Pain never killed anyone… just makes many to commit suicide

Posted on March 15, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

painedlife

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Pained lives matter

Posted on March 15, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

painedlife

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Tulsa area pharmacy robberies UP 600 PER-CENT in 2014

Posted on March 15, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

Pill-ferage: A ‘perfect storm’ hits Tulsa and area pharmacies in 2014

http://newsok.com/pill-ferage-a-perfect-storm-hits-tulsa-and-area-pharmacies-in-2014/article/5401738

After recording only seven pharmacy robberies in 2013, drug stores in the Tulsa area found themselves under fire last year. In 2014, records show, there were at least 43 pharmacy robberies reported in Tulsa County, with some locations falling victim multiple times to brazen thieves.

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More legal drugs getting to “the street” that could have been prevented ?

Posted on March 14, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

drug bust

http://fox59.com/2015/03/14/dea-and-local-authorities-arrest-indianapolis-man-accused-of-forging-prescritions/

Federal, state and local authorities arrest Indianapolis man accused of forging prescriptions

INDIANAPOLIS,Ind (March 14, 2015)-Federal Drug Enforcement agents along with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and the Indiana State Police arrested a man on drug and forgery charges  late Friday evening.

Sources close to the investigation say Juwann Williams is believed to be part of a larger group of individuals who are allegedly targeting reputable doctors and forging their prescriptions.The illegal narcotics ring is then allegedly selling the drugs for profit.

Williams was arrested at his home located at  9242 Memorial Drive.

Sources say it was a FOX59 story that sparked the investigation and ultimately led to William’s arrest.

It is believed the people involved in the forgery scheme would steal the identities of innocent individuals in order to collect the prescriptions at local pharmacies.It’s unknown how their identities were compromised.

Sources say Williams and the others involved were illegally selling Oxycodone.

Imagine if Pharmacists were allowed to validate driver’s license presented against the person standing in front of them and the BMV on line database… how many fewer legal drugs would have reached the street and how much sooner these criminals could have been taken off the street. But according to the Indiana BMV and AG’s office… providing that ability to healthcare professionals would compromise some sort of privacy issue. I guess that a person’s privacy regarding their name, picture, DOB is more important than curtailing the illicit diversion of legal drugs to “the street”.

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Which one of WAG’s policies is the truth ?

Posted on March 14, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

court says walgreens can fire pharmacist over anti-vaccine stance

http://www.topsecretwriters.com/2015/03/court-says-walgreens-can-fire-pharmacist-over-anti-vaccine-stance/

However, Walgreens provided a persuasive argument that Prewitt had refused to immunize their customers and this was part of his job description under the new program. This refusal was grounds for demoting the pharmacist. Since Prewitt refused to perform his job and refused to work as a floater for shifts that weren’t his regular ones at his store location in Oxford, Walgreens terminated his employment with the company.

Walgreens firing RPH’s for not being comfortable with certain categories of medications ?

http://drugtopics.modernmedicine.com/drug-topics/content/tags/larry-crain/pharmacist-sues-walgreens-over-plan-b-firing?page=full

“This was not a decision that was easy for him to make, but one that is firmly grounded in his religious convictions,” Larry Crain, Hall’s lawyer, told the Tennessean. Crain said Hall had worked at Walgreens since 1997 and was a deacon at a Baptist church.

Prior to his firing and the FDA changes, Hall claims that his bosses had allowed him not to sell Plan B due to his religious objections. He said pharmacists were eventually told that they had to stock and sell the drug.

Hall claims he purchased the shipment of Plan B because it was mislabeled. He said he was told “it was part of his job duties to sell Plan B” and that was the reason for his firing.

How often have we seen a spokesperson from Walgreens state that they cannot FORCE a Pharmacist to fill a Rx that they are uncomfortable with. It is the Pharmacist’s individual decision. This information about Walgreen’s Pharmacists being fired for declining to give vaccinations or sell a particular product.. because they are uncomfortable with doing so.

Does this suggest that Walgreen has set up policies that are “forcing” Pharmacists to NOT FILL certain medications or categories of medications ?

Since most/all the medications that would appear to be covered under WAG’s  “GFP”.. would be for those people diagnosed with subjective diseases … which would qualify those pts to be covered by the Americans with Disability Act.  Does this suggest a pattern of discrimination ?

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UTAH’s politicians save the rabbit population from becoming addicted to MJ

Posted on March 14, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

How special interests killed Utah’s medical marijuana bill

DEA says Utah rabbits ‘cultivated a taste’ for pot

On Monday night, Utah’s S.B. 259 died by one flipped vote in the state Senate. Despite overwhelming support from the public and polls evidencing support across all demographics, the bill was killed behind closed doors by special interest groups who feared financial loss by providing freedom of medical choice to chronic and terminally ill patients.

And they say that you can’t put a price on a LIFE ?

 

 

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Cops lies about reason for stopping Senior Citizens on highway ?

Posted on March 13, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve


Incompetent Cop Violates Elderly Cancer Patient, Accuses Him & His Wife of Being Drug Mules

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/elderly-cancer-patient-pulled-window-tint-interrogated-drug-mule/

Fabricating reason to stop vehicle and unreasonable search and seizure ?

 

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About a third of patients successfully defeated the abuse-deterrence mechanism

Posted on March 13, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

Opioid Abuse Drops, Then Levels Off

About a third of patients successfully defeated the abuse-deterrence mechanism.

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Psychiatry/Addictions/50440?xid=nl_mpt_DHE_2015-03-13&utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DailyHeadlines&utm_source=ST&eun=g578717d0r

Making an abuse-deterrent formulation of OxyContin (oxycodone ) diminished abuse in the short term, but the reductions eventually hit a plateau, researchers found.

In a survey of patients being treated for opioid abuse, there was a significant reduction in past-month OxyContin abuse after the abuse-deterrent formulation came on the market (45% versus 26%, P<0.001), according to Theodore Cicero, PhD, and Matthew Ellis, MPE, of Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.

But the decline eventually plateaued, remaining in the range of 25% to 30% a few years thereafter, they reported online in JAMA Psychiatry.

Cicero said the findings imply that while supply-side issues are important, addressing only these “will not solve the opioid abuse problem unless efforts are made to reduce the demand for these drugs.”

When it was introduced in the mid-1990s, extended-release OxyContin was marketed as harder to abuse because of its timed-release technology. But those set on abusing the drug were able to foil that mechanism and release all of the opioid at once.

More than a decade later, in 2010, OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma replaced its original drug with an abuse-deterrent formulation that made it harder to crush or dissolve the drug, with the hope that it might reduce abuse.

Early work showed that the new formulation did reduce abuse in the short term. But to track longer-term trends, Cicero and colleagues looked at data from the Survey of Key Informants’ Patients (SKIP) program, which is part of the RADARS surveillance system.

It included 10,784 patients who’d been diagnosed with opioid use disorder and subsequently admitted to a drug treatment program. These patients completed an anonymous survey of opioid abuse patterns from January 2009 to June 2014, and there was an 82% response rate.

The survey showed that the reformulation was associated with a significant reduction in past-month abuse (45% in January to June 2009 versus 26% in July to December 2012, P<0.001), which was tied to a migration to other opioids, particularly heroin, Cicero said.

But the reduction eventually leveled off — from 2012 to 2014, about 27% of patients reported past-month abuse of OxyContin.

In more in-depth interviews, the researchers found that the plateau reflects three trends. First, 43% of patients reported transitioning from non-oral routes of administration to oral use.

About a third of patients successfully defeated the abuse-deterrent mechanism and were able to continue inhaling or injecting the drug.

 And 23% said they continued to abuse the drug orally, they reported.

The FDA has long been trying to address questions about the role of abuse-deterrent technologies with opioids. It released a draft guidance in January 2013 and held a 2-day meeting last fall on that guidance. It’s still not clear when the final rules will be released.

The study implied that even though abuse-deterrent formulations curtail abuse to an extent “their effectiveness has clear limits, resulting in a significant level of residual abuse,” he wrote. Thus, he called for efforts not only on the supply side of the issue, but on the demand side.

That includes better educational efforts to prevent abuse in the first place, along with better access to treatment programs, the authors wrote.

Cicero disclosed serving as consultant on the scientific advisory board for RADARS, which is funded through a grant from the Denver Health and Hospital Authority that collects subscription fees from 14 pharmaceutical companies.

Ellis disclosed no relevant relationships with industry.

 

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29000/ yr DIE from C-dif acquired from a healthcare facility

Posted on March 13, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

Nearly 500,000 Americans Had C. Difficile Infections in a Single Year

http://www.pharmacypracticenews.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ses=ogst&d=Web+Exclusive&d_id=239&i=March+2015&i_id=1155&a_id=29630

One would be hard pressed to find a U.S. health care worker who was unaware of the devastation that Clostridium difficile can cause in the hospital setting, but it is also causing considerable damage in the community, too, according to Michael Bell, MD, who spoke during a telebriefing sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

 
In 2011, C. difficile caused approximately 453,000 infections; 29,000 of those patients died within 30 days of the initial diagnosis of C. difficile (N Engl J Med 2015;372:825-834). Approximately two-thirds of the C. difficile infections (CDIs) were found to be associated with an inpatient stay in a health care facility, but only 24% of the cases occurred while patients were hospitalized. Almost as many cases occurred in nursing homes as in hospitals, and the remainder of the health care–associated (HCA) cases occurred among patients who were recently discharged from a health care facility. More than 80% of the deaths associated with C. difficile occurred among Americans aged 65 years or older.
 
“Infections have become increasingly common over the last few decades and are seen in patients in health care facilities, as well as people in the communities,” Dr. Bell explained. “In the past, patients infected with C. difficile have had diarrhea that was often perceived as a nuisance but was not a major problem.
 
“Unfortunately, the type of C. diff circulating in the U.S. today produces a powerful toxin that can cause a truly deadline diarrhea,” said Dr. Bell, who is deputy director, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, CDC.
 
Previous studies have indicated that C. difficile has become the most common microbial cause of HCA infections in U.S. hospitals and costs up to $4.8 billion each year in excess health care costs for acute care facilities alone. The new study found that one of every five patients with an HCA CDI experienced a recurrence of the infection, and one of every nine patients aged 65 or older with an HCA CDI died within 30 days of diagnosis.
 
“C. difficile infections cause immense suffering and death for thousands of Americans each year,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, MD, MPH.  “These infections can be prevented by improving antibiotic prescribing and by improving infection control in the health care system. The CDC hopes to ramp up prevention of this deadly infection by supporting state antibiotic resistance prevention programs in all 50 states.”


Patients at Highest Risk
Patients who take antibiotics are most at risk for developing CDIs. More than half of all hospitalized patients will get an antibiotic at some point during their hospital stay, but studies have shown that 30% to 50% of antibiotics prescribed in hospitals are unnecessary or incorrect, the CDC said. When an individual takes broad-spectrum antibiotics, beneficial bacteria that are normally present in the gut and protect against infection can be suppressed for several weeks to months. During this time, patients can develop C. difficile picked up from contaminated surfaces or spread person to person. Unnecessary antibiotic use and poor infection control may increase the spread of C. difficile within a facility and from facility to facility when infected patients transfer, such as from a hospital to a nursing home.

 
Older Americans are especially vulnerable to this deadly diarrheal infection. The new  CDC found that one of every three CDIs occurs in patients 65 years or older and two of every three HCA CDIs occur in patients 65 years or older. More than 100,000 CDIs develop among residents of U.S. nursing homes each year. Women and whites are at increased risk for CDI.
 

Although more than 150,000 of the 500,000 infections in the new study were community-associated and had no documented inpatient health care exposure, a separate recent CDC study found that 82% of patients with community-associated CDIs reported exposure to outpatient health care settings such as doctors’ or dentists’ offices in the 12 weeks before their diagnosis; this finding underscores the need for improved antibiotic use and infection control in these settings as well.  It is estimated that more than 50% of antibiotics are prescribed unnecessarily in outpatient settings for upper respiratory infections like cough and cold illness, most of which are caused by viruses.

 
Another recent CDC study showed that a 30% decrease in the use of antibiotics linked to CDIs in hospitals could reduce the deadly infections by more than 25% in hospitalized and recently discharged patients. A new retrospective study from a Canadian hospital found that a 10% decrease in overall antibiotic use across different wards was associated with a 34% decrease in CDIs. A third CDC study among patients without a recent hospitalization or nursing home stay (i.e., community-associated cases) found that a 10% reduction in the use of all antibiotics in outpatient settings could reduce CDIs by 16%. In England in recent years, the number of CDIs has been reduced by more than 60%, largely due to improvements in antibiotic prescribing.
 
To help hospitals develop antibiotic stewardship programs, the CDC has developed several tools, including a list of core elements of hospital antibiotic stewardship programs . The CDC is also working with states to improve outpatient prescribing and to implement stewardship across the continuum of care and has provided a variety of resources through the Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work and Get Smart for Healthcare campaigns.

 

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The agency has operated a Baltimore heroin task force for about three decades

Posted on March 12, 2015 by Pharmaciststeve

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Michelle Leonhart

DEA chief discusses Maryland’s heroin problem at Senate hearing

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-dea-baltimore-heroin-20150312-story.html

The chief of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration put a spotlight on Maryland’s heroin problems during a congressional hearing Thursday.
DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart spoke of the state’s rising number of overdose deaths in testimony before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee. She said a DEA task force focusing on heroin problems in Baltimore is a model for other communities.

“Maryland is the perfect example when we’re talking about what it’s going take for our country to actually stem the flow of the rising heroin problem,” Leonhart said.

Heroin deaths have been rising in Maryland since 2010 and are expected to exceed 500 in 2014 when statistics are finalized. Gov. Larry Hogan and Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake have formed panels to address the problem.

Leonhart was responding to questions from Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat, who said she is frustrated that government agencies are not coordinating enough to tackle the crisis. Last year, Mikulski secured $10 million in funding to create state anti-heroin task forces that fight the drug crisis in a comprehensive way, taking into account perspectives of experts in the law enforcement, medical, public health and education fields.

Gary Tuggle, who leads the DEA’s Baltimore office, said in an interview that the agency has operated a Baltimore heroin task force for about three decades. It includes members from law enforcement agencies.

In recent years, agents have worked more with “nontraditional partners” such as health experts, Tuggle said.

“In no way do we think that law enforcement is the only answer here,” he said. “Thirty years ago, we weren’t doing this. … We were stuck in our own silo of just law enforcement.”

He said law enforcement agencies have collaborated with health officials in an effort to determine sources of deadly fentanyl-laced heroin.

“We look historically at the medical records,” Tuggle said. “We subpoena the autopsy reports. Once we determine that fentanyl was involved and caused the death, then we focus on the individual dealer.”

At the Senate hearing on funding requests from law enforcement agencies, Leonhart spoke of the origins of the heroin being dealt in local communities.

“It’s almost all Western Hemisphere,” she said. “But more and more of it is coming from Mexico and is being controlled by the same Mexican organizations and trafficking groups that we see all across the country, who’ve brought cocaine, meth and marijuana to our communities.”

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