Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, a physician and long-time drug fighter, is turning drug war into class war in his crusade against Oxycontin, the powerful opiate pain-killer that has become one of this year's drug menaces of choice. In July, Dean banned the use of state welfare funds to pay for Oxycontin prescriptions. But that wasn't enough. Earlier this month, Dean moved to restrict the supply of the drug to all Vermont residents enrolled in state-funded health care programs.
The move on welfare spending would affect only about 70 people, according to local press reports, but the governor's latest strike will affect 128,000 Vermonters. Doctors for patients in state-funded programs will now have to seek permission from the Office of Vermont Health Access before they can fill prescriptions for the popular painkiller, the Burlington Free Press reported.
The governor's actions have set off controversy in Montpelier, the state capital, according to the Free Press. Legislators are demanding a hearing next month on the decisions.
"It seems to me there was an assumption that all users of this drug were abusers," said Sen. James Leddy (D-Chittenden). "My question is what was the process used to reach this decision."
"I'm as angry about this as anything I
have run into," said Sen. Nancy Chard (D-Windham). Chard, who heads
Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, a physician and
long-time drug fighter, is turning drug war into class war in his crusade
against Oxycontin, the powerful opiate pain-killer that has become one
of this year's drug menaces of choice. In July, Dean banned the use
of state welfare funds to pay for Oxycontin prescriptions. But that
wasn't enough. Earlier this month, Dean moved to restrict the supply
of the drug to all Vermont residents enrolled in state-funded health care
programs.
The move on welfare spending would affect
only about 70 people, according to local press reports, but the governor's
latest strike will affect 128,000 Vermonters. Doctors for patients
in state-funded programs will now have to seek permission from the Office
of Vermont Health Access before they can fill prescriptions for the popular
painkiller, the Burlington Free Press reported.
The governor's actions have set off controversy
in Montpelier, the state capital, according to the Free Press. Legislators
are demanding a hearing next month on the decisions.
"It seems to me there was an assumption
that all users of this drug were abusers," said Sen. James Leddy (D-Chittenden).
"My question is what was the process used to reach this decision."
"I'm as angry about this as anything I
have run into," said Sen. Nancy Chard (D-Windham). Chard, who heads
the legislature's Health Access Oversight Committee, wanted to know whether
any doctors -- other than the governor himself -- had been consulted.
Committee members also asked why Oxycontin
was singled out when other prescription drugs are also subject to abuse.
The committee voted to find out by calling state officials to testify at
its next scheduled hearing in September. "I think we have a right
to get some information," Chard said.
The Free Press' editorial page writers,
however, apparently haven't been reading their own newspaper. They
came out strongly in support of the governor's actions in an editorial
calling for even more. They applauded Dean's move, "but the steps
he took are only the beginning of what's needed," opined the Free Press.
"Dean's was a drastic step, but one fully justified by the drug's dangers."
Before urging state lawmakers to pass a prescription monitoring law, the
newspaper added that, "OxyContin abuse occurs in Vermont, but hasn't reached
epidemic levels. All the more reason to take preventive steps such
as prior approval of prescriptions. That review won't suffice, though.
Government, doctors and pharmacists should be discussing further actions,
including physician and patient education."
But the newspaper and the governor go way
too far even for Dr. Sally Satel, most reknowned for her advocacy of coerced
treatment of drug users. In her syndicated column, Satel wrote: "The
worst response we could make to the OxyContin phenomenon would be to restrict
the supply, a classic toss of the baby out with the bathwater. Something
must be done to keep OxyContin out of the wrong hands, but the true public
health tragedy will be depriving patients who need it to survive in relative
comfort day to day."
Satel should not be surprised by Dean's
draconian approach to drug policy. The good doctor appears to consistently
favor the intervention of police, bureaucrats and judges in medical affairs
where abusable drugs are involved. In a case involving a heroin addict
who was prescribed methadone, then later jailed on a parole violation,
the state corrections department has gone to court to prevent him from
receiving methadone while behind bars. The man in question, Shawn
Gibson, had to undergo methadone withdrawal in prison after the state refused
to treat him while in custody. Earlier, when a state judge ordered
the corrections department to provide methadone to another prisoner, it
refused and instead released the prisoner early.
Accord to the Rutland Herald, Dean, whom
it describes as a moralist who "may be of the view that cold turkey withdrawal
is more virtuous than methadone," is behind the state's rigid line.
But Dean's moralism is not enough for the Herald, which accuses him of
using state law "to interfere in an arbitrary and potentially harmful way
in medical decisions."
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