Enforcement, regulation of Rx medicines lacking

Over the last three years there has been an increase in newspaper articles in Glenn County and across the country about individuals dying from multi drug overdoses. Combinations of illicit drugs such as Xanax, Oxycodone, methadone, Fentanyl, cocaine, Prozac, Vicodin, methamphetamine, Alprazolam, heroin and Methylphenidate. Addicts take as many as five of these very addictive and deadly drugs in combination.

This deadly list also includes over-the-counter medications, alcohol, aspirin, acetaminophen, ibuprofen and multi-ingredient cough and cold remedies.

These multi-drug overdoses are an epidemic called "poly drug deaths." I first became aware of "poly-drug deaths" after researching student deaths in Chico. At first equating the high rate of student fatalities to the college party town image of Chico, I had no connection to the poly drug deaths syndrome initially. Some four months, many student toxicology reports later and I now know these multi-drug overdose deaths are "poly-drug deaths."

A recent report from Drug Abuse Warning Network "DAWN" about the growing national problem of "poly-drug deaths" was just released. The report is called 2006: Area Profiles of Drug-Related Mortality, under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Office of Applied Studies.

This report indicates the 2006 "poly-drug deaths" in 10 random states have increased by 10 percent on average. This report not only illustrates the spike in deaths from poly drug overdoses but also the nationwide non-discreet impact on every demographic.

You can download the whole report at dawninfo.samhsa.gov/files/ME2006/ME_06_Front.pdf

On Oct. 29, it was reported that a drug trafficking ring that was the largest drug bust in Kentucky history took place. More than 500 warrants in 33 counties were issued. The drug trafficking ring acquired prescription drugs from Florida and then would sell them in Kentucky.

In Kentucky, last year alone, 877 deaths were attributed to "poly-drug deaths". Earlier this year, a man was arrested for trafficking over 130,000 Oxycodone pills in a 2.5-year period from Detroit to Kentucky, netting over $4 million in the process.

In a six month period last year, one county in Florida alone wrote prescriptions for over 6.5 million Oxycodone pills. In Palm Beach County, Florida, law enforcement has seen a 38 percent increase in "poly-drug deaths" that totaled 308 deaths last year. Prescription drug trafficking is a very unscrupulous, profitable and discreet enterprise, many times hidden legally through the Physician-patient privilege.

One year ago, I would have never believed that we could be faced with a drug problem beyond the negative impact from methamphetamine. I predict that poly-drug use has and will continue to explode light years beyond the mayhem that methamphetamine impacted our country.

This may be the day of reckoning regarding the denial, complacency and selective ignorance from government officials' regarding the substance abuse crisis we now face.

My conclusion is that "poly-drug deaths," prescription drug abuse and trafficking are only at their infancy regarding disclosure and destruction nationwide. This conclusion is due to lack of regulation of prescription drugs, the proven history of slow, topical response to prior illicit drug epidemics by, law enforcement, American Medical Association, physicians, media and the prevention community. Unfortunately "poly drugging" addicts and kills quickly.

Call your political representative and demand action today to regulate, enforce and control prescription medicines; tomorrow could be too late. Demand a national prescription drug database all doctors can utilize. This would greatly reduce addicts from doctor shopping for multiple prescriptions, while reducing future "poly-drug deaths.". Help find the solution to this problem before this problem finds you.

James C. Bettencourt is

Chairman, Board of Directors

Not In Our Town Glenn County