Scores of Deaths Blamed on Abuse of Painkilller Patch

Justin Knox bit down on the bitter-tasting patch, instantly releasing three days' worth of a drug more powerful than morphine. He was dead before he even got to the hospital. The 22-year-old construction worker and addict was another victim in an apparent surge in U.S. overdoses blamed on abuse of the fentanyl patch, a prescription-only product that is intended for cancer patients and others with chronic pain and is designed to dispense the medicine slowly through the skin.

More:
http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=5036377

But morphine and opiates are....

:wtf:

The FDA says marijuana has no medical benefit whatsoever! That means all those cancer patients who get so nausaeous from radiation treatment and people with glaucoma or other chronic pain conditions are just imagining the relief they get from smoking marijuana! Well, that and marijuana doesn't have a Merck or Pfizer stamp on it.

:eyes:
rocknation

them because it can be grown at home and NOT Regulated!

Must have drugs that kill with side effects!!

...thinking.... holy s***, it's a good thing this isn't easy to get.
blessed, blessed relief of pain -- in the tiniest of droplets --- and what a high.

the father of one of my son's friends was a physician who got hooked on it....died of an overdose....terribly terribly tragic.
watch out for that stuff.

I was on for several months, and actually had no problems stopping when I had healed enough. I don't get much of a high from opiates--I feel slowed-down and muzzy-headed from them in a way very comparable to how I feel on NyQuil.

Tucker

I was on it for chronic pain. You change it every 3 days. I would get horrible withdrawl symptoms from it after 2 days. It was a living hell trying to get off of it. I will never take it again.

a new drug they have out.

It is slow process, but a 75 3 day patch every 2 days plus a half dozen of the blue pills is a reasonable replacement - and there are hopes of getting to a 50 3 day patch taken every 3 days in the near future.

I'm not home now and do not remember what the darn pills are called - but PM me if you need that info.

I had it during my c-section and it made me itchy...

Vicodin, Dilaudid, Oxycodone, Naproxen, Percoset and Tylenol 3 makes me puke....I remember getting Dilaudid for severe back pain due to disc problems and then promptly throwing up after they finished the MRI...

The only drug that I have ever had that relieved pain totally was Morphine...

I think I would make a horrid drug addict...

Itching is an allergic reaction of morphine.
I'm allergic to it, and anything it's in.

you know how sorry i don't feel for these thieves who rob cancer patients -- and also cause the DEA to make it more and more difficult for doctors to prescribe fentanyl

i don't feel sorry for them at all, the world is better off w.out them frankly

they make life too hard for the rest of us

Searching for that euphoria by chewing on a fentanly patch. I'd rather go on a vison quest.
I wonder what the street value is? I had a patient tell me diluadid was $20 a pill, which I thought was bullshit, but I dunno.

In the medical community fentanly is a commonly diverted drug. (diversion is the nice word for stealing when refering to doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers who who steal drugs)

Fentanly is a great pain reliever, extremly potent. When I worked in a nursing home I remember getting pissed off because the new Medicaid rules wouldn't pay for it unless it was cancer related pain. So we had these 90 year olds, in chronic pain, that a small dose patch worked perfectly for-- not covered. We had to switch to an oral pill--And some old folks can't swallow, or are confused and HATE the taste of pills.

Sad story. Like the Neil Young line-- every Junkie's like a setting sun.

...on my friend's prescription plan. Certainly not more than $20.

getting something legally thru your prescription plan and getting something illegally by paying a soulless vampire who robs cancer patients can mean very different things in terms of price

one man i knew dying of stomach cancer who had trouble getting proper drugs prescribed finally did get them, after several times trying to get family members and even doctors to euthanize him, but he was told that tho the drugs were cheap for him with a script that his script was worth "one hundred thousand dollars a year" on the street so he should guard them, of course his health did not allow for him to sit around guarding his drugs w. a personal handgun by the bed and inevitably some were stolen

i don't believe the price can be that high or we'd all be kidnapped/robbed/extorted by junkies in search of cash for the next fix, but i do accept that pain medicine is priced higher to the black market buyer


and it isn't just caregivers that steal, while in this man's case some of the drugs were indeed stolen by a caregiver, i will be convinced until the day i die that some of them were also stolen by a family member

and that really just peeves me off, you have no idea

i agree w. the above poster that the patch can be a godsend compared to pills for many older people