Painkiller Abuse
The Menninger Clinic published a press release one week before the arrest of Al Gore III last Wednesday.
The press release contains some interesting information that is relevant for the Gore case.
Painkiller abuse is now a very common problem:
Increasingly, drug abusers are getting their next fix from their medicine cabinets, instead of from drug dealers.
More than 6 million Americans abuse prescription drugs, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. One in 10 teenagers admits to abusing painkillers, such as Vicodin and Oxycontin. Painkillers cause more overdoses than cocaine and heroin combined.
The article explains how painkiller abusers support their habit:
Once hooked, patients may doctor shop to get multiple prescriptions to painkillers, forge prescriptions, order painkillers from web sites that don’t require prescriptions or take a road trip to Mexico to supply their habits. Teenagers can get prescription painkillers from their parents’ medicine cabinets and their friends—even dealers. Because prescription painkillers are so readily available, they don’t have the stigma of illegal drugs, like heroin.
The article also explains why it is difficult to stop painkiller abuse:
Because opiates are so rewarding and reinforcing, once a person stops using them, the body goes into shock and withdrawal. Symptoms of withdrawal are similar to a severe case of the flu and may include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, cold flashes with goose bumps and involuntary leg movements. To avoid pain, many people abusing painkillers keep using.
But there are now ways of treating painkiller abuse:
New medications help painkiller abusers avoid the painful symptoms of withdrawal and cut the time of withdrawal. The drug buprenorphine was approved by the FDA in 2002 to help ease the symptoms of detoxification and radically decreases the time of detox from an average of two weeks to one or two days. Buprenorphine is a safer alternative to methadone and is available in a convenient pill form. The medication speeds a patient’s entry into treatment, cutting down the time he or she is in bed and feeling uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms and drug cravings.
However, in a lesson for workplace drug testing programs, it should be noted that:
Relapse rates for patients who abuse painkillers are high, so creating a relapse prevention plan is crucial.
The DaytaTree Team