Gateway to Heroin

People who know me know that I'm a big fan of Vanguard, Current T.V.'s awesome investigative journalism program. In 2009, correspondent Mariana van Zeller filed a report from Florida, called "The OxyContin Express." This report detailed everything that can possibly go wrong when big pharma is allowed to run amok, with no regulation. The long and the short of it is this: Oxycodone, which is chemically indistinct from heroin, is flooding the U.S. and getting people hooked. Since there is no prescription drug-tracking in Florida, people "doctor shop," or go to "pain-clinics" where these opioid pain killers are liberally dispensed. The result? Prescription drug abuse now eclipses the abuse of cocaine, meth, and ecstasy combined. On average, eleven people per day in Florida die from oxy overdose. But, on paper, it's all perfectly legal.
That's bad enough, but the problem has spread beyond Florida's borders. Ms. van Zeller has just filed a follow-up report, "Gateway to Heroin," which shows how the illegal trade in pills is hitting the state of Massachusetts hard. Although MA is the state profiled, the problem is also in other states. People flock to Florida to get pills, mule them to MA or another state, and then sell them on the street where one pill can go for as much as $80.
Sadly, it's children who are mostly getting hooked on these big pharma painkillers. Teens turn to pills first because they're easy to get. They may even have them prescribed for them to treat an injury. The result is almost always the same: addiction to the pain killers, and then the realization that they can get heroin from the street, which is cheaper, and provides a better high.
There is no question that these drugs do vastly more harm than good, which begs the question, why aren't they scheduled the same as heroin or marijuana, both Schedule 1 drugs. The answer probably is that with this much demand, Oxycodone is far, far too much of a money maker for its manufacturer to ever be pull it from the market. Since pharma companies have big lobbies, they can advocate for themselves, and their drugs, in congress to keep them on the market. That's not going to change anytime soon.
Acupuncture is an effective way to combat pain without the use of opioid pain killers. I did it all the time at St. Ann's Corner of Harm Reduction, and I do it for patients at the no-fault clinic where I am employed, treating car accident patients. Alternatives like acupuncture are going to be very, very needed in future to help combat the rising tide of opiate addiction, by treating people effectively so that they never need such drugs, and by treating people who are hooked and want to get off of them. Many clients at St. Ann's were recovering, but experiencing pain, and were deathly, and rightfully, afraid of prescription pain killers.
Analgesics have their place in medicine, but with a rising personal toll happening across the country, it's time that we start looking for alternative therapies for treating pain, before we're all hooked.