Bondi Appointed to Trumps Opioid Commission
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has been appointed to the Trump Administration’s Opioid and Drug Abuse Commission. Bondi will join New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Christie will lead the commission to search for solutions for Opioid abuse nationwide which President Trump says is out of control.
Bondi was instrumental in shutting down most of Florida’s Pill Mills. Some studies show that since that the heroin deaths have increased significantly.
The Sun Sentinel Newspaper said this
“The problem is Bondi isn’t doing enough about the heroin epidemic.
Earlier this month, our editorial board urged Bondi to “show the same muscle she used in fighting pill mills to fight the heroin epidemic.”
We’ve called on Gov. Rick Scott to declare a public health emergency which would commit millions of dollars to fight heroin. Other states have done this — so far, Florida has not.
The heroin problem is spiraling out of control. The Sun Sentinel recently reported that 10 people died in a single day from overdoses.”
New Jersey’s Heroin Rate is triple anywhere else.
N.J. heroin overdose death rate is triple the soaring U.S. rate
“An analysis by NJ Advance Media shows that the heroin overdose death rate in New Jersey is more than triple the rate released by the CDC Tuesday and now eclipses homicide, suicide, car accidents and AIDS as a cause of death in the state. ”
I’ve worked in psych since I was 17 years old and may of those years were spent in CD helping people detox. As a Psych Home care nurse I come across a lot of people with chronic pain. As a friend, people call. I listen to them and then send them to their doctor with some suggestions.
There has to be a medical component. We have to weed out the people who want to not be taking these medications. PCP’s have got to listen. Pain management is a combination of a lot of modalities.
This past year a friend of mine asked me to see his wife because he was concerned that she was suffering from dementia. She had some neck issues. She was taking oxy’s and had been for a long time. She was also very depressed. I suggested she talk to her PCP about Cymbalta which works great with chronic pain and would help with her depression. I also sent her to our local community acupuncture.
She had great relief from the acupuncture. She took the Cymbalta. She got off the narcotics. The pain is manageable. She is not having memory problems any more.
So we don’t need huge commissions filled with clueless politicians.
We don’t need drug czars.
We need a plan that includes law enforcement and medical professionals.
Please stop wasting our money on plans that do not work written by people who who have failed in the past.
We simply cannot go on running in circles. We certainly do not need someone who didn’t have the foresight and understanding that when you take away someones oxys without treatment they were going to turn to heroin.
