| Senators urge action to reduce 'bupe' abuse
Two U.S. senators from New England are calling for action to reduce misuse of buprenorphine, a narcotic that federal officials are promoting for treatment of tens of thousands addicted to heroin and pain pills.
In Maryland, two key lawmakers said yesterday that they will question health officials about abuse of the drug and state spending on it when the General Assembly convenes next month in Annapolis.
The responses follow a series of articles this week in The Sun, which showed that while many experts champion buprenorphine as a highly effective addiction medicine, the drug is starting to cause some of the kinds of problems that it was created to solve.
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Breaking the cycle of drug addiction
If a community were a pond, then drug addiction would be a pebble big enough to cause ripples throughout, said Jim Gouveia, Benton County Drug Treatment Court program coordinator.According to the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, Oregon ranks No. 2 in the country for illegal drug use, and mid-valley communities are no exception."I can't say the drug problem in Benton County has increased necessarily," Gouveia said. "But we're up there."Drug use isn't an individual problem or even a family problem. It's a community problem, said Jennifer Hogansen, a behavioral health specialist with the Corvallis Clinic."The effects on children and families, in particular, can be devastating," Hogansen said.The drug problem is a top priority for the criminal justice and social services systems, as well as educators, mental health experts and taxpayers.Locally, a consistent approach of modifying drug users' behavior to achieve lasting, life-changing results is being applied to public and private treatment programs.
New clinic in Toccoa serves those who abuse drugs
TOCCOA, Ga. To help those who are addicted to drugs, a doctor just has opened the first clinic of this type in Toccoa. Don Pittard said narcotic addiction is a chronic, relapsing, incurable medical disease of the brain. His goal is for the clinic is to help those who are addicted return to a normal lifestyle. "These people can't quit," Dr. Pittard said. If they could, there would not be a need for clinics to treat those addicted to narcotics, he said. History has shown that drug abuse has always been a problem in our country, he said, and it has become more prominent in today's society. "The incidents of drug abuse is progressing, and we have to do something about it," he said. Which is why he opened the Pittard Clinic at 1654 Falls Road. It's the first treatment center of its kind in northeast Georgia.
Genes behind drug addiction tracked
Chinese scientists have found a way to track genes and biological pathways linked to drug addiction, unraveling potential ways to treat drug abuse and disorders.
"We have found 396 addiction-related genes and identified five pathways that are common to addiction to four different substances: cocaine, opium, nicotine and alcohol," the director of the center for bioinformatics of the life science college under Peking University, Wei Liping, told China Daily yesterday.
"The research provides a more complete picture of drug addiction, as genetic factors contribute to about 60 percent of the vulnerability to drug addiction," she said.
Wei said identifying common pathways meant that treatment targeting these pathways may be more effective for a wide range of addictive disorders.
Methadone-Linked Deaths Shoot Up
Deaths from methadone, a drug used in the treatment of heroin addiction, have risen at an alarming rate in recent years, according to a Justice Department assessment. As part of treatment, methadone has been used successfully since the 1950s. While it is safe to use when closely monitored under a physician's care, methadone can be deadly when abused by addicts who often take the drug with other drugs and alcohol. .
Popping pills in the suburbs?
There have been recent raids on dealers of prescription narcotics stolen from pharmacies. But the story-behind-the-story is the people who may be in your neighborhood or where you work who are getting high popping pain pills. It's drug abuse that may defy every stereotype you have about who's addicted and who's a dealer. "It was about a money-making thing for the doctors and pharmacies, and it was an addiction for me," Bill Wallace said. Wallace, a former Houston bank executive, agreed to talk openly about his past addiction. An addiction not to heroin or cocaine but to prescription painkillers. "I'd hurt my back," he said. A back injury led to a visit to his doctor. "He gave me Vicodin," he said.
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