Susan Miller, Director of Health Care at Department of Regulatory Agencies, said of all of the complaint calls the Colorado Nursing Board received, 20 percent of those dealt with drug abuse problems.

Miller said the latest annual tally, which concluded on June 30, showed the state nursing board fielded 584 complaints. Of those, more than 100 dealt with substance abuse issues that impaired or caused concern with a nurse’s ability at their job.

McNamara said the American Nurses Association estimates between 6 to 8 percent of nurses use either alcohol or drugs to such an extent to impair their professional judgment.

“Drug issues are not the sole purvey of nurses,” Miller said “We have issues about drug abuse in other health care professions.”

There are no set parameters on if a case is or needs to be reported to the regulatory board. Miller said the agency is at the mercy of receiving that information from hospitals and law enforcement agencies.

“We are not all-knowing and all-seeing,” Miller said. “There are gray areas on what must be reported.”

The risk of drug abuse in medical professionals could be mitigated by instituting random drug testing, said hospital security expert Phil Nielsen. Nielsen is vice president of HSS — a security company that provides services for almost every medical center and hospital in Colorado.

“Drug tests are a great way to prevent theft,” Nielsen said. “It would be a great service to the community. Most of the thefts are like shoplifting in a grocery store.”

Miller said the state board of nursing has no authority to require or enforce drug testing. McNamara said there has been legal precedence in upholding the right for agencies or states to enforce drug testing for certain sensitive medical professions. So why isn’t it done?

via Nurses Abuse Prescription Drugs At Higher Rate – Denver News Story – KMGH Denver.

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Aug 11, 2009 

US/MountainWyoming Rx Drug Deaths Doubled In Past 4 Years

MATT JOYCE, Associated Press Writer

CHEYENNE, Wyo. AP ― Deaths in Wyoming linked to prescription drug abuse more than doubled from 2005 to 2008, according to statistics released Tuesday by the Wyoming Department of Health.

The deaths include cases where drugs were either a primary or secondary cause of death.

Prescription drug deaths are outpacing those caused by heroin or cocaine.

“These statistics certainly demonstrate an alarming increase in prescription medication-related deaths and should be an eye opener for many Wyoming residents,” said Rodger McDaniel, the department’s deputy director for mental health and substance abuse services.

Meanwhile, the Division of Criminal Investigation said Tuesday that it has seen a 400 percent increase in investigations into illegal prescription drug activity during the last four years.

“Typically we’re involved with the methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin,
marijuana type of investigations, but we have seen in the past couple
of years the large increase in demand to focus our attention on
prescription drugs.”

Zbused prescription drugs include the pain relievers OxyContin,
Hydrocodone and Vicodin; depressants like Valium and Xanax; and
stimulants such as Ritalin and Adderall.

Aug 11, 2009

US/MountainWyoming Rx Drug Deaths Doubled In Past 4 Years

MATT JOYCE, Associated Press Writer

CHEYENNE, Wyo. AP ― Deaths in Wyoming linked to prescription drug abuse more than doubled from 2005 to 2008, according to statistics released Tuesday by the Wyoming Department of Health.

The deaths include cases where drugs were either a primary or secondary cause of death.

Prescription drug deaths are outpacing those caused by heroin or cocaine.

“These statistics certainly demonstrate an alarming increase in prescription medication-related deaths and should be an eye opener for many Wyoming residents,” said Rodger McDaniel, the department’s deputy director for mental health and substance abuse services.

Meanwhile, the Division of Criminal Investigation said Tuesday that it has seen a 400 percent increase in investigations into illegal prescription drug activity during the last four years.

“Typically we’re involved with the methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, marijuana type of investigations, but we have seen in the past couple of years the large increase in demand to focus our attention on prescription drugs.”

Zbused prescription drugs include the pain relievers OxyContin, Hydrocodone and Vicodin; depressants like Valium and Xanax; and stimulants such as Ritalin and Adderall.

School districts moving away from DARE drug-abuse prevention program

DARE infective vs. random oral fluid-based drug screening?

Grapevine-Colleyville is the latest North Texas school district to drop out of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program, and if its exit is any indication, the pioneering anti-drug abuse program for students is not as popular as it once was in the region.

The district elected not to renew its junior-high DARE contract for the 2009-10 school year, district spokeswoman Megan Overman said, opting instead to extend its elementary-level Life Skills program into the middle schools.

Other local districts have also dropped the DARE program over the past decade. Nationally, DARE’s critics have said the program is ineffective and even counterproductive by quoting high usage figures that make drugs seem like a route to popularity for at-risk kids who are seeking to fit in. Other critics say that it is difficult to authenticate DARE’s results and that its information has sometimes been inaccurate.

Cities and school districts are also dealing with tighter budgets, and DARE programs can typically cost $500,000 and more for cities the size of Arlington, Garland and Fort Worth. There is also more competition for students’ time with standardized testing and added math and science requirements.

“We quit using DARE four or five years ago,” said Clint Bond, spokesman for the Fort Worth district. “Apparently, trying to get the data on its effectiveness proved to be not worth the effort for the program.”

via School districts moving away from DARE drug-abuse prevention program | Fort Worth | Star-Telegram.com.

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Executive Summary

Approximately 6.9 million individuals aged 12 or older were current (past month) nonmedical users of prescription-type psychotherapeutic drugs (opioid pain relievers,1 tranquilizers, sedatives, or stimulants) during 2007, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH).

Current nonmedical use of these drugs, collectively referred to as “controlled prescription drugs (CPDs)” (see text box in Overview section) for the purposes of this report, remained relatively stable from 2003 (6.5 million) to 2007 (6.9 million); however, the number of deaths and treatment admissions involving CPDs, particularly prescription opioids, increased significantly.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics, unintentional overdose deaths involving prescription opioids increased 114 percent from 2001 (3,994) to 2005 (8,541), the most recent nationwide data available. (See Figure 1.)

Further, the number of treatment admissions for prescription opioids as the primary drug of abuse increased 74 percent from 46,115 in 2002 to 80,131 in 2006, the most recent data available, according to the SAMHSA Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS).

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

via Executive Summary – National Prescription Drug Threat Assessment 2009.

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Advanced Orapoint Oral Fluid Drug Screening Technology

Prescription Drug Abuse Boom

May 31, 2007 4:24 PM

Prescription drug abuse is skyrocketing, partly due to the growing number of “pill mills” where doctors write prescriptions for non-medical reasons. Armen Keteyian goes inside a Houston facility.

via Prescription Drug Abuse Boom – CBS News Video.

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Advanced OraPoint Oral Fluid Drug Screening Technology

Overdose Epidemic: Not Just for Celebrities

Michael Jackson’s death spotlights a growing problem with prescription drugs.

Posted July 29, 2009

By Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience

News of Michael Jackson’s death and the possible link to prescription drugs is the latest high-profile example of a growing national problem, as misuse of pharmaceuticals has risen at an alarming rate, touching the lives not just of celebrities but of a large number of non-celebrities, including teenagers.

The abuse of certain prescription drugs nearly doubled from 2000 to 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Some health officials are calling the rise in the misuse of prescription drugs an epidemic.

A 2005 report by Columbia University’s National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) documented the problem. “This report revealed that our nation is in the throes of a growing epidemic of controlled prescription drug abuse involving opioids like OxyContin and Vicodin, depressants like Valium and Xanax, and stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall,” Joseph A. Califano, Jr. CASA Chairman and President, told the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2007.

Just last year advocacy group Drug Policy Alliance stated, “There is an overdose epidemic across the country.”

In the Jackson case, Dr. Conrad Murray is said to have given the pop star a powerful sedative called propofol through an intravenous drip, which reportedly may have contributed to his death.

Doctors say prescription drugs have a legit factor that illegal drugs don’t. “They are viewed as being FDA-approved and safe. And that is not true,” said Dr. Lewis Nelson of the NYU Langone Medical Center. “There’s a misperception that because it’s a prescription drug it’s okay.”

via Overdose Epidemic: Not Just for Celebrities – US News and World Report.

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Prescription 
drug abuse is 
a local problem

By BRIAN SLUPSKI – bslupski@nwherald.com

Diazepam. Nordiazepam. Oxycodone. Amiodipine. Oxazepam. Temazepam. Hydromorphone. Oxymorphone.

The list of drugs seems like it should be the inventory of a pharmacy.

But the list represents the toxicology results of just one of 18 drug overdose deaths in McHenry County so far this year. In the vast majority of the deaths, prescription drugs played a role. Of the 18 deaths, 14 are considered to have been accidental, three were suicides and in one the cause has not been determined.

“A lot of people who get addicted think that because it came from a doctor, it can’t hurt [them],” said Chris Gleason, director of substance abuse services for Family Service & Community Mental Health Center for McHenry County.

The death of Michael Jackson and subsequent investigation of his doctor, Conrad Murray, once again has thrust the topic of prescription drug abuse into national headlines. Although the results of Jackson’s toxicology report still is pending, there have been multiple reports that the pop singer had a prescription drug problem.

The Jackson story stirred public interest, but some who treat drug addiction worry that it is more spectacle than a serious discussion of a real problem. Generally, there are two kinds of people who abuse prescription medications: People who were legitimately prescribed medication and become addicted, and people who are just looking to get high. The latter category often involves young adults and teenagers.

In February 2007, the Office of National Drug Control Policy issued a report that found, “Among young people ages 12-17, prescription drugs have become the second most abused illegal drug, behind marijuana.” The report also found that “there are troubling signs that teens view abusing prescription drugs as safer than illegal drugs and parents are unaware of the problem.”

via Northwest Herald | Prescription 
drug abuse is 
a local problem.

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<strong>Drug driving detection rates double</strong>

DETECTION rates for drug driving have more than doubled in the past two years as the net tightens on motorists who drive under the influence of substances other than alcohol.

Almost 1,800 tests were carried out on motorists suspected of drug driving this year compared with 747 two years ago, and about three-quarters of them proved positive.

The pressure is to be intensified in 2009 with the testing authority, the Medical Bureau of Road Safety, assigning extra staff and the Road Safety Authority (RSA) planning its first drug-driving campaign.

Trials in Australia aimed at developing a reliable device for random roadside drug testing are also being followed closely by officials, with the intention of introducing any successful prototype here.

“They are piloting a saliva test and it’s being tracked very carefully,” said Noel Brett, chief executive of the RSA.

“But we aren’t standing still. We’ve had a lot of training for gardaí on drug recognition, which means gardaí conducting random breath tests for drink driving or stopping someone for impaired driving are quicker to spot the signs of drug use.”

Because of the complexity of drug tests — which check for seven categories of drugs — the Medical Bureau of the Road Safety Authority only test blood and urine samples for drugs when specifically requested by gardaí but bureau head, Professor Denis Cusack said that the number of requests was growing rapidly.

“We test around 6,000 blood and urine samples a year for alcohol and now about 30% of those are also tested for drugs. It’s quite a significant increase on a few years ago and we would anticipate that next year there will be a further increase,” said Prof Cusack.

Drink driving still dominates testing however, and the bureau tests 15,000 breath samples for alcohol in a year.

There were also more than 18,000 drink-driving prosecutions last year compared with fewer than 100 drug-driving prosecutions per year in recent years.

This is mainly because many motorists found with drugs in their system are also over the drink-driving limit and both offences come under the same law which classes both as driving under the influence of an intoxicant.

“The issue of poly-drug misuse is increasingly prevalent,” Noel Brett explained.
“Someone who takes cocaine with a few bottles of beer might move on to cannabis to come down.

“But there is also an issue of drug misuse alone. A lot of people are ignorant of the effects.

“They might be very clear on how alcohol affects driving but have little realisation of, for example, what cocaine does,” he added.

The RSA’s new campaign will use television advertising and target nightclubs and third-level institutions to explain the dangers of drug driving.

Meanwhile, gardaí warned yesterday the annual Christmas clampdown on intoxicated driving would continue throughout the new year’s celebrations.

Road deaths have fallen from 336 last year to 275 to date but safety campaigners are pushing to reach a target of reducing fatalities to just above 200 by 2010.

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