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Legalizing marijuana for all uses, medicinal and recreational, for anyone over the age of 21 who cares to use it -- with proper taxation, distribution, and penalties for misuse -- seems to be one of the most obviously, clearly, evidently correct things to do that I have a hard time taking the anti-marijuana-legalization position seriously. I know that position generally stems from a belief that "drugs are bad, marijuana is a drug, ergo marijuana is bad," but that sort of thinking rarely results in good law.<br><br>Marijuana is an organic substance given us by a loving Creator, one that would be of enormous help to those of us who suffer from chronic pain and other conditions. I consider it a gift, one whose receipt and usage I object to being prevented by people who have no business interfering. I don't generally take my political cues from reggae artists, but, to quote the late Peter Tosh, "LEGALIZE IT!!!!!"<br><br><font style="" color="#8064a2"><font style="font-size:12pt" size="3"><font style="" face="Verdana">Keely<br>www.keely-prevailingwinds.com<br></font></font></font><br><br><div><div id="SkyDrivePlaceholder"></div><hr id="stopSpelling">Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2012 08:26:21 -0700<br>From: art.deco.studios@gmail.com<br>To: vision2020@moscow.com<br>Subject: [Vision2020] Narcotics = Good, Marijuana = Evil?<br><br><img src="http://gfx1.hotmail.com/mail/w4/pr04/ltr/i_safe.gif" alt=""><br>
<br><h1>Painkiller sales spike, fueling addiction</h1>
<h5 class="ecxsubhead">Overdose death toll from opioids rising</h5>
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Chris Hawley<br>
Associated Press
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NEW YORK – Sales of the nation’s two most popular prescription
painkillers have exploded in new parts of the country, an Associated
Press analysis shows, worrying experts who say the push to relieve
patients’ suffering is spawning an addiction epidemic. <BR>
From New York’s Staten Island to Santa Fe, N.M., Drug Enforcement
Administration figures show dramatic rises between 2000 and 2010 in the
distribution of oxycodone, the key ingredient in OxyContin, Percocet and
Percodan. Some places saw sales increase sixteenfold. <BR>
Meanwhile, the distribution of hydrocodone, the key ingredient in
Vicodin, Norco and Lortab, is rising in Appalachia, the original
epicenter of the painkiller epidemic, as well as in the Midwest. <BR>
The increases have coincided with a wave of overdose deaths,
pharmacy robberies and other problems in New Mexico, Nevada, Utah,
Florida and other states. Opioid pain relievers, the category that
includes oxycodone and hydrocodone, caused 14,800 overdose deaths in
2008 alone, and the death toll is rising, the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention says. <BR>
Nationwide, pharmacies received and ultimately dispensed the
equivalent of 69 tons of pure oxycodone and 42 tons of pure hydrocodone
in 2010, the last year for which statistics are available. That’s enough
to give 40 5-mg Percocets and 24 5-mg Vicodins to every person in the
United States. The DEA data records shipments from distributors to
pharmacies, hospitals, practitioners and teaching institutions. The
drugs are eventually dispensed and sold to patients, but the DEA does
not keep track of how much individual patients receive. <BR>
The increase is partly due to the aging U.S. population with pain
issues and a greater willingness by doctors to treat pain, said Gregory
Bunt, medical director at New York’s Daytop Village chain of drug
treatment clinics. <BR>
Sales are also being driven by addiction, as users become physically
dependent on painkillers and begin “doctor shopping” to keep the
prescriptions coming, he said. <BR>
Opioids like hydrocodone and oxycodone can release intense feelings
of well-being. Some abusers swallow the pills; others crush them, then
smoke, snort or inject the powder. <BR>
The AP analysis used drug data collected quarterly by the DEA’s
Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System. The DEA tracks
shipments sent from distributors to pharmacies, hospitals, practitioners
and teaching institutions and then compiles the data using three-digit
ZIP codes. <BR>
The AP combined this data with census figures to determine effective sales per capita. <BR>
A few ZIP codes that include military bases or Veterans Affairs
hospitals have seen large increases in painkiller use because of soldier
patients injured in the Middle East, law enforcement officials say. In
addition, small areas around St. Louis, Indianapolis, Las Vegas and
Newark, N.J., have seen their totals affected because mail-order
pharmacies have shipping centers there, said Carmen Catizone, executive
director of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy. <BR>
In 2000, oxycodone sales were centered in coal-mining areas of West
Virginia and eastern Kentucky – places with high concentrations of
people with back problems and other chronic pain. <BR>
But by 2010, the strongest oxycodone sales had overtaken most of
Tennessee and Kentucky, stretching as far north as Columbus, Ohio and as
far south as Macon, Ga. <BR>
Per-capita oxycodone sales increased five- or six-fold in most of Tennessee during the decade. <BR>
“We’ve got a problem. We’ve got to get a handle on it,” said Tommy
Farmer, a counterdrug official with the Tennessee Bureau
of Investigation. <BR>
Many buyers began crossing into Tennessee to fill prescriptions
after border states began strengthening computer systems meant to
monitor drug sales, Farmer said. <BR>
In 2006, only 20 states had prescription drug monitoring programs
aimed at tracking patients. Now 40 do, but many aren’t linked together,
so abusers can simply go to another state when they’re flagged in one
state’s system. There is no federal monitoring of prescription drugs at
the patient level. <BR>
In Florida, the AP analysis underscores the difficulty of the
state’s decade-long battle against “pill mills,” unscrupulous doctors
who churn out dozens of prescriptions a day. <BR>
In 2000, Florida’s oxycodone sales were centered around West Palm
Beach. By 2010, oxycodone was flowing to nearly every part of the state.
<BR>
While still not as high as in Appalachia or Florida, oxycodone sales
also increased dramatically in New York City and its suburbs. The
borough of Staten Island saw sales leap 1,200 percent. <BR>
The American Southwest has emerged as another hot spot. <BR>
Parts of New Mexico have seen tenfold increases in oxycodone sales
per capita and fivefold increases in hydrocodone. The state had the
highest rate of opioid painkiller overdoses in 2008, with 27 per
100,000 population. <BR>
Many parts of eastern California received only modest amounts of
oxycodone in 2010, but the increase from 2000 was dramatic – more than
500 percent around Modesto and Stockton. <BR>
Many California addicts are switching from methamphetamine to
prescription pills, said John Harsany, medical director of Riverside
County’s substance abuse program. <BR>
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<h6 class="ecxtop"><br></h6><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)<br><a href="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com">art.deco.studios@gmail.com</a><br>
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