Opioid Funding Comes To Staten Island Providers: Asm. Pirozzolo, Local Politicians Make Announcement
Last week, Asm. Pirozzolo and his local political colleagues held a press conference during which they were pleased to announce that 8 Staten Island providers would be awarded funds from the opioid settlement fought for by NY’s Attorney General. This settlement was part of the lawsuit against Purdue Pharma over deceptive marketing practices and encouraging the over-prescribing of opioid medications.
The deceptive marketing practices are related to the fact that it was known by the company executives that OxyContin (generically oxycodone) were just as addictive, if not more so, than other forms of opioid medications and even than heroin. When this was first coming to light, the solution put forward and passed was a political one: they made it incredibly difficult for patients to obtain the medicines, whether it was for legitimate or illegitimate uses. This led to a glut of people who were addicted to the drugs needing to find a new source of the drugs, which naturally became street heroin.
There are legitimate uses for these medicines, including after a surgery or procedure, as well as for those suffering from chronic pain (which does exist).
One thing people who have never taken these drugs fail to understand is that the addiction they cause is a PHYSICAL addiction. What does that mean? It means that there are certain receptors in the human body that are designed for opioids to complete. In most people who haven’t taken these drugs, the body produces natural opioids to fill the receptors. This causes natural pain relief in a general sense.
From an NIH study on these receptors and the benefit of opioids for multiple sclerosis, “Endogenous opioids are a class of molecules that are produced in the brain and circulate widely throughout all organ systems. Endogenous opioids are neuropeptides and are derived from one of the two precursor genes—pre-proenkephalin A or pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC).”
However, the reason why addiction to heroin is considered a valid medical condition, outside of a person’s control, is because once an opioid is used on a regular basis (even just twice can cause it), their body loses the ability to make the natural opioids. Thus they become physically reliant and dependent on the drug, and they literally become sick (known as dopesick) when they don’t have the drug.
They get uncontrollable shaking, sweating, feverish, and many other physical symptoms that only subside upon consumption of the drug. This is why when the prescription availability is removed, they have a physical need to replace it with street heroin (or whatever form they can find). From a treatment center’s website, the following are the symptoms of withdrawal experienced with opioid addiction and subsequent attempts to break the addiction (dopesickness): “Insomnia, Vomiting, Nausea, Chills, Body aches, Diarrhea, and Night sweats”
From a paper on the neurobiology of addiction: “It is now firmly established, on the basis of countless studies in animals and humans, that drug addiction is a chronic neurobiological disease produced by repeated exposure to an addictive drug and characterized by loss of control over drug use. Neuronal pathways that form the so-called ‘‘reward circuits’’ play a central role in compulsive drug taking and addiction and are found within mesocorticolimbic dopamine systems originating in the ventral tegmental area and projecting to the nucleus accumbens, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex (Fig. 1). All addictive drugs act on this system, through different mechanisms, and activation causes euphoria and reinforcement of drug-seeking behaviors. Opioids induce dopamine release indirectly by decreasing GABA-inhibition via l-opioid receptors in the ventral tegmental area (Johnson and North, 1992; Bonci and Williams, 1997; Cami and Farre, 2003), as well as directly by interacting with opioid receptors in the nucleus accumbens (Nestler, 1996; Hyman and Malenka, 2001).”
The big issue with street heroin, as many islanders know, is that it is often laced with fentanyl in order to make it stronger and longer lasting (thus increasing drug dealer’s profits). But it also increases the risk of overdose by far. Whereas, when they were taking the pharmaceuticals, this particular risk was very low. They were regulated pills with a certain dose and no additives like fentanyl. Even heroin alone does not cause overdoses in the volume that is seen when fentanyl is added to the heroin (or even replaces it entirely).
When the politicians were discussing this remedy many years ago when this addiction problem came to light, they mentioned that it would probably spawn an overdose crisis, but they changed the laws and created the crisis anyway.
Now here we are, and Staten Island is bearing the brunt of the crisis with more overdose deaths than the other boroughs. At the same time, the island was not slated to get any of the opioid settlement money from the mayor’s office simply because we don’t have a NYC Health + Hospitals hospital on the island (Bailey-Seton having been removed on the island decades ago). We’ve reported on this very issue of the lack of a public hospital on Staten Island about 5 years ago .
When Asm. Pirozzolo heard this, he was outraged, and rightly so. His constituents were suffering, and here was a possible solution about to totally pass us by.
So, as stated in the announcement video, Asm. Pirozzolo, Senator Scarcella-Spanton, and BP Fossella were able to turn this situation around. Staten Island’s opioid treatment centers, the eight awardees, will each receive 350K over the course of the next four years to keep their programs running, and to help Islanders dealing with this dreadful physical addiction or disease of heroin addiction. Finally, Staten Island will get at least some semblance of its fair share, thanks to our local politicians working hard for their constituents.
Banner Image: Video cover. Image Credit – Staten Islander News
Great. But the real question is why does this even go on? what draws kids to stick a needle in their arm?
I know, right? Makes no sense.
Like…dude, let’s go and EAT ROCKS! Same level of intelligent thinking.
But I guess in fairness eating rocks doesn’t get you high, so it’s not like there is a cost/benefit.
Only cost. But the truth is, the “benefit” of getting high is bad. I see the people on Staten Island on YouTube and so many of them are ex-addicts. My family was spared, thank God. But not so for so many in the neighborhood and through out the island.
I grew up. A few kids did it. Now, it’s more common, obviously.
The kids who were drawn to pills and heroin and weren’t satisfied with a (then-illegal) joint and a beer or two wanted something more.
And they got it. They were always kids with sad life stories. Some of them bright and some of them beautiful and some of them kind, but most of them eventually died. The other drifted off…
These people had a serious emptiness in their lives. They had families that literally hated them, friends who deserted them, and these kids were alone. They needed an escape. They weren’t looking to be social.
It is so sad. Now it’s everywhere. I guess a lot more kids want to feel like they’re dead. I mean, look at our world. Every level, every side. It’s all insanity now. What’s tomorrow? I feel for their plight.
But drugs are never the answer. Better to have a beer with a friend.
Why do people (young AND old–check police records!) sniff glue and huff paint?
Because they’re very irresponsible and very self-destructive.
I think what I’ve seen in my career suggests to me that it’s actually a self-motivation for destruction.
Why do kids go on car theft sprees? What’s in it for them? The thrill?
They aren’t thinking responsibly, perhaps even thinking about what they can do to be the most rebellious.
I say show films of crackheads getting high and heroin users shooting up. There are such films, and I think showing kids that it’s disgusting and debasing would be better than keeping it as some forbidden fruit. It’s illegal for a reason.
Boredom?
Thank you Assembyman. Pirozzolo, Senator Scarcella-Spanton, & BP Fossella.
I’ve lived here 57 years and this is the first time politicians right or left are stepping up and doing something.
I also like that BP Fosella doesn’t act like the addicts are vermin. My next-door neighbor got addicted.
She got an operation on her leg and it went poorly so she began with the Little blue pills then Heroin when they were stopped with I-Stop.
Now she is clean but who knows. For her it was real pain so I feel badly the doctors and surgeons did a lousy job.
Beats the hell outta me.
Finally! Elected officials who do something. Thank you!
Debbie Rose was not my favorite. For many reasons.
I’ll be right to the point: This is the worst problem that the island has. And every attempt to stop the plague of fentanyl is a good thing.
Now it’s fentanilo and people are even more scared than even heroin. You can’t stop it. They can bring fentanyl in from land, sea, and air. Even in tunnels under borders! They can mix it into other chemicals to extract later, disguising the drugs in the meantime. They can even make it in a house near you!
If you do this drug, let’s hear from you. Say something! I am so not getting it!
I’m not on the inside track of opiate abuse, but I have had a few acquaintances here and there that dabbled, ended up hooked, and some died. I have never touched opiates. I have done ethneogens and even took a trip with a shaman. But that is a one-time thing…
Why do kids do opiates? Really, the same reason anyone does any drug. To feel good. To rebel. To test the boundaries. More rare are the kids needing to escape bc their parents are divorcing, they’re being abused or neglected, etc. They start out when we’re having one beer, they’re having six. We smoke an L in a circle, they smoke through an ounce in a day sitting home. No self-control. Compulsive.
Drugs are everywhere. I went with my uncle to his country club when I was 12 (a well-known and respected place) and in the bathroom you could hear men snorting coke in the stalls. These were some powerful men in the community, and many seemed to take drugs. I was instantly seeing them all in a new light. I left the bathroom shaking, because, you know, i was raised in the “Just Say No” reality and it seemed everyone was lying to me.
By adulthood, I realized that drugs are ubiquitous and people are drawn to them because of the wrong approach to life. S-t-nism teaches personal responsibility, but I’m also Buddhist, so I have compassion for them. But I suggest never touching the stuff. The other issue is, there’s no telling what you’re taking. Why risk your life for that? Just don’t get started.