Participation Type
Workshop
Session Title
Session 4.12 Health
Presentation #1 Title
OxyContin in the Coal Fields---Still Searching for "Higher Ground" Fifteen Years Later
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
APPALACHINA STUDIES CONFERENCE—MARCH 2015 PROPOSAL FOR PRESENTATION---Health and Medicine “OXYCONTIN IN THE COAL FIELDS—STILL SEARCHING FOR ‘HIGHER GROUND’ FIFTEEN YEARS LATER This presentation will serve as a follow-up and up-date of a previous presentation made at the Appalachian Studies Conference in 2011—“The Flood of OxyContin in the Coal Fields & the Search for ‘Higher Ground’”. We will review the problems associated with the prescription drug problem in Central Appalachia, give an over-view of the toll this has taken in individual lives, families, the medical, legal, and social support systems in the mountains. We will review some of the attempts to confront the problems, what changes have been made from a public policy perspective, and the effectiveness of impacting what is arguably Appalachian’s most serious and far reaching challenge.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Art Van Zee, MD—Bio
Art Van Zee is a primary care general internist that has worked in a Community Health Center in a small coal mining town in southwest Virginia since 1976. He became interested in pain and addiction issues when OxyContin brought a tsunami of opioid addiction into the coal fields in the late 1990s. He has been using buprenorphine to treat opioid addicted patients since 2003. He is Board Certified in both Internal Medicine and Addiction Medicine. He authored “The Promotion and Marketing of OxyContin: Commercial Triumph, Public Health Tragedy” published in the American Journal of Public Health in 2009.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Sue Ella Kobak,Esq.
Born and raised in Pike County, KY, Sue Ella has been a community organizer, school teacher, and attorney—living and working in the coal fields her entire life. She has been very involved with the prescription drug problem in the mountains—as an attorney, author, and active citizen.
OxyContin in the Coal Fields---Still Searching for "Higher Ground" Fifteen Years Later
APPALACHINA STUDIES CONFERENCE—MARCH 2015 PROPOSAL FOR PRESENTATION---Health and Medicine “OXYCONTIN IN THE COAL FIELDS—STILL SEARCHING FOR ‘HIGHER GROUND’ FIFTEEN YEARS LATER This presentation will serve as a follow-up and up-date of a previous presentation made at the Appalachian Studies Conference in 2011—“The Flood of OxyContin in the Coal Fields & the Search for ‘Higher Ground’”. We will review the problems associated with the prescription drug problem in Central Appalachia, give an over-view of the toll this has taken in individual lives, families, the medical, legal, and social support systems in the mountains. We will review some of the attempts to confront the problems, what changes have been made from a public policy perspective, and the effectiveness of impacting what is arguably Appalachian’s most serious and far reaching challenge.
