Some tips on getting better deals on airline flights can be found on the link below. It is advised to book flights at least 14 days in advance, check “on-line” at www.expedia.com, www.travelocity.com, etc. to check on rates. Best time to check is Monday through Friday, 9-5p, but booking a flight on Tuesday and flying on Tuesday and Saturday will usually give you the cheapest rates. The “red eye” flights are even more reasonable which may work well for patients that can catch a flight late Monday night to arrive by early Tuesday morning.

When to Buy an Airline Ticket

Addiction experts are applauding Ontario’s new restrictions on OxyContin and the drug replacing it, but say the country needs a national strategy to tackle widespread abuse of prescription painkillers.
The province’s decision to remove OxyContin and its successor from the list of drugs it routinely funds is a “very positive thing overall,” said Dr. Irfan Dhalla of Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital.
His research found the addition of long-acting oxycodone — the form contained in OxyContin — to Ontario’s drug plan in 2000 coincided with a spike in opioid-related deaths.
Imposing tighter controls on prescriptions “is not going to solve the problem by itself, but it’s a major step forward,” he said.
The maker of OxyContin will stop manufacturing the drug in Canada at the end of the month and replace it with a new formulation called OxyNeo.
Ontario health officials said Friday the new drug will be funded through the province’s Exceptional Access Program, meaning prescriptions will fall under stricter regulations.
As other provinces weigh whether to include OxyNeo in their formulary, experts such as Dhalla are urging Ottawa to take the lead in combating what has become a national health crisis.
Benedikt Fischer, director of the Centre for Applied Research in Addictions and Mental Health at Simon Fraser University, said “concerted measures” could help prevent smuggling of the drug across provincial borders.
“Let’s say in Manitoba or in Quebec, the restrictions aren’t there, there’s a much higher supply and there’s a great black market demand in Ontario, it’s quite possible the stuff will come in from the neighbouring provinces,” he said.
“It’s one reason why approaches to those kinds of measures in Canada should really be harmonized across the board,” he said.
Manitoba and British Columbia are among a handful of provinces that have yet to decide whether to fund OxyNeo once OxyContin is discontinued.
Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick have chosen not to pay for the new drug, which is formulated to make abuse more difficult.
Unlike OxyContin the tablet is hard to crush and when added to liquid it forms a thick gel that stops oxycodone from being extracted for injection.
But that won’t help those who have developed addictions to the drug in pill form, Fischer said. “They can still simply swallow it,” he said.

Drug companies are developing a painkiller ten times stronger than Vicodin which addiction experts fear could spark a wave of abuse. Four companies have begun patient testing on the pills which are the first to contain the addictive ingredient hydrocodone in a pure form. If approved, it would mark the first time patients could legally buy pure hydrocodone as existing products combine the drug with nonaddictive painkillers such as acetaminophen.

The pharmaceutical firms claim the new drug will give doctors another tool to help patients manage pain. The companies also say patients will be more closely supervised. However addiction experts fear abusers will crush the pills into a fine powder and snort it to get high. Such practice is common with the painkiller oxycodone, currently the most-abused medicine in the U.S.

April Rovero, president of the National Coalition Against Prescription Drug Abuse told Fox news: ‘I have a big concern that this could be the next OxyContin. ‘We just don’t need this on the market.’

According to the DEA, there were 19,221 emergency room visits as a result of hydrocodone abuse in 2000. The figure was 86,258 in 2009. Between 2003 and 2007 in the state of Florida alone, hydrocodone caused 910 deaths and contributed to 1,803 others.

Andrew Kolodny, president of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing told CBS: ‘You’ve got a person on your product for life, and a doctor’s got a patient who’s never going to miss an appointment, because if they did and they didn’t get their prescription, they would feel very sick. Abuse: Addicts crush pills such as oxycodone into a fine powder which they snort to get high. ‘It’s a terrific business model, and that’s what these companies want to get in on.’

The San Diego company Zogenix plans hopes to begin marketing its product, Zohyadro, in early 2013. Rival companies Perdue Pharma, Cephalon, and Egalet are developing their own versions. Zogenix chief executive Roger Hawley claims Zohydro will be a safer painkiller than Vicodin as Vicodin contains acetaminophen which can be dangerous to the liver.

By Grant Baldwin, PhD, MPH November 4, 2011

The CDC (Center for Disease Control), deals with the numbers and statistics affecting the public’s health every day. Rarely do these numbers reveal the full and tragic story they actually represent. The CDC’s report this week on prescription painkiller overdoses is one of these rare instances, confirming a story many of us have heard in communities across America.
Prescription painkillers (drugs like oxycodone, hydrocodone and methadone) killed nearly 15,000 people in 2008—one person every forty minutes. These were husbands and sons, mothers and daughters, often struggling with addiction for months or years before losing their lives. And the problem has never been worse. For every person who died of a prescription painkiller overdose in 1999, nearly four died in 2008. We are in the midst of an epidemic.
But the number of deaths isn’t the whole story. This sharp rise in prescription painkiller overdoses parallels a similarly large increase in painkiller sales. Four times as many prescription painkillers were sold in the U.S. last year than in 1999.
Astonishingly, in 2010 enough painkillers were prescribed to medicate every American adult around-the-clock for a month.
States can support prescription drug monitoring programs—electronic databases that track controlled substance prescriptions, which are promising tools for helping medical professionals identify patients who may be abusing these drugs. Health care providers can follow guidelines for safe painkiller prescribing and screen patients for warning signs of abuse. This is so important because we can reduce the number of people who are abusing and overdosing, while also ensuring that patients with pain are treated safely and effectively.
Individuals can also make an impact. More than half of all people who misuse prescription painkillers report getting their drugs from a family member or friend. Individuals must make sure to use prescription painkillers only as directed and to never share them with others. People should also take care to store their prescriptions safely, dispose of them properly and get help if they have substance abuse problems.
Preventing prescription painkiller overdoses is a CDC priority. The lives impacted by painkiller abuse and overdose can be found everywhere—a father who becomes addicted to painkillers after a work injury and overdoses, a teenager who takes an old bottle of painkillers from a relative’s medicine cabinet or a mother who loses a son to painkillers only to find her other child is also addicted. This week’s CDC report on prescription painkiller overdose is a call to action. This epidemic is affecting our own neighbors and communities. Working together, we can turn the tide and have the numbers tell a different story.

Vivitrol, or naltrexone, as it is called generically, is a long-acting form of the drug that is injected once a month intramuscularly. Naltrexone hijacks the brain’s opioid receptors blocking the effects of narcotic drugs such as morphine, heroin, oxycodone, hydromorphone, and other opiates.The purpose of the drug is to prevent relapses, and should be used in conjunction with other treatment modalities such as outpatient therapy, NA/AA if you are into the 12-Steps, and having a network of agencies, friends, and family to help support you in your recovery.

A new government report shows the number of overdose deaths from powerful painkillers have more than tripled over a decade.

Prescription painkillers such as OxyContin, Vicodin and methadone contributed to the deaths of nearly 15,000 people in 2008. That’s more than three times the 4,000 deaths in 1999.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 5 percent of Americans ages 12 and older say they’ve abused prescription painkillers. The highest rate of abuse was reported in Oklahoma while the lowest was in Nebraska and Iowa.

Fatal overdoses were more likely in men and middle-aged adults.

The report was released Tuesday by the CDC.

For the complete CDC report visit: : http://cdc.gov/mmwr/