Bears WR Kevin White injures hamstring, limited at practice
Sept 11, 2016 6:44:50 GMT -6
AlexM likes this
Post by dachuckster on Sept 11, 2016 6:44:50 GMT -6
Sept 10, 2016 23:50:52 GMT -6 @soulman said:
Sept 10, 2016 17:18:49 GMT -6 @belliot said:
I do buy it. In fact, at the start of the 2015-16 NFL season, the NFL instituted a new policy in response to a lawsuit against the NFL brought forward by hundreds of players due to the long term health issues they suffered due (in part) to the administration of painkillers to continue playing through injuries. The new policy was instituted regarding the storage of painkillers in team facilities (click here). The degree of access has changed due to increased scrutiny. Here's a decent article on the forced changes to the distribution of pain medications. I can link to many more if you'd like.
The DEA is monitoring the use and abuse of pain medications by NFL teams to a far greater extent than the ever. I'm not naive, so I am aware players can still get pain killers but it's not like the unregulated bygone days where team doctors could shoot you up on the sideline and tell you to get back in the game or where you could be concussed and encouraged / forced / expected to continue playing.
Times have changed. Thought that was pretty obvious.
There were quite a few caveats stated in the first article as well not the least of which it is still the NFL teams who hire their own team physicians and the league itself who hires the supervising local physicians for the visiting teams not the AMA or the DEA or any independent party. So the potential for a conflict of interest does exist because the league itself does the hiring. Maybe the greatest potential for abuse in dodging these new guidelines is found in the second article.
According to a DEA spokesperson, it is commonplace for NFL team doctors to acquire and store large quantities of prescription painkillers with no patient in mind -- the idea being that team doctors are then prepared when players are injured, in pain and in need of relief. The practice is legal.
So while the distribution of pain killers may not be as out in the open or widespread as it once was it seems these new rules or guidelines may be as much for appearance sake as they are having an impact on those who feel they require those pain killers to perform. By one means of another, including buying them themselves on the street, some players can get them if they want.
These guys are holding down jobs that can pay millions of dollars a year that require them to play and play well each week if they expect to keep their job. Spending a few thousand dollars of their own money to assure they can isn't out of the question either as the testimony of some of those interviewed for those articles indicates. They can get them if they want them. That's all I'm saying.
hydromorphone (Dilaudid), methadone (Dolophine), meperidine (Demerol), oxycodone (OxyContin, Percocet), fentanyl (Sublimaze, Duragesic), morphine, opium, and codeine.
Under this law, the doctor prescribing and the agency/organization dispensing these meds are under rigorous documentation controls and are open to random and unannounced audits and inspections. The pharmacies (or dispensing organization) have to get the meds from DEA controlled warehouses. The doctors have to use special DEA designed paper forms that the pharmacies have to maintain the originals.
The DEA audit all this pretty rigorously. This I know because my son is a pharmacist and I work in the Pharma industry for the inventor of Vicodin fwiw. Any patient receiving unusually high amounts of these drugs (either as 1 drugs or a combination of any Schedule II drugs) does trigger audits and inspections.
Now none of the above guarantees that a NFL team cannot get compliant doctors to prescribe these meds. But from my and my son's personal experience the DEA is all over this stuff and any doctor doing so is running a serious risk of losing his or her license. And any pharmacy caught actively participating in illicit distribution will lose its license as well. So I expect the teams are being pretty careful. Not that this will eliminate all overprescribing and use just that they days of handing it out like candy are long gone.
