<p>OMG - I have been given a prescription for hydrocodone for dental matters about three times (wisdom teeth pulling and two deep cleanings) - I cannot tolerate it - makes me really sick. I am fairly certain all three full bottles are in my medicine basket (way expired like almost everything else b/c D and I don’t get sick) - Must go home and toss this junk today!</p>
<p>Dont toss it in the garbage, it can get into the groundwater.
If you take it back to the pharmacy, they should be able to dispose of it safely for you.</p>
<p>Will do ^^^^^</p>
<p>We have regular drug busts in the city where I work which is considered a fairly safe and healthy place. We have small busts in the sleepy town where I live. It is everywhere.</p>
<p>In the gritty urban place that we our kids went to school, drug busts were very, very common.</p>
<p>But what are “drug busts”? Iveheard of schools with a no tolerance policy that includes suspension if you give a friend some Midol.</p>
<p>Arrests in a parking lot at a fast food place of small amounts to SWAT-team takedowns in armed raids. I’m just talking about stuff that makes the arrest logs.</p>
<p>Wow, I haven’t heard of anything like that happening here & D attended a “inner city” high school.
They did have shootings in the parking lot of the community center next door though.
And open drug deals across the street( not involving student aged people generally) at the gas station, which were easily observed when you were sitting at the light.</p>
<p>[and I forgot about this](<a href=“http://www.king5.com/news/local/Seattle-high-school-drug-counselor-indicted-on-drug-charges-79083867.html”>http://www.king5.com/news/local/Seattle-high-school-drug-counselor-indicted-on-drug-charges-79083867.html</a>)</p>
<p>"". Don’t trust your doctor to understand this or to prescribe responsibly. They don’t. They don’t to the point they are now being monitored by the DEA.*"</p>
<p>Ouch . I like to think I, and the docs I know are responsible to the point of paranoia. I was under the impression the DEA has been monitoring us since day one…:</p>
<p>You’re both right. The DEA has done a TERRIBLE job of monitoring. In my state, they had a list of 37 “opiate-mill” docs, and busted two of them. The state medical board is even worse - doctors certainly CANNOT be trusted to monitor their own, or to discipline them. Thank heavens for the tort system.</p>
<p>Having said that, most doctors really do care. The problem is (we found, in drawing up legislatively mandated rules) is that most (more than 90%) have never been trained in pain control, and most of those who have been have been trained by the pharmaceutical companies. They neither know how to measure pain, don’t regularly check on the impact of pain control on patient functioning, and are often clueless when it comes to addiction medicine. 80% of doctors in rural Washington now refuse to accept new patients with chronic pain. However, we now offer a five-hour on-line course in pain management, and doctors, ARNPS, etc. are signing up in droves.</p>
<p>Pain managemnt CME , 12 hours I think, is required for virtually all physicians in California. AB 487, signed in 2001. </p>
<p>mini, I guess you know this, but I think the laws and the scrutiny are making doctors LESS willing to take chronic pain patients. But that is off topic.</p>
<p>That is definitely true (though it’s not clear whether having poorly trained and overwhelmed physicians serving them is a good or a bad thing.) (And in the eastern part of the state, a combination of drug-seeking behavior, aging population with chronic pain, and aging medical work force that is poorly trained make it worse all the time. We have a program that is training physicians to prescribe suboxone for drug-dependent patients, but, frankly, we don’t have the data to indicate that it works. The only saving grace is that the American-born sons and daughters of undocumented immigrants, now settled out in eastern Washington, are becoming health care providers - and are helping to maintain a shredded health care system.)</p>
<p>The heroin numbers we are seeing in rural and suburban areas have us all in shock and awe.</p>
<p>Okay, so first of all I’m a high schooler and I’ve lived in the city for my first 9 years, and the suburbs for 9, and this doesn’t shock me at all. Why? there’s more to do in the city.</p>
<p>Went to public school in a small town. There was a private about an hour away. We got kids coming to our high school from the private a lot as the economy tanked. They said the only difference was “better drugs” at the private as people had more money to spend on them!</p>
<p>Btw, my hometown is now having trouble with designer drugs, namely bath salts and spice. They say the chemical composition is always changing to avoid the laws and this makes it even worse when overdoses show up in the ER. Any doctors on the forum seen this?</p>
<p>There is a HS in the suburbs east of Seattle that has had (as I recall) 2 major drug busts in recent years - and I mean major lock down round em up type where there was an established ring. My sister lives in the district just north if this school and their HS (well regarded generally) is commonly known as “The Pharmacy”.</p>
<p>Saintfan, I grew up in the same school district, when it only had three high schools( the third just opened when i was in 9th grade) why do you think I wanted to get away from the suburbs when I had my own kids?</p>
<p>Not because of marijuana use like in the Redmond case, but because of the amount of alcohol abuse.</p>
<p>Interesting about the designer drugs. They have completely - and I mean completely - disappeared from the street scene in Washington State. We aren’t seeing any Spice or Bath Salts - that was last year’s news. We are seeing more meth (and very, very cocaine.) It’s opiates (heroin and prescription) opiates, and opiates.</p>
<p>Mini- why do you think bath salts and spice disappeared? Was it just a fad? In my town it seems like kids want to try them because they can be purchased legally and easily.</p>
<p>Our board of pharmacy made Spice illegal November of last year. Marijuana is cheap and plentiful. Adulterants to bath salts meant too many kids had bad trips. And opiates is what folks seem to want. Of those who entered treatment last year, 41% started using opiates (including heroin) before the age of 20, and almost 20% by age 16.</p>
<p>[11</a> Redmond High students arrested in drug bust - Redmond Reporter](<a href=“http://www.redmond-reporter.com/news/84786072.html]11”>http://www.redmond-reporter.com/news/84786072.html)</p>
<p>Quote from the article:
“During the undercover operation, officers purchased marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, ecstasy, and a variety of prescription medications.”</p>
<p>. . . not just pot and alcohol</p>
<p>Quote from another article on the same topic:
“Describing an October 2009 heroin deal, investigators told the court the detective had been discussing prescription pain killers with a group of students. Having set up deals for Oxycontin, the detective went on to buy $120 worth of black tar heroin from a 16-year-old student.”</p>
<p>Read more: <a href=“http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/13-teens-charged-after-detective-enrolls-at-799998.php#ixzz1yqe9D3bv[/url]”>13 teens charged after detective enrolls at Redmond High School;
<p>Not all the teens were holding large amounts of drugs.
Unfortunately my son was one of 11 arrested in this drug bust. He was charged with selling 1.5 grams of marijuana on February 1st.
[Redmond</a> Neighborhood Blog: UPDATED: OPINION: Redmond High Drug Bust - KIRO & KOMO TV reporting](<a href=“http://redmondcity.blogspot.com/2010/02/11-redmond-high-students-arrested-in_21.html]Redmond”>Redmond Neighborhood Blog: UPDATED: OPINION: Redmond High Drug Bust - KIRO & KOMO TV reporting)</p>
<p>I’m also wondering what attempts were made to get kids into treatment, or if they just went after them to make a splash in the media.</p>