Boy, I think that I jinxed myself last month when I began the May "What's Happening" talking about the turbulant weather season beginning. Just in case you don't remember, I'm a "Midwest" girl, and living here in South Central Wisconsin has put me right in the line of the worse flooring in Wisconsin history.
Oh, and in case you are wondering, that is not a turtle you see there in the picture...it's actually the top of a car. The picture was taken about 2 blocks from our home, and if you look real close, you will see the 'brainiac' who tried to drive through the 4+ feet of flood water!
We were very lucky, mostly because we live on a hill where the water couldn't reach us. We were one of the first 5 counties that were declared disaster areas, which has to be a relief to hundreds of thousands of homeowners.....I mean, how many of them do you think carried "Flood" insurance in South-Central Wisconsin? Ya.....me too.
I wanted to bring you up to date right away with the story everyone was talking about last week. To refresh everyone's memory, it was about a man in Canada named Keigo White, who was incarcerated and going through extreme withdrawal symptoms. Mr. White was in such horrific pain caused by him withdrawing from heroin that he repeatedly threatened the jail guards he would kill himself if he wasn't given Methadone. No one listened, and later that night, he was found with bedsheets tied around his neck and no pulse. He was revived but died three months later in the hospital.
White's brother Michael, while attending an inquest into his brother's death, began screaming death threats to a so-called "expert" witness who was testifying. The idiot was stating to the 5 person jury that although "the symptoms associated with methadone withdrawal can make some people feel very sick, the medical risks are not high at all." He then went on to say that although a person might think they are going to die, but giving up cold turkey will not actually result in death. That, of course, infuriated White's brother. Finally, after his tyrade, Michael White was escorted.
After reading that article, it's putting it pretty mild to say I was very upset. I immediately set out to contact the reporter of the newspaper which ran the story, and after a few hours of searching, I found the number for Michael White's attorney. After speaking with a partner at the firm, I finally was able to send him proven and 4 documented cases here in the United States where people had died from having their Methadone taken from them all at once....with no taper whatsoever. Cold Turkey. And that was it. It was all I knew last month when "What's Happening" was published.
On Friday, May 16th, I received the following email from the lawyers who represented the White Brothers. I simply don't have the space to post a copy of their press release, but there is a link below for you to read the verdict:
Dear Ms. Fox:
Thank you so much for your e-mail dated May 8, 2008 addressed to Barry Swadron. I am a lawyer at Swadron Associates and assisted Mr. Swadron with the inquest last week. We obtained some very good recommendations from the jury and are hopeful that the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services will implement some or all of them. I have pasted below a copy of our press release and have attached to this e-mail a copy of the jury’s recommendations for your information. The recommendations are of course tailored to the provincial correctional setting here in Ontario. Methadone maintenance treatment has been available for all opioid dependent persons in federal prisons since 2001 but provincially here in Ontario methadone treatment is only available if you were already registered with a community based program prior to your incarceration. Many people aren’t and so they are forced into withdrawal. We’re hoping the last two recommendations help change this.
Mercedes Perez Swadron Associates Barristers & Solicitors 115 Berkeley Street Toronto, ON M5A 2W8
June 13, 2008 UP News
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says it is suing a suburban Pittsburgh drug treatment facility for firing a counselor who was on methadone.
The EEOC filed the lawsuit today in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh.
EEOC says the Greenbriar Treatment Center in New Kensington fired the unnamed employee after discovering she had been prescribed methadone to treat a drug addiction. The termination occurred in January 2005.
The EEOC says the center violated the law by firing someone because of a disability, an act of discrimination.
Greenbriar officials were not immediately available to comment
June 19 2008
A Texas court has sentenced a 26-year-old man to life in prison for the accidental drug-related death of his infant son, the Associated Press reported June 19.
Dennis Ray Driver Jr., aged 8 months, died last year after sucking on the fingers of his father, who had recently handled cocaine.
Dennis Driver Sr. was charged with felony murder and convicted by a Texas jury this week. During the trial, experts testified that even a trace amount of cocaine could have caused acute toxicity in the toddler's body.
"We weren't trying to prove that [Driver Sr.] intentionally caused the death," said prosecutor Murray Newman. "This sends a message to parents to protect their children from any contact with illegal drugs."
This Video was created by a Kristina Phelps, RN, BSN, a Methadone patient, who has generously agreed to let us post this on the website in an effort to help others.
My story is like many other stories of addiction perhaps with a slightly different ending. I became addicted in 1996 to prescription painkillers following a motorcycle accident which injured my back. I started on Vicodin but quickly advanced to Oxycontin or Roxicodone. However as my tolerance grew so did my desperation. Presriptions only lasted a few days so I resorted to buying them. I began snorting and injecting also. My job afforded me the luxury of always having clean needles. All the while I was covering on the job, as well as sneaking what I could from work. Stealing came later, but it came all the same. Shocking what you will do to stop the pain of withdrawal. Eventually, pressure from work became too much so I quit and quietly entered an inpatient rehabilitation program at an out of town hospital. Needless to say the program didn't work. Several rehabs, divorces, a few trips to jail and 10 years later I found Methadone! Nobody had much faith that it would work. Most of all me. However, I had just been diagnosed with Hepatitis C oddly enough from a needle stick while working as a nurse instead of drugs. To make matters worse I was on the street with my son. I had to do something and this was the only thing I had not tried. After one week it was as if my drug use had been a dream. I wasn't high. I wasn't sick. I was normal! My family had the person back that they had missed for so long.
One year and six months later I am still clean. Unfortunately my HCV has advanced to liver cancer. Nevertheless that has not prevented me from continuing with my program. I decided to make this video because I was so tired of defending a program and a medication that had saved thousands. My life may be shortened but it won't be because of drugs! That is a comfort. I cannot explain, as I say in the video, Methadone is not the ONLY way, but it was the ONLY way for me. If this video can help one addict to find a normal life through MMT then it will be worth all the hard work I put into making it. Have a Blessed Day.
- Kristina Phelps, RN, BSN
Based on their records, neither John McCain or Barack Obama can really be considered a leader in the drug-policy arena. Still, both appear to have a broader and more nuanced understanding of addiction issues than their White House predecessor, and William Cope Moyers, vice president of external affairs at Hazelden, says that he has "never been more hopeful that addiction treatment will begin to get the attention it deserves, because we at least have two candidates who are aware of the issue."
Tom Coderre, national field director for Faces and Voices of Recovery, praised both Obama and McCain for their support of addiction parity legislation and noted that Obama also supported the Second Chance Act of 2007, which provided greater support for offenders reentering society.
Expansion of drug courts, meanwhile, shows up as a priority in Obama's civil-rights agenda. "Obama will give first-time, nonviolent offenders a chance to serve their sentence, where appropriate, in the type of drug rehabilitation programs that have proven to work better than a prison term in changing bad behavior," the Blueprint states.
In other public statements, Obama said he would consider harm-reduction strategies like needle-exchange programs to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS and would support medical use of marijuana under certain conditions.
"We have to look at drastic measures, potentially like needle exchange in order to insure that drug users are not transmitting the disease to each other. And we've got to expand on treatment programs."
McCain's healthcare priorities include paying more attention to chronic diseases, although addiction is not explicitly included.
Addiction issues only get direct attention in McCain's military priorities, where he tackles the special health needs of veterans and the transition to civilian life. In 1999, McCain introduced legislation that would prohibit the use of federal funds for methadone maintenance programs unless they worked toward eliminating addiction and featured mandatory drug testing. He also sponsored legislation to establish drug-testing standards for professional sports leagues in 2005.
McCain has opposed marijuana legalization, including for medical purposes. "Every medical expert I know of, including the AMA [American Medical Association], says that there are much more effective and much better treatments for pain than medical marijuana," McCain said in a September 2007 town-hall meeting in New Hampshire. "I still would not support medical marijuana because I don't think that the preponderance of medical opinion in America agrees with [the] assertion that it's the most effective way of treating pain."
Join Together News Feature By Bob Curley
** I want to first thank you all for coming by to see what strange thoughts I was having this month and I also want to thank those of you who either commented or sent me an email about last month's feature story concerning Michael White, who lost his brother needlessly due to simple ignorance and ego. As I was getting involved with that story and sending the information I thought would help Michael, I couldn't stop thinking if that had been my sibling or even a good friend. It wasn't right. THEY HAD NO RIGHT.
** I fight for Methadone because of idiots who think that they have the right to tell me and others what we can or cannot put in our bodies. You don't have to agree with what I do or what I believe in, but you sure as hell don't have the right to add to the deaths of people who are denied the right to make their own decisions about their own health. In other words, it's like a TV show, a newspaper, or even this web page. Turn the channel, turn the page, or get your face away from the words that I have a right to say.
** Wow....That felt really good to get out! I figured since the 4th of July is coming up, and it has to do with many, many people who fought for and lost their lives so that I might have the right to say how I feel. So I just wanted to take advantage of that right to which they fought so hard for. My Independence Day present to myself was the chance to say the words that I have held inside for so long.
** My Independence present for you is the chance every month to be able to write how you feel below. It doesn't always have to be concerning something you read here, although it can be. And just as those men who signed that Declaration in 1776, I will do whatever it takes to continue to fight for your right and mine to make up our own minds about how we choose to live through our Recovery.......and whether they believe it or not, Medical Assisted Treatment of MY own body is simply none of their business!
