Prescription Drugs

American consumers lost little last week when the Clinton administration scuttled a drug-import bill passed with much fanfare last year by a Congress facing an election. The bill was intended to curb the rapidly rising costs of prescription drugs by allowing Americans to buy American-made medications at lower, regulated prices abroad. In the hunt for affordable prescription drugs, that bill was a toothless tiger. True, drugmakers charge more in America, lowering the price tag for foreign customers who resist higher prices.

Oklahoma linebacker Austin Box had five prescription painkillers and an anti-anxiety drug in his system when he died, according to a preliminary toxicology report released yesterday by the state medical examiner's office. The death of the 22-year-old Box 2 months ago was ruled accidental. In the report, the agency said the combination of drugs likely caused pulmonary edema, or fluid in the lungs, and aspiration pneumonia, which is an inflammation of the lungs caused by inhaling foreign substances.

Counties in Pennsylvania will participate Sept. 25 in the Drug Enforcement Administration's National Take-Back Day, asking the public to turn in expired, unwanted, or unused prescription drugs. According to Katayoun Copeland, Delaware County deputy district attorney, there has been a significant increase in criminal cases related to the abuse of prescription drugs, many obtained from home medicine cabinets. She said there is more abuse of prescription drugs such as oxycodone than there is of cocaine, heroin, and hallucinogenic drugs.

Bernie and Beverly Strain, a Manayunk couple who lost their 18-year-old son last year to a medicine interaction, have a message for you: Take some time Saturday to clean out unneeded prescription or nonprescription drugs from your medicine cabinets. Then take the drugs to one of the 3,400 sites around the country - including dozens of police stations and municipal buildings in the Philadelphia area - that have agreed to take them for safe disposal. Old medications will be accepted from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. For a nearby site, visit http://go.

Fat Henry was dropping by for drugs at Lou's Pharmacy. So were Pizza Gus and Errol Dog and even Mary Worth. Their names were on prescriptions for two powerful drugs, Doriden and codeine. These characters intrigued Peaches Larro, an intense, meticulous Drug Enforcement Administration investigator. But even more intriguing were the breathtaking amounts of prescription narcotics flowing in and out of Louis Brickman's corner drugstore on Frankford Avenue in Philadelphia. Sifting through detailed DEA records, Larro discovered that Brickman's little mom-and-pop drugstore was the state's sixth-largest mover of codeine.

Access to lifesaving prescription drugs has been an issue the Legislature has grappled with for years. Although our state provides such programs as Pharmaceutical Assistance to the Aged and Disabled and Senior Gold, too many New Jerseyans struggle with the costs of prescription medicines. As chairman of the Assembly's Budget Committee, I understand how the lack of access to lifesaving, life-enhancing medicine affects our state's neediest citizens. Eight million people call New Jersey home; 1.2 million of them either have no health insurance or are underinsured.

Solid results from several prescription drugs helped Rorer Group Inc. rack up higher sales and profits during the second quarter. Among the strong contributors were Lozol, a drug for treating high blood pressure, and Azmacort, an asthma drug. However, Robert E. Cawthorn, chairman and chief executive officer of the Fort Washington pharmaceutical company, said he expected third-quarter results to be hampered by the dollar's rise against foreign currencies and a promotional campaign for Maalox antacid, a key product for the company.

Noting a "disturbing trend of prescription-drug abuse," state Health Secretary H. Arnold Muller released a study yesterday recommending restrictions on the prescribing and dispensing of amphetamines and other addictive drugs. The study reported that nine medical practitioners were responsible for 23 percent of Pennsylvania's amphetamine purchases in 1984. It also said that state residents that year consumed amphetamines at four times the national average. Philadelphia's amphetamine consumption was 1 1/2 times the Pennsylvania average.

MIAMI - A Florida-based crime ring that stole at least $80 million worth of prescription drugs, including one of the nation's biggest heists in Connecticut in 2010, has been broken up following a three-year undercover FBI probe, federal authorities said Thursday. Eleven people were charged in an 18-count indictment returned in Miami, with others charged in locations where thefts occurred including Connecticut and New Jersey, U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer said. The thieves hit warehouses and stole tractor-trailers around the country, often from highway rest stops, and brought the drugs to South Florida in an attempt to sell them.

Law enforcement will collect two kinds of dangerous items on Saturday: guns and prescription drugs. "Turn in a gun anonymously and receive a $50 food voucher for a local supermarket on the spot, no questions asked!" declares a Philadelphia Police Department announcement. The firearms buyback will be held from 10 a.m. to noon at St. Joachim's Church Hall, 1527 Church Street, in Northeast Philadelphia. The Knorr Street Shop-Rite is sponsoring the event, along with the Philadelphia Police District Advisory Council.

Saturday is the next date to dump those old prescription drugs. In October, more than 188 tons of medications were collected across the country as part of the fourth National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day, according to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. The aim is twofold: Protect the water supply, and keep unwanted and expired medicines away from abusers. Collections will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at thousands of sites across the country, including more than 100 in the Philadelphia area.

The Cherry Hill Police Department is one of four added sites where people can drop off expired or unwanted prescription drugs to be destroyed under a state initiative intended to curb abuse of medications, Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa said Thursday. The state Department of Consumer Affairs had installed lockable metal boxes that resemble mailboxes at three other police departments in November, but residents turned in more pills than expected, making it expensive for the local agencies to destroy them.

New Jersey Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa on Wednesday announced a statewide ban on all forms of synthetic marijuana, the so-called designer drug that mimics the effects of marijuana. The concoction, also known as K2 and Spice, is the third most commonly abused drug by high school seniors, behind marijuana and prescription drugs, according to a 2011 study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Side effects include violent seizures, dangerously elevated heart rates, and hallucinations, according to the institute and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

With prescription drug addiction in the United States at an all-time high, a Pennsylvania lawmaker is seeking to identify and help addicts through a database that would track use of medications. State Rep. Gene DiGirolamo (R., Bucks) said the state needs to get moving - and quickly - to deal with the epidemic of prescription drug abuse. House Bill 1651 would add Pennsylvania to the 35 states that track and monitor use of prescription drugs. It would set up the statewide Pharmaceutical Accountability Monitoring System, a computer database of dispensed prescription drugs that would be managed by the new Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs and that would be accessible to physicians and pharmacists.

Four Texas Christian football players were among 17 students arrested Wednesday in a campus drug bust. Police said those arrested were caught making "hand-to-hand" sales of marijuana, cocaine, Ecstasy, and prescription drugs to undercover officers. "There is no doubt," TCU police Chief Steve McGee said at a morning news conference after the arrests. The players arrested were linebacker Tanner Brock , the leading tackler two seasons ago; defensive tackle D.J. Yendrey ; cornerback Devin Johnson ; and offensive lineman Ty Horn . The arrest affidavits raised the possibility that other players were involved.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Whitney Houston was underwater and apparently unconscious when she was pulled from a Beverly Hills hotel bathtub, and she had prescription drugs in her room, authorities said Monday. Two days after the singer's death, her body was taken to a Los Angeles-area airport to be flown to New Jersey, where her family was making arrangements for a funeral to be held at the end of the week. An autopsy was performed Sunday, and authorities said there were no indications of foul play and no obvious signs of trauma on Houston's body.