Pubdate: Wed, 11 Jun 2014
Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser (HI)
Copyright: 2014 Star Advertiser
Contact: 
http://www.staradvertiser.com/info/Star-Advertiser_Letter_to_the_Editor.html
Website: http://www.staradvertiser.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5154
Page: A11
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone)

KEEP PAINKILLERS IN RIGHT HANDS

Hawaii's alarming increase in fatal prescription-drug overdoses 
reflects a national trend that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control 
has described as an epidemic. The dispensing of powerful narcotic 
painkillers has skyrocketed over the past decade or so, and misuse of 
these drugs has likewise grown.

Opioid analgesic painkillers such as fentanyl, oxycodone and 
hydrocodone have an important place in the management of chronic 
pain. But as the rising death rate illustrates, some legitimate 
patients misuse the drugs, which also are abused by recreational 
users who have no medical reason to be taking them. Factor in the 
reality that some doctors overprescribe the painkillers and that 
young people in particular consider prescription drugs less dangerous 
than illegal ones and you've got the recipe for our current public 
health crisis - one that demands a multi-faceted approach to solve.

Nationally, consumption of opioid analgesics jumped 300 percent 
between 1999 and 2010, and associated death rates more than tripled 
between 2000 and 2010, according to the CDC.

In Hawaii, as in the U.S. overall, prescription-drug overdoses have 
overtaken car crashes as the leading cause of fatal injuries. From 
2009-2013, 773 people in Hawaii died of prescription-drug poisoning, 
up from 585 deaths in the previous five-year period.

Research cited by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 
shows that teenagers and young adults perceive prescription drugs as 
safer and less addictive than illegal drugs, and that drugs obtained 
from their parents' or grandparents' medicine cabinets or from the 
neighborhood pharmacy are less risky than those bought from a drug 
dealer on the street.

This marks the need for stronger awareness campaigns highlighting the 
risks of prescription painkillers, to counteract misperceptions that 
fuel abuse. Detailed information must be delivered by doctors to 
their patients and by families, schools, law enforcement agencies, 
churches and nonprofit organizations to children and others who are 
learning how to lead healthy, productive lives. Evidence supporting 
methodical patient and public education campaigns is limited but 
promising, according to HHS, proving that teaching people about the 
safe use, storage and disposal of narcotic painkillers helps reduce 
overdose deaths.

Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs, which operate in 47 U.S. 
states, including Hawaii, also are powerful tools that merit 
technological refinements to foster fuller use. Launched only two 
years ago, Hawaii's PDMP is credited with reducing the amount of 
"doctor shopping" some patients do to obtain painkillers. The program 
allows physicians and pharmacists to check patients' medication 
histories online, and lets the state readily monitor doctors' 
prescribing patterns.

These are vital aspects of the multipronged approach, given that an 
analysis of opiate-related fatalities in Honolulu from 2004-2008 
found that nearly half of the 270 deaths were linked to narcotics 
prescribed to the victims by their doctors. Illegally purchased 
opiates accounted for only 4 percent of the deaths, indicating that 
painkillers obtained from family members - pilfered from tutu's 
medicine cabinet, for example - were to blame in a large percentage 
of deaths, although the study could not quantify the number exactly.

Education campaigns, online monitoring and other efforts to combat 
prescription-drug abuse must acknowledge that many patients need 
powerful painkillers to relieve suffering caused by their medical 
conditions. Ensuring access for those legitimate needs while curbing 
illicit use demands that doctors, patients and their families 
recognize the risk of abuse - and keep a lid on it.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom