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Published on: October 19, 2017

Congress, Big Pharma, and the Opioid Crisis

Venn Crawford

The Washington Post and “60 Minutes” released a report this weekend revealing how Congress and pharmaceutical companies deliberately allowed the opioid crisis in America to worsen by passing a law that crippled the Drug Enforcement Administration’s ability to combat the epidemic. The opioid epidemic itself has resulted in over 200,000 deaths in the past two decades, a number which continues to increase.

The effort succeeded in April 2016 when Congress passed the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act, which the DEA had fought for years. The law makes it much more difficult for the DEA to freeze suspicious drug shipments by making the criteria for such actions more stringent. The effect is immediately visible – the DEA has issued only six suspension orders this year, compared to 65 in 2011.

The DEA’s troubles began far before 2016, however. In 2013, Jim Geldhof, the Detroit DEA program manager, discovered that Miami-Luken, a medium-sized Ohio-based drug distributor, had shipped 11 million doses of oxycodone and hydrocodone to Mingo County, West Virginia, which has a population of 25,000. Of those, 258,000 were shipped to one pharmacy in Williamson, which has a population of 2,924. West Virginia has the highest opioid death rates in the nation. However, Geldhof’s attempts to suspend Miami-Luken’s shipments were unsuccessful as he was dismissed by the company and lawyers.

Published on: October 12, 2017

The Cycle of Abuse, or "She Isn’t Always Like This"

Venn Crawford

by Woodruff Family Law Group

Tuesday’s blog touched on the difficulty that some survivors of domestic violence have when they try to reconcile the good memories of their relationship with their abuse. In trying to reconcile the good with the bad, victims may start to rationalize the abusive behavior and second-guess themselves.

This tendency of the victim to downplay their abuse (especially while still in the relationship) is reinforced by the abuser’s talent for hiding their behavior. Abuse occurs in a cyclical pattern called the cycle of abuse, and abusers tend to perpetrate abuse only during half of this cycle. During the other half, they attempt to “atone” for their behavior, creating a sort of push-and-pull dynamic where they abuse their partner, then keep them from leaving by promising to change. This dynamic often serves to make the victim even more dependent on their abuser, and the inconstancy of the abuse makes it harder for both the victims and others to identify it.
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Published on: October 6, 2017

Haunted Happenings in October

Venn Crawford

by Woodruff Family Law Group

It’s October – a month of harvests and haunts. If you haven’t gotten in the spirit yet, here’s a list of haunted happenings in the triad to get you started. The first list covers kid-friendly events, while the second contains spookier events for adults. Click the dates to see the event website. Continue reading

Published on: September 29, 2017

Prescription Opioids- Addiction in Medicine’s Clothing

Venn Crawford

by Woodruff Family Law Group

The opioid epidemic is a problem quickly shifting to the forefront of American consciousness, but it seems many people fail to grasp the breadth of the issue and just how close to home it truly is.

For many people, the word “opioid” conjures up television images of too-skinny junkies in filthy rooms, or delinquent teenagers raiding mom’s medicine drawer. But these images are of addiction in its full swing. In many cases, it looks different at first –it looks like your loved one taking their prescribed pain medication. And for some, this reality is a hard pill to swallow. Continue reading