Pubdate: Wed, 14 Mar 2012
Source: Nanaimo Daily News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 Nanaimo Daily News
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/nanaimodailynews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1608
Author: Darrell Bellaart, Columnist, The Daily News

POLICY MAKES ADDICTS VICTIMS

Children are taught at an early age that two wrongs don't make a
right, yet that message apparently hasn't hit home among those who
decide which drugs doctors can prescribe to patients.

British Columbia followed the lead of other Canadian provinces last
week by removing PharmaCare coverage for Oxycontin, a prescription
narcotic with the headline-grabbing handle "hillbilly heroin."

Originally marketed as the next big thing for pain relief, it is now
being replaced by another, supposedly less addictive, drug.

Six provinces have already said they won't allow the replacement drug
to be prescribed to patients. Once bitten, twice shy, apparently.

Some doctors unwittingly turned patients into addicts when they
prescribed the drug, believing manufacturers' claims it was not only
better at controlling pain but much safer and less addictive than
other powerful narcotics, such as morphine.

It turns out the stuff is just as powerful as heroin and just as
addictive. Governments took the knee-jerk approach and removed
Oxycontin from Pharmacare coverage, effectively turning off the
narcotic tap.

What's missing in this plan, of course, is the addicts affected. Doing
away with Oxycontin doesn't do anything at all for all those now
hooked on a drug that will cause withdrawal so severe many addicts
would rather commit crimes than go through days of painful withdrawal.

There are no statistics available on how many people use the drug in
Nanaimo, but Dr. Paddy Mark says, like any medium sized B.C. city,
Nanaimo has its share of addicts.

And as their pills run out, they're going to start kicking. Some will
hurt badly, depending how long they were using it, and how high a dose
they were taking.

While Mark is "delighted" the drug has been de-listed, due to its high
addiction potential, she worries about what will now happen to users
of the drug.

"There are a number of people buying this stuff on the streets," Mark
said. "People like it. It feels really great and next they need more,
and they sell it for $50 or $60 a pill. That price is going to go up
because there's a shortage."

She predicts crime will go up, just as the federal government's
omnibus crime bill goes into law, with its mandatory minimum sentences
for drug crimes.

What is astounding in all this is how the drug was ever approved in
the first place after the same thing happened following the U.S. Civil
War. Returning war veterans, addicted to morphine administered for
battlefield injuries, were given heroin, a new German-made drug, which
was said to be safe and non-addictive.

Sound familiar? Here we are. more than a century on, as drug companies
complain of the high costs of drug testing. Oxycontin somehow made it
onto pharmacy shelves yet no one saw its potential for abuse.

Now, after the damage is done, pulling Oxycontin without giving
addicts a safety net is ill-considered public policy.

Family-launched interventions is what Lorne Hildebrand, executive
director at Edgewood addiction treatment centre, recommends. It's a
good idea for those addicts fortunate enough to have a family caring
enough to do so and the money to follow through with a successful
treatment regime, which is time-consuming and costly.

One report calls for substituting methadone with heroin. The costs of
prescribing heroin are considerably less, so treating addicts that way
would save money over the long term, while cutting organized crime off
at the knees.

Of course, the Harper government would never consider it.
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MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.