Learn2Cope

FYI,

Bill S 2072, an act relative to prescription drug diversion, abuse and addiction. This is the legislation that Sen. Keenan has been working on for several months.  

The key pieces:

– requiring doctors and the Department of Public Health to come up with a proper set of “best practices” to guide how they prescribe opioids for the treatment of pain

– reduce doctor shopping by requiring doctors to look at their patients drug use histories prior to prescribing opioids

– increase consumer awareness of the dangers of opioids by having an eye-catching, easily-understood pamphlet attached to every filled prescription

– toughen Medicaid’s anti-prescription drug fraud program

– encourage pharmacists to use the state Prescription Monitoring Program to screen questionable customers/prescriptions

– mandates that all prescriptions for opioids must be written on tamper-resistant, secure prescription pads; no more copy paper

If they approve this new drug we better brace ourselves for MORE CRIME, MORE ADDICTION, MORE DEATH….If you worry about the young kids in this generation then STAND UP AND FIGHT BACK! WE DO NOT NEED MORE OPIATE DRUGS OUT THERE IN THE MIDST OF AN EPIDEMIC! See article below about ARPO….PLEASE WRITE TO THE FDA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.examiner.com/addictions-in-pittsburgh/arpo-takes-aim-at-fda-over-latest-rx-madness

A room full of broken hearts first, hope next

Dealing with a loved one addicted to Opiates by prescription or Heroin makes for a very lonely existence.   A family’s world quickly comes apart. Siblings suffer terribly, parents try their hardest to be “on the same page” and before long you are thrown in to a living nightmare where the nightmares of nightmares come true. One goal we have at LTC is for members to leave feeling better and more hopeful than they did before they walked through the door. I think we accomplished that.

Last night we kicked off our 6^th chapter in Quincy Massachusetts. The room was full to capacity of broken hearted parents and siblings. As the saying goes “build it and they will come” well, that is what I and many others at LTC do.

We built it and they came. LTC is not about “me” it’s a large organization of WONDERFUL caring empathetic and understanding people with an unbelievable wealth of knowledge.

On my drive home from the meeting I thought about how wonderful people can truly be to one another. Lending support and a helping hand to a grieving parent or a parent just finding out their son or daughter is in this mess is a way of giving back like no other. It’s like medicine to be in a room full of people that understand because they have “on the job training” by living it.

It’s not all doom and gloom. There are many young people who are in recovery today. Over the last eight years we have seen hundreds of them and we don’t talk about that enough.

People in recovery are our BEST speakers. We learn more from them than anyone.

The room went from solemn faces and tears to smiles and HOPE for siblings and parents  as the young men and women in recovery spoke. The change in the atmosphere went from sadness to sparkles of hope in people’s eyes.

We even heard people laugh together, that is when healing begins.

We are families that have been dealt a cruel hand, but recovery happens for us and it can and does happen for many people.

Stay tuned, we will be advocating outside of meetings as we always have to keep treatment available. We welcome and encourage those who are ready to join on that end and make a difference.  Our next battle ahead is fighting the release of an extremely powerful and dangerous non tamper proof Opiate drug called Zohydro. How this country can allow this is beyond comprehension.  Haven’t we learned what can happen after Purdue Pharma unleashed  OxyContin? They  were charged and plead guilty to a felony for mismarketing it. .

 Why did the FDA bother to force Purdue to reformulate OxyContin to make it tamper proof {in which it’s not} when clearly other dangerous drugs are next in line that ARE NOT tamper proof. Puzzling to say the least but it will be a disaster and more deaths and addiction.
Don’t give up…………………………..
…………….

Addiction can be compared to identity theft for parents and families who deal with this nightmare. You spend years trying to do all the right things maintaining your “identity” Mom and Dad, taking good care of your children. Enrolling them in sports and YES eating dinner with them, helping them with homework, teaching them values etc. Then big pharma came along in the late 90’s and unleashed OxyContin. By 2001 the area where I live in southeastern Massachusetts and yes all over the Northeast was hit by the Opiate tsunami. As I have always used the words “blindsided” that is an understatement. familes are still losing sons and daughters to this nightmare in death or watching them slowly turn in to something else.

The family as a whole suffers so much. Judgement from others in their community, people who don’t understand what is truly happening out here.

People who have been victims of “Identity theft” and their credit is harmed they no longer are looked upon as trusted. They may not pay their bills, they have bad credit. families who are victim to “Identity theft by addiction” suffer similar consequences. They are no longer trusted by those who don’t know them, bad parents, didn’t have dinner with their kids, didn’t enroll them in sports or teach them values…..nothing could be farther from the truth in the cases I see and have seen for years.

So, while you are trying to save yourself from someone stealing your identity to use your information to ruin your credit with the banks, make sure you warn your children about the dangerous drugs that are out there. The market is about to be flooded with yet another dangerous Opiate drug and as we speak there are pharmaceutical companies creating even more. They make a lot of money.  Identity theft by addiction never truly goes away. In seven years it’s not erased from your “credit” to some you will always be the “family that didn’t do the right thing” in the eyes of those who are ignorant.

Each time I get a call from a reporter or a radio station I sigh. I think to myself “Why do I continue to agree to talk”? Then they ask me what I see and I go on and on and on like I have for years. I guess that is my known identity now. The poster mom for addiction. Do I always like this? NO. Do I wish some days I never dealt with this? YES. Do I call reporters and ask them if I can talk to them? NO. They call me.

I didn’t choose this, it chose me. It’s not always easy. I walk in to a store and see my face on the front page with the words HEROIN above it and cringe each time. Then I get the emails from the desperate families who I was once in their shoes and I feel good knowing that someone is getting the help I didn’t have the luxury of having back in those days.

My family has sacraficed a lot because of all of this, and our identity is not something we chose. The good news is we are a good family and we are proud to say that we are not afraid to speak up because we are far from alone.

Be careful who you judge, you could end up in their shoes easier than you think. Learn from families that have the courage to speak about this and help other families. It just may save your family in some way. 

Really? Do we need more powerful Opiate drugs? Do we not have enough? Have we not lost enough lives and seen enough destroyed families? I am just going to say it. It all comes down to MONEY. Until our Government and FDA puts a stop to all these pharmaceutical companies from gaining so much power and getting so rich this epidemic will continue to grow. From where I sit and many families can attest, this epidemic is getting worse and big Pharma is getting bigger. When will the root of the problem, BIG PHARMA be stopped? Have no lessons been learned since Purdue Pharma unleashed OxyContin and PLEAD GUILTY to mismarketing the drug in 2007? They made BILLIONS. They were sentenced yet they are still in business. When will there be a standard with the FDA that NO MORE OPIATE DRUGS ARE PRODUCED UNTIL THEY ARE PROVEN TAMPER PROOF! How can we allow this drug to come out after what OxyContin did to so many people INCLUDING LEGITIMATE PATIENTS. Look out parents for your young children, get educated now on the dangerous prescriptions that will be prescribed, be careful if they are hurt in sports. Even if you have dinner with them every night and help them with homework, that is not a guarantee they won’t make a bad decision and experiment. if they are hurt in sports Ask questions of the doctors. Is this an Opiate? Is it addictive? Does he/she need this? Can we try Motrin first? It’s not rocket science to see what is truly happening here. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ talks

http://news.yahoo.com/powerful-painkiller-abuse-experts-worried-180344866.html

http://itemlive.com/articles/2012/01/03/news/news04.txt

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/december242011/holiday-losses-ms.php

The holidays can be an especially hard time for families who love someone with an addiction. Some have people out in the world missing and using, others are in treatment, incarcerated or worse no longer with us.

I wish all families could be fortunate enough to see their loved one seek and work on recovery. There is hope, people do find it but it’s a long hard road.

To all those families who have lost a loved one this year, including mine. I wish you peace and comfort this holiday season.

To those who have found recovery, stay strong. The world is at your feet and you can continue to live a good long healthy life DON’T GIVE UP!

To those struggling, you are loved and there are many good people and programs to help you. You have to seek it and you will find it. Recovery is possible. Go to a meeting, seek a sponsor and from there things can get better…………………

Peace to all

Joanne

Narcan is an Opiate antagonist which comes in nasal spray form and reverses and overdose along with rescue breathing and a call to 911.

Sadly families who have a loved one addicted to prescription Opiates (perc 30’s, Oxy, Vicodin, Mehthadone, Fentanyl, Suboxone, or Heroin etc) really need to have Narcan in their home. So, in other words it’s a tragedy we need to have something like this in our home, but at the same time we are so grateful that we have access to it.

In just the last TWO WEEKS two sets of parents from one of our chapters saved a son and saved a daughter. Both of which are ALIVE and in treatment now! That is a gift that no amount of money could ever buy. Narcan is free and federally funded, it saves lives!

Learn to Cope has hit a major milestone this year. The Department of Public Heath’s Bureau of Substance Abuse Services has named us one of the Pilots who can provide this life saving antidote at every LTC meeting.

Recently we had 14 parents attend the training to be certified to pass out Narcan and do the family trainings at our chapters. Just this past Monday at our South Shore chapter we gave out 20 kits, and in that session got TWO report backs that families saved their sons and daughters lives! Last week in Lowell those parents trained 40 people, Gloucester trained and passed Narcan and this week in Salem parents will be passing Narcan.

Narcan will be at every LTC chapter if a parent needs it. We are so grateful to those outreach workers from BAMSI’S Cope Center and CAB Outreach, Impact Quincy and others that have been doing these trainings for our groups every 6 weeks. They will continue to do that but the really good news is on the nights they are not there families can get the life saving antidote right then and there. 

Talk about HOPE! I am proud of all the parents who have stepped up and are now saving lives and all those who attend our meetings, faciliatate our meetings, support eachother on our private discussion board with EMPATHY, NON JUDGEMENT, COMASSION, CARE and knowledge and resource information in REAL TIME. We can save our kids lives and motivate them to treatment, and at the same time we can recover as a family.

Wishing all families a peaceful holiday season. There is HOPE!

Joanne

Learn to Cope Quincy will be held every Tuesday evening from 7-8:30 at Eastern Nazarene College on 180 Old Colony Avenue. There will be signs at the main entrance to lead people to the room.