Salem-News.com Articles written by Marianne Skolek

Ohio Takes Point in the Fight Against Oxycontin Abuse

There's a hero - If you look inside your heart - You don't have to be afraid of what you are - There's an answer - If you reach into your soul - And the sorrow that you know will melt away (Mariah Carey song)

(PORTSMOUTH, Ohio) - Ohio is not sitting back and letting drugs - namely OxyContin take over their communities and destroy families.

They are fighting back and every other state in the country should be demonstrating the courage they are showing.

Washington State is Front-Runner in Ending the `Over-Treatment` of Pain in the U.S.

"A man has to live with himself, and he should see to it that he always has good company." Charles Evans Hughes (11th Chief Justice of the U.S. 1862 - 1948)

(MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.) - This month, the State of Washington will begin implementing new regulations for physicians and prescribers who treat their chronic pain patients with opiates.

`A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar` - Mark Twain

"Corporate Counsel" recently wrote an article concerning due process in the debarment of Purdue Pharma's general counsel, Howard Udell by the Health & Human Services Agency.

(MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.) - The Washington Legal Foundation is concerned with our government debarring General Counsel Howard Udell, CEO Michael Friedman and Chief Medical Officer Paul Goldenheim of Purdue Pharma from involvement in any federal healthcare programs for 12 years.

They feel it "raises serious constitutional due process concerns about the government's interpretation" of the law.

Fox News reports: `U.S. Troops Reportedly Taking More Medication Than Ever`

"Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

(MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.) - Fox News reports that U.S. military troops are taking more prescription medication than ever. US troops Heavily Medicated on Prescription Drugs, the report warns.

The bottom line is that the men and women of the US armed forces are taking more addictive medication than they ever have in the past.

New York Times article on OxyContin being `harder to abuse` leaves big questions

Were the NY Times staff aware that Purdue Pharma had a patent to make OxyContin non abusive at the launch of the drug?

(MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.) - On June 16, the "New York Times" published a story regarding OxyContin being harder to abuse -- but users "persevere."

Oxycontin Tsunami Claims Thousands

On this first day of a new year, we join the world in feeling enormous sadness over a great human tragedy... The carnage is of a scale that defies comprehension." US President George W. Bush (January 2005 about a Tsunami in Indonesia)

(MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.) - The above quotation applies to the Tsunami of OxyContin addiction and death in every state in the country when Purdue Pharma obtains approval for clinical trials of non-malignant pain in children -- ages 6 to 17 -- beginning in September 2011.

I wrote about these clinical trials that were being driven by Purdue Pharma and made a comparison of Purdue Pharma's physician, Dr. Deborah Steiner and Dr. Josef Mengele, the "angel of death" under Adolf Hitler.

Are Oxycontin Doctors Overmedicating Kids to Death?

"There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall -- think of it -- ALWAYS." Mahatma Gandhi

(MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.) - In June 2010, I wrote about Lisa Humphrey, MD at Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital in Ohio who was quoted as saying:

"Recognizing and treating pain in children can be a challenge. Unlike adults, kids may not cry or complain when in pain."

Eric Holder negotiated an OxyContin settlement in West Virginia - working for Purdue Pharma!

Eric Holder managed to keep the criminal activity of Purdue Pharma quiet since there would be no trial and no documents or testimony to be made public.

(MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.) - We are losing the war on drugs because of people in high office whose hands are deep in the pockets of the maker of OxyContin, Purdue Pharma!

The State of Ohio Seizes the Day: Sends Pill Mills Packing- Part 2

Health officials say the illegal distribution of painkillers leads to hundreds of overdose deaths in Ohio each year.

(MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.) - Last Monday I wrote an article on the "pill mill" crisis in Scioto County, Ohio and how a committed group of very determined people were taking their community back in an effort to save their kids' lives.

On Tuesday, the DEA, working with the FBI and local law enforcement, took action against four doctors and a pharmacy in Scioto County.

So I Went back to Ohio...
Declaring a Public Health Emergency Over Oxycontin

Peter Finch may have shouted the line "I'm mad as hell -- and I'm not going to take it anymore" in the movie Network, but Ohio is madder over an OxyContin epidemic killing their kids.

(MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.) - Scioto County, Ohio, in a pocket of Appalachia -- is thought by some to be 'lower class' -- maybe even uneducated -- but Scioto County is losing families

The biggest challenge; losing their kids to prescription narcotics -- namely OxyContin.