Wal-Mart Pharmacy Defrauded out of 9,000 Painkillers

Scranton, PA Woman accused of defrauding Wal-Mart Pharmacy of 9,000 painkillers

See… now this is something. I am not going to get into too many details right now (I will get into them here soon), but there are so many holes in the way Opiate/Opiod Prescription Painkillers (and prescriptions in general) are filled by pharmacies that it’s down-right embarrassing. You will meet more resistance cashing a payroll check at your average bank than you will filling a prescription for a powerful narcotic at most pharmacies.

“Sara L. Bubser, 54, deceived the pharmacy for eight years until someone at Walmart recently called the doctor to verify the orders…” —The Scranton Times-Tribune

Where to begin? Let’s see… Most pharmacies will not check your ID. They rely on “pharmacy technicians” too heavily.  And the DEA numbers that pharmacists and pharmacy technicians count on to demonstrate “authenticity”… are a cruel joke.

There are little-to-no standards for the design of prescription pads. Ditto with procedures for phoning and faxing in prescriptions. I could go on. What went wrong at this Wal-Mart Pharmacy in this case? There are few details so far…

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• Read the Scranton Times-Tribune story for more information

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Mother describes losing child to prescription drug abuse (videos) – pottstownmercury.com

By Keith Phucas, Journal Register News Service

NORRISTOWN — http://www.pottstownmercury.com/articles/2010/04/16/news/doc4bc87346734de603530865.txt.

Local (PA): Legalize My Sins!

"So, how much is this going to cost me WITH tax?"

Great blog post today by Kevin Lynn of WILK News Radio (AM/FM Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, PA):

Millions of us dopers are apparently “at war,” with our government. We don’t want to be at war. You’ve heard of the “war on drugs.” My government is apparently fighting people like me, who have used illegal drugs. We don’t want to be at war with our government anymore. No, we want to help! —Kevin Lynn

• Article: Can’t We Sinners Help Our State?

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The Maxim Furek Show: Prescription and OTC Drug Abuse

A little over a week ago, I had a chance to attend what I am now respectfully-referring-to as “The Maxim Furek Show”. The occasion was a lecture on the subject of Prescription and OTC Drug Abuse presented by Maxim at the Swartz Center for Spiritual Life on the campus of Marywood University.

If you are working in the recovery field or perhaps even, like myself, are simply interested in the subject matter, I would highly recommend attending one of Maxim’s talks. He is a very engaging speaker, and is able to convey all of the relevant survey and study data without overwhelming.  But most importantly, he knows his stuff.

Though in principal I loathe “litmus tests”, I still (of course) end-up utilizing them, and Maxim passed one of my big ones straight-away.

Namely the “Hillbilly Heroin” myth.  Hillbilly Heroin and Poor Man’s Heroin are some of the ill-applied media-monikers for the opioid analgesic OxyContin which came into use because some of the earliest reports of abuse of the drug had come from rural areas of Appalachia.

The use of this terminology has led some to believe (incorrectly) that OxyContin is cheaper than heroin, and it was interesting—if not a bit shocking—to see how many of those in attendance seemed not to have been aware of this (false) perception.

There were many other interesting revelations of course, and it was clear by the end that most everyone in attendance would be leaving not only armed with the hard stats, but also with a deeper understanding of the complex issues surrounding prescription and over-the-counter drug abuse.

Maxim is also author of the book The Death Proclamation of Generation X: A Self Fulfilling Prophesy of Goth, Grunge and Heroin. I happen to be a member of “America’s 13th Generation”, and I found the book to be incredibly insightful.

If you haven’t read the book yet, I highly recommend it. You can order a copy directly from Maxim’s Garden Walk Recovery website, or online from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

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SWALLOW Flashback: My April ’08 riff on “Hillbilly Heroin”

DUNMORONS Still NIMBY’ing Over Proposed Dunmore, PA Methadone Clinic (Local)

DUNMORE, PA —I feel really bad for Debby Schmidt. Debby is the representative of Habit OPCO, the Boston-based health care organization that wants to open a methadone clinic in Dunmore.

“I don’t hide things,” Ms. Schmidt said. “I’m trying to save lives. There doesn’t seem to be any desire to learn what we do at all.”

She is fighting an uphill battle against a backward populace that seem to believe that keeping a treatment center out of their area equates to keeping “addicts” out of their community.

And what these people mean by “addicts”—I shudder to think.

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Check out the article and comments at The Scranton Times-Tribune website.

For some sad-but-funny comments from local DUNMORONS, check out my previous post: Dunmore, PA Residents Comment on Opposition to Methadone Clinic