"Ice Crystals": Tori Tipton and the Mat-Su Valley

Before the prescription drug OxyContin surpassed homemade meth as the drug of choice in the Mat-Su Valley, Lori Tipton covered the Anchorage International Film Festival debut of "Ice Crystals."

Lori Tipton, the voice of Mat-Su Valley for KTUU

Documentary: "Ice Crystals" methamphetamine

The 19-year-old filmmaker Eirin Strickland, said "I didn't really know how bad it was when I started out." Strickland wanted to learn more about methamphetamine and it's effects in his hometown of Palmer, Alaska. He spent a year researching the Matanuska Valley's meth problem. Once the farming capitol of Alaska, it later became known as the meth capitol of Alaska.

"I was born here and I wanted to know how this could've happened to my home," Strickland said. It is tragic that not enough of the other Valley residents have an interest to know, illicit drug deals rule and business is good.

KTUU Valley news reporter Lori Tipton reviewed the documentary in Nov. 2007. A year later and the Valley (Wasilla, Palmer) was famous around the world when Sarah Palin's older children, Track and Bristol, made headlines and tabloids covers with their reported drug use. Meth was no longer the drug of choice in the Valley. A famous OxyContin bust (delayed for political reasons) spotlighted the new choice, OxyContin.

Has the drug problem improved? Is it time for another documentary? Do local journalists, like Lori Tipton, need to get off their butts?

It appears Tipton failed to notice the Alaskan troopers statements. The following story with Investigator Kyle Young disappeared from the media. Why are reporters in the Valley so remiss? Alaska trooper says politics slowed drug arrest.

Investigator Kyle Young sent an e-mail to the Public Safety Employees Association saying the search warrant of Johnston’s house was delayed for political reasons, the Anchorage Daily News reported Monday.

“It was not allowed to progress in a normal fashion, the search warrant WAS delayed because of the pending election and the Mat Su Drug Unit and the case officer were not the ones calling the shots,” Young wrote in the Dec. 30 e-mail.

Lori Tipton reported: Feds suspend Medicaid for Alaskans in July 2009.

"From 2006 to 2009, the state reported 27 Alaskans died while waiting for initial assessments and 227 died while waiting to be reassessed,
according to the review."
Breaking the back of Health and Social Services.

The media follow up was nil, that should be a crime. What are 227 deaths to Tipton, KTUU and Alaska? The federal government did eventually reinstate Medicaid, yet few show they cared about the deaths in Alaska or how the deaths came about. Were there any stories about these citizens? Did any of them have families that were effected?

The people need better information about all healthcare information:
Video: "We're Number 37" (scroll to the end of post)

PHOTO: Lori Tipton and her "shock jock" lover Bob Lester >

Bob Lester is known for his disdain of a cancer patient and the time when Sarah Palin joined him with laughter as Lester jockingly mocked. "Early this year, an op-ed in the Anchorage Daily News ripped into Gov. Sarah Palin's appearance on a morning "shock jock" radio show as "plain and simple one of the most unprofessional, childish and inexcusable performances I've ever seen from a politician".

If you live in Alaska, don't get sick. They have some disgusting excuses for media types and they may broadcast calling you names and laughing at your misfortune.

PHOTO: Heidi Klum

September 9, 2009: Tipton did help bring awareness to Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), Child advocates remind pregnant women of dangers of drinking
Other than that, does Lori Tipton know what a pregnant woman looks like or how to develop and follow a story that reeks of child abuse and fraud?
PHOTOS: Palin pregnant
1. Track Palin
2. Trig Palin
It's hard to say what happened with Tipton when she worked on Trig Palin's mysterious birth. Was she duped? Why did she not do better research and follow up?

There are more questions today than ever before.

Palingates guest, Patrick, delves deeper into the facts.

H E R E... Levi Johnston, Lori Tipton And Their “Business” at Mat-Su Hospital – And What Rex Butler Doesn’t Want To Go On the Record With… UPDATED

Sunday, 20 September 2009

Save Our Kids, Save Our Future, Ban OxyContin Now

Grieving mom fighting to take OxyContin off the market

Drug Addiction and Detox News

Recent research from Rockefeller University warns of “lifelong and permanent changes” in the brains of adolescents who experiment with opioid painkillers like OxyContin. This terrifying fact, along with unprecedented numbers of addictions, injuries and deaths associated with the drug, has prompted concerned citizens to launch an online petition calling to ban OxyContin from the marketplace.

The Rockefeller University study revealed that adolescents are not only more sensitive to the high that OxyContin abusers seek -- called “reward effects” -- but also that they can suffer permanent damage to the so-called “reward system” in their brains from even a few exposures to the drug. Pre-teens and teens who dabble with opioid painkillers like OxyContin are far more likely to develop serious addictions if they are exposed to opioids again later in life, than are adults who encounter the drug for the first time.

While new advances in medical drug detox and drug rehab are helping combat opioid addiction more effectively than ever before, it has never been more urgent for educators, government leaders and law enforcement officials to strongly encourage parents to talk to kids about the dangers of experimenting with drugs, especially opioid painkillers like OxyContin. And everyone, especially parents of teenage kids, should lock up their prescription drugs.

September 5, 2009

HEROIN – USA
Heroin Becoming Drug of Choice Among Teens – ABC Local News...ABC 7’s On Your Side has a frightening warning for suburban parents: Heroin is quickly becoming the drug of choice for many teens, some as young as 14 years old.

PRESCRIPTION – USA
One in Five Teens Share Their Prescription Drugs with Friends – Join Together...A survey of 12- to 17-year-olds in the U.S. has found that about 20 percent said they have given their prescription drugs like Oxycontin and Darvocet to friends or obtained drugs the same way.

DRUGS – USA
ADHD Drug Abuse Rising Among Teens – Web MD...The abuse of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) drugs by teenagers is growing, according to a new study.

ALCOHOL – USA
Study Suggests Alcohol Ads Target Teens – Live Science...The beer and spirits industries either deliberately advertise to underage children despite pledges otherwise, or they are really, really lousy at matching expensive ad time with the right demographics.

DRUGS – USA
ADHD Drug Abuse Among Teens Rising – eMax Health...A new medical study released Monday found that next to marijuana, prescription medications are the most common drugs teenagers use to get high and ADHD drug abuse among teens is on the rise.

ALCOHOL – USA
Underage drinking in Wisconsin fueled by adults – Chippewa Herald...All Chippewa Falls High School students see the presentation at least once during their high school years.

METH – USA
“Shake and Bake” Meth use on rise – Examiner...It’s a flip title for a frightening new method of making one of the most addictive and physically destructive of all illegal drugs, methamphetamine.

Just found out my husband is addicted to Oxycontin

RIP: The body of 18-year-old Tyree Sean Graham of Palmer, Alaska was found...

Tyree Graham

DJ AM, Track Palin,Sherry Johnston, Rush Limbaugh, Rudy Giuliani, Pharma and OxyContin

The foremost best advertisement for Rudy's product is Rush Limbaugh with easy skirting of consequences and continuing help from his doctors. Both Rudy and Rush help to obscure the results of OxyContin's destructive addictive quality. Without Rudy Giuliani, the representative for OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, where would teen access to Oxy be?

(click image to enlarge) .

Reported high-profile users include Lindsay Lohan, Jack Osbourne, Courtney Love and Winona Ryder. Britney Spears reportedly swallowed two bottles of OxyContin before an intense stand-off with armed police and a specialist SWAT team in which she refused to hand over her sons.
DJ AM, Sherry Johnston, Rush Limbaugh& Rudy Giuliani
Pharma and OxyContin

Feds Focus on Heath Ledger's Vicodin, Oxycontin Supplier

The high-profile disc jockey, DJ AM, 36, whose real name was Adam Goldstein, overdosed. An accident or suicide? He was found dead in his SoHo apartment August 28, 2009. Mr. Goldstein had struggled with alcohol and drug addiction as a young adult, but said he had been sober for about 11 years.

Nine OxyContin pills were found in his body. Eight undigested pills with the letters “OC” on it, were found in his throat, and another in his mouth, an official said.

A Breakup and Lingering Pain Over Crash in DJ AM's Final Days
DJ AM and Travis Barker
South Carolina crash
Mothers Against Medical Abuse. Org (MAMA.Org)
Helping to Stop Rx, Methadone Deaths and Abuse
OxyContin robberies in Washington have prompted an unprecedented response from one of the nation’s largest pharmacy chains. Walgreen locks up it's Oxy.
'Hillbilly heroin' for a reason?
Drug Addiction By Substance
How to quit pain pills...
Oxycontin addiction has become one of the leading problems in prescription drug abuse/addiction in America today.

The following OxyContin excerpt is from the must read blog
Frozen Justice: DISCUSSING POLITICS AND INJUSTICE IN ALASKA

THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY ENGINEERED OUR CURRENT PRESCRIPTION DRUG ADDICTION EPIDEMIC

The problems of addiction to Oxycodone drugs is growing and the withdrawal symptoms are excruciating, thus leading to crimes such as robbery, theft, and prescription fraud. Lives are being ruined and people who trusted their doctors, drug companies, FDA, and DEA now have criminal records because they just could not stop using the drug. To add to the problem early on addicts figured out they could crush the long acting pills and take all of the oxycodone it contained at one time. Some Oxycontin addicts have turned to Heroin because it is cheaper to get.

The company that makes the narcotic painkiller OxyContin and three current and former executives pleaded guilty today in federal court here to criminal charges that they misled regulators, doctors and patients about the drug’s risk of addiction and its potential to be abused.

To resolve criminal and civil charges related to the drug’s “misbranding”, the parent of Purdue Pharma, the company that markets OxyContin, agreed to pay more than $600 million in fines. That is the third-highest amount ever paid by a drug company in such a case.

Federal officials said that internal Purdue Pharma documents show that company officials recognized even before the drug was marketed that they would face stiff resistance from doctors concerned about the potential of a high-powered narcotic like OxyContin to be abused by patients or cause addiction.

As a result, company officials developed a fraudulent marketing campaign designed to promote OxyContin as a time-released drug that was less prone to such problems. OxyContin is made of a long-used narcotic, oxycodone. But unlike other medications like Percocet that also contain the narcotic, OxyContin is pure oxycodone and, because it is a time-released drug, contains it in very high doses. The drug is valuable in treating serious, long-lasting pain, but is being prescribed for moderate pain by a lot of doctors.

(Under Attack, Drug Maker Turned to Giuliani for Help)

Just a few years after the drug’s introduction in 1996, annual sales reached $1 billion. They told doctors Oxycontin was less addictive than other pain pills in the same category knowing full well the opposite was true. They targeted family practice doctors who had little experience treating people with severe pain or recognizing when their patients were addicted. Some of the sales people even made up fake graphs and charts. They created an epidemic of people who are unable to stop using this drug on their own. Not one of them went to jail even though there were criminal charges, with the help of Rudy Giuliani.

One of the things which is really bothering me about medicine right now is it’s denial about addiction. They call addiction from narcotics prescribed by a doctor physical dependence and claim this is different from addiction. We have been told all kinds raltionale such as people who have real pain do not get addicted. Of course they do. It may be a situation where it can't be helped and a patient has a very good reason to take the medication, but come on, addiction is addiction is addiction. I have to wonder which drug company paid for that idea to be disseminated in the medical community. They changed the name and made prescription medication caused addiction a whole different disease, which they would say I just can't understand. Oh, I understand it intimately. It is a lot less litigiously risky for a doctor to tell a patient they have a dependence or tolerance than you are addicted now isn't it?

The truth is anyone can become addicted if they take a narcotic long enough. Narcotic use for pain management is a blessing in the appropriate patients with proper medical management. I do not advocate suffering. I have seen many people who narcotics have helped. What I am opposed to are the lies and manipulations to get people addicted to increase drug sales and make millions off of the suffering of thousands of people. They influence doctors to use narcotics when other choices would be better for the patient and society. We have a sick care system instead of a health care system, there is little time to teach about or little reward for using non-narcotic methods of pain management. It is easier and cheaper to just give patients pain pills. I hoped for a health care system which changes this and a lot of other issues, but my hope is fading fast. If I had been told Stadol was highly addicting I would not have taken it in the early 90s. If my colleague had know Tramadol was a narcotic she would have taken Acetaminophen or Ibuprofen instead for her headache. Our addiction to narcotics has been engineered by the pharmaceutical industry. They did it with the intent of getting a captive group of consumers without regard for the suffering it has caused. Our regulating body the FDA has been complicit as well as politicians who are bought off and pass regulations making it easier for them to market these drugs to an unsuspecting country.

See The White House's Health Industry Guest List

Prescriber profiles.

Sale of Physician Prescribing Profiles
Sevostianova N, Danysz W, Bespalov AY. Analgesic effects of morphine and loperamide in the rat formalin test: Interactions with NMDA receptor antagonists. Eur J Pharmacol. 2005;525:83–90.
Menendez L, Lastra A, Meana A, Hidalgo A, Baamonde A. Analgesic effects of loperamide in bone cancer pain in mice. Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 2005;81:114–121.

Pharmaceutical Executive pdf

Obama on Drugs: 98% Cheney?
by Greg Palast Thursday, August 13, 2009

United States: Health Law Advisory: Federal Court Upholds Vermont Law Restricting The Sale And Use Of Prescriber-Identifiable Data

So Rush Just Wanted A “Rush”

Two High Profile Oxycontin Cases

Mainstream Media Fails to Challenge Limbaugh Spin On Illegal Drug Buys And Use
The unfortunate poor, uneducated, ghetto drug addicts get 25 years in “real jail”. People in real, chronic, severe pain that are tormented for life are in their own “society imposed jail” with no way to escape. And Rush Limbaugh gets to become a celebrity for getting caught, and turning his high powered Public Relations lawyers loose with the proper spin on Rush’s pitiful dilemma.

Since the December 18, 2008 arrest of Sherry Johnston at her home in Wasilla there have been more questions than answers. The sentencing phase is coming to an end and we are still in the dark. For a first time offender they pretty much threw the book at Mrs. Johnston. Why? Will this travesty be another well kept secret for McCain/Palin 2008? There are too many suspicious circumstances to think this was not a sting. (The Rush Limbaugh case before gives us a glimpse at how his high profile addiction was handled.)

Cops Sat on Sherry Johnston's Search Warrant Due to Palin
An affidavit, dated Dec. 22, details how troopers used two informants to collect evidence that Johnston sold OxyContin on Oct. 11, Oct. 22 and Nov. 26…the last date being well past the Nov. 4 election date… Coincidence? Arrest Dec. 22
Gryphen: Now my final bit of information is about Sherry Johnston.
As some of you may know Sherry's court date was moved from yesterday to August 19. The reason for this is that until just now the prosecutors REFUSED to make any kind of a deal, because of pressure they were receiving from the Governor. For some reason Palin was pushing for Sherry to receive the maximum sentence. It must be that charitable Christian heart of hers we keep hearing so much about.

I cannot talk about what kind of deal Sherry may get, but the prosecution has become much more reasonable now that Sean Parnell is our Governor.
Levi Johnston's Mother Tries to Explain Drug Arrest - ParentDish
2008 Anchorage Daily News:
Levi Johnston's mother hit with drug charges
JAN. 6 HEARING: Authorities remain tight-lipped about details.
Johnston's arrest was oxycontin-related

Revisiting Rush Limbaugh and oxycontin:

According to other sources Rush allegedly coerced and threatened his housekeeper to illegally obtain more than 4500 Oxycontin in 47 days. The implication from her is that he was in no apparent pain and was just a pill popper who liked the feeling (the rush) and didn’t mind risking being addicted.

Allegedly, he had his housekeeper hide the pills under his mattress so his wife wouldn’t find them. Twice he went to a rehab place in New York to detoxify himself. Never was their any mention of physical pain due to his previous surgery by his housekeeper or in his previous statements of the past five years. His physical body language on TV (his jittery, quick, and jerky physical motion) showed a man in no apparent pain. And if he was in such pain, one would have to wonder how he could excel in such a high stress, physically and mentally demanding job, and be at the top of his form.