with pts getting their necessary medications …” ?

IMO.. if the RPh called the DEA… and caused this pt to be “red flagged” based on a decision NOT BASED ON FACTS… but on a decision based on personal biases, opinions, phobias… could that be like the RPh filling a FALSE POLICE REPORT ?

Filed under: General Problems | 11 Comments »

So much for the Federal Law that they must treat all that come thru the door

Posted on April 6, 2016 by Pharmaciststeve

BERGEN HOSPITAL ACCUSED OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION

http://www.pharmacychoice.com/news/article.cfm?Article_ID=1538914

A former employee at Bergen Regional Medical Center in Paramus has filed a whistle-blower lawsuit against the hospital, claiming he was fired after he complained that minorities were discriminated against when they sought treatment at the facility for substance abuse.

The lawsuit alleges that many minority patients who came to the hospital by bus from Newark after midnight were turned away and advised to return later in the day. Meanwhile, the rule against admitting walk-ins so late was relaxed for whites, the lawsuit claims.

Joel Ramirez, 32, who worked as a medical assistant from July 2013 to July 2015, claimed in his lawsuit that an African-American man was rejected for detox treatment because he was in a wheelchair, even though the man could have been treated in other parts of the hospital.

A nurse “went so far as to order Mr. Ramirez to make sure that the patient did not make it to the detox unit because if he made it there, they could not make him leave,” the lawsuit claims.

Additionally, the lawsuit claims that a supervisor denied someone admission to the unit because the person did not speak English. It alleges that minority employees were discriminated against as well.

“Mr. Ramirez complained to his supervisors and higher officials at the hospital about discrimination in the workplace and in the treatment of patients, particularly in the detox unit, in order to improve patient care,” said his lawyer, Justin D. Santagata.

“Instead of making an effort to address the unequal treatment of employees and patients, the hospital simply terminated him,” said Santagata, whose office is in Fort Lee.

A hospital spokeswoman was unavailable for comment Tuesday evening.

The 1,085-bed hospital provides nursing home care and psychiatric and addiction treatment. Last year, it treated 11,816 patients.

There were 13,579 emergency visits and 30,532 outpatient visits. Last year, the hospital added 10 beds to address an alarming increase in the number of people addicted to heroin and prescription pain relievers.

Still, there is up to a four-day wait for treatment. About 70 percent of the detox patients come from counties other than Bergen, hospital records show.

The lawsuit details a system in which buses would arrive at the hospital once a week from several private institutions in Newark with patients who needed treatment for substance abuse or addiction.

As a medical assistant, Ramirez was responsible for controlling potentially unruly patients, checking vital signs, drawing blood, conducting searches of incoming patients and escorting patients from the bus into the unit, the lawsuit says.

Ramirez’s immediate supervisor, who is white, was responsible for determining when and how patients were admitted to the detox unit, according to the lawsuit. She was under a mandate “to fill the beds,” but she “often applied the rules for admittance more strictly to minorities than Caucasians,” the lawsuit claims.

On at least one occasion, the supervisor and another employee said in the presence of at least one nurse “[w]e gotta stop these people from coming here,” the lawsuit claims. The lawsuit also alleges that Ramirez complained to supervisors, including the chief nurse executive, “about the unequal treatment of minority and Caucasian patients,” but that nothing changed.

Additionally, the lawsuit alleges racial and ethnic discrimination among employees. Ramirez was disciplined for speaking Spanish in the unit, even when no patients were present, the lawsuit alleges. And the lawsuit claims minority nurses were not given what is know as “charge nurse training” so they could supervise shifts. Only Caucasian nurses are assigned as charge nurses, according to the lawsuit.

Ramirez was fired for purported lateness and for using a hospital computer for non-work purposes, even though Ramirez said he was granted permission and the use of the computer had ceased several months before his termination, the lawsuit claims.

Bergen County officials are weighing the fate of the former Bergen Pines hospital, operated by a Colorado-based company, Bergen Regional Medical Center LP.

A 19-year contract between the hospital’s operators and the Bergen County Improvement Authority is set to expire in 2017. A decision is expected this summer.

Email: layton@northjersey.com

Filed under: General Problems | 1 Comment »

To Protect and Serve ?

Posted on April 6, 2016 by Pharmaciststeve

Parents called 911 to help suicidal daughter — and ‘police ended up putting a bullet in her’

Melissa Boarts’s family was frantic to find her.

They said the 36-year-old suffered from manic depression and had been threatening to slit her wrists when she jumped into her car Sunday and went for a drive down Interstate 85, toward Auburn, Ala.

Her twin told the Montgomery Advertiser that she started tracking her sister’s movements via GPS and calling out the route to their parents. At one point, they caught a glimpse of her SUV before she disappeared.

Finally, she stopped.

“We were afraid she was going to hurt herself,” her mother, Terry Boarts, told the newspaper. “We figured she was going to bleed out right there.”

The parents called 911 for help.

But instead of assisting, “police ended up putting a bullet in her,” they said in a statement issued by the family’s attorney.

Auburn police said Melissa Boarts charged at them with an unidentified weapon Sunday, prompting an officer to open fire and kill her.

Now the family is pursuing legal action.

[In fatal shootings by police, 1 in 5 officers’ names go undisclosed]

Julian McPhillips, the attorney for the family, told The Washington Post on Tuesday that the parents believe Boarts may have had a pocket knife — “but certainly no gun” — and argued that shooting her was “totally unjustified.”

“They are all deeply mourning and deeply hurt,” McPhillips said of her family.

Boarts is one of at least 262 people who have been fatally shot by police so far in 2016, according to a Washington Post database. At least 41 of those killed by police were carrying a knife or other blade, and about a quarter of all police shooting victims were mentally ill or experiencing an emotional crisis.

People with untreated mental illness are 16 times as likely to be killed during a police encounter as other civilians approached or stopped by law enforcement, according to a study from the Treatment Advocacy Center.

McPhillips said the Boarts family intends to pursue the case “very vigorously,” demanding dash-camera and body-camera footage from the scene.

“It’s difficult to get true justice,” he said, “because you can’t bring somebody back to life.”

[Why the names of African Americans killed by police took over the Hollywood Walk of Fame]

After Melissa Boarts disappeared Sunday, her mother went looking for her, with her 2-year-old granddaughter in tow.

“We were able to find out she was headed on the interstate going to Auburn,” Terry Boarts told the Montgomery Advertiser. “She was threatening to slit her wrists with a knife.”

Terry Boarts told the newspaper that she called police and told them her daughter was “having mental issues — that she was bipolar, that she had been really depressed, that she was saying she was going to cut her wrists.”

She said she told the authorities that her daughter had a knife.

Auburn police said officers responded at about 3:40 p.m. to a call about a suicidal motorist on Interstate 85 and followed the vehicle until the driver stopped on Red Creek Road in Macon County.

Police said she “exited the vehicle armed with a weapon and charged the officers in a threatening manner at which time the officers discharged their weapons, striking the driver.”

The Macon County Coroner told Al.com that Boarts died from a single gunshot wound.

Police vehicles, a helicopter and ambulances swarmed the scene, according to reports.

The Boarts family told the Montgomery Advertiser they were informed there had been a fatality.

“We’re still assuming the road ended and she hit a tree,” Terry Boarts told the newspaper. “They never told us she had been shot.”

The woman’s twin sister, Melinda Boarts, said police finally came back and said “they shot her.”

Her father, Michael Boarts, who worked 25 years as an officer for the Alabama Department of Corrections, said it was “absolutely outrageous.”

“There was absolutely no justification for it and we are all in deep mourning,” Michael Boarts said in the statement through the family’s attorney.

In Pasco, Wash., officers fired 17 rounds that killed orchard worker Antonio Zambrano-Montes, who was armed only with rocks. At the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission, there is an increased focus on shifting the mentality of police officers from warriors to guardians. (Zoeann Murphy/The Washington Post)

Since January 2015, The Post has tracked more than 1,100 fatal shootings by on-duty police officers, with one in four involving someone who was either in the midst of a mental health crisis or was explicitly suicidal. A Post analysis has found that in half of those cases, the officers involved were not properly trained to deal with the mentally ill — and in many cases, officers responded with tactics that quickly made a volatile situation even more dangerous.

[Why so many police calls involving the mentally ill end in death]

Auburn police called it a “tragedy for the Boarts family as well as the officers involved.”

“Officers within the Auburn Police Division have encountered thousands of situations involving those with weapons or individuals intending to harm themselves,” police said in a statement. “It has been nearly 40 years since an Auburn Police Officer was required to use force that ended in the death of another. It is unfortunate when someone intends to harm themselves and involves law enforcement to do so.

“Officers within the Auburn Police Division are trained to deal with disturbed individuals and have experience in doing so.”

McPhillips, the family’s attorney, told WRBL-TV he believes there will be many more attempts to defend the officers’ actions.

“I mean she’s only 5′4″ and 130 pounds and she had a pocket knife and was going to maybe cut her wrists and she was suicidal,” he said about Boarts. “All these cars were chasing her on the interstate only because the parents had alerted them that she was maybe dangerous to herself and rather than helping her, they put a bullet in her.”

The State Bureau of Investigations, Macon County Sheriff’s Department and Macon County Coroner’s Office are investigating the incident, according to news reports. Findings will be released to the Macon County District Attorney.

Filed under: General Problems | 3 Comments »

What is the hidden agenda here ?

Posted on April 6, 2016 by Pharmaciststeve

DEA Plans To Decide Whether To Reschedule Marijuana By Mid-Year

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dea-marijuana-reschedule_us_5704567de4b0537661881644

The Drug Enforcement Administration plans to decide whether marijuana should reclassified under federal law in “the first half of 2016,” the agency said in a letter to senators.

DEA, responding to a 2015 letter from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and seven other Democratic senators urging the federal government to facilitate research into marijuana’s medical benefits, doesn’t indicate whether it will reclassify marijuana as less dangerous.

The U.S. has five categories, or schedules, classifying illegal drugs or chemicals that can be used to make them. Schedule I is reserved for drugs the DEA considers to have the highest potential for abuse and no “current accepted medical use.” Marijuana has been classified as Schedule I for decades, along with heroin and LSD. Rescheduling marijuana wouldn’t make it legal, but may ease restrictions on research and reduce penalties for marijuana offenses.

“DEA understands the widespread interest in the prompt resolution to these petitions and hopes to release its determination in the first half of 2016,” DEA said the 25-page letter, obtained by The Huffington Post.

The letter, signed by Acting DEA Administrator Chuck Rosenberg, explains in great detail the marijuana supply available at the University of Mississippi, the federal government’s only sanctioned marijuana garden. 

The Food and Drug Administration has completed a review of the medical evidence surrounding the safety and effectiveness of marijuana and has forwarded its rescheduling recommendation to the DEA, according to the letter. The document didn’t reveal what the FDA recommended. 

If demand for research into marijuana’s medical potential were to increase beyond the the University of Mississippi’s supply, DEA said it may consider registering additional growers. 

This isn’t the first time DEA has been asked to reconsider marijuana’s classification. In 2001 and 2006, DEA considered petitions, but decided to keep marijuana a Schedule I substance.

The DEA response is signed by Rosenberg, Sylvia Burwell, secretary of HHS, and Michael Botticelli, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. In addition to Warren, the letter was sent to Democratic Sens. Jeffrey Merkley (Ore.), Ron Wyden (Ore.), Barbara Mikulski (Md.), Edward Markey (Mass.), Barbara Boxer (Calif.), Cory Booker (N.J.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.).

Those senators, with the exception of Warren, are co-sponsors of a sweeping bill introduced in 2015 designed to drastically reduce the federal government’s ability to crack down on state-legal medical marijuana programs while also encouraging more research into the substance.

Tom Angell, founder of Marijuana Majority, a marijuana reform group, said there was “absolutely no reason marijuana should remain in Schedule I.”

“Almost half the states in the country have medical cannabis laws and major groups like the American Nurses Association and the American College of Physicians are on board,” Angell said in a statement. He said the Obama administration should use its authority to make the change “before this president leaves office.”

Read the DEA letter here.

Filed under: General Problems | 1 Comment »

Doesn’t matter if pain is physical or mental #painedlivesmatter

Posted on April 5, 2016 by Pharmaciststeve

I told the truth in my sister’s obituary, so that others might choose to live

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2016/03/23/i-told-the-truth-in-my-sisters-obituary-so-that-others-might-choose-to-live/

Editor’s note: We reached out to the author after her revealing obituary for her sister appeared in the Duluth (Minn.) News Tribune.

The most alone I have ever felt was standing on my front porch on a chilly February evening. My sister had taped a note to the front door that said “Eleni, if you’re the first one here don’t go in the basement. Just call 911. I don’t want you to see me like this. I love you! Love, Aletha.”

She put an identical sign on the back door.  Even in the midst of consuming depression, Aletha tried to protect me from the full horror of her suicide.

I stood on the porch shivering from cold and sheer terror. I didn’t just feel alone. I felt like I was in a vacuum in the middle of space with everything I knew being pulled away from me. The universe was suddenly a very vast place and I was very, very, very alone.

[An open letter to the Whole Foods shoppers who consoled me when I learned of my father’s suicide]

After what seemed like an eternity, the police officers told me plainly, “Aletha is dead.” What followed that stark statement was a sudden moment of lucidity in which only one thing mattered: the truth.

I had to be honest. I had to tell the truth..

By the time I sat down to write my sister’s obituary I knew that the opening line could only be one thing: Aletha Meyer Pinnow, 31, of Duluth (formerly of Oswego and Chicago, IL) died from depression and suicide on February 20, 2016. 

 I went on to share with everyone — friends, family, students, and work colleagues — the cause of my sister’s death: depression and suicide. I told them that my hilarious, kind, generous, helpful, silly and loving sister couldn’t see any of that in herself and it killed her. I told them that her depression created an impenetrable fortress that blocked the light, preventing the love of her friends, her family, and any sense of comfort and confidence from reaching her.

My loneliness and terror on the front porch was nothing compared to the absolute isolation that depression had imposed on my sister. I had to tell the truth.

I had a black dog, his name was depression

   In this video produced by the World Health Organization, writer and illustrator Matthew Johnstone tells the story of overcoming the “black dog of depression.” (World Health Organization)

Depression lied to my sister, told her that she was worthless. A burden. Unlovable. Undeserving of life. I imagine these lies were like a kind of permanent white noise in her life — a running narration of how unworthy she was. After years of the lies and the torment, my sister believed that depression told her the truth. In the notes she left for my parents and me, Aletha wrote, “don’t feel sad, I’m not worth it.”

She was so wrong. Depression lies. I have to tell the truth.

Here is the truth: My sister was amazing. She exuded life and made my life millions of times better just by existing. Any time I needed help, any time I was struggling, any time depression and anxiety overwhelmed me, Aletha was there. Any time I had a good day, I needed to share it with her. She was my anchor. Aletha and I had a relationship and a closeness that I will never have again.

[My dad killed himself when I was 13. He hid his depression, I won’t hide mine.]

Depression stole decades of our lives together. Depression lies. I have to tell the truth.

My sister’s depression fed on her desire to keep it secret and hidden from everyone. I could not save my sister. I could not reach my sister through her depression. Aletha slipped from my grasp and I cannot bring her back. I can only urge others to distrust the voice of depression. I can plead for people to seek help and treatment. I can talk about depression and invite others to the conversation. I can tell everyone that will listen that depression lies. I can tell the truth.

The lies of depression can exist only in isolation. Brought out into the open, lies are revealed for what they are.

Here is the truth: You have value. You have worth. You are loved. Trust the voices of those who love you. Trust the enormous chorus of voices that say only one thing: You matter. Depression lies. We must tell the truth.

There is a thick black line that separates the before and the after of my life: I’m still new to the after territory. It feels uncertain, disorienting — like walking through a carnival funhouse where the floor is uneven, rotating, slanted, curved.

I know only two things for sure: Depression lies. I will tell the truth. Join me.

 

Eleni Pinnow is an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. To make sure her sister is remembered for more than her pain, she has started a scholarship fund in Aletha’s name at her alma mater. She urges those who may be contemplating suicide to call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 or visit save.org.

Want to read about more people who are trying to create positive changes in our world? Sign up for the Saturday Inspired Life newsletter.

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Buying illegal drugs on the street… can kill you … DUH !

Posted on April 5, 2016 by Pharmaciststeve

Pinellas sheriff warns fake Xanax can be deadly

http://www.fox13news.com/news/local-news/111200470-story

LARGO (FOX 13) – A dangerous drug is killing people in Pinellas County, and it’s being passed off as regular Xanax on the streets. 

So far it’s caused nine deaths.

“However these pills that were taken and swallowed, were really a combination of Xanax and Fentanyl,” said Sheriff Bob Gualtieri. 

Fentanyl is a super-strong synthetic opioid, 50 times more potent than pure heroin.  It’s usually prescribed in a time-release patch. 

“If people are going out to buy what they think is Xanax on the street, they could end up not waking up,” Sheriff Gualtieri said.

It’s so dangerous it’s hard for authorities to understand why anyone would even blend this kind of deadly cocktail.  But more and more mixtures of street drugs and Fentanyl are being reported to local crime labs. 

In Pinellas County there has been a spike from 14 reports in 2014 to 71 reports last year.

“We don’t know whether the source of Xanax-Fentanyl mixture is a local source, being manufactured here or in our area or manufactured elsewhere and being imported,” continued Gualtieri.

On at least nine occasions, investigators have purchased the bogus Xanax bars during undercover buys. 

Filed under: General Problems | 2 Comments »

CPP are a “burden” on families and society as a whole ?

Posted on April 5, 2016 by Pharmaciststeve

AAPM Endorses National Pain Strategy

http://www.painmedicinenews.com/Web-Only/Article/04-16/AAPM-Endorses-National-Pain-Strategy/35875/ses=ogst

The American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM) has endorsed the Department of Health & Human Services’ (HHS’s) National Pain Strategy (NPS), a blueprint two years in the making to “reduce the burden of pain for individuals, families and society as a whole.”

Daniel B. Carr, MD, the current president of the AAPM, stated that it is not often that the group makes such a formal endorsement. According to Dr. Carr, the first-ever federal initiative to coordinate the diagnosis and treatment of pain, which was developed by the HHS’s National Institutes of Health, is very much in line with the current efforts of the AAPM largely because of the AAPM’s involvement in its development.

“The Academy is proud to endorse this influential white paper, to which many of its members have contributed along with … patient advocates, researchers and clinicians,” said Dr. Carr, who also is professor of public health and community medicine program director in the Department of Pain, Research Education and Policy at Tufts University, in Boston. “More than a dozen AAPM leaders, starting with NPS co-chair and AAPM past President Sean Mackey [MD, PhD], helped shaped this strategy as members of its oversight panel, work group participants or expert consultants. Every American concerned with pain and its prevention or treatment can view the NPS as a source of priorities, including funding decisions now and in years to come.”

The NPS action plan is composed of six “dimensions,” each identifying a developmental, clinical or research need, including population research, prevention and care, disparities, service delivery and reimbursement, education and training, and public education and communication. Its development began after it was recommended in the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM’s; now the Health and Medicine Division of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine) 2011 white paper “Relieving Pain in America: A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education, and Research.”

“Successful implementation of the strategic goals in the NPS will create the cultural transformation of pain prevention, care and education called for in the IOM pain report and desperately needed for the American public,” said Dr. Mackey.

Filed under: General Problems | 4 Comments »

Deaths from ILLEGALLY PRODUCED AND SOLD ON THE STREET

Posted on April 5, 2016 by Pharmaciststeve

‘Alarming’ rate of overdoses in Sacramento area

http://www.wptz.com/health/alarming-rate-of-overdoses-in-sacramento-area/38882960

Who believes that the DEA and anti-opiate groups will somehow try to fix blame these deaths on the “over prescribing” of opiates by healthcare practitioners.  Even when the number of opiates Rxs dispensed annually would only provide a small percent of the estimated 106 million chronic pain pts with what is considered “appropriate therapy”

(CNN) —Health and law enforcement officials think counterfeit pain pills are the source of a spike in overdose deaths in the Sacramento, California, area.

Forty-two people have been treated for overdoses and 10 have died since March 23, according to the DEA’s San Francisco division.

“The overdoses are occurring at an alarming rate,” the DEA said.

The agency thinks contaminated drugs are responsible. On Tuesday it opened an anonymous tip line. Anyone with information is asked to call 530-722-7577.

Health officials believe the cases are linked to Norco pills sold on the street. Norco is a pain medication containing hydrocodone and acetaminophen. However, lab tests on some of the pills in question found they did not contain hydrocodone or acetaminophen.

“The lab was able to identify the pills as containing fentanyl instead. This indicates that they are really fentanyl pills (street drugs – counterfeit) that have been made to look like Norco,” said the Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services.

Fentanyl can be lethal. It is 25 to 50 times more potent than heroin and 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the DEA.

An overdose of fentanyl can sometimes be reversed with a drug called naloxone, also known as Narcan.

Symptoms of an overdose include trouble breathing, blue skin, vomiting, loss of consciousness and pupils that are the size of a pinpoint.

Officials are reminding residents to use only prescription drugs that have been prescribed for them and to only take pills that have come from a reputable pharmacy.

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