Sunday, August 19, 2007
COMMENTARYThe OxyContin fight goes on
From the RoundTable blog
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Beth Davies
Davies is director of the Addiction Education Center in Pennington Gap.
A chapter in a "wonder" drug's trail of addiction and death ended in a courtroom in Abingdon July 20, when Judge James Jones sentenced three top executives of Purdue Pharma to three years' probation and 400 hours of community service in drug treatment programs. (As part of a plea agreement reached in May, the company and men were fined $634.5 million).
For those of us living through this nightmare in the central Appalachian coalfields for the past 10 years, and for those in areas of the country subsequently affected by this drug, it was a good chapter, but by no means the final chapter.
We were relieved to see the end of a lengthy federal investigation that forced guilty pleas from a company that had argued it should not be held responsible when the painkiller OxyContin is abused. At the same time, we realize that no amount of money will bring back the lives destroyed by this drug or take away the anguish of the families of these victims or the pain of those who continue to battle drug addiction.
The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing July 31 to investigate Purdue Pharma for its aggressive promotion of OxyContin to general practitioners not skilled in either pain treatment or in recognizing drug abuse, and to challenge the Food and Drug Administration for approving this highly potent drug for moderate pain. One woman who lost her daughter to prescribed OxyContin, and who testified at the sentencing in Abingdon, was invited to address the Senate committee. What for so long looked like a plea that was falling on deaf ears is now being heard.
While Purdue Pharma's conviction on a felony charge of misbranding is significant, little has changed. OxyContin remains abundantly distributed and highly sought throughout our communities. It is available in virtually every high school and even some middle schools across the country, and is exacting a terrible toll of addiction and death.
It is time for action by the FDA. Congress needs to make sweeping changes in the way the FDA oversees drug safety, including drugs that have been approved.
An immediate way of doing that is for Congress to reject the FDA's proposal to reauthorize the Prescription Drug User Fee Act, which provides funding of the FDA by the very pharmaceutical companies that the FDA regulates. This raises serious questions about the FDA's objectivity.
Despite years of data on the dangers and misuse of OxyContin, as well as pleas for help from patients and victims' families, why has the federal agency responsible for ensuring the safety of drugs it approves for the U.S. market refused to step in and do anything to stem the tide of lost lives and suffering?
Hopefully, this sad saga of OxyContin will also help to change the cozy relationship between pharmaceutical manufacturers and the medical community, as well as change the "pill for every ill, and potion for every emotion" mentality.
Affected relatives from all over the country came to Abingdon to make their voices heard, to demand change.
We need to begin here in our own communities to reflect on how we can reclaim our portion of Appalachia and try to restore a sense of hope for an area now devastated by a human watershed of despair, a despair manifest in an epidemic of substance abuse.
The state medical examiner's office in Roanoke recorded 228 oxycodone overdose deaths in Southwestern Virginia (a conservative number) from 1998 through 2005, while reporting almost none in the years before the advent of OxyContin. According to the office, most of those deaths were linked to OxyContin. And the numbers continue to rise. The number of Hepatitis C cases related to intravenous drug abuse is unprecedented in our region.
The academic achievement of countless youth falters amid a growing culture that seems powerless to prevent, treat or turn back the wave of drug use across Appalachia. We need to concentrate on specific ways of addressing the threat that substance abuse represents to the public safety, economic well-being and quality of life in the region.
OxyContin has taken hold on an entire generation. Prescription drug abuse is rampant. It is vital that we direct our energies in a hopeful direction. Together, we must begin to take back our communities and demand help for the people we love. Our children are dying. Is that not enough to bring out an aroused and determined public?
