Portsmouth, Ohio Heroes are Without a Police Headquarters

Purdue Pharma owes it to this brave community of people fighting the OxyContin tsunami perpetrated by the pharmaceutical company.

(PORTSMOUTH, Ohio) - It recently came to my attention that the small community of Portsmouth, Ohio in Scioto County, Ohio is fighting crime and their prescription drug epidemic without a police headquarters facility. It was closed down in 2010 due to an asbestos and black mold problem. The 40 officers of the Portsmouth Police Department are scattered in buildings throughout the town.

I have been writing on a regular basis on this community of people who are fighting pill mill doctors operating clinics in their town and have formed an organization called SOLACE (Surviving Our Loss And Continuing Everyday) for families to keep their kids safe and off the drugs such as OxyContin.

SOLACE members have all experienced the loss of family members due to OxyContin and other prescription drugs. I would like to make a suggestion to Police Chief Charles Horner and Lisa Roberts, RN, who have both been instrumental in fighting to save their community -- tell Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin -- since they created the epidemic destroying Portsmouth -- build us a Police Headquarters.

Lisa Roberts used the initiative to fill an application out to the popular television show "Extreme Makeover" asking that the show feature Portsmouth's lack of a building for their police officers.

In a section of the application, Ms. Roberts stated "The RX drug problem has spiraled Portsmouth, Ohio into financial ruin and we are in fiscal emergency facing over $1,000,000 in unavoidable debt. Our current rate of death, disease, crime and social collapse is frightening without a functional police department building. Our future is bleak."

Roberts closed the application with the statement -- "The officers of the Portsmouth Police Department are the family of our town."

May I suggest to the town of Portsmouth, Ohio that they turn to Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin - the drug that has destroyed their small community and tell the $10 billion corporation since the crisis in Portsmouth is caused by the lies in marketing OxyContin -- that Purdue Pharma fund the cost of a "state of the art" police headquarters. I believe Purdue Pharma owes it to this brave community of people fighting the OxyContin tsunami perpetrated by the pharmaceutical company.

AP Photo
Lisa Roberts, a public health nurse at the Portsmouth, Ohio, City Health
Department, stands in front of a storefront display in Portsmouth. Nearly
one in 10 babies were born addicted to drugs last year in southern Ohio's
Scioto County. Admissions for prescription painkiller overdoses were five
times the national average.

While Portsmouth, Ohio and every other small town in every state in the country is dealing with OxyContin death and addiction, Purdue Pharma issued a press release today which indicated entries are now being accepted for a new online photo contest to give people living with chronic pain and their caregivers an opportunity to use photography to portray their personal experience with pain.

The photo contest is the first part of a new Partners Against Pain® campaign called Hands-on Approach for Pain Management to promote effective communication between people with pain and their healthcare professionals.

"Each person's pain experience is unique and different," said Pamela P. Bennett, BSN, RN, Executive Director, Healthcare Alliance Development, Purdue Pharma L.P. "Establishing open and honest communication is a key to developing an individualized treatment plan for pain. We want this contest to inspire people touched by pain to use photography as another way to tell their story so that others can learn from their journey."

People living with chronic pain and their caregivers are encouraged to submit an original photo with an accompanying description (50 words or less). All submissions for consideration must be received by August 31, 2011.

A panel of judges will select the top twenty entries that best express the cornerstones of pain management – compassion, partnership, and communication. These photos will be displayed on the Partners Against Pain web site beginning on September 19, 2011.

Portsmouth, Ohio's Police Chief Horner put together this YouTube video as a tribute to the families in his small community who have suffered horrific loss in life, namely to OxyContin.

I would suggest that every family in the U.S, and Canada who has suffered the pain of losing a family member because of the criminal marketing of OxyContin, flood the Partners Against Pain website (as well as Pamela Bennett at pamela.bennett@pharma.com) with photos of their deceased family members -- the "true victims" of this epidemic. Do not let this pharmaceutical company without a conscience put the focus on something as bogus as the "undertreatment of pain" in chronic pain victims.

It is an insult to families who know the devastation that OxyContin causes every day in our country and Canada because of an out of control Purdue Pharma to allow the focus to be removed from the true victims -- your loved ones who have lost their lives to this dangerous drug -- OxyContin.

LP - "If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other." ~Mother Teresa -- (We will always have peace -- this I promise).

___________________________________

Salem-News.com Reporter Marianne Skolek, is an Activist for Victims of OxyContin and Purdue Pharma throughout the United States and Canada. In July 2007, she testified against Purdue Pharma in Federal Court in Virginia at the sentencing of their three CEO's - Michael Friedman, Howard Udell and Paul Goldenheim - who pleaded guilty to charges of marketing OxyContin as less likely to be addictive or abused to physicians and patients. She also testified against Purdue Pharma at a Judiciary Hearing of the U.S. Senate in July 2007. Marianne works with government agencies and private attorneys in having a voice for her daughter Jill, who died in 2002 after being prescribed OxyContin, as well as the voice for scores of victims of OxyContin. She has been involved in her work for the past 8-1/2 years and is currently working on a book that exposes Purdue Pharma for their continued criminal marketing of OxyContin.

Marianne is a nurse having graduated in 1991 as president of her graduating class. She also has a Paralegal certification. Marianne served on a Community Service Board for the Courier News, a Gannet newspaper in NJ writing articles predominantly regarding AIDS patients and their emotional issues. She was awarded a Community Service Award in 1993 by the Hunterdon County, NJ HIV/AIDS Task Force in recognition of and appreciation for the donated time, energy and love in facilitating a Support Group for persons with HIV/AIDS.

Marianne Skolek
National Activist for Victims of OxyContin and
Purdue Pharma - a criminally convicted pharmaceutical company
Staff Correspondent, Salem-News.com

www.oxydeaths.com

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william August 5, 2011 5:30 am (Pacific time)

what they dont say how much people with pain need this drug.not all of us with chronic pain miss use meds.what about the people who take our meds the way the doctor write them out are we to live our lifes in pain.

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