Healthy Living: Helen Lost 82 Pounds: 'Helping Others Is What Life Is All About'
By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press
ALBANY, N.Y. -- Following fatal shootings in two New York pharmacy robberies, a U.S. senator is warning that a new batch of "super painkillers" now under review could force repeats of recent violent robberies that left six people dead.
"It's tremendously concerning that at the same time policymakers and law enforcement professionals are waging a war on the growing prescription drug crisis, new super-drugs could well be on their way, flooding the market," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. "The FDA needs to grab the reins and slow down the stampede to introduce these powerful narcotics."
A message seeking comment from the Food and Drug Administration was not immediately returned Friday.
The Associated Press reported last month about addiction experts' fears over four drugs being tested that contain a more powerful version of one of the nation's most abused painkillers - hydrocodone.
Schumer is particularly concerned about legalizing the drugs for prescriptions because they would be prized commodities in the black market.
Experts say painkiller addiction has been driven partly by a loophole in the 1970 Controlled Substances Act that classified pure hydrocodone - a super painkiller - as a strictly controlled Schedule II drug. But the law put combination products, such as pills containing hydrocodone and acetaminophen, into the less strict Schedule III.
Because of the loophole, patients can refill a prescription for a hydrocodone-acetaminophen drug like Vicodin up to five times. A prescription for a similar oxycodone product, such as Percocet, can be filled only once. Critics say the loophole has flooded American medicine cabinets with hydrocodone.
In 1999, the Drug Enforcement Administration and FDA began reviewing whether they should reschedule hydrocodone combination products. But an AP review of regulatory documents and court filings shows the agencies have repeatedly passed the rescheduling study back and forth, with no final decision made.
A New Year's Eve robbery at a Long Island pharmacy netted prescription painkillers and cash and left the robber and a federal agent dead. In June, four died in another Long Island pharmacy robbery in which 11,000 hydrocodone pills were stolen.
If the pure hydrocodone drugs are approved, Schumer wants a "robust post-market surveillance" of the drugs as they are marketed, advertised and sold.
-continuing my thought-
The present legal system creates a drug culture, which further glorifies drug use.
Ending prohibitions for possession and sale might lead to a spike in junkie deaths, but grandma on the way to cash her check will be much safer, and the drug cartels will then whither and die.
When junkies died on sidewalks, no one glorified drug lifestyle, no one had to steal or murder to obtain their drugs. Jails were not full of depressed drug users, so there was room for real criminals. We did not have to pay to house millions of junkies and our courts were not clogged with petty drug offenses.
Legalizing drugs would create a safer society for most of us. Senator Schumer needs to find some other card to play so he can appear strong and leaderlike.
Get politics out of medicine! Senator Schumer, this means you!
The dangers of opiate misuse are real, but the dangers of poisoned livers because of the way the drugs are coumpounded is a greater threat to Americans.
Opiate misuse is no danger except to the user. Senator Schumer needs to let medical experts do their job.
Cost of opiate misuse: Stupid jumkie dies from overdose.
Cost of legal system: Junkies have to pay more for opium. This creates drug cartels who bribe officials and generally lead a criminal lifestyle. Opiate prices get so high that junkies have to steal and kill to support their habits. Junkies have to reuse old needles and begin to spread blood-borne infections, increasing the vectors of those infections to the general public.
Is our goverment trying to kill more people then those who have died or will die thinking a medication they get from the doctor has to be safe.
Instead of approving all these new opiates, why not give each state funding to build FREE re-hab centers for all those that do not have insurance to get help if they want..We have two state re-hab centers in Florida,, both with waiting lists a mile long..We need more places to give help to those in need. DO NOT PUT ANY STRONG PAINKILLERS (NEW) on the streets..It is greed on the part of the drug mfg...