Nursing Home Residents Who Need Pain Drugs

The war on drugs has totally disrupted the health care system in America. Patients and seniors in long-term-care facilities are having trouble getting pain medication; serious delays are causing needless suffering. A number of staff members working in nursing homes steal the patients pain medication to sell or use; the DEA in response now requires doctor's signatures along with a sleuth of other approvals when pain medication is ordered. The Washington Post reports that lawmakers have become concerned and, "wrote to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. this month, urging that the Obama administration issue new directives to the DEA and support a possible legislative fix for the problem, which has bothered nursing home administrators and geriatric experts for years". There doesn't seem to be an easy solution to this problem; on the one hand there are not enough doctors to be around every nursing home at all times, on the other a serious number of prescription pain medications such as: morphine, Oxycontin, Percocet, and Vicodin are being stolen. How to secure the distribution of opiates and provide nursing home residents who need pain drugs in a timely matter is the question?

Pharmacies that provide pain medication to nurses without all the approvals in order face tens of thousands of dollars in fines. "The system is broken. It isn't working, and patients are suffering," said Claudia Schlosberg, director of policy and advocacy for the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists. "While we need to ensure there are proper controls on the medications, the overall law enforcement concern has to be compatible with meeting patients' needs, and right now it's not", according to the Washington Post. Scholsberg has a good point, patients' rights need to prevail over all else, there obviously needs to be some restrictions but they can't get in the way of a patients' well being. Nobody would want their loved ones to suffer while in the care of someone else, it just is not acceptable.

It does not seem right that the war on pain has to suffer from the war on drugs; I guess that is war though, they are usually not fair. Nurses and doctors cannot effectively manage their patients' pain as a result of the Drug Enforcement Agencies strict policies. Hopefully, a compromise can be found that will stop all the delays and still monitor the drugs in order to keep them off the streets.

Ph D Died After Apparently Injecting Herself With Buprenorphine

What does a drug addict look like? Society has placed stigmas and stereotypes on the appearance of addicts and alcoholics over the years. When someone utters the word "Junkie" a picture usually pops into one's head of a withering human, perhaps on their last breath who would do anything to get their fix. Unfortunately, the majority of addicts have the ability to hide their addiction from their friends and family; they hold full time jobs and it appears like they are functioning members of society. It can be hard to imagine that someone who has been successful both in education and business could be suffering from an addiction that is in many ways invisible. Doctors, lawyers, and politicians are just as susceptible to drugs and alcohol as those living on the streets. Some of the last people that you would ever think of are in the grips of a terrible drug addiction. On Sunday in Baltimore Maryland, a Ph.D died after apparently injecting herself with buprenorphine while trying to get high with her boyfriend. Carrie Elisabeth John earned a doctorate in physiology and pharmacology and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Maryland School of Medicine studying the effects of drug addiction when she died from an overdose.

The police said, Carrie and her boyfriend Clinton Blaine McCracken grew marijuana inside their home and used narcotics purchased over the Internet from a Philippine pharmacy that shipped pills hidden inside stuffed animals. "John and McCracken led a life that the young woman's mother never saw. McCracken told authorities that he and John injected themselves with buprenorphine and morphine. Police said they had turned their unkempt house into an indoor marijuana farm, with grow lights and fans vented with aluminum dryer hoses. Police said they found pills in bags, at least 20 bongs, 30 marijuana plants growing up to two feet high and more packed and stored in Mason jars", according to the Baltimore Sun. The police are going to charge McCracken with many different charges related to everything found in the couple's home. McCracken believes that John did not overdose, rather, it was a bad batch of drugs that led to the death - toxicology reports are still pending.

Whatever the case may be, Carrie John died needlessly in the prime of her life. She never had the opportunity to seek help and no one seemed to have a clue about her struggles with addiction. It is surprising that the University of Maryland did not drug test their employees, especially the ones working in John's department; they had had constant contact with addictive drugs on a daily basis. I imagine they will start testing after this terrible incident. It just goes to show that most addicts and alcoholics go undetected through life until something horrific happens.