"The Oxycotin Express"

Onhell

Onhell

Infinite Dreamer
I think I mentioned it before that I finally found a new job and I've been at it for almost three months now. I hate it, but it pays the bills.

I am a Pharmacy Tech in training at Walgreen's  Pharmacy Care Center. That's right, not at the actual pharmacy, but the pharmacy care center. What is that you ask? Well, we are a non-dispensing pharmacy that takes care of refills, status checks, insurance issues and medical consultations over the phone. I know what you're thinking, "Onhell, that sounds like a call center." And I say to you NO, we are NOT a call center, we are a non-dispensing pharmacy because we have registered pharmacists on-site that can answer your complicated questions about your medication. Bah, who am I kidding? We are a stupid call center, that's just the bullshit they sell us to help us sleep at night.

The reason the Pharmacy Care Center got created was to alleviate the influx of calls to the actual store locations so the pharmacist can spend more time with walk-in costumers instead of wasting time with refill calls and other really dumb calls. They piloted the project in Florida 3 years ago and they expanded it to Arizona 2 years ago. Most people in Florida know the drill by now. Whenever someone calls a Walgreen's in Florida the call comes to us. If they need/want to talk to a specific department at the store location they called we can still connect them. The reason they picked Florida and Arizona is due to the high number of elderly citizens. They figured if old people welcome the change, anybody will.

At any rate, this is not about me griping about my new job, it is about the world it has exposed me too, the wonderful world of prescribed medications.  On our first day on the phones our trainer told us, "Today is Oxy Roxy day guys!" When we asked what an "oxy roxy day" was she explained that in Florida people literally hunt for Oxycodone and Roxycodone, because there is a HUGE demand for them. Oxycodone and other "opiate" medications are essentially heroin made by pharmaceutical labs. Walgreen's in Florida along with other pharmacies have been held up at gun point, broken into and have had shipment trucks hijacked for the sole purpose of getting these medications.

In my desk someone left a Men's Health magazine and as I was leafing through it during a slow day it contained an article about the pain management problem in southern Ohio. Similar to Florida, southern Ohio has seen a proliferation of Pain Management clinics that "treat" pain with Oxycodone, Xanax, Vicodin and other medications, sometimes in "cocktails" which result in overdose and death more often than not. It has gotten to a point where in some counties, death by overdose from these medications has outnumbered car accidents and heart attacks and have seen a sharp increase in the last five years. Apparently, in 2008 Ohio along with another 12 unnamed states passed a law making it illegal to prosecute a doctor that prescribes pain killers as long as they can document the patient has a "legitimate" pain issue that requires these types of medications.

Both the article and a documentary (which I have linked below) quote law enforcement and government officials calling the new problem, "legal drug-dealing." A Florida Congresswoman stated that the problem has gotten so bad there are 11 deaths A DAY from overdosing on these medications and says that if 11-12 manatees a day washed up to our shores on a daily basis scientists would start working around the clock to solve the problem, but nobody seems to be giving a shit about good ol' fashion people.

Who is to blame? As always there isn't a single source. Both the documentary and the article place the blame on the pain clinics themselves and the greed from the "pain doctors" and the pharmaceutical companies. Personally that made me sick. Whenever something wrong happens int he U.S nothing like blaming the "greed" of corporations and the capitalistic system.  Yes it is a problem, but it is only PART of the problem. Lax laws are another peace of the puzzle, but what is interesting is to see where this goes... both how bad it gets and what Ohio, Florida and other states are going to do about the problem. Turns out Kentucky along with many other states are also seeing a high rate of overdose deaths from these medications and where are people getting them? Florida. Yup. People will drive THOUSANDS of miles to get their fix.

Going back to the Care Center. At first I thought it was a really stupid idea of Walgreen's to do this and most of the people that call us hate us. They directly blame the "Call Center" for screwing up their medication orders, for being charged more on their current refill than on their last even though that is something they need to take up with their insurance company. We have become an easy scapegoat. But after reading the article and watching the documentary I think it is a brilliant idea. In the article they talked about many of these people taking a "cocktail" of these medications and some of the dead having taken alcohol while taking the medication which (no fucking duh) is a lethal combination.

While I don't want to blame the victim... I will. I've done A LOT of stupid shit in my day (read Perun's new year's thread for just one example lol), but I have NEVER taken any kind of medication with alcohol... what retard does this? Well... seems like a lot of them do. All of a sudden giving the in-store pharmacists more time to go over people's medications  and having additional pharmacists at the PCC for the same thing seems like a brilliant idea. The only problem? People don't know about it and for now it is only available in Florida, Arizona and currently being piloted in Illinois. If all goes well Walgreen's is hoping to do this in every state.

Here is the documentary: http://www.hulu.com/watch/100279/vanguard-the-oxycontin-express
 
Onhell said:
I think I mentioned it before that I finally found a new job and I've been at it for almost three months now. I hate it, but it pays the bills.
Click to expand...

You mean, it pays the pills?  :innocent:

No, really. This is an interesting topic, so thanks for sharing it. I'll read it more thoroughly later.
 
Onhell said:
...if 11-12 manatees a day washed up to our shores on a daily basis scientists would start working around the clock to solve the problem, but nobody seems to be giving a shit about good ol' fashion people.
Click to expand...

That's because manatees don't normally engage in self-destructive behavior, so there would be a genuine mystery to be solved.

I worked for a while in a different segment of that industry. I worked for a large distributor who supplies most of the pharmacies and hospitals in Colorado. I was a specialist in controlled drugs (Schedules II-V). The security to work in that department is high: I had to pass extra (legally mandated) background checks, and the storage area was tightly secured. In fact, it's a giant cage, again mandated by federal law. Inside that cage, the Schedule II drugs are stored inside a large vault, just like a bank vault. (For those who don't know: Oxycodone is Schedule II.)

Hijacked shipments are par for the course. A truckload of Oxycontin is worth millions on the street; anything worth so much will get stolen sooner or later, and stealing trucks is the only way to do it because all other places have cages and vaults. But those are the real pros, out for the money. Holding up a pharmacy is for junkies.
 
I can see how this is a problem, I have had a number of surgeries and have some ongoing painful  issues and been prescribed pain killers (vicodin) before ... you need to be really really careful taking that stuff.
 
There is also is the issue of becoming physically dependent on these substances. I know a girl who is a nurse at the Methadone Clinic and sshe said there are more people on methadone for pain medication withdrawal than heroin. That is really fucked up. And alot of the patients, when they relapse end up on heroin because they can't get the legal shit.
 
Nigel Tufnel said:
There is also is the issue of becoming physically dependent on these substances. I know a girl who is a nurse at the Methadone Clinic and sshe said there are more people on methadone for pain medication withdrawal than heroin. That is really fucked up. And alot of the patients, when they relapse end up on heroin because they can't get the legal shit.
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That was really the issue I was worried about, I was really careful not to take too many of those things and to stop when it was time to stop, which was not horribly bad, but not that great.  On the other hand, I was taking one of the lower doses you could take and rarely more than 1 or 2 a day.  I can imagine stopping taking those when you are taking a higher doseage per day would be a bitch.
 
Long term usage really increases your chances of becoming addicted because your body develops a tolerance to the effects of the medication. My wife was having chronic pain due to multiple hernias and surgery and was prescribed vicodin to manage her pain. Her dosage had to be increased because after about 2 months,  it was'nt controling her pain. but she was very concerned about taking more and more because she did'nt want to become addicted.

Another friend of mine had to deal with multiple issues like kidney stones and ulcerative colitis, and she ended up becoming addicted. She had to go to detox to get off the medications and I also saw first hand how she had to go through withdrawals because she chose to go cold turkey.
 
After pot, oxy contin is the most abused drug in Nova Scotia by far. The amount of it being used is horrifying, and there are regular home invasions, especially in rougher areas, kids trying to get their hands on the stuff. Doctor's medical pads are worth thousands of dollars since they can be used to forge prescriptions.
 
Six years ago I severely injured my back at work ( show me an undertaker that doesn't have a wrecked back). My doctor prescribed oxycodone as a pain killer, and valium as a muscle relaxant. For two weeks straight, I was as fucked out of my mind as I've ever been in my life, and this is coming from a guy who used to love booze and ALL the associated party favours. It kinda scared me, as I've been sober now for a long time. I completely understand how it has become such a problem because I've experienced it's effect. I recall playing a lot of Pink Floyd.

In my city, pharmacies don't keep it in stock, because they were being robbed daily. There is a two day wait for prescriptions to be filled. Scary fucking drug...
 
Onhell said:
In my desk someone left a Men's Health magazine and as I was leafing through it during a slow day it contained an article about the pain management problem in southern Ohio. Similar to Florida, southern Ohio has seen a proliferation of Pain Management clinics that "treat" pain with Oxycodone, Xanax, Vicodin and other medications, sometimes in "cocktails" which result in overdose and death more often than not. It has gotten to a point where in some counties, death by overdose from these medications has outnumbered car accidents and heart attacks and have seen a sharp increase in the last five years. Apparently, in 2008 Ohio along with another 12 unnamed states passed a law making it illegal to prosecute a doctor that prescribes pain killers as long as they can document the patient has a "legitimate" pain issue that requires these types of medications.
Click to expand...

I live in southern Ohio and I think that these "pain clinics" are only a small piece of a much larger puzzle. People are going to do whatever they do regardless whether it be painkillers, heroin or whatever because whatever you want is fairly easy to get around here. The clinics just provide someone with I guess a more "legal" way to obtain their next fix.
 
SinisterMinisterX said:
That's because manatees don't normally engage in self-destructive behavior, so there would be a genuine mystery to be solved.

I worked for a while in a different segment of that industry. I worked for a large distributor who supplies most of the pharmacies and hospitals in Colorado. I was a specialist in controlled drugs (Schedules II-V). The security to work in that department is high: I had to pass extra (legally mandated) background checks, and the storage area was tightly secured. In fact, it's a giant cage, again mandated by federal law. Inside that cage, the Schedule II drugs are stored inside a large vault, just like a bank vault. (For those who don't know: Oxycodone is Schedule II.)

Hijacked shipments are par for the course. A truckload of Oxycontin is worth millions on the street; anything worth so much will get stolen sooner or later, and stealing trucks is the only way to do it because all other places have cages and vaults. But those are the real pros, out for the money. Holding up a pharmacy is for junkies.
Click to expand...

True that Manatees may not indulge in self-destructive behavior, but most of the people addicted to Oxies start with a little back pain, maybe had "major" surgery and before you know it BAM, they're hooked.

I think one of the unasked questions posed by the article and the documentary is, should these drugs even exist? Seriously, Heroin made in a pharmaceutical lab? WTF? If the answer is "yes", because of people who do have legitimate issues and major surgeries, the issues tackled by the investigations still stands. What is going to be done to curve the problem?

I HATE reality TV, but every now and then there is a silver lining to it and The Real World is no exception. In one season they had a homosexual roommate who spoke openly about the dangers of aids, what it was like to deal with homophobic idiots, coming out to family and friends, etc. THAT is worth putting on TV, not the stupid high school relationship drama and mindless partying they do. Last Season they had a young man open up about his addiction to pain killers... I didn't think much of it then. Hell, didn't think much of it when I worked at the behavioral health clinic and we dispensed controlled II (scheduled II) medications as well as Benzos, but thinking back it is something that has very quickly, very quietly grown into a huge problem.

kgrubb said:
I live in southern Ohio and I think that these "pain clinics" are only a small piece of a much larger puzzle. People are going to do whatever they do regardless whether it be painkillers, heroin or whatever because whatever you want is fairly easy to get around here. The clinics just provide someone with I guess a more "legal" way to obtain their next fix.
Click to expand...

That's pretty much what the article stated, due to the new laws backed by Big Pharma lobbying, they are able to dispense it rather liberally.
 
Onhell said:
I think one of the unasked questions posed by the article and the documentary is, should these drugs even exist? Seriously, Heroin made in a pharmaceutical lab? WTF? If the answer is "yes", because of people who do have legitimate issues and major surgeries, the issues tackled by the investigations still stands. What is going to be done to curve the problem?
Click to expand...

Of course these high-power painkillers need to exist. There are legitimate medical situations where nothing less will suffice. If synthetic heroin seems offensive, remember that doctors used to give real heroin before these drugs came into being. The US Civil War is notorious for having unintentionally created many heroin addicts.

Any painkiller of this strength will be addictive. There's no avoiding that. It's the way the brain works. The idea of denying relief for truly unendurable pain just because addiction is a risk is absolutely horrific.
 
SinisterMinisterX said:
Any painkiller of this strength will be addictive. There's no avoiding that. It's the way the brain works. The idea of denying relief for truly unendurable pain just because addiction is a risk is absolutely horrific.
Click to expand...

Agreed, which is why I said, if the answer was "yes," then it comes down to adjusting dosages, and better regulation... of course.
 
Adjusting doses usually isn't the answer. If you give a patient enough to treat his pain, it's enough to risk addiction. There is no "safe dose".
 
I found the article from Men's Health: http://www.menshealth.com/health/deadly-pain-killers

I should have made attempt earlier, but usually magazine articles are rarely available online in their entirety. Anyway, the reason I looked it up is because i'm starting to sound like a broken record (the article stated, the article mentioned, etc.)

So here I go again, The reporter mentions devising better exit strategies for people put on these medications, in other words wean them off, rather than, "take it for 6 months and then stop."
 
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