Tuesday, 31 March 2015, WASHINGTON, D.C. - The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) headquarters on 18 March 2015 issued a nationwide alert on the Schedule II narcotic anesthetic/analgesic fentanyl and analogs which reportedly are 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine and 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin according to DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart who also states that the euphoric effects of fentanyl are indistinguishable from morphine and heroin.
Ms. Leonhart states that fentanyl is potentially lethal at doses as low as 0.25 milligrams. The Ninth Amendment does note that the drug not uncommonly is prescribed by pain control specialists including as patches for controlled release through the skin. Fentanyl may be laced into heroin and can be extremely dangerous by injection having been known to kill even anesthesiologists who given more ready access to fenatanyl have abused it and overdosed and according to at least one physician have in some cases even been found dead while on duty in hospitals with syringes still in their arms.
The DEA warning was issued largely because nationally "heroin abuse has increased". Ninth Amendment field reporters confirm that in fact by all appearances a renewed heroin epidemic affecting all "classes" of society has been sweeping across the United States. This has been recognized individually by a rapidly growing number of states left to face the consequences of the problem but seemingly has not yet been publicly recognized by the United States government. CNN's Anthony Bordain in his "Parts Unknown" series while reporting one heroin ravaged upstate New York community where he attended a meeting of former addicts apparently identified himself as having been addicted and moreover also observed that a heroin epidemic has caught up not only traditional problem urban areas but small and rural communities stretching across the country without discrimination as to race or economic status.
Reasons for this new heroin epidemic may include that not for the first time a hopefully well-intentioned DEA initiative has gone seemingly predictably badly awry in this case being the rescheduling of opiate medications widely prescribed in the United States with no effective followup or backup plan in the case of consequences unpredictable apparently at least to the DEA. The DEA is not a health agency but an enforcement agency like the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) both under the auspices of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ).
The Ninth Amendment previously has reported in an earlier post for example on the DEA's years-long effort pressuring the independent U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to reschedule hydrocodone aka Norco aka Vicadin and other names apparently finally successfully resulting in later 2014 in the prescription medication's reclassification from Schedule III to Schedule II (with a six-month grandfathering exception into 2015 for patients with refillable prescriptions of the medication at the time of the rescheduling). At the time of the rescheduling hydrocodone was the second most prescribed medication in the United States after hypertension medications.
Nationwide millions of former and present patients have become addicted to opiates in recent years by prescription medications from physicians who "Big Pharma" effectively through massive "promotional" bribery were convinced to suspend disbelief that opiates were addictive. At least one pharmaceutical company while hosting physicians to an all expenses paid week-long paid junket at an exotic location at one of the "teaching presentations" justifying the tax-free promotional holiday actually represented that obviously potentially highly addictive opiates posed less than a 1% chance of patient addiction. The aggressive efforts of big pharmaceutical companies to market opiates through physicians was wildly successful resulting in an unprecedented number of patients being prescribed them in various opium derived and synthetic opioid medications.
Now with the changed regulatory climate many patients are finding themselves addicted to opiates as physicians effectively dump many of them on the streets as they try to distance themselves from intense scrutiny from the DEA, FDA or state medical boards according to more than one physician. This pressure has increased to the point of increased personal visits by federal drug agents extending according to one pharmacist even to pharmacies. Meanwhile many states have brought or joined lawsuits against the large pharmaceutical companies for their extreme marketing of drugs known to result in high addiction rates which are costing states hundreds of millions of dollars in health costs and untold potentially "ruined lives" of their citizens.
The Ninth Amendment emphasizes "potentially" ruined lives as a reminder that as shown by Anthony Bourdain's above-referenced CNN "Unknown Parts" episode in which he sat in on a community meeting of former addicts where government assistance is completely lacking or unavailable there are others who have come to fill the vacuum or have long been there as in the case of Narcotics Anonymous (NA) and other similar groups. The Ninth Amendment does not purport to provide any medical advice whatsoever to anyone at all. Those in need of medical advice must seek it from a properly licensed health professional.
Readers interested in more information on fentanyl and its analogs may go to the link directly below to the above-referenced DEA headquarters alert below although directed mainly to law enforcement is informative and also has a link to another DEA site section with apparently more scientific and/or medical background on fentanyl. Those who do not wish to visit the DEA site should be able easily to search for more information on fentanyl using their preferred search engine or the Wikipedia search function located here at the bottom section of the Ninth Amendment.
http://www.dea.gov/divisions/hq/2015/hq031815.shtml
Copyright Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved
Ms. Leonhart states that fentanyl is potentially lethal at doses as low as 0.25 milligrams. The Ninth Amendment does note that the drug not uncommonly is prescribed by pain control specialists including as patches for controlled release through the skin. Fentanyl may be laced into heroin and can be extremely dangerous by injection having been known to kill even anesthesiologists who given more ready access to fenatanyl have abused it and overdosed and according to at least one physician have in some cases even been found dead while on duty in hospitals with syringes still in their arms.
The DEA warning was issued largely because nationally "heroin abuse has increased". Ninth Amendment field reporters confirm that in fact by all appearances a renewed heroin epidemic affecting all "classes" of society has been sweeping across the United States. This has been recognized individually by a rapidly growing number of states left to face the consequences of the problem but seemingly has not yet been publicly recognized by the United States government. CNN's Anthony Bordain in his "Parts Unknown" series while reporting one heroin ravaged upstate New York community where he attended a meeting of former addicts apparently identified himself as having been addicted and moreover also observed that a heroin epidemic has caught up not only traditional problem urban areas but small and rural communities stretching across the country without discrimination as to race or economic status.
Reasons for this new heroin epidemic may include that not for the first time a hopefully well-intentioned DEA initiative has gone seemingly predictably badly awry in this case being the rescheduling of opiate medications widely prescribed in the United States with no effective followup or backup plan in the case of consequences unpredictable apparently at least to the DEA. The DEA is not a health agency but an enforcement agency like the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) both under the auspices of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ).
The Ninth Amendment previously has reported in an earlier post for example on the DEA's years-long effort pressuring the independent U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to reschedule hydrocodone aka Norco aka Vicadin and other names apparently finally successfully resulting in later 2014 in the prescription medication's reclassification from Schedule III to Schedule II (with a six-month grandfathering exception into 2015 for patients with refillable prescriptions of the medication at the time of the rescheduling). At the time of the rescheduling hydrocodone was the second most prescribed medication in the United States after hypertension medications.
Nationwide millions of former and present patients have become addicted to opiates in recent years by prescription medications from physicians who "Big Pharma" effectively through massive "promotional" bribery were convinced to suspend disbelief that opiates were addictive. At least one pharmaceutical company while hosting physicians to an all expenses paid week-long paid junket at an exotic location at one of the "teaching presentations" justifying the tax-free promotional holiday actually represented that obviously potentially highly addictive opiates posed less than a 1% chance of patient addiction. The aggressive efforts of big pharmaceutical companies to market opiates through physicians was wildly successful resulting in an unprecedented number of patients being prescribed them in various opium derived and synthetic opioid medications.
Now with the changed regulatory climate many patients are finding themselves addicted to opiates as physicians effectively dump many of them on the streets as they try to distance themselves from intense scrutiny from the DEA, FDA or state medical boards according to more than one physician. This pressure has increased to the point of increased personal visits by federal drug agents extending according to one pharmacist even to pharmacies. Meanwhile many states have brought or joined lawsuits against the large pharmaceutical companies for their extreme marketing of drugs known to result in high addiction rates which are costing states hundreds of millions of dollars in health costs and untold potentially "ruined lives" of their citizens.
The Ninth Amendment emphasizes "potentially" ruined lives as a reminder that as shown by Anthony Bourdain's above-referenced CNN "Unknown Parts" episode in which he sat in on a community meeting of former addicts where government assistance is completely lacking or unavailable there are others who have come to fill the vacuum or have long been there as in the case of Narcotics Anonymous (NA) and other similar groups. The Ninth Amendment does not purport to provide any medical advice whatsoever to anyone at all. Those in need of medical advice must seek it from a properly licensed health professional.
Readers interested in more information on fentanyl and its analogs may go to the link directly below to the above-referenced DEA headquarters alert below although directed mainly to law enforcement is informative and also has a link to another DEA site section with apparently more scientific and/or medical background on fentanyl. Those who do not wish to visit the DEA site should be able easily to search for more information on fentanyl using their preferred search engine or the Wikipedia search function located here at the bottom section of the Ninth Amendment.
http://www.dea.gov/divisions/hq/2015/hq031815.shtml
Copyright Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved
