Mother’s Battle With Prescription Drug Addiction, Doctor Says No to Abusers
Mother’s Battle With Prescription Drug Addiction, Doctor says no to abusers – The battle against prescription drug abuse is one that is not only being waged by those fighting their addictions but also by doctors, healthcare organizations and law enforcement. Illegal use of prescription drugs has increased so much that, this year, the FDA named it the United States’ fastest growing drug problem. April Schalow, a Holland mother of four, agrees telling WNWO “it’s a sickness…you use these drugs to cover up pain.” A recovering addict herself, Schalow initially started taking painkillers for a back injury but continued to take them even after she healed. “[My doctor] kept upping it until I was taking 6 a day and it was Vicodin,” Schalow recalls. In order to curb this kind of prescription drug abuse, by both doctors writing the prescriptions and the patients taking them, both the state of Michigan and Ohio have implemented their own prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMP). Both the Michigan Automated Prescription System (MAPS) and Ohio’s Automated Rx Reporting System (OARRS) work the same way; requiring physicians and pharmacists enter prescriptions into a database that helps officials keep an eye on who’s getting controlled substances and from where. Likewise, doctors and other medical professionals can use the systems to make sure a patient is not “doctor shopping”. In Toledo, Dr. Donald Weathers has gone a step further to protect his practice from prescription pill abusers. According to Weathers’ receptionist, the doctor doesn’t take on new …
Regular marijuana use by teens continues to be a concern
Filed under: drug addiction help in michigan
… at the University of Michigan. The survey was carried out in classrooms around the country earlier this year, under a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health. …. "Preventing addiction …
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Medical cannabis and beyond
Filed under: drug addiction help in michigan
Charles Eliot at the Rockefeller Foundation and Simon Flexner at the Rockefeller Institute conceived a high-profile study that would affirm drug-based medical schools and discredit others. The Carnegie Foundation sponsored the study and, on Flexner's …
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Marijuana use holds steady among U.S. teens
Filed under: drug addiction help in michigan
“Marijuana use that begins in adolescence increases the risk they will become addicted to the drug," says Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, in a statement. "The risk of addiction goes from about 1 in 11 overall to about …
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