Hell on Earth
I don’t know where to start. I read today’s paper and was so disgusted at the state of our area I had to stop. Let’s look at the offending headlines.
Two abduct elderly woman
Berkeley County: One of West Virginia’s most polluted
Why did these two young people (one 15) kidnap and sexually assault a 70 year old woman? The paper says for money to buy drugs. Everyone can brush this off as an isolated case of two drug addicts just trying to get a fix, but I can not. When the day before a woman’s purse is stolen outside a large grocery store in the middle of the afternoon, it seems like a trend. The drug problem in the eastern Panhandle is enormous, whether it is talked about in the paper or by our elected officials or not. When are we going to realize that the problem is economics? Poor people and middle class no longer have a real opportunity at the American dream or even believe this opportunity ever existed. They begin their withdraw from society with occasional drug use and then steadily graduate to harder drugs and then to violent crimes to support their habits.
My heart goes out to this poor, elderly lady, but we also need to look deeply into the two boys lives and see what went wrong. Could we as a society have seen this coming and stopped it before it came to this? Is this just the price we must pay for a growing community or should we aspire to be a better community? Why does a growing, flourishing community have a seedy underbelly that has to go with it? As a local pharmacist I am tired of drug addicts coming into my pharmacy every day asking to buy needles for their insulin dependant grandmothers. Would it be wrong for me to turn these names over to the police?
I believe this is the price we pay when we chose to allow corporations to run our lives. People no longer feel any type of ownership to a community. When Wal-Mart is the community store your town is dead, and you can bet that the quality of life is falling like the prices at Wal-Mart.
I have been all over the map here, but am still at my wits end as to how this type of heinous crime could be becoming the norm in my community. The reason this has upset me so is because Rt. 480 where this abduction took place is only ½ mile from my house. My wife and children are home all day and it just as easily could have been their paths that these drug addicts crossed.
Let’s see if the local politicians take up this crime the way they have the animal abuse cases. Let’s see if the public outcry is the same for this poor woman as it was for the ducks and the dogs.
I am too upset to take up the second headline now.
posted by ROMA @ 8:59:00 PM
10 Comments:
The drug problem in our little community is rampant - and I'm not talking marijuana. The amount of heroin and crack distributed and used in this area is insane. It has been pointed out to me on several occassions that our town makes a lovely pitstop off the I-95 corridor, which consequently should be named the Drug Transportation Highway. I-95 is straight show from New York to DC and finally to Miami. Our little town sits tucked off to the side, but apparently it's a hot vacation spot for drug mules. I graduated from high school in 2000. I can't count on two hands the number of students from my graduating class that are either 1) actively using heavy drugs, 2) incarcarated for their use, or 3) currently enrolled in drug rehab. It's a scary thought. One of my acquaintances from high school graduated and become a heroin addict. Of all the people in my graduating class, he would've been the last person that I would've pegged as a heroin addict. He's been through rehab twice and he's 23. Once an addict...always an addict. Even if you never use again, that predisposition to use is always present. On my 21st birthday, a friend from high school OD'd on cocaine. We tried to tell his mom in high school that he had a problem. No one wanted to listen. He worked at the horse track as a valet parking attendant. He was bringing home $500-1000 a weekend in cash. He also got his drug habit from the track. I was at the grave yard last year placing flowers on my aunt's grave when I stumbled onto his tombstone. It's so sad to see someone so young throwing their life away.
I'm all about going to the track and having fun...but have you ever noticed that vices seem to go together? Like - gambling, drugs, and prostitution? I think that has helped propel our drug problem. I don't know what the solution is ROMA. Drug education in the school system is useless. Most of the kids know more about the drugs than the teachers providing the education. My friends were smoking weed in high school...most kids today are rolling E in high school. That drug wasn't even around when I was a senior. President Bush and the DEA can say we're winning this war on drugs...but that's a lie. I look at the people coming to the counter at the pharmacy and we're obviously losing this war. Hell, they're even calling teenagers "Generation Rx." There's a huge stigma in this country that states "using prescription drugs is ok - because their legal." This problem isn't just with teenagers. Teenagers don't even make up 1/16th of the prescription drug users. I see the 90yo women who can't function without Valium, I see the 30yo woman who's daily functioning depends on Tylenol #3, and sadly, I see the 25yo guy who travels 50 miles just to see a doctor in our hometown so he can get Percocet. Generation Rx is society...not teenagers.
Before I conclude my comment, I have one more thing to say. It's in regards to our policy to not sell needles to IV drug users. I agree that the clientel that came to our store in search of needles was horrid. But you know what? They were using clean needles. An IV drug addict isn't going to stop using because I didn't sell him/her a needle. They'll just use someone else's needle. HIV and hepatitis C are just a few of the infectious disesases they are sharing. Selling them needles doesn't mean you condone what they are doing - it just means that you are concerned about public health. Lots of people are closet druggies. They go home to their family or out with their boyfriend and innocent people get diseases. I agree it was problem-some at our pharmacy...but I don't agree with stopping the program. I think it takes a lot of responsibility to walk up to a prescription counter and ask for needles. On some level, you have to be admitting you're a drug user...why else would you be getting the needles? Justh a thought...
Just because they were buying a bag of clean needles does not mean that they were not sharing needles. Your are making a huge assumption.
What about the person who OD's with the needles you sold him. In Cumberland, a store that used to sell needles to anyone who asked, they found a drug addict dead in the construction zone beside the store.
What about the fact that you are welcoming criminals into your store to steal you blind. Yes they buy the needles but not the packs of Psuedophedrine. I do not think they are admitting anything. I think they want a fix and will do anything to get it.
I think that selling them needles is helping them continue their addiction and that is not my job. I think that selling them needles affords them the opportunity to get someone who has never tried iv drug use to try it. I wonder how many users use a dirty needle the first time.
I do not think that I am in any way curbing drug abuse with this policy but I am not contributing to it.
Its time for this country to grow up and legalize drugs. The War on Drugs is a miserable failure and is a drag on our entire country similar to Vietnam. It is a war we cannot win and have now invested so much that we find it hard to walk away from. The truth of the matter is simply this - You cannot legislate proper behavior. The law has never prevented crime, it just gives us a means to punish those who harm others and restore equity to society. Those who are prevented from pursuing immoral activities simply because it is illegal are likely to one day cross that line. It did't work with Alcohol, it isn't working with drugs, and it won't work with cigarettes. Prohibition gave birth to the Mafia, which is still with us today. But the overall level of violence decreased after the profit motive in illegal alcohol sales was removed. If there were legal clinics were drug addicts could get their fix, they wouldn't need to be at a pharmacy disturbing customers with legitimate medical needs. All the money being poured into the hole we know as the War on Drugs could be shifted to drug rehab centers and more police on the street. Plus, the clinics would be revenue generating and could add funds to the till. Of course, this will never happen and a decade from now we'll have the same level of drug use and will have wasted another billion dollars.
ROMA - I believe we are going to have to agree to disagree on this one. I like Axis, believe in the legalization of drugs. Legalize it and tax it. If this country really wanted to "win" this so-called war on drugs, they'd be dumping money into rehabilitation services. During the Vietnam War when our boys were coming home to a country that didn't want them with a heroin addiction to boot, there was no support system intact for them to turn to. Do you know who helped establish methadone clinics? The Black Panthers took over a hospital in New York that had refused to help these men, and at gunpoint handed out methadone to withdrawing vets.
Since heroin and methamphetamine are illegal, there is a large amount of crime associated with these drugs. Crack cocaine is the drug with the most violence associated with it. I believe this is because crack is the drug of choice in the poor. If you're poor, you can't buy the rock. So what do you do? You steal, you rob, you commit acts of violence - anything to get the drug. The majority of people I saw coming to the counter for needles, came in the front doors and then directly to the Rx counter. They bought the needles and left. I'm not saying they didn't steal - because I'm sure they did at some point.
Unfortunately, illegal drugs are probably the least of our country's worries. I digress back to the "legal" drug abuse in this country. You are against selling needles to heroin users, but I have seen plenty of drug users get their fix at our pharmacy with no questions asked. Just because it's on a prescription pad does not make it legitimate! What's the difference? You use the example of the Cumberland store selling needles and the man OD'ing in the Port-o-John outside...what if one of those Oxycontin freaks takes an handful in the parking lot and OD's? The federal law says you are liable. Even though the prescription establishes a physician-patient relationship, there is a correspondning responibility on the pharmacist to verify that the prescription is not being used to maintain an addiction or to treat withdraw symptoms. I can't count on two hands the amount of people in that pharmacy who should not be receving narcotics. I think your liability argument is weak because I feel you have a greater liability with these people.
Finally, I must bring up the pseudoephedrine crap that is occurring country-wide. First of all, limiting the sales of pseudoephedrine containing products is NOT the answer - because most of these people steal the stuff in the first place! Limiting the sale only affects legitimate customers. Secondly, putting it behind the pharmacy counter is only going to cause mayhem in the pharmacy. I think this is the stupidest policy I have ever seen. Granted they can't steal it if it's behind the pharmacy wall...but they'll still get it. Again we're back to the "legalize it" argument. If we would just legalize this stuff, we could control a lot of problems. Regulate its production, tax its sale, and help the addicted with federally funded rehabilitation services.
I don't care if they legalize it or not as long as I do not have to be the one dispensing it. I do not want it being considered a drug. As long as they sell it like alcohol and cigarettes, I do not have a problem. I am all for more reality breaks. I need one everytime I see W. try and explain something. I feel the need to escape everytime I read the paper, people are just idiots.
As for the selling of presciptions to illegitimate customers, I will see where you stand on that issue in 10 years. Retail pharmacist have very little power to stop abuse. Especially in an area like ours where the Doctors do not care about the abuse that is happening.
I catch a person stealing a bottle of Oxycontin, MS Contin, and Ritalin and the person does not get any jail time. Do you really think that the law is going to be on your side if you refuse a presciption on a hunch? I can already see the headlines, 'Activist Pharmacist refuses RX for terminally ill patient'.
I agree that the prescription drug problem in our area is 80% the fault of the physicians. I don't know how to stop it. The state board of medicine obviously is turning a blind eye. We've turned in several doctors, and individual purchasers, and nothing is done. I just think it's hypocritical to view IV drug users and prescription drug users as being different. A drug user is a drug user. It doesn't matter what they're ingesting or shooting - it's still abuse. By silently filling the prescriptions, we're basically advocating drug abuse. Maybe retail pharmacists don't have a voice because they don't use it! I've worked in two retail pharmacies, and it's only when we feel the prescription is forged do we do anything about it - or if we think the patient is pharmacy/doctor shopping. I've worked with one pharmacist that actually called a doctor and told her she was writing out of her scope of practice. Every time he got a prescription from this doctor, he would call her and tell her she was writing out of her scope of practice. Even better than him, I know of a pharmacy that will not fill any narcotic prescriptions written by the doctor. They acknowledge that she is writing outside her scope of practice and refuse to fill them. I think this a step in the right direction. A prescription system needs to have many levels of checks and balances. Without it, our society is at the mercy of doctors that should never have received a medical license.
I've about had it with retail pharmacy. It's all about money. The head office only cares about the number of prescriptions filled. They don't care if they're for legitimate puproses or not - as long as it brings in that almighty dollar. I hate drug companies, but I hate our company's policy on generic drugs even more. The only reason the head office wants us filling generic prescriptions is because our profit margin is significantly larger on these medications. I realize it takes money to run the pharmacy, but the mark up on some of these generics is unreal! HCTZ costs us pennies on the dollar for 1,000 tablets. We sell 30 tablets for $9.99. Good lord, that's a markup of like 1000%. I realize there are other prescriptions that we barely breakeven on; however I think that's just a ridiculous mark up. There are just a lot of things with retail that upset me. The people making the rules and setting the wages haven't worked in a retail pharmacy in at least five years. How can you dictate policies in a system that you don't understand? I haven't 100% decided (and will not fully decide until I finish rotations), but I believe I may enter a residency program out of school. I know the money is in retail...but I don't know if it's worth it. I don't feel respected as a professional in retail. The majority of the public views us as "pill counters" and guffaws at our offers to counsel. I have used 25% or less of my education in retail pharmacy. It's frustrating. As far as my judgment ability - I think you and I both know when a prescription comes from a certain doctor that it is NOT legitimate. I'm not saying it's always black and white, but I think there are several instances that it is glaringly obvious that the medication is being misused.
As for the pricing issue, the problem is insurance companies, and the base price. I am all for a socialist system when it comes to drugs. I would love to dispense medication the way doctors dispense their services. Have a patient bring you a presciption, you fill it cousel the patient and send them on their way. No money transacted what so ever. Then we could actually practice pharmacy again. We would not be constantly rebilling claims to 10 different discount cards or calling insurance companies for prior auths or listening to the patient say "It went up again!"
As for the price of HCTZ when you look at the price of a drug as the base cost you are doing yourself a disservice. I am all for a pricing system that prices drugs bast on service rendered, but then it would definitely come down to the more prescriptions filled the greater the profit. Right now the so called break even point for a pharmacy is 500 rx per week, and I am sure that number is going up with everyone cutting reimbursement and more and more discount cards. I think the number would be much higher in a flat fee system. What is the cost to fill a presciption in today's world? You just got out of school. Did they tell you that in a business class?
Right now Americans are caught between wanting socialist prices and wanting choices for services. They want their cake and to eat it too. No surprise Americans want it all and have grown to expect it. No sacrifice allowed in todays society. Everyone is a victim and everyone deserves something for nothing.
I sick of looking at this post - POST SOMETHING NEW ALREADY! I know you have a billion things to bitch about. :)
Limbaugh on Drugs
People like Limbaugh should go to jail, says Limbaugh
Extra! November/December 2003
There's nothing good about drug use. We know it. It destroys individuals. It destroys families. Drug use destroys societies. Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country. And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs. And the laws are good because we know what happens to people in societies and neighborhoods, which become consumed by them. And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up.
What this says to me is that too many whites are getting away with drug use. Too many whites are getting away with drug sales. Too many whites are getting away with trafficking in this stuff. The answer to this disparity is not to start letting people out of jail because we're not putting others in jail who are breaking the law. The answer is to go out and find the ones who are getting away with it, convict them and send them up the river, too.
...We are becoming too tolerant as a society, folks, especially of crime, in too many parts of the country.... This country certainly appears to be tolerant, forgive and forget. I mean, you know as well as I do, you go out and commit the worst murder in the world and you just say you're sorry, people go, "Oh, OK. A little contrition."... People say, "I feel better. He said he's sorry for it." We're becoming too tolerant, folks.
--Rush Limbaugh TV show (10/5/95)
These tough sentencing laws were instituted for a reason. The American people, including liberals, demanded them. Don't you remember the crack cocaine epidemic? Crack babies and out-of-control murder rates? Liberal judges giving the bad guys slaps on the wrist? Finally we got tough, and the crime rate has been falling ever since, so what's wrong?
From www.fair.org
Thought it was interesting
Limbaugh treis to hide his racism with this little rant. But the truth of the matter is, he doen't see himself as a drug addict. He had a "legitimite" need for perscirption drugs and then got " a little out of hand" with their use. He says more white people should be arrested - but only those on the streets who look like the minorities. He and all his suburbanite junkies don't fit the bill because the don't get their drugs from a pusher - they get them from a doctor. Of course, it nevers enters their head that poor people turn to drugs from the same reason rich people do - depression, fear, hopelessness, and sense of emptiness. But alas, those who live in the projects can't get a "legtimate" scipt for Valium, so they have to use junk instead.
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