AMERICA'S NEW HEROIN EPIDEMIC: HOW PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN'S DEATH COULD FINALLY SHINE THE SPOTLIGHT ON THE CONNECTION BETWEEN PRESCRIPTION DRUG OXYCONTIN AND THE INCREASED USE OF HEROIN

 

As American states are considering legalizing marijuana, and many are cheering what they see as the government's admission that the war on drugs has failed, a new menace is making a swift and deadly comeback.

The rebuke to President Obama's recent statements that pot has acceptable levels of risk came with a speed and fury that has raised questions on how drug enforcement is carried out in America.  The current D.E.A. Chief angrily reaffirmed the agency's belief that pot is a gateway drugs to heavier substances, such as heroin and metamphetamines.

But the numbers and the facts point to a much darker and worrisome source as the drug responsible for the vertiginous rise and resurgence of heroin.

In fact, the number of heroin addicts has doubled since 2005, and this fact is tied, as we will see, to a pharmaceutical trend that has changed the face of America.

The death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman this week has brought heroin into the spotlight again.  The actor is believed to have died of a heroin overdose.  More importantly, was the discovery of multiple packets of a brand of heroin, not seen since 1998, which is not conventional heroin, but a deadly mixture of Fentanyl and heroin.  Even more telling was the fact that the actor had numerous bottles of Oxycontin in his apartment.

But let's start from the beginning.  About a decade or so ago, doctors begun prescribing a potent pain killer, Oxycontin, and similar opiates, for pain management for a very wide array of symptoms, from minor to serious.  However, they did so after the FDA , the Federal Drug agency, opened the pharmaceutical for a wide range of uses.  However Oxycontin is a powerful painkiller that should be employed only in extreme cases, due to the extremely addictive qualities of the compound and the fact that alone, and in conjunction with alcohol, it already claimed lives.

Oxycontin became America's darling 10 or so years ago.  Prescribed at first for minor and major pain alike, and even for minor dentistry work, it has quickly become the chief substance in new addictions registered in the past decade.

But why did doctors prescribe Oxycontin so freely?  The question may lie in big pharma's realization of the profit potential in the new wide and unrestricted application of the drug.  The drug was almost never even dispensed with a warning of its addictive potential.

The question arises: did the doctors not know the potential for addiction of the drug? And if so, who is to blame? Is it the pharmaceutical for not indicating the potential for abuse in the people who are prescribed the drugs? Or isit the medical community? Is it the FDA?

Whoever is responsible for the explosive employment of Oxycontin for all people, some of very young age, they should bear responsibility for it being the true gateway drug for heroin.

Studies have shown that the new wave of heroin addiction is driven by the fact that people who have become addicted to Oxycontin switched to heroin when the drug became restricted or they could no longer afford it.  A cheaper substitute, heroin, soon became available on the market in greater and greater quantities, to fill in the demand that was created by both the dispensation and later, the attempt at regulating the prescription of Oxycontoin.

However, this is not your father's heroin.  The new product, including the one that could have been responsible for Hoffman's death, is a mixture of the opiate and a lethal synthetic called Fentanyl.

 

The new batch of heroin has garnered the attention of authorities in the past month.  More than 150 addicts have died in the northeast due to this lethal combination drug.

Why then, did and still does, Oxycontin become available to those who seek it, or from doctors who are not restricting its use for less than major pain issues?

The effects of Oxycontin are well documented.  From Hollywood stars to regular people, the trend has exploded, especially in poor communities where in some cases it has completely destroyed the fabric of society.  Together with meth, the poor man's high, Oxycontin has quickly become the new scourge. And that is because most people prefer it for its potent high, but also because it being legal, it gives the user a false sense of security, both that it not be tainted and safe for consumption.

About a year ago, individual states begun cracking down on Oxycontin pill mills, which had sprung up in states where prescription drugs were loosely regulated.

For a while, in fact, states like Florida had become little more than illegal mills for addicts and dealers who came from as far as North Dakota to obtain the drug.  Unscrupulous doctors were doling out multiple prescription, unethically but not illegally at prices that ranged from 300$ to 1000$ a pop.  When new laws were passed, or drug enforcement forces cracked down on the pill mills and some of these shady outfits shut down, many addicts were forced to switch to street drugs, and they switched to heroin.

But the new heroin poses incredible risk.  The combination of two potent brain stem activity suppressors are the perfect recipe for death.  Some people even think that an evil mind is behind the new drug mixture, in an episode similar to that of Mensa member and chemist Mark Bart, who killed scores of addicts by producing a lethal drug concoction and then releasing it into the streets.  Bart's aim was to kill: he detested addicts, and thought he was doing the world a favor.

The continued prescription of Oxycontin poses the ethical question of what really drives new drug epidemic, and whether people's health and safety are at risk because of the pharmaceutical industry's relentless drive for profit.

Op-ed

FRANCE'S INEXPLICABLE VEER TO THE RIGHT: PROTEST IN PARIS AGAINST GENDER EQUALITY EDUCATION AND ABORTION ACCESS

 

Another large demonstration in Paris, which counted around 100,000 people, was underway yesterday in protest against the new gender equality rules.  This latest demonstration was sparked by the news that gender equality would now be taught in school.  The protesters also voiced their dissent to recent legislation which would make it easier for women to obtain abortions.

But is this representative of France?  A country with one of the richest tradition in arts and letters, and ruled by governments that adhered to socialist ideals is now vocal in ways that represent the right and principles of exclusion, division and racism.

What these demonstrations do, however, is paint the wrong picture. The majority of French citizens do not adhere with far right wing propaganda. But because the right has found its voice recently, it seems as if the whole of the country is prey to a terrifying recession into a darker past.  

The promoters of the demonstrations belong to the far right, which has been more and more vocal on matter of gender equality.  When the law was passed that allowed gay people to marry, a prominent right wing artist and writer committed suicide inside a church to express his displeasure.  

The new gender equality rules and the idea that gender equality must be taught at the school level to promote tolerance is what the far right party and its followers hate the most.  To them, such educational effort is part of a larger effort to destroy what are considered the basic principles of society, and religious beliefs.  The idea is that the French government, and in particular Hollande's Socialist party are aiming to upend society as they known it, and that those politicians who have passed the gender equality laws are 'family-haters'.  Even more abhorrent to the far right are proposed laws that would allow same sex couples to have children through medical procedures, especially surrogacy and in vitro fertilization. 

The protest has produced an effect.  Hollande has, for the moment suspended further legislation in fear that the municipal elections, which are to be held in a month's time, would swing in favor of the right if he continued on his course. 

The protesters however, want more.  they contend that Hollande's socialist party and cabinet is ignoring the pleas of the far right, and 'plowing' through with the controversial laws. 

At the heart of the protest however, is the fact that the protesters are being organized and spurred on by religious organization, both Catholic and Muslim, in a strange twist of irony since the far right is usually not amicable towards Muslims nor their needs.  

The Catholic archbishop of Lyon has even joined the protesters and exhorted legislators to hold off on any further legislation.  Archbishop Valls, in fact, has been very much front and center since the beginning of the debacle last year, and has been instrumental in the organization of the protesters. 

Just as strong, however, have been the response of Interior Minister Valls, who has vowed to crack down on any violence during the protests, and who asserts, with reason, that the right is playing the divisive card, aiming to use wedge issues to divide the country.  Far right radicals at the fringe round up the already inflamed sentiments nicely with particularly virulent demonstrations of their own, which nearly always end up in violence.  Anti-Semitism is their stock in trade, a front and center item that is followed closely by the emphasis placed on the hatred for foreigners and now, gender equality laws.   

The teaching of gender equality based on a theory that gender roles are a 'social constuct' seems to be particularly offensive to the far right, and to the ultra religious.  Although the role of men and women have been strongly altered in the past century, most people on the right do not want to accept even equality between a man and a woman, since the role of women in the family and the household is also a construct that is no longer needed as established centuries ago. 

The fact that Muslims have joined in these protests poses a worrisome question:  is the Muslim costituency in France veering to the right?  Although it is nothing new that strict interpreters of Muslim dogma forbid homosexuality, their efforts show that they are willing to partecipate not just on their own, but together with factions who are strongly anti-Semitic, exacerbating an already growing problem in the Muslim community toward French Jews.  

What both Muslims and Catholics are trying to prove, is that there are 'natural' differences between man and woman that cannot be ignored, and those differences are what dictace both ancient stereotypes and religious principles on the role of individuals and couples.  

In addition, the Muslim community is vehemently opposed to any kind of sexual education in school, whether or not it is in the context of the gender equality education effort. It is also opposed to instilling any ideas in the children's mind that could run contrary to their religious principles.

Additional anger was generated by the prospect of a law on euthanasia, something that was being considered by Hollande's government.  

All this fracas and discontent is highjacking the news, and promises to afford the far right large gains at the general elections later this year.  The Socialist party has already been eliminated in the primaries, and the constant barrage of protests and manifestations might soon bear fruit in the form of additional votes for the far right party, which has already seen a worrisome resurgence from a few years ago, when it was almost marginalized into extintion.  

Like the rest of Europe, the push to move to the right is palpable and significant.  In Italy, a new right wing party is unashamedly touting itself as the reborn fascist party of Benito Mussolini.  The lack of economic stability and political trasparency in many European countries has been fertile ground for right wing parties and even neo-nazi groups. 

In the midst of the gender equality protest, a number of public figures, foremost the comedian Dieudonne M'bala M'bala and a soccer player, have made little secret of their anti-Semitic sentiment.  Many protests, in fact, often degenerate in a Jew-hate-fest.  Whatever hatred was hidden or kept private is now spilling forth loudly and without retain.  Nazi salutes and quenelles, which is a reversed nazi salute done this way to negate its true meaning, are becoming the trademark of people like Dieudonne and other Muslims, and even Catholics.

If anyone draws parallels to the historical turmoil in 1930 Frace, he would do so without fault.  Valls even went so far to equate the protesters as being part of a "French Tea Party".  Even though the American Tea Party has never expressed anti-Semitism openly, it is known for membership that include people who have been very vocal about race and immigration.

As Valls said this weekend, the stance of the far right runs counters to the principles of the Republic.  And indeed they do.  They have expressed a clear hatred for homosexuals, Jews, immigrants, but also opposition to taxes, parliament and freedom of the press.  It is a far cry from the Egalite`, Liberte`, Fraternite` that has symbolized France for so long. 

The idea that the 'family' is being made to disappear is a refrain often heard from the mouths of dedicated right wingers.  The idea that gender equality education can stop people who are heterosexual from seeking to form couples or even enter in matrimony is ludicrous.  They are saying that the government is trying to create a new form of familiar nucleus, one that does not include a traditional union of man and woman.  Surrogacy, in their mind, is an abominable creation of man which must be suppressed.  There is not an iota of empathy or concession for those gay or lesbian individuals who would like to have children that have more than a passing relation to them.  If two lesbian women decide that they want a child who has some of their DNA, their wish is immediately perverted into some ungodly manipulation of nature, one that promises to create monsters. 

With this premise to one of the most important and contested elections, what then, is the future of France?

Op_Ed

Source : France 24/ 2.3.14