– the use and abuse of prescription pain medication

According to the Ministry of  Health and Long Term Care, in Ontario:

• Prescriptions for Oxycodon have risen by 900% [nine times] since 1981….
• Deaths related to pain killers have more than doubled.
• Deaths related to oxycodon increased almost five-fold.

Dr Goldman introduces a panel of three experts:

Christine Bois —-manager opiates project  CAMH

Det Staff Sargent Sean White, Cornwall community police service

Dr Andrea Furlan, Chronic pain specialist and scientist at Toronto Rehabilitation Institute

…and family members who share some of their own struggles with pain medications including losing young loved ones  and mediates a very frank conversation with the audience .

“this is an epidemic that  is caused by physicians – an iatrogenic public health problem”

Dr Andrea Furlan

…so, that’s another one then, eh?

What’s up Doc?

Q. Why is it that chiropractic and physiotherapy are not covered by OHIP yet this very dangerous drug that causes addiction, death, crime is?

Q. Do we have a health system or a  system for paying doctors to write prescriptions so we can get hold of dangerous drugs?

“We tend to think that if you get addicted to a drug then its your fault – “its your fault: deal with it” whereas they became sick because of the medication they were taking.

Christine Bois

One in five students in schools have tried these drugs to get high

“ordinary people who have never been involved in criminal activity in their lives are now getting involved in criminal activity s0 we have a new type of crime that didn’t exist before…

…false oxycontin tablets are being made as far away as India and brought into the country by organised crime…”

Det Staff Sargent Sean White

“the withdrawal from opiods is extremely difficult…”

“They’re called ‘pain killers’ so there’s an assumption that they will kill our pain but in fact they do not. They reduce our pain so we can get some rest… but we will still have pain..

Christine Bois

http://www.cbc.ca/whitecoat/blog/2011/12/02/generation-rx-show/

Related articles

• Pain Education In Medical Schools Needs Improvement (medicalnewstoday.com)
• States try more aggressive Rx opioid controls (kboreilly.com)
• Brockville doctor banned from prescribing OxyContin (cbc.ca)
• Prescription Drug Abuse Kills (Infographic) (livescience.com)
• Understanding Drug Abuse: RX Drugs (raisingageneration.wordpress.com)
• The Neck, Back And Shoulder Pain Relief Program Could Help You To Relieve Your Pain (microphone-film.net)