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A balancing act for prescription drugs
Authorities are cracking down because accidental prescription overdoses are skyrocketing in Florida. (slideshow)
And a fierce debate is raging about whether there should be tighter regulations on the drugs. But an increasing number of people say they need the drugs in order to lead meaningful lives.
Indian Rocks Beach resident Dave Carrington said the only reason he can live an enjoyable life is because he takes morphine twice a day. Carrington suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and back problems.
"My pain level is much more tolerable. I won't say that it's a hundred percent, it never really goes away,' he said. "But it allows me to continue on with my life."
To make matters more difficult, Carrington said some doctors were even afraid to prescribe him the pills he said he needs.
"They (doctors) said "We don't want the Feds poking through our records and telling us that we're prescribing too many narcotics."
Authorities are cracking down because accidental prescription overdoses are skyrocketing in Florida.
Garrett Harney and Sarah Rinaldi both died in their sleep after taking painkillers and anti-anxiety drugs. Now their mothers have started advocacy groups to put more pressure on doctors and drug companies.
"They're not safe,' Julie Rinaldi said of painkillers and anti-anxiety drugs. "They're an opiate based drugs. And actually, Oxycontin is basically the same thing as Heroin."
Julie Rinaldi's group is called Parents Against Prescription Drug Addiction. Cindy Harney's group is Families Against Addictive Drug Abuse.
Harney added that "the ideal would be to get this drug taken off the market. Get the prescription drug commercials taken off of our airwaves."
But that's not likely with studies showing more than 50 million Americans suffer from chronic pain. And an estimated half of those people don't receive enough treatment.
Dr. Lynne Columbus operates Gulf Coast Pain Management, a pain clinic in Palm Harbor. About half of her 3,000 patients are on long-term painkillers.
"There's definetely a need for prescription medications but they need to be handled in a controlled fashion," said Columbus. "We do a urine drug screen and then we also have them do a substance abuse screen with a mental health counselor."
Carrington is one of Columbus' patients.
"I think there are too many people who legitimately need it and aren't getting it because there's so much focus on the negative aspect of it,' he said. "It's a different kind of pain, it's a different intensity and it takes a different medication."
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