LUBEC, Maine — Prescription drug abuse and addiction is epidemic, not only in Washington County, but throughout Maine and the country, Maine Attorney General William Schneider said Monday.
“Twenty years ago, I was a drug prosecutor for five or six years, and back then 95 percent of the cases I dealt with involved heroin, crack and cocaine,” Schneider said while addressing a seminar in Lubec attended by 50 health care providers and law enforcement professionals. “These days I’m dealing with 80 percent prescription drug abuse and 20 percent with those other drugs. The problem has mushroomed in the last 20 years.”
In 2009, he said, there were 169 deaths in Maine attributed to overdose, with 97 percent involving prescription drugs, usually methadone, oxycodone or some blend of both.
“More people in Maine die from drug overdoses than traffic fatalities. It’s a terrible, terrible problem. There are about 500 drug-affected babies born in Maine each year, and I usually can’t even mention that statistic without getting choked up,” Schneider said.
In 2011, there were 23 newborns diagnosed in Machias as facing opiate withdrawal and other effects of their mothers’ prescription drug abuse. By comparison, there were 139 such newborns diagnosed in Bangor.
Schneider is the engine driving a new push to establish a Maine Prescription Drug Abuse Task Force. Last week, Gov. Paul LePage signed an executive order creating a 17-member task force that will be populated by law enforcement, medical, dental, pharmaceutical and education professionals. Members of the task force were announced Monday.
The task force is an outgrowth of a drug abuse summit convened by Schneider last October. It’s being tasked to implement four strategies developed at the summit. They include developing a long-term solution to voluntary disposal of controlled substances and implementing a statewide “diversion alert program” through which those licensed to write controlled substance prescriptions are provided drug crime information, including photos of those who have been arrested or convicted on drug-related charges.
The task force also will look at ways to enhance public and professional education about the problem and will review how best to maintain the Maine Prescription Monitoring Program, a database that tracks controlled substance prescriptions.
Schneider said the evolution of the problem is linked to “the diffuse nature of the supply.”
“Prescription drugs are available everywhere,” he said. “Kids steal them from their parents or from hospice patients. People doctor shop and bring them across the border [from Canada].
Washington County’s proximity to Canada exacerbates illicit prescription drug trafficking, Schneider said. “It makes Maine the first stop for any drugs that are smuggled in from Canada.”
The chemical formulation of oxycodone prescribed in Canada is different from the oxycodone prescribed in the U.S., where substances are added to make it difficult to dissolve the drug for injection. That pharmaceutical reality has created a significant black market demand for 80 milligram “oxy” doses from Canada, with a single dose now selling on the streets of Bangor for $145.
Also speaking at the event was Chris Gardner of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency. He said the state is drowning in prescription drugs being diverted from legal purposes for recreational use. In 2010, there were 10,000 doses seized by law enforcement. Last year that number climbed to 44,000 doses.
“I’m seeing that the people I deal with have large, large quantities,” Gardner said.
Maine State Senate President Kevin Raye, who lives in Perry and represents Washington County, told the seminar that prescription drug abuse and addiction are “extracting a terrible toll on our communities.”
“It’s not a new problem, but it requires a significant commitment to doing something,” Raye said. “While well-intentioned, previous efforts to fight prescription drug abuse have not been successful. … It’s clear we must take action and stop tolerating a culture that has addicted the young and the old.
“We are all in this together in facing this tragic situation and confronting this scourge of prescription drug abuse and the harm it is doing to our families and communities,” he said. “We need to limit pain medications to those who need it and keep them out of the hands of those who don’t.”
This smells like big time grand standing to me. Gearing up to lock everybody’s heels together, doctors and patients, by a prosecutorially oriented oversight authority will cure some abuse to be sure, but dollars to donuts it will toss the baby out with the bathwater. There must be enough regulations that arn’t being enforced already, do we need another level of oversight from the decryers of more government regulation. If a democratic state or national government tried this there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands. You are already up in arms about national health care reform being an intrusive violation of the publics right to die untreated and unmedicated; and now want to jump in between a patient and his or her doctor. Come on tea bags try and stay on message.
Someone is prescribing the abused prescription opiate drugs. Writing a script to a patient that a physician doesn’t really want in the office, who has more substantial medical problems than the physician wishes to deal with, is an easy out. It is, more likely, nearly impossible to obtain necessary prescriptions when they are needed. Yet again, this is targeting people with lesser means and bigger problems.
Yes, and a lot of those prescriptions originate in other states (or Canada).
Florida is famous for its doling out prescriptions. I’d like to know how many in Maine actually come from NY, NJ, MA, CT, and FL.
Once upon a time Oxycodone was the last refuge of pain relief for the dying. Then big pharma saw a market and went after it for every little ache and pain. Personally, I think they need to assume a much larger responsibility than they do.
The commercials I am inundated with every single night tell me loud and clear that they are nothing more than legal drug pushers.
Thank you Maine Attorney General William Schneider for stating the obvious. It sure is nice to know that you and Mr. LePage are getting right on top of this prescription drug problem. Now, how’s that task force on Bruce Poliquin coming along? Are you burning the midnight oil on that one as well? We’re all hoping you find solutions to both these problems as soon as possible. Thanks a bunch!
Yawn!!!!!
One sad word. That’s all you’ve got! If this is the strength of the GOP/Tea Party’s response or dedication to solving their own now well established problems with CORRUPTION then we now know two things for sure.
1. They either lack the intellectual ability to begin a discussion or they’ve (Under the guide of Mr. LePage’s wit and sad efforts) completely lost the will to even try.
2.That next November House and Senate seats will be wide open to anyone running as a Democrat.
I would think that someone who claims to be as intelligent and informed as you quite often do would know that the GOP is not the Tea Party. Not all Republicans belong to the Tea Party and not everyone who believes in the philosophy of the Teat Party is a Republican.
“Not all Republicans belong to the Tea Party and not everyone who believes in the philosophy of the Teat Party is a Republican.”
I’ll believe that when we see the GOP run off those TEA extremists.
RINO’s UNITE !
But for now, they ran and were elected as GOP, not TEA,
so they are so the GOP.
Just ask them.
They will say so, when it works to their advantage, anyway.
Anything else is just a denial of reality,
… which raises the question of how much respect we should give to the political deluded, in a political debate ?
The only thing more cracked than claiming the TEA Party is not Republican
is claiming you can cut taxes and balance the budget.
“The only thing more cracked than claiming the TEA Party is not Republican is claiming you can cut taxes and balance the budget.”
LOL…again, you’re clueless. Tea Party folks are ardent supporters of cutting SPENDING, not taxes. The only way you can cut taxes us if you cut spending. And because this is a notion that most tea partiers support, while the current slate of “GOP” candidates, save Ron Paul, do not support cutting spending, arriving at the conclusion that tea party = republican is a joke and merely reflects the lack of a reasoned approach that is typical from the reactionary, emotional left.
Nonetheless, please carry on, I use failed arguments such as this to convert independents and obama detractors to the side of liberty and constitutional, fiscally responsible, limited government on a weekly basis. Nailed down three converts last week alone and have over three hundred attending the Republican Caucus this weekend in support of Ron Paul.
Oh, so who is for cuts in taxes, just the Republican Tea Party …
The GOTea Party ?
If I don’t have a clue, is that is because your TEA Party lacks clear policy and /or communication skills…. which it naturally does, because that is all handled by the GOP caucus , right ?
You don’t get to have it two ways at once.
Run your own ticket, or admit it is the GOTea Party.
People love to vote for deluded zealots and/or liars ,
so please keep telling everyone which of their
own personal observations are what the Party judges to be
politically incorrect, so their “failed arguments”,
because you have failed to counter them ?
“And because this is a notion that most tea partiers support” …
> Who else on the ballot, but the GOP ?
“…while the current slate of “GOP” candidates, SAVE Ron Paul, R. (we) do not support” …
Ergo:
… of “the current slate of “GOP” candidates” we support Ron Paul,
Who is what, if not GOP at the GOP debates ?
Anyone else dizzy yet ?
Thank Mr. Whipple’s delusions.
Perscription is spelled prescription. Shape up.
Misspellings don’t negate an argument.
That’s what happens when you forget to let your editor proof your work before you publish it!
ah, yes so hyperbole is an argument these days….kinda like redistribution of wealth is a moral enterprise?
ayuh, I getcha
“ah, yes so hyperbole is an argument these days…”
Good thing, it is all that you conservatives have:
I quote : “ah, yes so hyperbole is an argument these days….kinda like redistribution of wealth is a moral enterprise?”
I guess some people must think their own hyperbole does not sink.
Let’s support that ?
I’ve gotten to the point that I must ask, seriously,
do we have to keep pretending that we can even respect it ?
He should be back in Augusta working on at least ONE of the police shooting incidences, or Poiliquin’s little situation. I think his time and effort management is going to be tweaked when a new legislature is sworn in.
start executing the people dealing it will stop eventually : )
Just like there’s no more murderers in Texas…..
Right, why don’t we just go ahead and execute those that manufacture them too…. And while we are at it, we can execute the users, and the doctor’s that prescribe it. Hell, let’s just execute everyone .
The doctors are the dealers…… Lock it up.
If : “Yes, and a lot of those prescriptions originate in other states (or Canada). Florida is famous for its doling out prescriptions. I’d like to know how many in Maine actually come from NY, NJ, MA, CT, and FL. ”
Make it illegal to fill out of State scripts for some drugs…
WOW, Really. DRUGS ? It has been an epidemic in Washington County for well over a decade now.
I like the fact that they say drugs are being brought across the border…..ya think?? Drugs are also being sold/transported among some of the fishermen and people that have access to a boat….especially along the areas between Calais to Cutler and Campobello, Grand Manan, Blacks Harbour, Deer Island and surrounding areas. What gets me is, some of the people bringing drugs across the border are known to customs officers in both Calais/St. Stephen and Lubec/Campobello and not a damn thing is done. Not only that, but a lot of drugs are being bought on the internet and being sold. Unfortunately, the drug war will never be won.
Don’t forget Rockland ;)
Very true!!!
It seems about 12 years ago Doctors made it easy for people to get pain meds. i broke bones before and was giving Ibuprofin. Maybe people are suppose to deal with a little pain. If they would change the rules about how much and why they presribe them Maybe thier would not be so many on the street.
In 2007 I had 2 major surgories. Both times I left the hospital, I had not needed pain meds for days. They still wrote me a prescription for percacets, enough for a months supply. I tore the prescriptions up. The more I think on it, I believe the Dr.’s may be getting a kick back from the Pharma Co.’s to write these scrips.
I have a daughter that went to the emergency room in Machias a few months ago for an injury. Before she left, the ER doctor wrote her a script for a narcotic pain killer. She said she didn’t want it and he told her to take it anyway. She ripped the script up.
I know someone who went to the ER, again, in Machias, with an injury. He has a severe allergy to a certain pain killer. He told the attending physican, has a bracelet to this fact, but the doctor wrote him one anyway! He also ripped the script up.
So, at least at DECH, in spite of what patients say, scripts are being written anyway.
And that was your daughter’s choice. The medications have actual medical benefits, I know a person that has had two neck surgery’s, she has screws in her neck and in order for her to even function, she must take pain killers. But, she does not abuse the medication, she takes it exactly as it’s prescribed. In this sense, it has a purpose.
Oh, I don’t disagree with you. But doctors seem to be prescribing without listening to the patient. The young man I spoke of, has an allergy to the narcotic being prescribed, and the doctor ignored this allergy, what the young man told this doctor, along with the medic alert bracelet he wears. My daughter TOLD the doctor she did NOT want any narcotics, but one was prescribed anyway. Doctors prescribe, prescribe, prescribe….for kickbacks!
yeah, same here, except it’s pretty bad when i had to scream at the doctor that operated on me that I didn’t want them and get me the —- outta this place ( 4 times to say at least b/4 the got he picture.)
Even going to the dentist for certain procedures will get you a script for narcotics, even when you tell them that Ibuprofin will work just fine. I have also ripped up prescriptions a few times. This is why we have the ER’s filled up constantly with people who just want a fix, getting in the way of people who are truly ill. Start at the source.
I find it amazing…..and startling, in such a short amount of time, on this blog, just this morning, people here retelling experiences of NOT wanting scripts and the doctors writing them anyway. Here ya go Attorney General….true testimonials!!!
They get huge kickbacks for writing prescriptions, why do you think that they do it. You get thrown in jail for smoking a little pot but your doctor can give you a prescription for synthetic heroin (Oxycontin, percocet, Vicodin) and pop those all night long with no legal problems. And you can still drive your car!!
In order to get a handle on this problem, we need to go to the source. The manufacturers. They know how many of these meds are being produced. They know what the population is. They know that they are producing enough of these pain meds to numb the entire population of the US. They know where they are shipping their product to and they know that they are shipping these huge amounts to areas that couldn’t possibly need that many pills.
If the Attorney General wants to get something done, he needs to bring Big Pharma to Court. Sue them for enough money to open and maintain clinics that will help people rid themselves of their addictions.
The narcotics are shipped to wholesalers who in turn ship to pharmacies and hospitals. There are controls in place at the wholesaler level that show increased sales to pharmacies and hospitals. This information is montitored by the DEA. The issue is the physicians. This has been improved over the years but physicans are still writing scripts.
Physicians are writing scrips, for sure. Patients have learned how to modify these scrips and which pharmacies to go to get them filled. Druggies know what symptoms to present and which Dr.’s to present them to. They usually know several Dr.’s and where they are at. Rush Limbaugh himself got away with the practice of Dr. shopping.
Big pharmaceuticle companies are making enough of these pills to addict the whole nation. They don’t care about anything but their bottom line.
Say it ain’t so Joe.
The only people I have known to have those types of drugs got them from a doctor and a pharmacy. They seem to have a never–ending supply and most like to add alcohol to intensify the effect, all within the law. Maybe the doctors should use lie-detectors when they ask the patient about their pain.
The war on drugs is a welfare program for courts, cops and corrections as the problem keeps growing, as business keeps growing. This is the fastest growing business in Maine as this article shows. Every family I know has someone involved in this endless drug war. When will people learn that war is not the answer. This war costs us our children. It is insane and must end after forty years of continual growth. Wake up people.
Close down another drug treatment program. That should fix it. Too bad people don’t understand the effects of this disease of drug abuse until it hits them personally.
Doctor’s are the busiest drug dealers in the US, and the drug companies are their connections.Not to mention the drug stores that dispense it all.It’s all perfectly legal too.
Hey! What ever happened to the Polquin Review?
Well, i quess after all,
He is Schneider,
http://www.vincekeenan.com/uploaded_images/harrington-725920.jpg
One Day at a Time!
Wow…where has he been for such a long time ??????..lol
I wonder if this visit and task force committees chosen has anything to do with the senate watchdog committee targeting the high prescribing medicaid docs. I know Maine was a frontrunner and one doctor won by landslide in many categories. (9 scripts/hr oc) http://www.propublica.org/article/senate-watchdog-targets-high-prescribing-medicaid-docs/
The entire approach of treating drug abuse as a law enforcement problem has failed. You can’t do brain surgery with a hammer and you can’t curtail drug use by passing tougher laws. This is a public health issue and we will see no improvements until we start treating as such. Still, the madness continues.
Methadone is a synthetic opiate that is used to treat pain and addiction for
heroin and other opiates.When methadone is used for pain, doctors write the patient a prescrition for
various amounts (120 pills seems to be most common) When methadone is used for
addiction patient must go to a clinic to recieve dose of methadone until they
earn take home privileges. Methadone represented less than 5%
of prescribed opiates but was attributed to 1/3 of all opiate related deaths.
A dose that is theraputic for one person may be lethal to another person.
Methadones unique properties make it unforgiving and sometimes lethal.
There were 5500 methadone related deaths in 2007. For more information, please visit
http://www.stopmethadonedeaths.com. Please sign petition and join the forum.
Methadone isn’t the only problem.
You are right.
Way to go Mr. Schneider, you’re only 4 or 5 years behind the Maine police departments in deciding it’s an epidemic.
They ripped their “scripts up?” I highly doubt that very much..They probably made you think they ripped them up. Parents, adults, Docs, etc. are so gullible. I’m no expert but the day I see people throwing narcotic prescriptions in the trash is the day hell freezes over..Sorry to burst your bubble. You, like 1,0o0’s of others are not immune to this disease. It’s happening right under your nose and in front of your face. You just choose to ignore it.
Look, my daughter has NEVER taken a narcotic at any time in her life…..YES, she DID rip up her script….I WAS THERE, I SAW her do it and throw it in the trash at MY house, then she went home, to HER house. As for the young man who ripped his up…..I SAW him do it, too…then he handed them to ME and asked me to dispose of the shreds of paper. DO NOT call people a liar, unless you were ACTUALLY THERE and saw it WITH YOUR OWN EYES!!
I’ve ripped 30 days worth of percocet scrips twice. Hell froze over twice in 2007.
I’m glad that the AG wants to crack down on prescription drug abuse. It only came across as a brief blurb in the article about teen pill use, but it is soaring. SAMHSA stats show that pills are now the second favored drug of choice to marijuana. Kids have pill parties. Once they get hooked on opiates, and can’t afford the high price tag, they switch to heroin. Myteensavers counselors treat teens addicted to opioids. It’s a very difficult process. The drug experimentation needs to be stopped before it is ever started. Parents could use home drug tests to make sure that kids aren’t popping Oxycontin, Percocet, or Vicodin like it’s candy.
Committee kills plan to replace drug court in Bangor
Pharmaceutical industry scientists made the synthetic opoids so that they would fit perfectly into our bodies’ receptor cells – so that once our mostly young people try the drugs, they keep wanting them because their bodies are already addicted, rather like nicotine, but worse.
Part of the answer lies with the manufacturer taking some responsibility. They could, for one thing, number each pill as it comes off the assembly line (easy for them to do). Then numbered pills could be packed in containers of, say, 100, which would go to the druggist, who would then keep track of where those particular pills went by number.
Then, when police find some of those pills, they could easily find out the source and which doctor prescribed them.
There are law firms in Maine which lobby the Maine Legislature to ensure the pills keep coming, and that there are no restrictions on them. So don’t expect the Legislature to do much as the Portland law firms don’t care about our young people, only their huge fees to keep the pills rolling in.
The Canadian pill problem is separate, but important here in Washington County. Don’t have a suggestion for that one. Obviously, border officials can’t tear apart every car coming in from Canada to look for drugs.
Other ideas?
RICO United States Code 18USC1964, Rackeeter Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. They are rackeeters and need prosecution under this law. This is my idea to you.
I like it.
So, this is not only Donnie Smith thinking that prescription drugs are a problem. Now there are at least two tilting at windmills. We are a drugged up society that takes a pill for everything and anything. How can we combat those that push their pills on us for toe nail fungus, thinning hair, or whatever the latest now curable through medication illness is? Churchill was wrong. It’s not the military-industrial complex, it the pharma-insurance sector that will ruin us.
If he had been reading the Police Beat in the Bangor Daily News he would have found that out a lot faster.
If he had been reading the Police Beat in the Bangor Daily News he would have found that out a long time ago.
You could arrest just three doctors, one in The County, one in Mid-Maine and one in Portland, and nip this off at the source.
If the Doctors arrested were really writing lots of prescriptions, too, then that would be force multiplier, as all the other Doctors in the State chilled out.
Now, if you really wanted to make a difference, you should go after the manufacturers.
If they make more of any problem drug than there are legal prescriptions for,
then what are they but drug dealers ?
Make these available without a prescription. End the quasi-prohibition and the government created violent black market that comes with it.
I worked in an EMMC affiliated family medical practice with a reputation for being a place one could get a regular prescription for any number of drugs that are abused on the street as well as by individual patients. The physician responsible for this cohort’s attachment to the practice was very liberal in prescribing these meds and easily manipulated; I don’t believe he ever deliberately set out to cultivate a cohort of drug abusers, but over time that’s just what he ended up with. These patients came from all over the state. The phenomenon was so well known in the office that staff referred to them as “C______’s Angels”. I am sure there are other medical practices whose staff would see their own provider mirrored in this description.
Since prescription drug abuse is so prevalent, why not tighten the reins on prescribers? Obviously that is not the only way these drugs fall into the wrong hands, but it would decrease at least some of the drugs that make it to the street. Think of it: many of the drugs are paid for by state insurance, then sold at a tremendous profit. Why not require people receiving any of the opiate/narcotic derivative analgesics to be seeing a pain specialist, and that only pain specialists can manage patients who are getting regular pain med prescriptions? That would allow a family physician/ED provider, etc., to prescribe a short term use of these meds–such as pain coverage for new back injury, fracture, exposed nerve in tooth, etc., but then refills/additional prescriptions of the same med would have to be managed/prescribed by the pain specialist. Most people who have a legitimate need for pain coverage do not want to use the meds that work best, and when they do use them, these patients do so only for the shortest time possible. It’s the “chronic pain” patients who present a challenge! The same would be true of other prescription drugs that are known to be marketed on the street or abused. If it’s a med for ADHD, that is specialized care that should be managed by a psychiatrist. These doctors have the training to recognize if their patient is benefiting from the course of treatment, and /or if the patient is taking the meds at all.
Clearly, the situation of rampant prescription drug abuse is complex and cannot be ameliorated with just one or two changes to how the drugs are obtained by patients who abuse them. However, ANY strategy that will decrease the availability of these meds to be abused is a step in the right direction. I don’t understand why physician’s groups are opposed to greater oversight and more prescribing restrictions when it is for the greater good!