By Dan Abendschein, Staff Writer
Posted: 04/03/2009 05:13:54 PM PDT
PASADENA - A trial scheduled to begin next week for a Duarte doctor and his assistant accused by federal authorities of narcotics trafficking will be postponed, officials said Friday.
Prosecutors and attorneys for both defendants agreed to the delay to give both sides more time to prepare, defense attorney Randy Driggs said.
A federal grand jury last month indicted Dr. Daniel Healy of Arcadia and his assistant, Alvaro Rosales of Chino Hills, on 16 drug-related charges. Rosales was additionally indicted on one drug conspiracy charge.
Authorities accused Healy of running a cash-only medical practices in Duarte and Rancho Cucamonga that illegally provided massive amounts of prescription drugs to people he knew and trusted, including his sons and their friends.
The narcotics later were often sold on the street, according to the indictment.
Drug databases maintained by the federal government show that Healy dispensed more than 1 million pills of hydrocodone tablets last year, more than any other doctor in the nation. Hydrocodone is more commonly known as Vicodin.
Investigators calculated that, based on the hours of operation at Healy's clinic, he dispensed an average of 521 hydrocodone pills an hour.
Healy often asked patients if they preferred a "family size" or "party size" bottle of narcotics, according to a federal criminal complaint.
Rosales also prescribed and distributed pills, even though he was not
a doctor, court records allege. He has a degree in medicine from a university in Guadalajara, Mexico, according to authorities, but is not licensed to practice in the United States.
Call us today to discuss how the V.I.P. Way can free you from your opiate dependency 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.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Two Young Callaway Girls Busted after Attempting To Sell Oxycodone to Undercover Agents
An undercover drug deal worked by the Special Investigations Division of the Bay County Sheriff’s Office landed two women in the Bay County Jail Thursday night.
Jamie Catherine Overstreet, of Callaway, and April Dawn Hamblin, were arrested after they attempted to sell the powerful pain killer oxycodone to undercover narcotics officers Thursday evening in Callaway.
Overstreet and Hamblin stated to investigators they had just returned from Fort Lauderdale and had obtained the pills from doctors in Broward County. Both were charged with Possession With Intent to Distribute and Attempted Sale of Oxycodone.
Oxycodone is the opioid pain medication found in Percocet, Percodan, and OxyContin. Broward County currently leads the nation in the amount of Oxycodone dispensed directly by physicians, second only to neighboring Palm Beach County.
The top 25 physicians in the United States who received the largest quantities of Oxycodone for direct dispensing from their offices all operate in the state of Florida.
Eighteen were working in Broward County with the remaining seven from four other Florida counties.
Call us today to discuss how the V.I.P. Way can free you from your opiate dependency 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.
Jamie Catherine Overstreet, of Callaway, and April Dawn Hamblin, were arrested after they attempted to sell the powerful pain killer oxycodone to undercover narcotics officers Thursday evening in Callaway.
Overstreet and Hamblin stated to investigators they had just returned from Fort Lauderdale and had obtained the pills from doctors in Broward County. Both were charged with Possession With Intent to Distribute and Attempted Sale of Oxycodone.
Oxycodone is the opioid pain medication found in Percocet, Percodan, and OxyContin. Broward County currently leads the nation in the amount of Oxycodone dispensed directly by physicians, second only to neighboring Palm Beach County.
The top 25 physicians in the United States who received the largest quantities of Oxycodone for direct dispensing from their offices all operate in the state of Florida.
Eighteen were working in Broward County with the remaining seven from four other Florida counties.
Call us today to discuss how the V.I.P. Way can free you from your opiate dependency 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.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Pill parties are the fad now among youth, prosecutors say.
ALBANY — Dougherty County’s top drug crime prosecutor said last week that abuse of prescription drugs is expected to exceed the methamphetamine epidemic.
Painkillers like Oxycontin, Oxycodone and Methadone are rapidly becoming the most abused drugs in the area, Assistant District Attorney Brumby Montgerard told members of the Albany Rotary Club.
"When used as doctors prescribe, the drugs are perfectly safe," Montgerard said. "But when they are overused, or mixed with other pills or drugs, they can be deadly."
Montgerard said in Dougherty County prescription drug abuse doesn’t limit itself to any particular social or economic sphere.
"We see housewives who have injured their hips who become addicted and an 18 year-old girl with Crohn’s Disease who was taking 90 Oxycodone pills every two days, so its not limited to any one group," she said.
Prosecutors say that the fastest growing group of abusers of prescription pills are nurses, doctors and other staff in doctors’ offices who have easy access to prescription pads.
"These people know the terminology used to write prescriptions and some will just take a prescription for like allergy medicine and alter it as they need it," she said.
Montgerard said that deaths from prescription pill abuse are climbing. In 2004, the most recent data available, 90 people died in Georgia from Methadone abuse, almost double the number who died in 2001.
Young people are becoming more involved in pill or "pharm" parties where participants steal their parents or grandparents prescriptions, put them in a bowl at the party and take pills by the handfuls.
Call us today to discuss how the V.I.P. Way can free you from your opiate dependency 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.
Painkillers like Oxycontin, Oxycodone and Methadone are rapidly becoming the most abused drugs in the area, Assistant District Attorney Brumby Montgerard told members of the Albany Rotary Club.
"When used as doctors prescribe, the drugs are perfectly safe," Montgerard said. "But when they are overused, or mixed with other pills or drugs, they can be deadly."
Montgerard said in Dougherty County prescription drug abuse doesn’t limit itself to any particular social or economic sphere.
"We see housewives who have injured their hips who become addicted and an 18 year-old girl with Crohn’s Disease who was taking 90 Oxycodone pills every two days, so its not limited to any one group," she said.
Prosecutors say that the fastest growing group of abusers of prescription pills are nurses, doctors and other staff in doctors’ offices who have easy access to prescription pads.
"These people know the terminology used to write prescriptions and some will just take a prescription for like allergy medicine and alter it as they need it," she said.
Montgerard said that deaths from prescription pill abuse are climbing. In 2004, the most recent data available, 90 people died in Georgia from Methadone abuse, almost double the number who died in 2001.
Young people are becoming more involved in pill or "pharm" parties where participants steal their parents or grandparents prescriptions, put them in a bowl at the party and take pills by the handfuls.
Call us today to discuss how the V.I.P. Way can free you from your opiate dependency 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.
SWEET POISON/ A MUST READ
Read this for what's it's worth. The government and Urban Legends
dispute the claims in this article, but drinking 4-6 Diet Cokes/Pepsi
every day probably isn't a good idea from a health standpoint,
especially if that person is exhibiting any of the symptoms described
in this article.
In October of 2001, my sister started getting very sick.She had stomach spasms and she was having a hard time getting around. Walking was a major chore.It took everything she had just to get out of bed; she was in so much pain.
By March 2002, she had undergone several tissue and muscle biopsies
and was on 24 various prescription medications.The doctors could not determine what was wrong with her.
She was in so much pain, and so sick she just knew she was dying. She put her house, bank accounts, life insurance, etc., in her oldest daughter's name, and made sure that her younger children were to be taken care of.
She also wanted her last hooray, so she planned a trip to Florida
(basically in a wheelchair) for March 22nd.
On March 19 I called her to ask how her most recent tests went, and she said they didn't find anything on the test, but they believe she had MS.
I recalled an article a friend of mine e-mailed to me and I asked my
sister if she drank diet soda? She told me that she did. As a matter of fact, she was getting ready to crack one open that moment.
I told her not to open it, and to stop drinking the diet soda! I e-mailed her article my friend, a lawyer, had sent.
My sister called me within 32 hours after our phone conversation and told me she had stopped drinking the diet soda AND she could walk!
The muscle spasms went away. She said she didn't feel 100% but, she sure felt a lot better.
She told me she was going to her doctor with this article and would
call me when she got home. Well, she called me, and said her doctor was amazed!
He is going to call all of his MS patients to find out if they
consumed artificial sweeteners of any kind.
In a nutshell, she was being poisoned by the Aspartame in the diet
soda...and literally dying a slow and miserable death.
When she got to Florida March 22, all she had to take was one pill,
and that was a pill for the Aspartame poisoning! She is well on her way to a complete recovery. And she is walking! No wheelchair!
This article saved her life. If it says 'SUGAR FREE' on the label;
DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!
I have spent several days lecturing at the WORLD ENVIRONMENTAL CONFERENCE on 'ASPARTAME,' marketed as
'Nutra Sweet,'
'Equal,' and
'Spoonful.'
In the keynote address by the EPA, it was announced that in the United States in 2001 there is an epidemic of multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus.
It was difficult to determine exactly what toxin was causing this to be rampant. I stood up and said that I was there to lecture on exactly that
subject.. I will explain why Aspartame is so dangerous:
When the temperature of this sweetener exceeds 86 degrees F, the wood alcohol in ASPARTAME converts to formaldehyde and then to formic acid, which in turn causes metabolic acidosis. Formic acid is the poison found in the sting of fire ants.
The methanol toxicity mimics, among other conditions, multiple
sclerosis and systemic lupus. Many people were being diagnosed in error. Although multiple sclerosis is not a death sentence, Methanol toxicity is!
Systemic lupus has become almost as rampant as multiple sclerosis,
especially with Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi drinkers. The victim usually does not know that the Aspartame is the culprit.
He or she continues its use; irritating the lupus to such a degree
that it may become a life-threatening condition. We have seen patients with systemic lupus become asymptotic, once taken off diet sodas.
In cases of those diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, most of the
symptoms disappear. We've seen many cases where vision loss returned and hearing loss improved markedly. This also applies to cases of tinnitus and fibromyalgia.
During a lecture, I said, 'If you are using ASPARTAME (Nutra Sweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc) and you suffer from fibromyalgia symptoms,
spasms,shooting,pains,numbness in your legs, Cramps, Vertigo, Dizziness, Headaches,Tinnitus,Joint pain, unexplainable depression, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, blurred vision, or memory loss you probably have ASPARTAME poisoning!' People were jumping up during the lecture saying,'I have some of these symptoms.
Is it reversible?'Yes! Yes! Yes!
STOP drinking diet sodas and be alert for Aspartame on food labels! Many products are fortified with it! This is a serious problem.
Dr. Espart (one of my speakers) remarked that so many people seem to be symptomatic for MS and during his recent visit to a hospice; a nurse stated that six of her friends, who were heavy Diet Coke addicts, had all been diagnosed with MS. This is beyond coincidence!
Diet soda is NOT a diet product! It is a chemically altered, multiple
SODIUM (salt) and ASPARTAME containing product that actually makes you crave carbohydrates. It is far more likely to make you GAIN weight!
These products also contain formaldehyde, which stores in the fat
cells, particularly in the hips and thighs.
Formaldehyde is an absolute toxin and is used primarily to preserve
'tissue specimens.'Many products we use every day contain this chemical but we SHOULD NOT store it IN our body!
Dr. H. J. Roberts stated in his lectures that once free of the 'diet
products' and with no significant increase in exercise; his patients
lost an average of 19 pounds over a trial period.
Aspartame is especially dangerous for diabetics. We found that some physicians, who believed that they had a patient with retinopathy, in fact, had symptoms caused by Aspartame. The Aspartame drives the blood sugar out of control.
Thus diabetics may suffer acute memory loss due to the fact that
aspartic acid and phenylalanine are NEUROTOXIC when taken without the
other amino acids necessary for a good balance.
Treating diabetes is all about BALANCE.
Especially with diabetics, the Aspartame passes the blood/brain
barrier and it then deteriorates the neurons of the brain;
causing various levels of brain damage,Seizures,Depression,
Manic depression,Panic attacks,Uncontrollable anger and rage.
Consumption of Aspartame causes these same symptoms in non-diabetics as well.
Documentation and observation also reveal that thousands of children
diagnosed with ADD and ADHD have had complete turnarounds in their
behavior when these chemicals have been removed from their diet.
So called 'behavior modification prescription drugs' (Ritalin and
others) are no longer needed. Truth be told, they were never NEEDED in the first place! Most of these children were being 'poisoned' on a daily basis with the
very foods that were 'better for them than sugar.'
It is also suspected that the Aspartame in thousands of pallets of
diet Coke and diet Pepsi consumed by men and women fighting in the
Gulf War, may be partially to blame for the well-known Gulf War
Syndrome.
Dr. Roberts warns that it can cause birth defects, i.e. mental
retardation, if taken at the time of conception and during early
pregnancy.
Children are especially at risk for neurological disorders and should
NEVER be given artificial sweeteners.
There are many different case histories to relate of children
suffering grand mal seizures and other neurological disturbances
talking about a plague of neurological diseases directly caused by the
use of this deadly poison.'
Herein lies the problem:
There were Congressional Hearings when Aspartame was included in 100
different products and strong objection was made concerning its use.
Since this initial hearing, there have been two subsequent hearings,
and still nothing has been done.
The drug and chemical lobbies have very deep pockets. Sadly, MONSANTO'S patent on Aspartame has EXPIRED!
There are now over 5,000 products on the market that contain this
deadly chemical and there will be thousands more introduced. Everybody wants a 'piece of the Aspartame pie.'
I assure you that MONSANTO, the creator of Aspartame, knows how deadly it is. And isn't it ironic that MONSANTO funds, among others, the American
Diabetes Association, the American Dietetic Association and the
Conference of the American College of Physicians?
This has been recently exposed in the New York Times... These
[organizations] cannot criticize any additives or convey their link to
MONSANTO because they take money from the food industry and are
required to endorse their products.
Senator Howard Metzenbaum wrote and presented a bill that would
require label warnings on products containing Aspartame, especially
regarding pregnant women, children and infants.
The bill would also institute independent studies on the known dangers
and the problems existing in the general population regarding
seizures, changes in brain chemistry, neurological changes and
behavioral symptoms.
The bill was killed.
dispute the claims in this article, but drinking 4-6 Diet Cokes/Pepsi
every day probably isn't a good idea from a health standpoint,
especially if that person is exhibiting any of the symptoms described
in this article.
In October of 2001, my sister started getting very sick.She had stomach spasms and she was having a hard time getting around. Walking was a major chore.It took everything she had just to get out of bed; she was in so much pain.
By March 2002, she had undergone several tissue and muscle biopsies
and was on 24 various prescription medications.The doctors could not determine what was wrong with her.
She was in so much pain, and so sick she just knew she was dying. She put her house, bank accounts, life insurance, etc., in her oldest daughter's name, and made sure that her younger children were to be taken care of.
She also wanted her last hooray, so she planned a trip to Florida
(basically in a wheelchair) for March 22nd.
On March 19 I called her to ask how her most recent tests went, and she said they didn't find anything on the test, but they believe she had MS.
I recalled an article a friend of mine e-mailed to me and I asked my
sister if she drank diet soda? She told me that she did. As a matter of fact, she was getting ready to crack one open that moment.
I told her not to open it, and to stop drinking the diet soda! I e-mailed her article my friend, a lawyer, had sent.
My sister called me within 32 hours after our phone conversation and told me she had stopped drinking the diet soda AND she could walk!
The muscle spasms went away. She said she didn't feel 100% but, she sure felt a lot better.
She told me she was going to her doctor with this article and would
call me when she got home. Well, she called me, and said her doctor was amazed!
He is going to call all of his MS patients to find out if they
consumed artificial sweeteners of any kind.
In a nutshell, she was being poisoned by the Aspartame in the diet
soda...and literally dying a slow and miserable death.
When she got to Florida March 22, all she had to take was one pill,
and that was a pill for the Aspartame poisoning! She is well on her way to a complete recovery. And she is walking! No wheelchair!
This article saved her life. If it says 'SUGAR FREE' on the label;
DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!
I have spent several days lecturing at the WORLD ENVIRONMENTAL CONFERENCE on 'ASPARTAME,' marketed as
'Nutra Sweet,'
'Equal,' and
'Spoonful.'
In the keynote address by the EPA, it was announced that in the United States in 2001 there is an epidemic of multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus.
It was difficult to determine exactly what toxin was causing this to be rampant. I stood up and said that I was there to lecture on exactly that
subject.. I will explain why Aspartame is so dangerous:
When the temperature of this sweetener exceeds 86 degrees F, the wood alcohol in ASPARTAME converts to formaldehyde and then to formic acid, which in turn causes metabolic acidosis. Formic acid is the poison found in the sting of fire ants.
The methanol toxicity mimics, among other conditions, multiple
sclerosis and systemic lupus. Many people were being diagnosed in error. Although multiple sclerosis is not a death sentence, Methanol toxicity is!
Systemic lupus has become almost as rampant as multiple sclerosis,
especially with Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi drinkers. The victim usually does not know that the Aspartame is the culprit.
He or she continues its use; irritating the lupus to such a degree
that it may become a life-threatening condition. We have seen patients with systemic lupus become asymptotic, once taken off diet sodas.
In cases of those diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, most of the
symptoms disappear. We've seen many cases where vision loss returned and hearing loss improved markedly. This also applies to cases of tinnitus and fibromyalgia.
During a lecture, I said, 'If you are using ASPARTAME (Nutra Sweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc) and you suffer from fibromyalgia symptoms,
spasms,shooting,pains,numbness in your legs, Cramps, Vertigo, Dizziness, Headaches,Tinnitus,Joint pain, unexplainable depression, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, blurred vision, or memory loss you probably have ASPARTAME poisoning!' People were jumping up during the lecture saying,'I have some of these symptoms.
Is it reversible?'Yes! Yes! Yes!
STOP drinking diet sodas and be alert for Aspartame on food labels! Many products are fortified with it! This is a serious problem.
Dr. Espart (one of my speakers) remarked that so many people seem to be symptomatic for MS and during his recent visit to a hospice; a nurse stated that six of her friends, who were heavy Diet Coke addicts, had all been diagnosed with MS. This is beyond coincidence!
Diet soda is NOT a diet product! It is a chemically altered, multiple
SODIUM (salt) and ASPARTAME containing product that actually makes you crave carbohydrates. It is far more likely to make you GAIN weight!
These products also contain formaldehyde, which stores in the fat
cells, particularly in the hips and thighs.
Formaldehyde is an absolute toxin and is used primarily to preserve
'tissue specimens.'Many products we use every day contain this chemical but we SHOULD NOT store it IN our body!
Dr. H. J. Roberts stated in his lectures that once free of the 'diet
products' and with no significant increase in exercise; his patients
lost an average of 19 pounds over a trial period.
Aspartame is especially dangerous for diabetics. We found that some physicians, who believed that they had a patient with retinopathy, in fact, had symptoms caused by Aspartame. The Aspartame drives the blood sugar out of control.
Thus diabetics may suffer acute memory loss due to the fact that
aspartic acid and phenylalanine are NEUROTOXIC when taken without the
other amino acids necessary for a good balance.
Treating diabetes is all about BALANCE.
Especially with diabetics, the Aspartame passes the blood/brain
barrier and it then deteriorates the neurons of the brain;
causing various levels of brain damage,Seizures,Depression,
Manic depression,Panic attacks,Uncontrollable anger and rage.
Consumption of Aspartame causes these same symptoms in non-diabetics as well.
Documentation and observation also reveal that thousands of children
diagnosed with ADD and ADHD have had complete turnarounds in their
behavior when these chemicals have been removed from their diet.
So called 'behavior modification prescription drugs' (Ritalin and
others) are no longer needed. Truth be told, they were never NEEDED in the first place! Most of these children were being 'poisoned' on a daily basis with the
very foods that were 'better for them than sugar.'
It is also suspected that the Aspartame in thousands of pallets of
diet Coke and diet Pepsi consumed by men and women fighting in the
Gulf War, may be partially to blame for the well-known Gulf War
Syndrome.
Dr. Roberts warns that it can cause birth defects, i.e. mental
retardation, if taken at the time of conception and during early
pregnancy.
Children are especially at risk for neurological disorders and should
NEVER be given artificial sweeteners.
There are many different case histories to relate of children
suffering grand mal seizures and other neurological disturbances
talking about a plague of neurological diseases directly caused by the
use of this deadly poison.'
Herein lies the problem:
There were Congressional Hearings when Aspartame was included in 100
different products and strong objection was made concerning its use.
Since this initial hearing, there have been two subsequent hearings,
and still nothing has been done.
The drug and chemical lobbies have very deep pockets. Sadly, MONSANTO'S patent on Aspartame has EXPIRED!
There are now over 5,000 products on the market that contain this
deadly chemical and there will be thousands more introduced. Everybody wants a 'piece of the Aspartame pie.'
I assure you that MONSANTO, the creator of Aspartame, knows how deadly it is. And isn't it ironic that MONSANTO funds, among others, the American
Diabetes Association, the American Dietetic Association and the
Conference of the American College of Physicians?
This has been recently exposed in the New York Times... These
[organizations] cannot criticize any additives or convey their link to
MONSANTO because they take money from the food industry and are
required to endorse their products.
Senator Howard Metzenbaum wrote and presented a bill that would
require label warnings on products containing Aspartame, especially
regarding pregnant women, children and infants.
The bill would also institute independent studies on the known dangers
and the problems existing in the general population regarding
seizures, changes in brain chemistry, neurological changes and
behavioral symptoms.
The bill was killed.
DEA drug disposal program coming to Logan
The Logan County Sheriff's Department will be working with the Drug Enforcement Administration and the PIECES drug prevention coalition on a new program to dispose of unused prescription narcotics.
Deputy Sonja Porter discussed the program this week with members of the PIECES coalition and said it should be up and running soon.
In recent years, Logan County has become ground zero for a drug epidemic caused by easy access to prescription only pain pills such as xanax, oxycontin, loratab, hydrocodone and other substances such as methadone and suboxone. All are easily obtained in the region by addicts through legal but often sleazy means and wind up finding their way onto the streets where they have caused many problems. The federal government has declared Logan County a High Drug Activity Area because of the pill epidemic.
PIECES has worked on drug prevention and awareness programs and in addition to making numerous arrests, the Logan County Sheriff's Department has also done other things to deal with the issue including it's own new program making drug testing kits for parents available free of charge.
The Take-Back disposal program, which initiated with PIECES members is another step to hopefully make the public aware of the problems pain pills are causing in our area.
Porter said the Take Back program will be for prescription pain pills, not what is commonly referred to as "street drugs," and that the program "should be up and running in about 60 days" at the recent March meeting of PIECES.
"We have been trying to get this program ready and operational at some time," Porter said.
Locations will be chosen in Logan, Man and Chapmanville and an armed law enforcement officer will be on hand to collect old prescription drugs which will be properly disposed of by the DEA. Porter noted that there are some environmental concerns with some of the drugs.
As for marijuana, crack and other street drugs, Porter said her department "may be able to work something out for disposal at a later time."
Porter also discussed other concerns about prescription drugs.
The pills have lead to robberies and home invasions by addicts seeking them as well as a DUI epidemic note local police officers who say many DUI arrests and shoplifting busts come down on defendants who are under the influence of narcotic pain pills when arrested. Many elderly residents fear being targeted by criminals for the contents of their medicine cabinets.
Call us today to discuss how the V.I.P. Way can free you from your opiate dependency 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.
Deputy Sonja Porter discussed the program this week with members of the PIECES coalition and said it should be up and running soon.
In recent years, Logan County has become ground zero for a drug epidemic caused by easy access to prescription only pain pills such as xanax, oxycontin, loratab, hydrocodone and other substances such as methadone and suboxone. All are easily obtained in the region by addicts through legal but often sleazy means and wind up finding their way onto the streets where they have caused many problems. The federal government has declared Logan County a High Drug Activity Area because of the pill epidemic.
PIECES has worked on drug prevention and awareness programs and in addition to making numerous arrests, the Logan County Sheriff's Department has also done other things to deal with the issue including it's own new program making drug testing kits for parents available free of charge.
The Take-Back disposal program, which initiated with PIECES members is another step to hopefully make the public aware of the problems pain pills are causing in our area.
Porter said the Take Back program will be for prescription pain pills, not what is commonly referred to as "street drugs," and that the program "should be up and running in about 60 days" at the recent March meeting of PIECES.
"We have been trying to get this program ready and operational at some time," Porter said.
Locations will be chosen in Logan, Man and Chapmanville and an armed law enforcement officer will be on hand to collect old prescription drugs which will be properly disposed of by the DEA. Porter noted that there are some environmental concerns with some of the drugs.
As for marijuana, crack and other street drugs, Porter said her department "may be able to work something out for disposal at a later time."
Porter also discussed other concerns about prescription drugs.
The pills have lead to robberies and home invasions by addicts seeking them as well as a DUI epidemic note local police officers who say many DUI arrests and shoplifting busts come down on defendants who are under the influence of narcotic pain pills when arrested. Many elderly residents fear being targeted by criminals for the contents of their medicine cabinets.
Call us today to discuss how the V.I.P. Way can free you from your opiate dependency 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 29, 2009
Hope Seen in Overdose Drug
Back in 2007, a teenage girl was in the right place at the right time, the parking lot of a New Haven drug treatment facility, when she overdosed on drugs. Staffers saved her with an antidote called Narcan. New data from Yale researchers show that the antidote could have saved more than three-quarters of those who’ve died from accidental drug overdoses.
Researchers at the Yale School of Epidemiology and Public Health analyzed data from the office of the state’s Chief Medical Examiner showing that 77 percent of the 2,900 drug-involved accidental/undetermined intoxication deaths in Connecticut from 1997 to 2007 involved opioids. The number of deaths annually has increased substantially, from 211 in 1997 to 327 in 2007.
Many drugs — both illegal and legal — contain opioids, such as heroin, methadone and oxycodone (a category of drugs of which Oxycontin in the best known). If someone overdoses, the opioid will cause breathing to stop, so it’s critical to intervene immediately.
The researchers also discovered that, while overdose from the opioid heroin causes more deaths than overdose from opioid prescription drugs, the former is declining while the latter is rising.
The story of the girl in the parking lot comes from Doug Bruce (pictured), the medical director of SCRC (South Central Rehabilitation Center) and a consultant to the APT Foundation. APT, a drug treatment and research facility in New Haven, is spearheading the use of Narcan (naloxone), the antidote that saved her life.
The story has a happy ending: The young woman is in drug treatment and has turned her life around.
Now Bruce wants to get the word out — that if Narcan is prescribed for more overdose patients, there can be more happy endings.
“It’s really easy to reverse an opioid overdose with Narcan,” he said. “Most of the patients we have are poly-drug users; they use lots of different drugs in overdose. Narcan only reverses opioids, but because it’s involved in most overdoses we think it’s really effective in saving lives.”
Bruce added that Narcan is not “divertible,” meaning it has no street value because it can’t make a person high. It’s so safe that if it were given by mistake to a person who’s not suffering from an opioid-related overdose, it would have no effect at all, he said.
A researcher at Yale, said the data she helped analyze for Connecticut are consistent with drug intoxication deaths from other states. She said the big news is that many of the deaths can be prevented if Narcan is administered more often. She pointed to the increase in prescription opioid-involved deaths, including methadone, as one of the most interesting findings.
In analyzing causes of death, her team decided to exclude drug-involved car accidents, where the direct cause of death was blunt trauma, “although drugs may have contributed to those deaths,” she said. Most of those who died from accidental drug overdoses had a combination of drugs in their system, including opioids.
Among 17 to 24 year-olds, 562 in Connecticut died from 1997 through 2007 from motor vehicle accidents, which included some in which drugs were a contributing factor. The number of deaths attributed specifically to drug overdoses (not vehicle crashes) in that age group was 304. The age group with by far the highest death toll from drug overdoses was 35-to- 44-year-olds.
Narcan has been used for decades by EMTs coming on the scene of a suspected opioid drug overdose. Bruce said it needs to get into the hands of other medical providers as well as substance abusers and their partners. He said he’s the only physician he knows of in the state who prescribes the drug. He helps conduct weekly trainings at sites around New Haven, and newly trained individuals can “graduate” with a kit from the pharmacist at the APT Foundation. “It contains everything you need to safely give an injection — latex gloves, alcohol swabs, intra-muscular syringe, plastic barrier for rescue breathing, Narcan and written instructions” that serve as a refresher course.
“The goal,” Bruce said, “is to improve people’s outcomes by giving them the tools necessary to reverse overdose as fast as possible. Now, we do educate people to call 911, to do rescue breathing, but Narcan’s the biggest piece because it reverses the problem itself.”
Bruce said that Narcan programs in New York City, Chicago and on the West Coast have been “wildly successful.”
New Havener Mark Kinzly is a trainer for the National Harm Reduction Coalition, based in New York City. He does trainings around the country on using Narcan to reverse overdoses. Chicago has had more than 700 reversals of potentially fatal overdoses, New York City, almost as many, and Massachusetts has had 225 reversals in the past year, he said. So far Connecticut has had nine, “but we don’t have an official program,” he said.
Those are impressive numbers, but Kinzly shared an even more impressive number — the 1,100 people who died in just three cities in 2007 from overdosing on fentanyl, a chemical derivative of the poppy (and therefore an opioid). He said it occurred at the same time as an e coli contamination of fresh spinach, which made headlines for weeks — and which ultimately killed five people.
“Here’s 1,100 drug users that died, and we never heard about it,” he said. He attributes that silence to the stigma attached to drug use. The harm reduction movement tackles that stigma head-on, promoting actions that can save lives, even though they might be technically illegal. The best-known harm reduction practice is probably needle exchange to prevent the spread of HIV through addicts sharing syringes. (New Haven ran the state’s first needle exchange pilot program in the early 1990. Follow-up by Yale researchers showed that it cut HIV transmission 45 percent after two years.)
Opponents of that and other harm reduction techniques worry that such actions will increase illicit drug use. In the case of Narcan, that theory goes, addicts might become complacent about overdoses if they know there’s a cheap, easy way to reverse them. (An injection of Narcan costs about $2.50, Kinzly said, while an intranasal spray costs between $6 and $9 per application.)
He said a model program in North Carolina is the Lazarus Project, in which doctors who give a prescription for an opioid to control pain also give a prescription for Narcan. He said that Oxycontin, because it is a time-release medication, becomes particularly lethal when someone using the drug not as prescribed takes off the time-release covering.
Kinzly said making Narcan available and training people how to use it is a priority for the National Harm Reduction Coalition. He said as a result of the fentanyl deaths, activists from the coalition hold a conference call every two weeks with reps from an alphabet soup of federal agencies: SAMHSA, DEA, FDA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Drug Enforcement Agency, Food and Drug Administration) to discuss their concerns. He said that batch of fentanyl came from a clandestine lab in Mexico.
In addition to working with drug abuse programs, Kinzly also does trainings with parents around the state. “The face of opioid addiction has changed,” he said. “We always had that mindset of the guy who’s strung out in the street with the needle sticking out of his arm, and the reality of it is that the fastest growing population is white, middle class suburban kids.” He said the ONDCP (Office of National Drug Control Policy) recently released data that teens can get opioids easier than marijuana — much of it pain meds that a family member is prescribed but doesn’t end up taking all the pills. “It’s the easiest way for kids to get these drugs. They don’t have to go to the street — they go to the medicine cabinet. And then after a while, when they can’t get it from the medicine cabinet, that’s when they turn to street narcotics.”
Dr. Bruce had a final word of warning about this life-saving intervention: “Narcan works for about an hour, and people could overdose later once it wears off, so they must get to a hospital right away.” He said harm reduction proponents are encouraging pharmacies to carry Narcan. “Most don’t carry it because it’s not something people would ask for.” He hopes that changes as people realize the value of having it available.
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
Researchers at the Yale School of Epidemiology and Public Health analyzed data from the office of the state’s Chief Medical Examiner showing that 77 percent of the 2,900 drug-involved accidental/undetermined intoxication deaths in Connecticut from 1997 to 2007 involved opioids. The number of deaths annually has increased substantially, from 211 in 1997 to 327 in 2007.
Many drugs — both illegal and legal — contain opioids, such as heroin, methadone and oxycodone (a category of drugs of which Oxycontin in the best known). If someone overdoses, the opioid will cause breathing to stop, so it’s critical to intervene immediately.
The researchers also discovered that, while overdose from the opioid heroin causes more deaths than overdose from opioid prescription drugs, the former is declining while the latter is rising.
The story of the girl in the parking lot comes from Doug Bruce (pictured), the medical director of SCRC (South Central Rehabilitation Center) and a consultant to the APT Foundation. APT, a drug treatment and research facility in New Haven, is spearheading the use of Narcan (naloxone), the antidote that saved her life.
The story has a happy ending: The young woman is in drug treatment and has turned her life around.
Now Bruce wants to get the word out — that if Narcan is prescribed for more overdose patients, there can be more happy endings.
“It’s really easy to reverse an opioid overdose with Narcan,” he said. “Most of the patients we have are poly-drug users; they use lots of different drugs in overdose. Narcan only reverses opioids, but because it’s involved in most overdoses we think it’s really effective in saving lives.”
Bruce added that Narcan is not “divertible,” meaning it has no street value because it can’t make a person high. It’s so safe that if it were given by mistake to a person who’s not suffering from an opioid-related overdose, it would have no effect at all, he said.
A researcher at Yale, said the data she helped analyze for Connecticut are consistent with drug intoxication deaths from other states. She said the big news is that many of the deaths can be prevented if Narcan is administered more often. She pointed to the increase in prescription opioid-involved deaths, including methadone, as one of the most interesting findings.
In analyzing causes of death, her team decided to exclude drug-involved car accidents, where the direct cause of death was blunt trauma, “although drugs may have contributed to those deaths,” she said. Most of those who died from accidental drug overdoses had a combination of drugs in their system, including opioids.
Among 17 to 24 year-olds, 562 in Connecticut died from 1997 through 2007 from motor vehicle accidents, which included some in which drugs were a contributing factor. The number of deaths attributed specifically to drug overdoses (not vehicle crashes) in that age group was 304. The age group with by far the highest death toll from drug overdoses was 35-to- 44-year-olds.
Narcan has been used for decades by EMTs coming on the scene of a suspected opioid drug overdose. Bruce said it needs to get into the hands of other medical providers as well as substance abusers and their partners. He said he’s the only physician he knows of in the state who prescribes the drug. He helps conduct weekly trainings at sites around New Haven, and newly trained individuals can “graduate” with a kit from the pharmacist at the APT Foundation. “It contains everything you need to safely give an injection — latex gloves, alcohol swabs, intra-muscular syringe, plastic barrier for rescue breathing, Narcan and written instructions” that serve as a refresher course.
“The goal,” Bruce said, “is to improve people’s outcomes by giving them the tools necessary to reverse overdose as fast as possible. Now, we do educate people to call 911, to do rescue breathing, but Narcan’s the biggest piece because it reverses the problem itself.”
Bruce said that Narcan programs in New York City, Chicago and on the West Coast have been “wildly successful.”
New Havener Mark Kinzly is a trainer for the National Harm Reduction Coalition, based in New York City. He does trainings around the country on using Narcan to reverse overdoses. Chicago has had more than 700 reversals of potentially fatal overdoses, New York City, almost as many, and Massachusetts has had 225 reversals in the past year, he said. So far Connecticut has had nine, “but we don’t have an official program,” he said.
Those are impressive numbers, but Kinzly shared an even more impressive number — the 1,100 people who died in just three cities in 2007 from overdosing on fentanyl, a chemical derivative of the poppy (and therefore an opioid). He said it occurred at the same time as an e coli contamination of fresh spinach, which made headlines for weeks — and which ultimately killed five people.
“Here’s 1,100 drug users that died, and we never heard about it,” he said. He attributes that silence to the stigma attached to drug use. The harm reduction movement tackles that stigma head-on, promoting actions that can save lives, even though they might be technically illegal. The best-known harm reduction practice is probably needle exchange to prevent the spread of HIV through addicts sharing syringes. (New Haven ran the state’s first needle exchange pilot program in the early 1990. Follow-up by Yale researchers showed that it cut HIV transmission 45 percent after two years.)
Opponents of that and other harm reduction techniques worry that such actions will increase illicit drug use. In the case of Narcan, that theory goes, addicts might become complacent about overdoses if they know there’s a cheap, easy way to reverse them. (An injection of Narcan costs about $2.50, Kinzly said, while an intranasal spray costs between $6 and $9 per application.)
He said a model program in North Carolina is the Lazarus Project, in which doctors who give a prescription for an opioid to control pain also give a prescription for Narcan. He said that Oxycontin, because it is a time-release medication, becomes particularly lethal when someone using the drug not as prescribed takes off the time-release covering.
Kinzly said making Narcan available and training people how to use it is a priority for the National Harm Reduction Coalition. He said as a result of the fentanyl deaths, activists from the coalition hold a conference call every two weeks with reps from an alphabet soup of federal agencies: SAMHSA, DEA, FDA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Drug Enforcement Agency, Food and Drug Administration) to discuss their concerns. He said that batch of fentanyl came from a clandestine lab in Mexico.
In addition to working with drug abuse programs, Kinzly also does trainings with parents around the state. “The face of opioid addiction has changed,” he said. “We always had that mindset of the guy who’s strung out in the street with the needle sticking out of his arm, and the reality of it is that the fastest growing population is white, middle class suburban kids.” He said the ONDCP (Office of National Drug Control Policy) recently released data that teens can get opioids easier than marijuana — much of it pain meds that a family member is prescribed but doesn’t end up taking all the pills. “It’s the easiest way for kids to get these drugs. They don’t have to go to the street — they go to the medicine cabinet. And then after a while, when they can’t get it from the medicine cabinet, that’s when they turn to street narcotics.”
Dr. Bruce had a final word of warning about this life-saving intervention: “Narcan works for about an hour, and people could overdose later once it wears off, so they must get to a hospital right away.” He said harm reduction proponents are encouraging pharmacies to carry Narcan. “Most don’t carry it because it’s not something people would ask for.” He hopes that changes as people realize the value of having it available.
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
Guy walked in, stole my painkillers, Sharon man tells police
A Sharon man was robbed of pain medication by a man with a knife Sunday night at his home, police said.
Police said a 40-year-old man was in his second-floor apartment in the 300 block of Lafayette Avenue when a man walked in about 9 p.m., brandished a large knife and said ’I want your pills.’
The man, whose weapon was about 12 inches long, walked straight to the coffee table where a bottle of about 130 Oxycodone pills was, grabbed them and walked back toward the stairs, police said.
The owner of the pills tried to stop the robber and they struggled down the steps, police said.
The robber got outside and ran north on Lafayette with the victim chasing him, police said. The robber jumped into a small, black car parked on the street and driven by a woman and it sped away, police said.
Police said no injuries were reported as a result of the incident.
No one has been charged in the robbery but police have a suspect.
The victim described the robber as a white male, about 21 years old of small build with short hair.
Police said the victim did not know the man but a 22-year-old visiting the house said he might.
Police did not release information about the robbery until Friday because the policeman who handled it was out of the office and the report wasn’t finished.
The robbery doesn’t appear to be related to one March 21 in the city in which two men put a knife to a man’s throat, police said.
A 28-year-old man was robbed shortly before 10 p.m. in an alley between South Oakland and New Castle avenues. The man was beaten and the robbers took his cash.
The victim described the robbers as black males, both age 19 or 20, and wearing dark pants and white hoodies or jackets
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
.jpg)
