It's already a known fact that, Celebrities on Opiates... most celebrities do opiates, such as vicodin, lortab, norco, a fentanyl patch, morphine, oxycontin, heroin, methadone, etc... like Nicole Rithie, Lindsay Lohan, and the death of Heath Ledger.
Now the latest, Celebrity, on opiates and provided by Howard K. Stern accused of enabling Anna Nicole Smith's drug habit.
California Attorney General Jerry Brown contends attorney Howard K. Stern enabled the late model Anna Nicole Smith in her drug habit.
Brown alleged Stern, Smith's former attorney and lover, obtained various prescription medications for the Playboy model by working with two doctors in Los Angeles, the New York Daily News reported Friday.
"Howard K. Stern is the principal enabler," Brown alleged Thursday.
"Somebody died here," he added, referring to Smith's 2007 death of an overdose at the age of 39. "People think those drug dealers on the street corner are the only threat. People in white smocks in pharmacies and with their medical degrees are a growing threat."
Stern, 40, turned himself over to authorities Thursday to face felony charges for allegedly providing Smith with medications not prescribed to her.
Also charged were Dr. Sandeep Kapoor and Dr. Khristine Eroshevich of Los Angeles.
The Daily News said the three suspects are each facing up to six years in prison if convicted.
If only the News of Rapid Detoxification or called Accelerated Dexification was more Re-searched by Celebrity Clients Agents, then this sort of Addiction can be treated, instead of a Vacations, that the Agents get, Caregivers, etc...
If they cared about their Clients more Emotionally, not just Financially, then this wouldn't of happened.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
Drug of choice
Drug of choice
The two most popular prescription drugs among teens are the opioid painkillers Vicodin and Oxycontin, police say. Both relax the body’s central nervous system and cause a rush of euphoria similar to heroin. The drugs are typically snorted, injected or smoked to get an instantaneous effect.
Not all teens start using these drugs to alleviate an injury or ailment. Some start taking drugs as an escape from the stress of academics, dating and other adolescent woes, chemical dependency counselors say.
For others, it’s done only in social settings — like at “pharm parties” as they are dubbed, where a group gets together and hangs out to ingest pain pills.
Overall, officials agree: The problem is masked by a misconception that prescription drugs are safer than street drugs, such as methamphetamine or heroin.
“They are using out of ignorance. The belief system among teens is that it’s safe,” said Sheryl Smith, crisis intervention counselor at Hudson’s Bay High School. “And the determining factor is availability. It doesn’t cost anything and if it does, it’s cheap.”
Call us today to discuss how the V.I.P. Way can free you from your Addiction and get your life back.
Call today: (800)276-7021 or (702)308-6353
Email: info@rapiddetoxlasvegas.com
Medical Director: Board-Certified by American Board of Anesthesiology 1994, former chief of cardiac anesthesia, University of Nevada School of Medicine.
Board-Certified by American Board of Pain Medicine 1997, Clinical Assistant Professor University Nevada School of Medicine
The two most popular prescription drugs among teens are the opioid painkillers Vicodin and Oxycontin, police say. Both relax the body’s central nervous system and cause a rush of euphoria similar to heroin. The drugs are typically snorted, injected or smoked to get an instantaneous effect.
Not all teens start using these drugs to alleviate an injury or ailment. Some start taking drugs as an escape from the stress of academics, dating and other adolescent woes, chemical dependency counselors say.
For others, it’s done only in social settings — like at “pharm parties” as they are dubbed, where a group gets together and hangs out to ingest pain pills.
Overall, officials agree: The problem is masked by a misconception that prescription drugs are safer than street drugs, such as methamphetamine or heroin.
“They are using out of ignorance. The belief system among teens is that it’s safe,” said Sheryl Smith, crisis intervention counselor at Hudson’s Bay High School. “And the determining factor is availability. It doesn’t cost anything and if it does, it’s cheap.”
Call us today to discuss how the V.I.P. Way can free you from your Addiction and get your life back.
Call today: (800)276-7021 or (702)308-6353
Email: info@rapiddetoxlasvegas.com
Medical Director: Board-Certified by American Board of Anesthesiology 1994, former chief of cardiac anesthesia, University of Nevada School of Medicine.
Board-Certified by American Board of Pain Medicine 1997, Clinical Assistant Professor University Nevada School of Medicine
Legal and deadly
Teens warned of prescription medication dangersJeff Deschner's killer was legal.
Legal as this: A scribbled piece of paper handed to him by a doctor more times than his mother can count.
The prescriptions were supposed to assuage a football injury. But they quickly consumed the Vancouver teen's mind and, eventually, his life. When he finally sought help, it was too late. The drug's grip was too firm.
Deschner died of an overdose Dec. 9, 2003 at age 24. When Vicodin pills weren't available, he turned to heroin. When he died, his system contained a mix of prescription drugs and methadone.
"As hard as he was battling it, I didn't think we would lose him," said his mother, Kathy Deschner. "Just because it's legal doesn't make it safe."
Prescription drug abuse is skyrocketing among Clark County teens for just that reason: Medication is easy to attain from a doctor and just as easy to swipe from a parent's medicine cabinet or accept from a friend at school.
At the height of Deschner's addiction, which started in the 1990s, prescription drug abuse was occasional. Today, police and chemical dependency counselors say painkillers are some of the fastest growing substances abused by teenagers.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse reported last year that while cigarette and alcohol use among teens declined, prescription drug abuse continued to rise.
Some officials liken the trend to the methamphetamine craze of the 1990s and early 2000s.
"It's the highest rate I've ever seen in my 15 years as a counselor," said Sheryl Smith, a crisis intervention counselor at Hudson's Bay High School.
Following the boom of the pharmaceutical industry, painkillers became more widely available, and teens, believing they're more benign than street drugs, smoke, snort or inject them.
Yet many prescription drugs, such as Vicodin or Oxycontin, can be fatal when mixed with other substances or taken at a strong enough dosage.
Surged among youth
Though evident in past decades, prescription drug abuse took off in 2005, particularly among those in their late teens to early 20s, said Jeff Beatty, a Kaiser Permanente chemical dependency counselor.
Nationwide, seven of the top 10 drugs abused by 12th-graders were prescribed or purchased over the counter, the 2008 NIDA survey found. The prescription drug trend transcends all social classes.
In Clark County, prescription drug abuse has risen at an "alarming rate" in schools, said sheriff's Sgt. Mike McCabe, who supervises the sheriff's school resource officers.
Teachers or officers find students handing out drugs in hallways, during classes or at lunch. On some occasions, students don't know what drug they're taking. They don't question the unidentified pills handed to them.
"In the past, we've focused on alcohol and (illicit) drugs, like marijuana," McCabe said. "That problem definitely still exists. This is a new trend. It's harder to detect than alcohol but equally as dangerous."
Law enforcement's greatest roadblock is the fact that most prescription drugs are odorless and symptoms nearly undetectable — unlike alcohol, which causes obvious physical signs.
Also, students can bring drugs to school and share with friends under the guise that "it's a prescription."
Officers catch some dealers on school grounds, but they believe the problem is widely unreported. "We're not catching that many, although in the past year we've seen an increase in arrests of students," McCabe said.
One person detained by officers was an 18-year-old Heritage High School student. Last November, the student was taken into custody by sheriff's deputies after he was spotted handing out Darvocet, the trade name for the opioid painkiller dextropropoxyphene. The student had worked as a pharmacy technician and was filling a prescription when he stole extra pills, according to police reports.
A teacher saw him hand a pill to a student complaining about pain in his ribs, police reports said.
Overdoses, on the other hand, are rare but still do happen, police say. Some don't result in death; others do. Just last month, an 18-year-old Portland-area high school senior overdosed on an oxycodone pill and died. Last week, three men pleaded guilty in connection with her death. The pill that she had smoked was prescribed to one of the defendants by a Vancouver doctor, according to court documents.
Last year, detectives investigated the death of a 12-year-old Clark County boy as a possible drug overdose because of a foamy substance found in the boy's nostrils, said Clark County sheriff's Detective Sgt. Dave Trimble. Lab results were inconclusive.
Out of control
Though Jeff Deschner had a history of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, he was a handsome, clean-cut and meticulously dressed kid from a good family. In his early teen years, he wasn't a known drug user.
That all changed after a Fort Vancouver High School football game his sophomore year. During the game, Deschner tore his anterior cruciate ligament in his knee and was prescribed Vicodin to relieve post-surgery pain.
Over the next few months, Deschner's doctor offered numerous refills, as the teen continued to complain about pain.
Deschner's mother spoke up: "I felt uncomfortable with it. I felt it was excessive," she said. "Every time I turned around, (the doctor) was writing a prescription."
It soon became apparent to his mother that the prescriptions were more than just for pain.
At one doctor's appointment, Deschner forged a prescription and later took it to a pharmacy. The clerk thought it looked suspicious, refused to fill it and notified the doctor and Deschner's parents.
He once underwent unnecessary dental work to obtain drugs.
His parents admitted him to an outpatient treatment center briefly at Southwest Washington Medical Center. His addiction persisted largely because, at that point, Deschner didn't want help.
Eventually local physicians and dentists started noticing the same drug-seeking trend with Deschner. He stopped receiving prescriptions for Vicodin. So he switched to heroin, an opioid with the same calming, euphoric effect.
After a series of arrests, Deschner decided he needed help. He tried several different treatment programs, mostly short-term. His parents, promising they would help him stay clean, invited him to come home.
That would last two or three days, and then Deschner would leave again.
In December 2003, Deschner told his parents he was going to the Seattle area to try a new treatment program. Instead, he visited a friend and the two went to a stranger's house.
The news came the next day to his parents, when they arrived home from a skiing trip to find a deputy medical examiner on their doorstep.
A lethal combination of methadone tablets and benzodiazepine, which is found in the anti-anxiety drugs Valium and Xanax, had stopped his heart.
The rest of the details are a mystery to his mother.
"I never thought he would die, because he had fought so hard," she said.
Since then, Kathy Deschner has made it a mission to warn teens of the dangers of all drugs, legal and illegal. She serves as co-chairwoman of the nonprofit Prevent! The Substance Abuse Coalition of Clark County, which was formed in 2007. The organization, made up of community members, hosts speakers and puts on events to raise awareness of drug and alcohol abuse.
In schools, resource officers are doing what they can. In January, officers underwent a specialized training course by a Washington State Patrol drug recognition expert to detect signs of prescription drug overuse.
In addition, both Vancouver Police Department and Clark County sheriff's resource officers have integrated prescription drug abuse into alcohol and drug abuse curriculum in schools.
Officials are on the right track, McCabe said, and he hopes these efforts will send a message of zero tolerance.
"There needs to be a tremendous amount of education that starts in the home and then school. Courts need to follow up with convictions," he said. "Education is going to be the big key" in prevention.
Still, there's a lot more that needs to be done to change teens' complacent mindset, Kathy Deschner said.
"Kids are using prescription drugs and they don't know how dangerous they are," she said. "It can be deadly quickly."
Call us today to discuss how the V.I.P. Way can free you from your Addiction and get your life back.
Call today: (800)276-7021 or (702)308-6353
Email: info@rapiddetoxlasvegas.com
Medical Director: Board-Certified by American Board of Anesthesiology 1994, former chief of cardiac anesthesia, University of Nevada School of Medicine.
Board-Certified by American Board of Pain Medicine 1997, Clinical Assistant Professor University Nevada School of Medicine
Legal as this: A scribbled piece of paper handed to him by a doctor more times than his mother can count.
The prescriptions were supposed to assuage a football injury. But they quickly consumed the Vancouver teen's mind and, eventually, his life. When he finally sought help, it was too late. The drug's grip was too firm.
Deschner died of an overdose Dec. 9, 2003 at age 24. When Vicodin pills weren't available, he turned to heroin. When he died, his system contained a mix of prescription drugs and methadone.
"As hard as he was battling it, I didn't think we would lose him," said his mother, Kathy Deschner. "Just because it's legal doesn't make it safe."
Prescription drug abuse is skyrocketing among Clark County teens for just that reason: Medication is easy to attain from a doctor and just as easy to swipe from a parent's medicine cabinet or accept from a friend at school.
At the height of Deschner's addiction, which started in the 1990s, prescription drug abuse was occasional. Today, police and chemical dependency counselors say painkillers are some of the fastest growing substances abused by teenagers.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse reported last year that while cigarette and alcohol use among teens declined, prescription drug abuse continued to rise.
Some officials liken the trend to the methamphetamine craze of the 1990s and early 2000s.
"It's the highest rate I've ever seen in my 15 years as a counselor," said Sheryl Smith, a crisis intervention counselor at Hudson's Bay High School.
Following the boom of the pharmaceutical industry, painkillers became more widely available, and teens, believing they're more benign than street drugs, smoke, snort or inject them.
Yet many prescription drugs, such as Vicodin or Oxycontin, can be fatal when mixed with other substances or taken at a strong enough dosage.
Surged among youth
Though evident in past decades, prescription drug abuse took off in 2005, particularly among those in their late teens to early 20s, said Jeff Beatty, a Kaiser Permanente chemical dependency counselor.
Nationwide, seven of the top 10 drugs abused by 12th-graders were prescribed or purchased over the counter, the 2008 NIDA survey found. The prescription drug trend transcends all social classes.
In Clark County, prescription drug abuse has risen at an "alarming rate" in schools, said sheriff's Sgt. Mike McCabe, who supervises the sheriff's school resource officers.
Teachers or officers find students handing out drugs in hallways, during classes or at lunch. On some occasions, students don't know what drug they're taking. They don't question the unidentified pills handed to them.
"In the past, we've focused on alcohol and (illicit) drugs, like marijuana," McCabe said. "That problem definitely still exists. This is a new trend. It's harder to detect than alcohol but equally as dangerous."
Law enforcement's greatest roadblock is the fact that most prescription drugs are odorless and symptoms nearly undetectable — unlike alcohol, which causes obvious physical signs.
Also, students can bring drugs to school and share with friends under the guise that "it's a prescription."
Officers catch some dealers on school grounds, but they believe the problem is widely unreported. "We're not catching that many, although in the past year we've seen an increase in arrests of students," McCabe said.
One person detained by officers was an 18-year-old Heritage High School student. Last November, the student was taken into custody by sheriff's deputies after he was spotted handing out Darvocet, the trade name for the opioid painkiller dextropropoxyphene. The student had worked as a pharmacy technician and was filling a prescription when he stole extra pills, according to police reports.
A teacher saw him hand a pill to a student complaining about pain in his ribs, police reports said.
Overdoses, on the other hand, are rare but still do happen, police say. Some don't result in death; others do. Just last month, an 18-year-old Portland-area high school senior overdosed on an oxycodone pill and died. Last week, three men pleaded guilty in connection with her death. The pill that she had smoked was prescribed to one of the defendants by a Vancouver doctor, according to court documents.
Last year, detectives investigated the death of a 12-year-old Clark County boy as a possible drug overdose because of a foamy substance found in the boy's nostrils, said Clark County sheriff's Detective Sgt. Dave Trimble. Lab results were inconclusive.
Out of control
Though Jeff Deschner had a history of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, he was a handsome, clean-cut and meticulously dressed kid from a good family. In his early teen years, he wasn't a known drug user.
That all changed after a Fort Vancouver High School football game his sophomore year. During the game, Deschner tore his anterior cruciate ligament in his knee and was prescribed Vicodin to relieve post-surgery pain.
Over the next few months, Deschner's doctor offered numerous refills, as the teen continued to complain about pain.
Deschner's mother spoke up: "I felt uncomfortable with it. I felt it was excessive," she said. "Every time I turned around, (the doctor) was writing a prescription."
It soon became apparent to his mother that the prescriptions were more than just for pain.
At one doctor's appointment, Deschner forged a prescription and later took it to a pharmacy. The clerk thought it looked suspicious, refused to fill it and notified the doctor and Deschner's parents.
He once underwent unnecessary dental work to obtain drugs.
His parents admitted him to an outpatient treatment center briefly at Southwest Washington Medical Center. His addiction persisted largely because, at that point, Deschner didn't want help.
Eventually local physicians and dentists started noticing the same drug-seeking trend with Deschner. He stopped receiving prescriptions for Vicodin. So he switched to heroin, an opioid with the same calming, euphoric effect.
After a series of arrests, Deschner decided he needed help. He tried several different treatment programs, mostly short-term. His parents, promising they would help him stay clean, invited him to come home.
That would last two or three days, and then Deschner would leave again.
In December 2003, Deschner told his parents he was going to the Seattle area to try a new treatment program. Instead, he visited a friend and the two went to a stranger's house.
The news came the next day to his parents, when they arrived home from a skiing trip to find a deputy medical examiner on their doorstep.
A lethal combination of methadone tablets and benzodiazepine, which is found in the anti-anxiety drugs Valium and Xanax, had stopped his heart.
The rest of the details are a mystery to his mother.
"I never thought he would die, because he had fought so hard," she said.
Since then, Kathy Deschner has made it a mission to warn teens of the dangers of all drugs, legal and illegal. She serves as co-chairwoman of the nonprofit Prevent! The Substance Abuse Coalition of Clark County, which was formed in 2007. The organization, made up of community members, hosts speakers and puts on events to raise awareness of drug and alcohol abuse.
In schools, resource officers are doing what they can. In January, officers underwent a specialized training course by a Washington State Patrol drug recognition expert to detect signs of prescription drug overuse.
In addition, both Vancouver Police Department and Clark County sheriff's resource officers have integrated prescription drug abuse into alcohol and drug abuse curriculum in schools.
Officials are on the right track, McCabe said, and he hopes these efforts will send a message of zero tolerance.
"There needs to be a tremendous amount of education that starts in the home and then school. Courts need to follow up with convictions," he said. "Education is going to be the big key" in prevention.
Still, there's a lot more that needs to be done to change teens' complacent mindset, Kathy Deschner said.
"Kids are using prescription drugs and they don't know how dangerous they are," she said. "It can be deadly quickly."
Call us today to discuss how the V.I.P. Way can free you from your Addiction and get your life back.
Call today: (800)276-7021 or (702)308-6353
Email: info@rapiddetoxlasvegas.com
Medical Director: Board-Certified by American Board of Anesthesiology 1994, former chief of cardiac anesthesia, University of Nevada School of Medicine.
Board-Certified by American Board of Pain Medicine 1997, Clinical Assistant Professor University Nevada School of Medicine
Sunday, March 8, 2009
On Staten Island, Rx drug abuse a teen epidemic
Gerard Lavelle, 21, was one of 23 young adults arrested in February in an oxycodone bust.
At first glance, the numbers seem jarring - 21,000 prescription painkillers put into the hands of teens and young adults, bought and sold by a makeshift cabal of nearly two dozen Staten Islanders, most in their early 20s.
But as the borough's law enforcement and health professionals tell it, last week's 23 arrests represent just the tip of a problem plaguing the borough's youth culture - teenagers and young adults across the Island experimenting with high-powered prescription drugs like Xanax, OxyContin and Vicodin, with often tragic and deadly results.
Click here for a graphic on drugs easily obtained through false prescriptions.
"It's widespread. It's a growing trend of recreational use mixed with drinking alcohol. It's highly addictive," says Luke Nasta, the executive director of Camelot Counseling Centers, who has seen a "gradual, steady increase" of teens coming in for prescription drug addiction over the past five years.
Now, he says, the majority of his center's teen clients are being treated for prescription drug abuse.
The 23 people arrested last week were particularly organized, says District Attorney Daniel Donovan, with the group's ringleader keeping track of when the other members of the circle could fill out their next prescription. Using a stolen prescription pad, they filled out 108 forged prescriptions for oxycodone at 14 different pharmacies, he says.
A single prescription can mean as many as 360 pills, Donovan says, "and a month later, you could buy another 360 pills again."
Still, he said, most abusers don't have to go to those lengths - "Right out of mom and dad's medicine cabinet is the easiest way," Donovan says. All too often, he adds, recreational abuse leads to addiction, further criminal acts, and tragedy.
Last June, a 17- and 16-year-old boyfriend-girlfriend team went on a burglary and robbery spree on the South Shore, telling police after they were caught they were stealing jewelry so they could buy "Xanax and beer." Both ended up serving time in state prison.
Teens frequently go "car-hopping," searching for unlocked cars to pillage, then sell whatever valuables they find inside so they can buy prescription drugs, Donovan says.
And over the past few years, autopsy results have linked several notable deaths on Staten Island to prescription drug abuse - 19-year-old Travis Nahas on Nov. 30, who overdosed on alcohol and oxycodone after a night on a "party bus," the March 2008 death of 21-year-old Alex Catrama, who died of a mix of oxycodone, alprazolam and amphetamine; the April 2007 death of Nicholas Caputo, 17, who overdosed on methadone and the painkiller Fentanyl; the July 2006 death of Nicholas Cutrone, 15, who was found in a stolen car, dead of a combination of oxycodone and lorazepam.
"This is serious stuff. Kids figure, 'I'm not shooting heroin, I'm not snorting cocaine, I'm not smoking crack.... This must be safe because an American pharmaceutical company made this,'" says Donovan says.
Anthony Fernandez, now 21, learned first-hand about the deadly effects as he got phone call after phone call informing him whenever one of his friends had died.
"I've gotten that phone call about 11 times. I've been to more wakes than I've been to birthday parties," he says. Now, he runs a memorial page on MySpace.com to commemorate Staten Islanders who died in their youth.
But during his teenage years, he says, he and his friends found a perverse humor in watching each other get high. By the time he was 14, "I started trying this, I started trying that," the Great Kills man says.
"I've been in brawls. I have a scar on the back of my head," he says, recounting a night when he was 17 years old and was jumped by a group wielding baseball bats. He needed 33 stitches after the attack, but that didn't phase him. "In the state of mind that I was in, I got up laughing."
Fernandez says he was jarred out of his reckless lifestyle by seeing so many around him die.
But too many others haven't gotten the message.
Instead of re-evaluating their own life, too many youths will simply light up a joint, or pop a pill in their dead friend's honor, and say, "This one's for you," says Nicholas Bregoli, 20, of Bulls Head.
Bregoli, who spent three weeks in a coma after a car wreck last June, last week made a public appeal to Staten Island's youth warning them not to repeat the reckless, drug- and booze-soaked mistakes of his teenage years.
Teens seem to have little problem finding pills, either - a 2008 study from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University showed nearly one in five teens surveyed said prescription drugs were easier to buy than beer.
When teens who know prescription drug abusers were asked where their acquaintances get their drugs, 34 percent said from home, parents or the medicine cabinet, while another 31 percent said from their friends or classmates.
"The streets, the schools, all you've got to do is make a call: 'I need three of those bars, I need two of those bars,'" Bregoli says.
"Everybody has an unlimited amount of connections," he says, since teens with access to prescription pills often make the easy transition into selling their surplus. "You get more popular, you make more money, and everybody knows your name - until you get caught."
Over the past 15 years, prescription drug abuse has significantly spiked among teens nationwide - between 1992 and 2002, prescription opiod abuse jumped 542 percent among 12 to 17 year olds, according to a study by the Columbia University center.
"Kids may preceive that prescription drugs aren't as dangerous as other drugs," says Kevin Conway, a deputy director with the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Parents need to take a close look at the kind of drugs in their medicine cabinets, he says. "If they don't need those drugs any longer for their pain, then maybe just pitch them."
And, he adds, the medical community should re-evaluate the quantity of pills prescribed. "Most people that suffer from an acute pain don't need a large supply of narcotics.
Camelot's Nasta officers similar advice to parents, and calls on them "to honestly assess your teen or young adult's behavior for oddities."
"Every individual household needs to know what prescriptions they have," Nasta says. "If they're no longer need for what the initial prescription was for, they should be thrown away, not saved."
Call us today to discuss how the V.I.P. Way can free you from your Addiction and get your life back.
Call today: (800)276-7021 or (702)308-6353
Email: info@rapiddetoxlasvegas.com
Medical Director: Board-Certified by American Board of Anesthesiology 1994, former chief of cardiac anesthesia, University of Nevada School of Medicine.
Board-Certified by American Board of Pain Medicine 1997, Clinical Assistant Professor University Nevada School of Medicine
At first glance, the numbers seem jarring - 21,000 prescription painkillers put into the hands of teens and young adults, bought and sold by a makeshift cabal of nearly two dozen Staten Islanders, most in their early 20s.
But as the borough's law enforcement and health professionals tell it, last week's 23 arrests represent just the tip of a problem plaguing the borough's youth culture - teenagers and young adults across the Island experimenting with high-powered prescription drugs like Xanax, OxyContin and Vicodin, with often tragic and deadly results.
Click here for a graphic on drugs easily obtained through false prescriptions.
"It's widespread. It's a growing trend of recreational use mixed with drinking alcohol. It's highly addictive," says Luke Nasta, the executive director of Camelot Counseling Centers, who has seen a "gradual, steady increase" of teens coming in for prescription drug addiction over the past five years.
Now, he says, the majority of his center's teen clients are being treated for prescription drug abuse.
The 23 people arrested last week were particularly organized, says District Attorney Daniel Donovan, with the group's ringleader keeping track of when the other members of the circle could fill out their next prescription. Using a stolen prescription pad, they filled out 108 forged prescriptions for oxycodone at 14 different pharmacies, he says.
A single prescription can mean as many as 360 pills, Donovan says, "and a month later, you could buy another 360 pills again."
Still, he said, most abusers don't have to go to those lengths - "Right out of mom and dad's medicine cabinet is the easiest way," Donovan says. All too often, he adds, recreational abuse leads to addiction, further criminal acts, and tragedy.
Last June, a 17- and 16-year-old boyfriend-girlfriend team went on a burglary and robbery spree on the South Shore, telling police after they were caught they were stealing jewelry so they could buy "Xanax and beer." Both ended up serving time in state prison.
Teens frequently go "car-hopping," searching for unlocked cars to pillage, then sell whatever valuables they find inside so they can buy prescription drugs, Donovan says.
And over the past few years, autopsy results have linked several notable deaths on Staten Island to prescription drug abuse - 19-year-old Travis Nahas on Nov. 30, who overdosed on alcohol and oxycodone after a night on a "party bus," the March 2008 death of 21-year-old Alex Catrama, who died of a mix of oxycodone, alprazolam and amphetamine; the April 2007 death of Nicholas Caputo, 17, who overdosed on methadone and the painkiller Fentanyl; the July 2006 death of Nicholas Cutrone, 15, who was found in a stolen car, dead of a combination of oxycodone and lorazepam.
"This is serious stuff. Kids figure, 'I'm not shooting heroin, I'm not snorting cocaine, I'm not smoking crack.... This must be safe because an American pharmaceutical company made this,'" says Donovan says.
Anthony Fernandez, now 21, learned first-hand about the deadly effects as he got phone call after phone call informing him whenever one of his friends had died.
"I've gotten that phone call about 11 times. I've been to more wakes than I've been to birthday parties," he says. Now, he runs a memorial page on MySpace.com to commemorate Staten Islanders who died in their youth.
But during his teenage years, he says, he and his friends found a perverse humor in watching each other get high. By the time he was 14, "I started trying this, I started trying that," the Great Kills man says.
"I've been in brawls. I have a scar on the back of my head," he says, recounting a night when he was 17 years old and was jumped by a group wielding baseball bats. He needed 33 stitches after the attack, but that didn't phase him. "In the state of mind that I was in, I got up laughing."
Fernandez says he was jarred out of his reckless lifestyle by seeing so many around him die.
But too many others haven't gotten the message.
Instead of re-evaluating their own life, too many youths will simply light up a joint, or pop a pill in their dead friend's honor, and say, "This one's for you," says Nicholas Bregoli, 20, of Bulls Head.
Bregoli, who spent three weeks in a coma after a car wreck last June, last week made a public appeal to Staten Island's youth warning them not to repeat the reckless, drug- and booze-soaked mistakes of his teenage years.
Teens seem to have little problem finding pills, either - a 2008 study from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University showed nearly one in five teens surveyed said prescription drugs were easier to buy than beer.
When teens who know prescription drug abusers were asked where their acquaintances get their drugs, 34 percent said from home, parents or the medicine cabinet, while another 31 percent said from their friends or classmates.
"The streets, the schools, all you've got to do is make a call: 'I need three of those bars, I need two of those bars,'" Bregoli says.
"Everybody has an unlimited amount of connections," he says, since teens with access to prescription pills often make the easy transition into selling their surplus. "You get more popular, you make more money, and everybody knows your name - until you get caught."
Over the past 15 years, prescription drug abuse has significantly spiked among teens nationwide - between 1992 and 2002, prescription opiod abuse jumped 542 percent among 12 to 17 year olds, according to a study by the Columbia University center.
"Kids may preceive that prescription drugs aren't as dangerous as other drugs," says Kevin Conway, a deputy director with the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Parents need to take a close look at the kind of drugs in their medicine cabinets, he says. "If they don't need those drugs any longer for their pain, then maybe just pitch them."
And, he adds, the medical community should re-evaluate the quantity of pills prescribed. "Most people that suffer from an acute pain don't need a large supply of narcotics.
Camelot's Nasta officers similar advice to parents, and calls on them "to honestly assess your teen or young adult's behavior for oddities."
"Every individual household needs to know what prescriptions they have," Nasta says. "If they're no longer need for what the initial prescription was for, they should be thrown away, not saved."
Call us today to discuss how the V.I.P. Way can free you from your Addiction and get your life back.
Call today: (800)276-7021 or (702)308-6353
Email: info@rapiddetoxlasvegas.com
Medical Director: Board-Certified by American Board of Anesthesiology 1994, former chief of cardiac anesthesia, University of Nevada School of Medicine.
Board-Certified by American Board of Pain Medicine 1997, Clinical Assistant Professor University Nevada School of Medicine
Generation Rx: The new way to use and abuse
The February newsletter from the Park City High School PTSO warned parents about an alarming trend pervading the teen party circuit. Pharm parties, also known as pill-popping or "fish bowl" parties, involve an assortment of prescription drugs and teenagers willing to pop a fistful of pills without knowing what they are or where they came from.
Teens who go to pharm parties partake in a dangerous guessing game. An assortment of pills is dumped into a bag or bowl and passed around, grab-bag style, so that everyone gets a handful of "party favors." The mix might include powerful pain pills such as Vicodin and OxyContin, sedatives such Valium and Xanax, and stimulants such as Ritalin and Adderall.
Recent statistics substantiate the growing concern regarding prescription drug abuse among teenagers. A 2008 study conducted by The Partnership for a Drug-Free America reports that one out of five American teens have experimented with prescription drugs. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, one quarter of the 1.3 million drug-related emergency room admissions in 2004 involved prescription and over-the-counter drugs.
Why are kids taking part in this dangerous phenomenon?
For one thing, prescription pills are often much easier (and cheaper) for teens to acquire than club drugs or street drugs. They collect pills from the medicine cabinets of friends and family members, order from illicit online pharmacies, or even exaggerate pain
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from sports-related injuries and other medical conditions to obtain prescriptions.
Since pills are relatively easy to get, many teens are willing to share or sell their drugs at a low price, explains Anna Williams, a child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist at Valley Mental Health in Park City. Even those who have no intention of abusing their prescription may be swayed to make a few bucks by selling what they don't use.
According to local pharmacist Steve Hamilton, teenagers also tend to share the misconception that because certain drugs are prescribed by a doctor, they provide a "safe" high. They don't recognize the risks associated with combining prescription medications or mixing drugs and alcohol.
Certain combinations of prescription drugs, especially when mixed with alcohol, can be lethal. One potentially fatal mixture is taking narcotics or sleeping pills and mixing them with alcohol, Hamilton warns.
"People shouldn't share drugs, and they certainly shouldn't take drugs that aren't prescribed to them," he says.
Should parents in Summit County be concerned?
Medical, pharmaceutical and law-enforcement employees in Park City say they are not aware of pharm parties taking place in Park City.
"I haven't heard of any incident along those lines involving Park City youth or residents," says Phil Kirk, a Park City police captain.
Hamilton, who is a pharmacist at The Market at Park City, explains that pill-popping parties are not something new. People did the same thing in the 60s at "fruit salad" or "salad bowl" parties, he explains. "It was a really bad idea then and it's a really bad idea now."
Williams says that in her practice, she does encounter prescription drug abuse on an individual basis. The most common instances involve young people sharing or selling stimulants such as Adderall. "I don't see it as often as marijuana or alcohol use, but it is not infrequent," she says. "Parents need to be in control of the intake and safekeeping of their child's medication."
Several students at Park City High School attest that pharm parties are not a regular occurrence. A 17-year-old commented that he had heard of such parties in Salt Lake, but not Park City.
There is some debate over whether pharm parties are as widespread and commonplace as the media portrays. However, experts agree that it is important for teens and parents to be aware of the hazards of abusing prescription drugs regardless of the circumstances surrounding the activity.
What can parents do to protect their kids?
The most important thing people can do to prevent prescription drug abuse is to properly dispose of leftover or unused medication, says Kirk. The Park City and Summit County police departments recently initiated a prescription drug disposal program, with designated receptacles at the Park City Police Department, 2060 Park Avenue, and the Summit County Justice Center, 6300 N. Silver Creek Drive.
"We've been very impressed with how many people have anonymously dropped off their prescription medications," says Kirk. We're surprised at how much we're getting each week and we're having to step up our efforts to process it all."
Parents should also talk to their children about prescription drug abuse. The Partnership for a Drug-Free America study revealed that only 24 percent of teens have talked with their parents about the dangers of taking prescription drugs without a doctor's supervision.
If you suspect your child has a problem with prescription drug use, a good place to start is with your local pharmacist or family physician, says Hamilton. Valley Mental Heath in Park City provides outpatient substance abuse services; For more information on prevention, intervention and treatment, visit
Call us today to discuss how the V.I.P. Way can free you from your Addiction and get your life back.
Call today: (800)276-7021 or (702)308-6353
Email: info@rapiddetoxlasvegas.com
Medical Director: Board-Certified by American Board of Anesthesiology 1994, former chief of cardiac anesthesia, University of Nevada School of Medicine.
Board-Certified by American Board of Pain Medicine 1997, Clinical Assistant Professor University Nevada School of Medicine
Teens who go to pharm parties partake in a dangerous guessing game. An assortment of pills is dumped into a bag or bowl and passed around, grab-bag style, so that everyone gets a handful of "party favors." The mix might include powerful pain pills such as Vicodin and OxyContin, sedatives such Valium and Xanax, and stimulants such as Ritalin and Adderall.
Recent statistics substantiate the growing concern regarding prescription drug abuse among teenagers. A 2008 study conducted by The Partnership for a Drug-Free America reports that one out of five American teens have experimented with prescription drugs. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, one quarter of the 1.3 million drug-related emergency room admissions in 2004 involved prescription and over-the-counter drugs.
Why are kids taking part in this dangerous phenomenon?
For one thing, prescription pills are often much easier (and cheaper) for teens to acquire than club drugs or street drugs. They collect pills from the medicine cabinets of friends and family members, order from illicit online pharmacies, or even exaggerate pain
Advertisement
from sports-related injuries and other medical conditions to obtain prescriptions.
Since pills are relatively easy to get, many teens are willing to share or sell their drugs at a low price, explains Anna Williams, a child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist at Valley Mental Health in Park City. Even those who have no intention of abusing their prescription may be swayed to make a few bucks by selling what they don't use.
According to local pharmacist Steve Hamilton, teenagers also tend to share the misconception that because certain drugs are prescribed by a doctor, they provide a "safe" high. They don't recognize the risks associated with combining prescription medications or mixing drugs and alcohol.
Certain combinations of prescription drugs, especially when mixed with alcohol, can be lethal. One potentially fatal mixture is taking narcotics or sleeping pills and mixing them with alcohol, Hamilton warns.
"People shouldn't share drugs, and they certainly shouldn't take drugs that aren't prescribed to them," he says.
Should parents in Summit County be concerned?
Medical, pharmaceutical and law-enforcement employees in Park City say they are not aware of pharm parties taking place in Park City.
"I haven't heard of any incident along those lines involving Park City youth or residents," says Phil Kirk, a Park City police captain.
Hamilton, who is a pharmacist at The Market at Park City, explains that pill-popping parties are not something new. People did the same thing in the 60s at "fruit salad" or "salad bowl" parties, he explains. "It was a really bad idea then and it's a really bad idea now."
Williams says that in her practice, she does encounter prescription drug abuse on an individual basis. The most common instances involve young people sharing or selling stimulants such as Adderall. "I don't see it as often as marijuana or alcohol use, but it is not infrequent," she says. "Parents need to be in control of the intake and safekeeping of their child's medication."
Several students at Park City High School attest that pharm parties are not a regular occurrence. A 17-year-old commented that he had heard of such parties in Salt Lake, but not Park City.
There is some debate over whether pharm parties are as widespread and commonplace as the media portrays. However, experts agree that it is important for teens and parents to be aware of the hazards of abusing prescription drugs regardless of the circumstances surrounding the activity.
What can parents do to protect their kids?
The most important thing people can do to prevent prescription drug abuse is to properly dispose of leftover or unused medication, says Kirk. The Park City and Summit County police departments recently initiated a prescription drug disposal program, with designated receptacles at the Park City Police Department, 2060 Park Avenue, and the Summit County Justice Center, 6300 N. Silver Creek Drive.
"We've been very impressed with how many people have anonymously dropped off their prescription medications," says Kirk. We're surprised at how much we're getting each week and we're having to step up our efforts to process it all."
Parents should also talk to their children about prescription drug abuse. The Partnership for a Drug-Free America study revealed that only 24 percent of teens have talked with their parents about the dangers of taking prescription drugs without a doctor's supervision.
If you suspect your child has a problem with prescription drug use, a good place to start is with your local pharmacist or family physician, says Hamilton. Valley Mental Heath in Park City provides outpatient substance abuse services; For more information on prevention, intervention and treatment, visit
Call us today to discuss how the V.I.P. Way can free you from your Addiction and get your life back.
Call today: (800)276-7021 or (702)308-6353
Email: info@rapiddetoxlasvegas.com
Medical Director: Board-Certified by American Board of Anesthesiology 1994, former chief of cardiac anesthesia, University of Nevada School of Medicine.
Board-Certified by American Board of Pain Medicine 1997, Clinical Assistant Professor University Nevada School of Medicine
Couple accused of prescription fraud
Couple accused of prescription fraud
A Brooksville couple has been accused of using phony prescriptions the woman stole from her boss, a local doctor, to obtain drugs.
Rebecca Merillo, 22, and Patrick Merillo, 25, of 8479 Cobb Road, were arrested Tuesday after staffers at the Sunshine Wellness Pharmacy contacted authorities over concerns about several prescriptions for the pain-killing drug Roxicodone.
The pharmacy worker told the Hernando County Sheriff's Office that "Rebecca'' was authorizing prescriptions from Dr. R.L. Rao to Patrick Merillo for 120 tablets of the drug.
Rao told deputies that the prescriptions were fraudulent.
According to an arrest report, Rebecca Merillo told investigators that she took a prescription form from Rao, filled it out and gave it to her husband. She also admitted authorizing the prescription when the pharmacy called Rao's office for verification.
Merillo told deputies her husband sold the pills because the couple needed money, the report states. Patrick Merillo denied selling the drugs, according to the report.
Rebecca and Patrick Merillo were each arrested on charges of conspiracy to traffic in drugs and were being held at the Hernando County jail on $50,000 bond each.
A Brooksville couple has been accused of using phony prescriptions the woman stole from her boss, a local doctor, to obtain drugs.
Rebecca Merillo, 22, and Patrick Merillo, 25, of 8479 Cobb Road, were arrested Tuesday after staffers at the Sunshine Wellness Pharmacy contacted authorities over concerns about several prescriptions for the pain-killing drug Roxicodone.
The pharmacy worker told the Hernando County Sheriff's Office that "Rebecca'' was authorizing prescriptions from Dr. R.L. Rao to Patrick Merillo for 120 tablets of the drug.
Rao told deputies that the prescriptions were fraudulent.
According to an arrest report, Rebecca Merillo told investigators that she took a prescription form from Rao, filled it out and gave it to her husband. She also admitted authorizing the prescription when the pharmacy called Rao's office for verification.
Merillo told deputies her husband sold the pills because the couple needed money, the report states. Patrick Merillo denied selling the drugs, according to the report.
Rebecca and Patrick Merillo were each arrested on charges of conspiracy to traffic in drugs and were being held at the Hernando County jail on $50,000 bond each.
The life of a hotel doctor: how many tablets in the bottle…?
If you Google the appropriate terms, including the year 2003, you'll find a story about a Los Angeles doctor who had trouble with the California Medical Board over his generosity in prescribing drugs to famous actresses. It's probably safe to name him, but two months ago I named another doctor, someone I liked and who often asked me to cover his very nice hotels. The column mentioned a few quirks but in friendly tone, a foolish mistake. Every writer knows that, aside from public figures, people who see their names in print are always outraged unless the contents are entirely flattering. He was outraged. He hasn't spoken to me since.
A hotel guest who wants a Demerol injection or Oxycontin pills must behave more or less like someone in pain. If he becomes too demanding, reckless, or reluctant to pay, even a generous doctor might wash his hand of him. Referring a disagreeable patient to another doctor is considered bad manners, but it happens.
"Incredible! You answered the phone! I never called a doctor who answered the phone himself!"
"I'm one of the few."
"The concierge gave me your number. Janice. It's a weird situation, but I swear it's the truth, and I need your help. Desperately."
Another drug abuser. Not all called after midnight but a fair number did. While this is an invented scenario, you have my word that I've engaged in identical dialogues dozens of times.
"I came back to the room, and my medication was gone. The maid threw it out when she cleaned. Can you help me?"
"What was your medication?" Guests often called for missing prescriptions, but there was no chance this gentleman needed penicillin or heart pills.
"Vicodin. I've had four back operations."
"And how many tablets in the bottle?"
"Almost two hundred. That's how many my doctor gives."
My wife disliked being awakened, but she kept quiet if it sounded like the caller was in distress. Long experience hearing ‘and how many tablets...' persuaded her this was not one of those cases, and she began suggesting I get off the phone.
"I swear it's true. I've had four back operations, and I'm in constant pain. I have meetings all week, and I can't function without medication."
"That's a lot of Vicodin."
"Check me out. I'll show you the scars. I need your help. Please."
A combination of hydrocodone and Tylenol (Vicodin, Lortab) may be the most popular prescription drug in the US. Ironically, narcotics (the class that includes Vicodin, Percodan, heroin, Oxycontin, and morphine) are safer than the other class of pain remedies, the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories (Advil, Motrin, Naproxen, aspirin) because they don't cause GI bleeding. But they are addictive in people inclined to addiction.
The world is not divided into addicts and normal people. Plenty of individuals take more drugs than they should and for the wrong reasons but continue to lead productive lives. It depends on the drug. You can't do this with speed. Speed drugs like amphetamines and cocaine poison tissues, the brain most of all, so the lives of heavy users eventually fall apart. Alcohol is also a toxin; alcoholics ruin their health. This doesn't seem true for narcotics. One can consume high doses for a lifetime with no noticeable harm except chronic constipation. Street addicts die from overdoses, contaminated drugs, disease spread from dirty needles, and violence. In countries that provide clean narcotics, addicts enjoy a normal life expectancy.
No one objects to giving narcotics for a fatal illness like cancer. Experts once frowned on narcotics to treat chronic pain such as arthritis; nowadays they're sometimes prescribed. They are probably useful for selected patients who have a doctor who pays attention, but there's no denying too many people are taking more narcotics than they need. Good doctors object because there are better methods of treating chronic pain, although these methods take more time. Moralists object on the grounds that doctors should make patients feel normal but never happier than normal (Peter Kramer, a psychiatrist, delivers a delightful discussion of that subject in Listening to Prozac).
"As a hotel doctor, I encounter this problem now and then..."
"I swear I'm not a junkie, Doctor Oppenheim. I have chronic spinal pain, and I'm under a doctor's care."
"I'm glad to hear that, because before I prescribe narcotics I have to speak to your doctor."
"He's in New York. It's five a.m. in New York."
"I know. So I'm going to phone three piroxicam to the all-night Walgreen's at Santa Monica and Lincoln. Tell your doctor to call me tomorrow." Piroxicam is a good pain remedy but not a narcotic.
"He's on vacation. A hundred Vicodin. I'm begging you!"
"Three piroxicam is my limit until I talk to your doctor."
"The damn hotel threw out two hundred pills! They said you'd replace them!"
"I don't work for the hotel."
"Where is Doctor (censored) when I need him? He never gave me this hassle. Do you have his number?"
"It sounds this is unacceptable to you. So..."
"I'll take the piroxicam."
This would satisfy him till morning; the odds were one hundred percent his doctor wouldn't call, but he would, and I'd refuse more pills. There was a small chance he'd move to another hotel and pester another doctor. There was a large chance he'd behave in a sufficiently obnoxious manner that, after a few days, the exasperated hotel staff would take any complaint about me with a grain of salt.
Doctor Oppenheim has been a hotel doctor in Los Angeles for thirty years. He has made about 15,000 visits.
Authors contact:
Mike Oppenheim
Email: michaeloppen@yahoo.com.
Related articles
* Advice from a Hotel Doctor
* Freebies and dodging bullets
* How I became America’s only fulltime hotel doctor
* Saving a hotel's Bacon
* The life of a hotel doctor
* The life of a hotel doctor: Competitors
* The life of a hotel doctor: Getting help
* The life of a hotel doctor: I receive an official reprimand
* The life of a hotel doctor: Referral fees
* The life of a hotel doctor: Stepping on toes
Call us today to discuss how the V.I.P. Way can free you from your Addiction and get your life back.
Call today: (800)276-7021 or (702)308-6353
Email: info@rapiddetoxlasvegas.com
Medical Director: Board-Certified by American Board of Anesthesiology 1994, former chief of cardiac anesthesia, University of Nevada School of Medicine.
Board-Certified by American Board of Pain Medicine 1997, Clinical Assistant Professor University Nevada School of Medicine
A hotel guest who wants a Demerol injection or Oxycontin pills must behave more or less like someone in pain. If he becomes too demanding, reckless, or reluctant to pay, even a generous doctor might wash his hand of him. Referring a disagreeable patient to another doctor is considered bad manners, but it happens.
"Incredible! You answered the phone! I never called a doctor who answered the phone himself!"
"I'm one of the few."
"The concierge gave me your number. Janice. It's a weird situation, but I swear it's the truth, and I need your help. Desperately."
Another drug abuser. Not all called after midnight but a fair number did. While this is an invented scenario, you have my word that I've engaged in identical dialogues dozens of times.
"I came back to the room, and my medication was gone. The maid threw it out when she cleaned. Can you help me?"
"What was your medication?" Guests often called for missing prescriptions, but there was no chance this gentleman needed penicillin or heart pills.
"Vicodin. I've had four back operations."
"And how many tablets in the bottle?"
"Almost two hundred. That's how many my doctor gives."
My wife disliked being awakened, but she kept quiet if it sounded like the caller was in distress. Long experience hearing ‘and how many tablets...' persuaded her this was not one of those cases, and she began suggesting I get off the phone.
"I swear it's true. I've had four back operations, and I'm in constant pain. I have meetings all week, and I can't function without medication."
"That's a lot of Vicodin."
"Check me out. I'll show you the scars. I need your help. Please."
A combination of hydrocodone and Tylenol (Vicodin, Lortab) may be the most popular prescription drug in the US. Ironically, narcotics (the class that includes Vicodin, Percodan, heroin, Oxycontin, and morphine) are safer than the other class of pain remedies, the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories (Advil, Motrin, Naproxen, aspirin) because they don't cause GI bleeding. But they are addictive in people inclined to addiction.
The world is not divided into addicts and normal people. Plenty of individuals take more drugs than they should and for the wrong reasons but continue to lead productive lives. It depends on the drug. You can't do this with speed. Speed drugs like amphetamines and cocaine poison tissues, the brain most of all, so the lives of heavy users eventually fall apart. Alcohol is also a toxin; alcoholics ruin their health. This doesn't seem true for narcotics. One can consume high doses for a lifetime with no noticeable harm except chronic constipation. Street addicts die from overdoses, contaminated drugs, disease spread from dirty needles, and violence. In countries that provide clean narcotics, addicts enjoy a normal life expectancy.
No one objects to giving narcotics for a fatal illness like cancer. Experts once frowned on narcotics to treat chronic pain such as arthritis; nowadays they're sometimes prescribed. They are probably useful for selected patients who have a doctor who pays attention, but there's no denying too many people are taking more narcotics than they need. Good doctors object because there are better methods of treating chronic pain, although these methods take more time. Moralists object on the grounds that doctors should make patients feel normal but never happier than normal (Peter Kramer, a psychiatrist, delivers a delightful discussion of that subject in Listening to Prozac).
"As a hotel doctor, I encounter this problem now and then..."
"I swear I'm not a junkie, Doctor Oppenheim. I have chronic spinal pain, and I'm under a doctor's care."
"I'm glad to hear that, because before I prescribe narcotics I have to speak to your doctor."
"He's in New York. It's five a.m. in New York."
"I know. So I'm going to phone three piroxicam to the all-night Walgreen's at Santa Monica and Lincoln. Tell your doctor to call me tomorrow." Piroxicam is a good pain remedy but not a narcotic.
"He's on vacation. A hundred Vicodin. I'm begging you!"
"Three piroxicam is my limit until I talk to your doctor."
"The damn hotel threw out two hundred pills! They said you'd replace them!"
"I don't work for the hotel."
"Where is Doctor (censored) when I need him? He never gave me this hassle. Do you have his number?"
"It sounds this is unacceptable to you. So..."
"I'll take the piroxicam."
This would satisfy him till morning; the odds were one hundred percent his doctor wouldn't call, but he would, and I'd refuse more pills. There was a small chance he'd move to another hotel and pester another doctor. There was a large chance he'd behave in a sufficiently obnoxious manner that, after a few days, the exasperated hotel staff would take any complaint about me with a grain of salt.
Doctor Oppenheim has been a hotel doctor in Los Angeles for thirty years. He has made about 15,000 visits.
Authors contact:
Mike Oppenheim
Email: michaeloppen@yahoo.com.
Related articles
* Advice from a Hotel Doctor
* Freebies and dodging bullets
* How I became America’s only fulltime hotel doctor
* Saving a hotel's Bacon
* The life of a hotel doctor
* The life of a hotel doctor: Competitors
* The life of a hotel doctor: Getting help
* The life of a hotel doctor: I receive an official reprimand
* The life of a hotel doctor: Referral fees
* The life of a hotel doctor: Stepping on toes
Call us today to discuss how the V.I.P. Way can free you from your Addiction and get your life back.
Call today: (800)276-7021 or (702)308-6353
Email: info@rapiddetoxlasvegas.com
Medical Director: Board-Certified by American Board of Anesthesiology 1994, former chief of cardiac anesthesia, University of Nevada School of Medicine.
Board-Certified by American Board of Pain Medicine 1997, Clinical Assistant Professor University Nevada School of Medicine
High usage levels of hydrocodone and oxycodone in Oklahoma raise addiction concerns
Two years ago, after Jason was in a car accident, his doctor prescribed pain medicine to help with his whiplash and muscle soreness. Today, the Bethany man and his wife are fighting an addiction that has threatened their jobs, relations with friends and family, their finances and their health.
Two years ago, after Jason was in a car accident, his doctor prescribed pain medicine to help with his whiplash and muscle soreness.
Fortunately, they found the motivation they need to get clean.
"Me and my wife want to have a baby,” Jason, 23, said.
Jason and Amy (patients and family members in this story asked that their real names be withheld) are among thousands of Oklahomans, many of them young people, who have become addicted to opiate-based prescription painkillers. Included are hydrocodone, sold under brand names including Lortab and Vicodin, and the stronger oxycodone, with brand names such as OxyContin and Percocet.
"Meth is not the big deal anymore,” said Eric, 20, a Yukon man who progressed from snorting oxycodone to injecting it up to 12 times a day.
According to the state Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, 111 million doses of hydrocodone are prescribed every month in Oklahoma, enough for one dose every day for every person in the state. Oklahoma consumes as much hydrocodone as California, which has 10 times the population.
"That’s crazy,” bureau spokesman Mark Woodward said. "We’ve seen huge increases in the last 10 years, just the amounts of them being filled.”
Dr. Charles Shaw has seen the effects. As an "addictionologist,” one of the relatively small number of physicians who specialize in treating addiction, and a recovering alcoholic who has been sober for 26 years, Shaw considers the current use and abuse of prescription painkillers an epidemic. He says pharmaceutical companies market them aggressively, government drug agencies "have dropped the ball” in controlling their use, and physicians who prescribe them get almost no training on addiction. Shaw is speaking out because of his experiences in treating addicts.
"I kept seeing over and over and over people in their 20s addicted to OxyContin,” he said. "Once they took it, they could never get off of it.”
OC, or oxy as it’s known on the street, is the only opiate that can be swallowed, snorted or injected, Shaw said. "It’s just like heroin in pill form. It is worse than heroin.”
The first time Eric, son of an upper-middle-class couple, tried oxy, he was in ninth grade. He got sick and didn’t try again until he was 18, and a roommate gave him some.
"I just really liked the high,” Eric recalled. "It just makes your body feel really, really good. It just triggers your happy sense.” Of course, after using it regularly for a short period, the high goes away, and you just take it to keep from facing the miserable withdrawal, he said.
"I wasn’t doing it just for the high anymore. I was doing it just to get through my day.”
Eric sold much of the plentiful oxy he obtained from sources, some of whom were patients who didn’t use all of their prescriptions, and he used the rest himself. It stopped one day when he was 20 and checked himself into a rehab clinic.
"I was just really tired of having to sell pills to support my habit,” he said.
Oxycodone is excellent for killing pain. OxyContin can last 12 hours. But such drugs also can make any person who uses them, even as prescribed, physically addicted, Shaw said. A person who has used them regularly must be weaned off of them slowly to avoid painful withdrawal symptoms, Shaw said.
Amy, 23, recalls suffering severe headaches, aches and pains, diarrhea and other flulike withdrawal symptoms from the painkillers.
"Basically, it just tears your whole body apart,” she said.
Linda, whose son Austin turned out to be hooked on oxycodone, said she now knows the illnesses he complained about while home from college between semesters were withdrawal symptoms. "It answers a lot of questions,” she said, looking back.
The symptoms were so serious, she took her son, an honors student who quit college only a few hours short of his bachelor’s degree, to the hospital. Staff there "acted really, really rude to us,” Linda recalled. "Now I know why. They knew what it was. And I looked like an idiot.”
For Linda, learning the truth explained her son’s other behaviors that had puzzled her — the dropping grades, the extra thousands of dollars he begged from his parents while still falling behind on rent and car payments. "Come to find out, he was just recycling the money and purchasing drugs with it,” Linda said.
To escape, the addict needs motivation. For Austin, watching the documentary "Crystal Darkness” about methamphetamine abuse convinced him to sign up for rehab, Linda said. Today Austin, who has a good job, is working hard to raise his young daughter with the girl’s mother, who is leery of marriage because of his addiction, Linda said.
For Jason and Amy, motivation came from the idea of a normal life with money to spend on things other than drugs. And more.
"All of our friends have kids, and we’ve been wanting to have kids,” Jason said. "This was just one thing in our way.”
Still, the drugs can be found everywhere, from a parent’s medicine cabinet to friends at school
"That’s the hardest thing,” Linda said, "how accessible they are.”
Call us today to discuss how the V.I.P. Way can free you from your Addiction and get your life back.
Call today: (800)276-7021 or (702)308-6353
Email: info@rapiddetoxlasvegas.com
Medical Director: Board-Certified by American Board of Anesthesiology 1994, former chief of cardiac anesthesia, University of Nevada School of Medicine.
Board-Certified by American Board of Pain Medicine 1997, Clinical Assistant Professor University Nevada School of Medicine
Two years ago, after Jason was in a car accident, his doctor prescribed pain medicine to help with his whiplash and muscle soreness.
Fortunately, they found the motivation they need to get clean.
"Me and my wife want to have a baby,” Jason, 23, said.
Jason and Amy (patients and family members in this story asked that their real names be withheld) are among thousands of Oklahomans, many of them young people, who have become addicted to opiate-based prescription painkillers. Included are hydrocodone, sold under brand names including Lortab and Vicodin, and the stronger oxycodone, with brand names such as OxyContin and Percocet.
"Meth is not the big deal anymore,” said Eric, 20, a Yukon man who progressed from snorting oxycodone to injecting it up to 12 times a day.
According to the state Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, 111 million doses of hydrocodone are prescribed every month in Oklahoma, enough for one dose every day for every person in the state. Oklahoma consumes as much hydrocodone as California, which has 10 times the population.
"That’s crazy,” bureau spokesman Mark Woodward said. "We’ve seen huge increases in the last 10 years, just the amounts of them being filled.”
Dr. Charles Shaw has seen the effects. As an "addictionologist,” one of the relatively small number of physicians who specialize in treating addiction, and a recovering alcoholic who has been sober for 26 years, Shaw considers the current use and abuse of prescription painkillers an epidemic. He says pharmaceutical companies market them aggressively, government drug agencies "have dropped the ball” in controlling their use, and physicians who prescribe them get almost no training on addiction. Shaw is speaking out because of his experiences in treating addicts.
"I kept seeing over and over and over people in their 20s addicted to OxyContin,” he said. "Once they took it, they could never get off of it.”
OC, or oxy as it’s known on the street, is the only opiate that can be swallowed, snorted or injected, Shaw said. "It’s just like heroin in pill form. It is worse than heroin.”
The first time Eric, son of an upper-middle-class couple, tried oxy, he was in ninth grade. He got sick and didn’t try again until he was 18, and a roommate gave him some.
"I just really liked the high,” Eric recalled. "It just makes your body feel really, really good. It just triggers your happy sense.” Of course, after using it regularly for a short period, the high goes away, and you just take it to keep from facing the miserable withdrawal, he said.
"I wasn’t doing it just for the high anymore. I was doing it just to get through my day.”
Eric sold much of the plentiful oxy he obtained from sources, some of whom were patients who didn’t use all of their prescriptions, and he used the rest himself. It stopped one day when he was 20 and checked himself into a rehab clinic.
"I was just really tired of having to sell pills to support my habit,” he said.
Oxycodone is excellent for killing pain. OxyContin can last 12 hours. But such drugs also can make any person who uses them, even as prescribed, physically addicted, Shaw said. A person who has used them regularly must be weaned off of them slowly to avoid painful withdrawal symptoms, Shaw said.
Amy, 23, recalls suffering severe headaches, aches and pains, diarrhea and other flulike withdrawal symptoms from the painkillers.
"Basically, it just tears your whole body apart,” she said.
Linda, whose son Austin turned out to be hooked on oxycodone, said she now knows the illnesses he complained about while home from college between semesters were withdrawal symptoms. "It answers a lot of questions,” she said, looking back.
The symptoms were so serious, she took her son, an honors student who quit college only a few hours short of his bachelor’s degree, to the hospital. Staff there "acted really, really rude to us,” Linda recalled. "Now I know why. They knew what it was. And I looked like an idiot.”
For Linda, learning the truth explained her son’s other behaviors that had puzzled her — the dropping grades, the extra thousands of dollars he begged from his parents while still falling behind on rent and car payments. "Come to find out, he was just recycling the money and purchasing drugs with it,” Linda said.
To escape, the addict needs motivation. For Austin, watching the documentary "Crystal Darkness” about methamphetamine abuse convinced him to sign up for rehab, Linda said. Today Austin, who has a good job, is working hard to raise his young daughter with the girl’s mother, who is leery of marriage because of his addiction, Linda said.
For Jason and Amy, motivation came from the idea of a normal life with money to spend on things other than drugs. And more.
"All of our friends have kids, and we’ve been wanting to have kids,” Jason said. "This was just one thing in our way.”
Still, the drugs can be found everywhere, from a parent’s medicine cabinet to friends at school
"That’s the hardest thing,” Linda said, "how accessible they are.”
Call us today to discuss how the V.I.P. Way can free you from your Addiction and get your life back.
Call today: (800)276-7021 or (702)308-6353
Email: info@rapiddetoxlasvegas.com
Medical Director: Board-Certified by American Board of Anesthesiology 1994, former chief of cardiac anesthesia, University of Nevada School of Medicine.
Board-Certified by American Board of Pain Medicine 1997, Clinical Assistant Professor University Nevada School of Medicine
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