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By Dr. David Edwarrd Marcinko MBA

Rx DRUG ABUSE

Traditional medicinal agents come in a variety of ways, known as dispensing vehicles. Drugs may be in liquid, pill or inject able form, they may be compounded in capsules, caplets, gelatin tablets, powders or suppositories, or they may come in creams or ointments for the eye, anus and vagina. They may be ingested into the stomach, placed and dissolved under the tongue, put into the eyes, popped, injected or smeared and transported through the human skin from patches.   

A valid drug prescription is a written order, by a doctor, to a pharmacist. In this country, prescriptions are written by physicians, podiatrists, osteopaths, dentists. and some optometrists, physician assistants and nurse practitioners. In addition to the name of the patient and that of the medical prescriber, the prescription contains the name of the drug (not necessarily a narcotic), its quantity, instructions to the pharmacist, and directions to the patient. Narcotic prescriptions may not be prescribed to a drug addict to prevent withdrawal symptoms, as there must be some other therapeutic purpose for such an order.

The art of medicinal prescription writing, and pharmaceutical compounding, has declined in modern medicine for several reasons. Most drugs are made by pharmaceutical companies, and the role of the pharmacist, in most cases, consists only of compounding and error prevention. Many drugs are even automatically dispensed, and tracked, in the hospital setting with bar coding technology and modern inventory tracking mechanisms. Also, the practice of writing long and complicated prescriptions, containing many active ingredients, adjuvants, correctives, and elegant vehicles, has been abandoned in favor of using pure compounds.

Drugs may be prescribed by their official names, which were first given by the United States Pharmacopeia (USP), in 1920, or by the National Formulary (NF), since 1906. Unofficial or generic names may be used, known as New and Non-Official Drugs (NND) or by the United States Adopted Names (USAN), or by the manufactures trade name. For example, the generic narcotic meperidine or pithidine, is also known by the trade named, demerol. The designation USAN does not imply endorsement by the American Medical Association (AMA) Council on Drugs (CODs), or by the USP.

Of course, there is an advantage and disadvantages to prescribing drugs by their trade name, or generic names. Advantages of generics include economies of scale for both the patient and pharmacist, and although the active ingredient in generics are identical to trade drugs, they are often less expensive since research and development costs are absent, and various binders, colorizing agents, preservatives or dispersing agents are of an inferior quality, and hence cheaper for the patient. Appearance, size and taste issues are common. For the pharmacist, generics are cheaper since a multiplicity of very similar drugs need not be shelved.

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For example, the tablet or capsular form of many drugs contains inactive ingredients, such as: ammonio methacrylate copolymer, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, lactose, magnesium stearate, povidone, red iron oxide, stearyl alcohol, talc, titanium dioxide, triacetin, yellow iron oxide, yellow iron oxide with FD&C blue No.2 (80 mg strength tablet only), FD&C blue No.2 and other ingredients. And yes, I’ve seen an addict do into shock, or die from acute anaphylaxis, after taking drugs containing ingredient he was highly allergic to.

Shock is a life-threatening condition where blood pressure falls too low to sustain life. It occurs when low blood volume (due to severe bleeding, excessive fluid loss or inadequate fluid uptake), inadequate pumping action of the heart or excessive dilation of the blood vessel walls (vasodilation) causes low blood pressure. This in turn results in inadequate blood supply to body cells, which can quickly die or be irreversibly damaged.

Anaphylactic shock is the severest form of allergy that is a medical emergency. It is a Type I reaction according to the Gell and Coombs medical classification, and is often severe and sometimes fatal systemic reaction in a susceptible individual upon exposure to a specific antigen (such as wasp venom or penicillin) following previous sensitization, or drug use. Characterized especially by respiratory symptoms, fainting, itching, itching and swelling of the throat or other mucous membranes and a sudden decline in blood pressure! The victim literally cannot breathe and drowns in its own congested and fluid filled lungs

So, patients in need of routine drugs for acute or chronic conditions like arthritis, high blood pressure, asthma, acne, hay fever, performance enhancing steroids or, so called life style drugs, like Viagra for a limp woody, or hair growth stimulator Rogaine, may get a good deal by going to Canada or Mexico for generics. But for important drugs, like nitroglycerine fro your heart, blood thinner coumadin, birth control pills or various anti-cancer agents, stick with brand names.

The main disadvantage of trade drugs is increased cost, due to R & D, patents, trademarks, marketing and company advertising expenses. Of course, trade drug are first to market, and hence may be beneficial as a new treatment modality, or injurious if significant side affects or other complications arise.

Today, the prime source for drug information is probably the well known, Physicians Desk Reference (PDR). Now, in its 58^th edition, the PDR® provides the latest information on prescription, but not illegal street drugs. It is considered the standard reference that can be found in virtually every physician’s office, hospital and pharmacy in the United States. The current edition is over 3,000 pages long, and is where you can find data on more than 4,000 drugs, by brand and generic name, manufacturer and product categories. The PDR also provides usage information and warnings, drug interactions, plus full-size, full-color photos cross-referenced to specific drugs. For the layman, it also includes: phonetic spelling for each listing, a key to controlled substances, adverse reactions and contraindications, pregnancy ratings, dosages and all other FDA-required information. Of course, on the street, or in Mexico, none of this information matters.

Latin abbreviations, sometimes still used by doctors on prescription blanks include:

Rx = take thou (receipe)

po = by mouth (para orbis)

prn = as needed (pro re’nata)

hs = at bed time (hora somnae)

BID = twice daily

TID = three times daily

QID = four times daily

M = Mix

Traditionally, a medical prescription is written in a certain order, well known to drug abusers, and DEA agents, and consist of six basic parts:

• Superscription: This is the Rx, or recipe. In Latin it means take thou.
• Inscription: Represents the ingredients and amounts.
• Subscription: Represent the description for drug dispensing, and may be represented by the letter M, for mix.
• Signature:  Often abbreviated as Sig, and contains the directions for patient use.
• Refill Status: Indicates the number of refills allowed.
• DEA Number: This is nine-character alpha-numeric sequence, used by all licensed physicians who prescribe narcotic agents. An example is AM2685591. The second letter is the first letter of the doctor’s last name, (ie, Marcinko) and the first two digits add up to the third (ie, 2+6=8).

Finally, in addition to the basic parts of a prescription, it should have the patient’s name, and physician signature written in ink, followed by degree designation, such as MD, DPM, DO or DDS, etc.

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Perhaps the most egregious narcotic prescribing habits recently encountered by DEA agents have been by doctors of all degrees and medical designations. Reasons are generally two-fold. First, the doctor may become a drug addict himself, either by accident or through initial legitimate therapeutic use, and over-prescribe the narcotics. Or, increasing office costs, and decreased reimbursement fee reductions of many managed medical care have so economically destabilized the medical community, that economically impoverished doctors desperately sell prescriptions to finance their personal lifestyles, automobiles, clothes, fancy vacations or own addictions.

For example, a staggering medical student loan debt burden of  $100,000-$250,000 is not unusual for new practitioners. In fact, the federal Health Education Assistance Loan (HEAL) program reported that for the Year 2001, it squeezed significant repayment settlements from its Top 5 list of deadbeat doctor debtors. This included a $303,000 settlement from a New York dentist, $186,000 from a Florida osteopath, $158,000 from a New Jersey podiatrist, $128,000 from a Virginia podiatrist, and $120 from a Virginia dentist. The agency also excluded 303 practitioners from Medicare, Medicaid and other federal healthcare programs and had their cases referred for non-payment of debt.

These facts indicate that the current healthcare reimbursement climate has caused more pain and tumult to doctors than the pubic realizes. Older medical practitioners are retiring prematurely, mature providers are frustrated and in despair, and young physicians have no concept of the economic servitude to which they are about to be subjected. Frustration is high and physician suicides have been documented. Many doctors get divorced at the start of their careers. Even the U.S. Inspector General has declared healthcare providers to be public enemy  #2,behind international narco-traffickers, for their federal drug, fraud and abuse initiatives.  Still, the statistic above lends itself to narcotic drug prescription abuse, either on the part of the doctor or patient, since only these two parties that can directly alter a prescription for illicit drug use, as illustrated by this poorly written prescription for a narcotic pain killer, vicodin.

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