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Sunday, May 14, 2017

As Fentanyl Spreads, States Step Up Responses

FREDERICK, Md. — A billboard on a main highway tallies the number of residents in this mostly rural county who have overdosed on prescription painkillers, heroin and other illicit opioids this year: 96 overdoses, 15 of them fatal.

What the sign doesn’t say is that a large and growing number of those deaths are the result of fentanyl, a fast-acting drug that is 50 times stronger than heroin and can kill users within seconds. Cheap and easy to produce, it is used by drug dealers to intensify the effects of heroin and other illicit drugs, often without the users’ knowledge.

The presence of fentanyl in the illicit drug supply has put law enforcement officials and the medical community on high alert in more than a dozen states, accelerating the battle against opioids on all fronts.

States, counties and cities are responding to this latest crisis by doing more of what they already were doing: stockpiling the overdose reversal drug naloxone, funding more drug treatment, and ramping up police surveillance of drug trafficking. In addition, a handful of states are stiffening penalties for selling the lethal drug.

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22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Act of congress to get pain medication from a dr at this point. I have no idea where they are getting pain meds?

Anonymous said...

Listen folks, all this "stuff" is purchased off the street....if these druggies haven't been watching the news and seeing that these products are contaminated, then they need to wake the hell up and STOP!! It's not the taxpayers responsibilities to save people that don't want to be saved!!!!

Anonymous said...

You go to the hospital....have surgery...in pain....get pain killers....go home with pain killers in hand......go to get more....NOPE. Go to pain med center and jump through hoops and pee in a cup....get meds that 1/2 way (a##) fix the problem. Try to work but in pain.....work wants to know why you have to have so much time off to go to the doctor (pain med center).....you don't want them to know you are still taking pain meds cause you are frightened you will lose your job you worked so hard to get in the first place.

You try to go it alone and the pain gets the better of you so you purchase something illegal cause you can no longer sit in an office in line for an hour and pee in a cup. You take the medication because you are trying to get control of your life for just 2 seconds and 2 minutes later....you are dead.

REAL STORY....get a grip people....it happens to people just like you.

Anonymous said...

It's natural selection at work. Police, ems, and hospitals should step back and let it run its course.

Anonymous said...

Amen 1:07pm tired of hearing how these druggies had no choice but to take these drugs...oh yeah and remember it's a disease lol! that's a bunch of crap. I've seen children dying of cancer, THAT's a disease. One's addiction is a result of a bad choice. Calling it a disease put it in the laps of the tax payers

Anonymous said...

PLEASE POST THIS: You go to the hospital and have surgery and you are released with painkillers.

You go back to work with pain killers helping.

You run out of Pain pills and they want you to go to a clinic

You go to a clinic and sit for hours and pee in a cup to get your pills

You go to work and they want to know where it is you have to go the end of every month and you don't want to tell them you are on pain killers because you are frightened you will lose your job.

You keep going until you cannot go again without getting in trouble at work and you don't want to lose that job you worked so hard to get.

You finally turn to pain killers through the mail and you get what you think will be safe if you are careful.

You carefully take the pills thinking you got this. You will get to work on time and sort things out over the next several months...somehow. One pill certainly won't hurt.

I would do anything to change that night. I would do anything if we could go back 2 months. He died and now we have nothing but his memories.

ONE PILL....ONE TIME. These are NOT all people to live on the edge and they are not ALL people who didn't care.

ONE PILL

Anonymous said...

1:44 Yeah I am sick of paying for people that choose to use food as a drug and are overweight...let their diabetes and heart disease run its course without intervention. Also, anyone that chose unhealthy sexuality and has AIDS or an STD should just suffer and die without treatment from their repeated choices. Smokers?....no treatment for lung cancer. Let it run its course.

Anonymous said...

1:44 May God forgive your rotten soul.

Anonymous said...

These overdose deaths create job openings and that is good for the economy.

Anonymous said...

Folks, I'm sorry but most of you are enablers....don't make excuses, pain killers are necessary in some cases. No one should be on them for any prolonged period of time. If you have surgery and are in pain for an extended period of time.....something is wrong, be honest with the Doctor....DON'T GO BACK AND REQUEST MORE PAIN PILLS....explain to them the problem! KNOW THAT AN ADDICTION to these pills is possible.

Anonymous said...

2:37 Guessing the employer doesn't offer sick leave or adhere to ADA laws.

Anonymous said...

Military doesn't care.
They make huge profits from running heroin into this country.
They have since Viet Nam.

Anonymous said...

No one disputes that. The point is, if it happens to you...TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS, get help and return to a productive life. Stop this B.S. of blaming everyone else.

Anonymous said...

1000% agree

Anonymous said...

3:15...take your piety and shove it.

Anonymous said...

5:15 Stop trying to make excuses. Addiction is a self inflicted behavior (not a disease).

Anonymous said...

Do stupid things, win stupid prizes.

Anonymous said...

Cannabis overdoses. 0
Cannabis deaths 0
States with legal cannabis have 25% lower opiod use rate . Fact

Anonymous said...

6:42 You got your medical degree from where? Psychiatrist? Thought so. Please let the educated adults make those determinations.

Anonymous said...

I had mohs surgery to remove a basis cell carcinoma. The was a dime size piece of skin cut off of me.
I was fine tolerating the discomfort, but the doctor INSISTED that I have oxicodone. I told her that I wouldn't fill the prescription and I didn't.

My wife had minor back surgery, (1 inch incision) they put her on oxycontin BEFORE the surgery. She went home the next day.

I agree that pain should be managed, but this is out of control.

LastMohican said...

all these people THINK they know the reasons, the cure, and whatever else medical professionals are having a hard time getting a handle on. thinking the problems lies with making bad decisions. poor judgment. and whatever else they can "think" of.

they are more ignorant than the junkies themselves. nobody takes anything with the desire to become addicted. speaking for those in pain, if you're in enough pain you will try anything to be free of pain or at least have some relief from pain. Surgery was an option for me to get rid of pain, or so I THOUGHT.z

then pain pills were prescribed for the surgical pain and then for the chronic pain that returned. after different pain meds, different doses, different abuses and different derogatory, insulting, demeaning, hurtful and FALSE words being thrown at me, I am still in pain.

My next hope is CBD oil from cannabis. But until it is legalized at the federal level, no pain management specialist with prescribe it. If you try it anyway, you will be kicked out of pain management clinics. So you can't give up pain meds totally.

I could go on and on about pain meds and the 15% who use them illegally or the 85% who use them correctly. Or that most teens get pain meds from family and friends other than dealers. Or the hundreds of other facts that most don't know and don't bother to look up.

And who really believes anyone has any say on how taxpayer monies are spent or not spent? I could go on but it's late and I'm tired and it falls on deaf ears anyway.

Anonymous said...

As long as the Gov't can TAX it ...hell...it is OK !!!!