"... I ask for my scripts, he (a nurse) says, Sit down Mr. Dodd ... read this two sided paper and sign it. He then says, Do you do any illegal drugs? No, I said ...He asked, Are you using all your OxyContin by yourself ... would you mind taking a drug test right now? I said, Sure, but are you singling me out or is everyone taking one as my records are clear dating back to the sixties? He snaps at me, If your doc asks you to submit to a drug test you had better, fellow. ..."
Michael "Mick" Dodd, disabled Vietnam veteran
speaking about his care at a Veteran's Administration hospital
A great deal has happened on the OxyContin® front in the last few months. If you watch or read the news, you've seen stories about excessive abuse of OxyContin® and crimes committed by individuals who would abuse this prescription drug for ‘fun’ as well as commit felonies to acquire more of this very effective pain medication. You also heard about arrests of doctors who were writing OxyContin® prescriptions for people they knew weren't in pain and convicted for such behavior, doctors convicted of murder when their prescribing provided abusers with OxyContin® that resulted in death during the abuse, and more restrictive controls on the prescription of pain medications in some states.
The following article will be published by MAGNUM, the National Migraine Association, very soon. It is pre-published here with the full permission of MAGNUM.
Washington, DC, March 29, 2002 -- Earlier this week, President George W. Bush named two highly-qualified doctors to head key public health offices. Dr. Richard H. Carmona, a trauma surgeon from Arizona, was named to head the office of the Surgeon General, and Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, Executive Vice Dean of the prestigious Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, was named Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) . We are pleased to see the President echoing his position on pain issues as noted in a White House policy letter for IHC &; MAGNUM and read to thousands of physicians and pain experts at the 10th Congress of the International Headache Society in New York City last summer.
We are also pleased to see certain areas of our government perusing good public health policy. However, MAGNUM has been following the current OxyContin® controversy which demonstrates an area of health policy that could have long-term ramifications on all patients in pain. In the past few months alone, there have been nearly a half-dozen hearings on the OxyContin drug abuse problem. MAGNUM staff has attended these public health hearings. As health advocates, MAGNUM is deeply concerned about the quality of life of ALL pain patients, regardless of disease.
Many groups have been following the OxyContin issue due to the serious long-term public policy issues that could result from Congress' reaction. Time-released moderate to severe pain medication is not a front-line treatment protocol for Migraine, but for those sensitive to ergot or triptan treatments, it may be used as an ancillary treatment or a rescue treatment. Therefore, any doctor treating a patient for Migraine should be afforded this treatment option.
MAGNUM’s concern over the OxyContin issue is shared by other pain advocacy non-governmental organizations, such as the American Pain Foundation and the Oncology Nursing Society. The OxyContin issue has produced an aggressive public health policy that would limit access to those in pain from receiving appropriate pain management. Furthermore, discussions at recent hearings could lead to very tight control over what pain medications doctors may prescribe in general. Doctors may chose not to treat those in debilitating pain for fear of being profiled and/or targeted by law enforcement or other monitoring state or federal agencies.
