Oklahoma Prescription Narcotics Use

[ThomPaine]

Wow, I have seen some PSAs lately addressing our prescription drug abuse problem, but I wonder why we are an outlier from our surrounding states.

Patterns of Narcotic Use and Abuse

The center of the country – with the exception of Oklahoma – spent less per capita on narcotics than the Eastern or Western regions did.

Alabama, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Mississippi, and West Virginia had the highest narcotic utilization rates.

Oklahoma, Nevada, Utah, Ohio, and Alabama had the highest per capita spending on narcotics (factoring in both utilization and cost-per-prescription).

[kevinpate]

Maybe it's related to all the frettin' and worryin' on what others are doin' behind their closed doors and then grumpin' and groanin' with others on what ta do bouts it.
And, maybe not. Place yer bets, place yer bets.

[MustangGT]

Socio/Economic???

[plainsgal]

Per capita is often misleading, particularly when applied to states with smaller populations.

The per capita costs could be driven up by a small % getting a lot of drugs---like the guy in my neighborhood who could have stocked a pharmacy with all the prescriptions he used to get.

[Bunty]

I reckon a good number of people find it a pain to live in this state with so many backward, oppressive laws. Interesting that most of the states listed would not be regarded as liberal ones.

[ctchandler]

Plainsgal,
I'm confused, does Oklahoma allow marijuana prescriptions? I know we did back in the 40's and 50's, but I didn't think it was legal now.
C. T.

like the guy in my neighborhood who could have stocked a pharmacy with all the prescriptions he used to get.

[Bunty]

I'm confused, does Oklahoma allow marijuana prescriptions? I know we did back in the 40's and 50's, but I didn't think it was legal now.
C. T.

No, it doesn't. If it did, there would be no need for the Oklahoma Compassionate Care Campaign. Interesting to know that medical marijuana was OK in Oklahoma during the 40's and 50's.

[ctchandler]

Bunty,
I wouldn't swear that it was legal then, but my next door neighbor had emphysema (he was a railroad engineer) and used the marijuana in an interesting way, it came in a can that looked medical/pharmaceutical and put it on the lid of the can and lit it. Then he waved his hand over the smoke to move the smoke towards his mouth and he breathed it in deeply. Too be honest, it could have been illegal, but I was too young to really understand.
C. T.

No, it doesn't. If it did, there would be no need for the Oklahoma Compassionate Care Campaign. Interesting to know that medical marijuana was OK in Oklahoma during the 40's and 50's.

[ThomPaine]

Per capita is often misleading, particularly when applied to states with smaller populations.

The per capita costs could be driven up by a small % getting a lot of drugs---like the guy in my neighborhood who could have stocked a pharmacy with all the prescriptions he used to get.

Not only per capita, but:

Alabama, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Mississippi, and West Virginia had the highest narcotic utilization rates.

[onthestrip]

80% of all drug related deaths in Oklahoma are from prescription drugs. Yet the state ignores this and continues to make harsher pot laws

[Bunty]

80% of all drug related deaths in Oklahoma are from prescription drugs. Yet the state ignores this and continues to make harsher pot laws

That attitude helps two parties. The prescription drug companies don't have to put up with restrictions on what they sell. And pot selling criminals can be rest assured the state doesn't want to interfere with their highly profitable, income tax free businesses by showing interest in legalizing pot.

While Oklahoma has harsh pot laws, who is actually being sentenced to long prison terms over violations, other than minorities? And probably few minorities at that.

[BlackmoreRulz]

Don't forget the lawyers that also make millions defending the dreaded culprits...

[kelroy55]

Don't forget the lawyers that also make millions defending the dreaded culprits...

and the private prison corporations.

[Jeepnokc]

Don't forget the lawyers that also make millions defending the dreaded culprits...

As a criminal defense lawyer for 15 years, I feel that I am fairly qualified to say this statement isn't entirely accurate. Most crim defense lawyers I know feel that marijuana should be decriminalized. It is absolutely ridiculous that we put people in jail for recreational marijuana. There are enough real crimes being committed out there for us to make our "millions" off of without petty marijuana crimes. (I'm still waiting on the millions to come through though)

[Goon]

As a criminal defense lawyer for 15 years, I feel that I am fairly qualified to say this statement isn't entirely accurate. Most crim defense lawyers I know feel that marijuana should be decriminalized. It is absolutely ridiculous that we put people in jail for recreational marijuana. There are enough real crimes being committed out there for us to make our "millions" off of without petty marijuana crimes. (I'm still waiting on the millions to come through though)

And as a former employee of the state narcotic enforcement agency, I wholeheartedly agree with this statement.

Most of the LEO's I know feel the same.

[Bunty]

As a criminal defense lawyer for 15 years, I feel that I am fairly qualified to say this statement isn't entirely accurate. Most crim defense lawyers I know feel that marijuana should be decriminalized. It is absolutely ridiculous that we put people in jail for recreational marijuana. There are enough real crimes being committed out there for us to make our "millions" off of without petty marijuana crimes. (I'm still waiting on the millions to come through though)

But isn't it true hardly no one goes to prison over just possession charges of marijuana alone? They're also in there over other felonies, such as selling drugs, or gun charges, possibly with a repeated past.

[Bunty]

And as a former employee of the state narcotic enforcement agency, I wholeheartedly agree with this statement.

Most of the LEO's I know feel the same.

I would hope narcs, by having marijuana legalized, would like the freedom to concentrate better on going after drugs that cause worse harm, including death, such as heroin, meth and cocaine.

[Jeepnokc]

But isn't it true hardly no one goes to prison over just possession charges of marijuana alone? They're also in there over other felonies, such as selling drugs, or gun charges, possibly with a repeated past.

Partially true. It takes several arrests before you will end up there or if you mess up your probation. The biggest problem in our system now is we are making a state of felons. Over the last several years, our conservative state leadership continues to make more and more crimes a felony or make it easier to get to a felony charge. For example, you get stopped with small amount of marijuana (any measurable quantity) and run down to OKC and pay a fine. No big deal. Several years later, you get stopped again with a marijuana pipe with residue in it. They scrape the residue out and charge you with felony marijuana possession. Do not think this doesn't happen......Bob Macy's office charged residue cases as MJ possession all the time and although Prater's office doesn't normally, other counties do.

Say you have a dui from when you were 19. Received a deferred sentence. Nine years later you hurt your back. You take a lortab that was prescribed by the doctor at 6 pm to help you sleep. The next morning (well after the pill has worn off), you have a fender bender on the way to work and have a concussion. The cop, mistaking your confusion caused by the concussion, thinks you are under the influence so he takes your blood. Under the newest DUI law passed....just the positive test for remaining inactive metabolites is enough to support the felony DUI (DUI-Drugs) charge you are now facing. No big deal....I'll hire an attorney and go to trial. Chances are you won't because in OK, this case carries a minimum 1 year up to 5 years in prison. When you look at the possibility of maybe 5 years in prison or taking a deal that guarantees no jail time....most people take the deal as they can't risk jail time.

I don't condone drinking and driving but their are a lot of innocent people that are arrested for DUI that are not DUI but they are unwilling to risk jail time. I also believe that every police car should have a dash cam (law in S. Carolina). It protects the police, the citizen, and the public. It makes the judicial system more efficient as everyone can see what happened. If the video shows client drunk....makes them more willing to negotiate. If the video shows client walking and talking fine, then makes the DA more willing to negotiate.

Remember, the ends do not justify the means if we violate the constitution. The reason the police can't just barge into your house or randomly stop you for no reason or the way you look is that we have a constitution. When a case is tossed out by a judge or a jury returns a not guilty verdict, it isn't that the defense attorney was crafty or the defendant got lucky, it means that the state or the police did not do their job as it is their job to prove the elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt and to do so within the confines of our laws. There are really good honest cops and DA's. This is true for criminal defense attorneys as well as most professions.

There was a case this week in OK where the jury returned a not guilty on several rather serious charges including A &B with a dangerous weapon. They found the defendant guilty of violating a protective order as his girlfriend was letting him live with her even though she had taken the P.O. earlier. They recommended a fine of $1.00. After the verdict was read, the foreperson asked to read a statement which was basically "This case should have never been filed must less prosecuted. The DA ought to apologize to all involved in this case".

Excuse my rant but most citizens don't realize how bad our criminal justice system is in OK until they or their child/loved one gets caught up in it.

[kevinpate]

But isn't it true hardly no one goes to prison over just possession charges of marijuana alone? They're also in there over other felonies, such as selling drugs, or gun charges, possibly with a repeated past.

Not necessarily those specific additional charges, but you are on the right track. I believe it is rather uncommon for someone to do DOC time solely on a possession charge involving personal use levels. I think that would be different if we had greater DOC capacity, because so many consider any use as not only bad, but Alexander bad. But even the harder line law and order folks have begun to see the folly of seeking to lock up everyone we're mad at instead of concentrating resources are the ones we're skeered of. Of course, we might make even more progress if they were n't so ding danged skeered of being primaried over just one or two votes out of the thousands they take in every term.

[Bunty]

Partially true. It takes several arrests before you will end up there or if you mess up your probation. The biggest problem in our system now is we are making a state of felons. Over the last several years, our conservative state leadership continues to make more and more crimes a felony or make it easier to get to a felony charge. For example, you get stopped with small amount of marijuana (any measurable quantity) and run down to OKC and pay a fine. No big deal. Several years later, you get stopped again with a marijuana pipe with residue in it. They scrape the residue out and charge you with felony marijuana possession. Do not think this doesn't happen......Bob Macy's office charged residue cases as MJ possession all the time and although Prater's office doesn't normally, other counties do.

Say you have a dui from when you were 19. Received a deferred sentence. Nine years later you hurt your back. You take a lortab that was prescribed by the doctor at 6 pm to help you sleep. The next morning (well after the pill has worn off), you have a fender bender on the way to work and have a concussion. The cop, mistaking your confusion caused by the concussion, thinks you are under the influence so he takes your blood. Under the newest DUI law passed....just the positive test for remaining inactive metabolites is enough to support the felony DUI (DUI-Drugs) charge you are now facing. No big deal....I'll hire an attorney and go to trial. Chances are you won't because in OK, this case carries a minimum 1 year up to 5 years in prison. When you look at the possibility of maybe 5 years in prison or taking a deal that guarantees no jail time....most people take the deal as they can't risk jail time.

I don't condone drinking and driving but their are a lot of innocent people that are arrested for DUI that are not DUI but they are unwilling to risk jail time. I also believe that every police car should have a dash cam (law in S. Carolina). It protects the police, the citizen, and the public. It makes the judicial system more efficient as everyone can see what happened. If the video shows client drunk....makes them more willing to negotiate. If the video shows client walking and talking fine, then makes the DA more willing to negotiate.

Thanks for the interesting post. At least one or two Oklahoma legislators, such as Rep. Cory Williams, tried objecting to that new DUI law, but got nowhere. I hope when DA's try to charge the wealthy over that law that they will scream bloody murder loud enough and threaten to cease contributions to the Republicans to make legislators abolish such a stupid felony.

I got arrested for DUI before, because I didn't perform the sobriety tests good enough to suit the cop. I hadn't anything to drink that day. There was no breathalyzer available, so the cop had to take me to the nearest hospital emergency room to have blood drawn from my arm to be sent off to get tested. It came back negative, so the charges were dropped.

I sure hope legalization of marijuana goes quite well in Colorado and Washington, so Oklahoma Republican legislators might become easier to persuade as to see how wrongly backward and overly punitive the laws are in Oklahoma over marijuana. But, gee, it took Oklahoma 25 years to legalize alcohol when the first states relegalized it in 1933. But hopefully in this more advanced age, the world and its attitudes move along faster, even in Oklahoma.

[Jeepnokc]

At least one or two Oklahoma legislators, such as Rep. Cory Williams, tried objecting to that new DUI law, but got nowhere. I hope when DA's try to charge the wealthy over that law that they will scream bloody murder loud enough and threaten to cease contributions to the Republicans to make legislators abolish such a stupid felony.

Agreed. Want to clarify though so no one thinks I was trying to mislead in my statement, the charge with no priors would be a misdemeanor unless there was a person under 18 in the car. My example was with the person having a prior deferred sentence for DUI within the previous ten years which would make the new charge a felony as OK also changed the DUI law where a prior non conviction deferred sentence can be used to enhance to a felony charge.


Fortunately you were smart enough to submit to the blood test. A lot of people (especially Texans) refuse the test because they come from states like Texas where you shouldn't take the test or they have been told that the tests are inaccurate. When preparing for trial on refusal cases, I will pull the intoxilyzer results of all the previous tests the arresting officer in my case performed in previous cases. Some of these officers (after taking out the under 21 and those who were charged with DUI drugs) are wrong 35-40% of the time. In other words, they arrested somebody for DUI that was not DUI. That's great that the machine caught those innocent people but what about the ones that didn't take the test...were the same percentage of those actually below the limit?

The Intoxilyzer isn't perfect. It is a government low bid machine. People do not realize that our on government does not know how the machine works. It runs on a source code that the manufacturer (CMI) will not disclose. There are several jurisdictions that have precluded the admission of any results as they won't disclose the code. There are some jurisdictions that looked at the Intoxilyzer 8000 and decided not to use it as they found issues with the machine but yet, OK tries to use this magical number to put people in prison. So no one thinks I am just blowing smoke, I do know a little bit about this subject. Oklahoma DUI Defense: The Law & Practice

That being said, it is always cheaper and safer for everyone to take a cab then it is to drive after drinking.

[kevinpate]

...

That being said, it is always cheaper and safer for everyone to take a cab then it is to drive after drinking.

That just screams out to be repeated.
A cab will pretty much always be way less expensive than just the first day cost of incarceration or the victim impact panel fee. So take a cab, please.

Folks who plead or are found guilty on even a misd. DUI charge also typically face these expenses:

Costs of incarceration,
Bondsman, unless you like orange jammies and sleep over and are able to get a OR bond the next day,
Attorney fees (even indigents can be assessed some level of fee after the fact for their 'free' appointed attorney provides services for them.
Court costs
Victim Impact Panel fee
DAETFTR (or whatever the acronym is for the obligatory training fee)
Substance Abuse Evaluation Assessment fee
DUI school
Fine
Court costs
Community Service Hours (from 20-80)
OCS, DOC or DA supervision fees

And then of course there is the whole DPS side of the house for license reinstatement later, after the many many months of having an interlock device on your vehicle.

And for our youngsters not yet 21, you need to call a cab more than anyone. your limit is not .08, but merely .02

[Mel]

That's why I do all my parting at home. I get used as the designated driver a lot. Script's lose their glamor when it just part of your daily maintenance routine.

[Bunty]

Those sobriety tests can be very hard to perform to the satisfaction of the cop while sober. They were surely standardized under the comfort of stress free indoor conditions. It can feel a lot different trying to perform such tests under the stress of being stopped from a cop and flashing lights around you. Shivering from a north wind blowing can ad to the challenge. And if you didn't understand the cop's directions as to how to perform a test and flub up, it will be counted against you. It's highly subjective as to what is thought good enough to pass. I've even seen it advisable to not ask people over age 65 to perform those sobriety tests.

Consequently, I use a portable digital breathalyzer to make sure I'm safe and legal enough to drive. Anything over .04 is a definite NO-NO. I have never been successfully charged with a DUI.

[Jeepnokc]

Those sobriety tests can be very hard to perform to the satisfaction of the cop while sober. They were surely standardized under the comfort of stress free indoor conditions. It can feel a lot different trying to perform such tests under the stress of being stopped from a cop and flashing lights around you. Shivering from a north wind blowing can ad to the challenge. And if you didn't understand the cop's directions as to how to perform a test and flub up, it will be counted against you. It's highly subjective as to what is thought good enough to pass. I've even seen it advisable to not ask people over age 65 to perform those sobriety tests.

Consequently, I use a portable digital breathalyzer to make sure I'm safe and legal enough to drive. Anything over .04 is a definite NO-NO. I have never been successfully charged with a DUI.

You are dead on. I am a NHTSA certified field sobriety instructor. These tests are highly subjective and being given to you by a person who thinks you are drunk. They do not tell you the scoring criteria before the test. The original SFST manuals stated that the tests were not valid for people over 65 or 50 pounds or more overweight. These two exceptions just disappeared from later manuals without any empirical data to warrant the removal of the exceptions. There have been several validation studies done over the years but the studies have flaw. Most of them were done in laboratory settings with people who had no fear of being arrested. A large number of the testing group were .15 BAC or higher which is basically shooting fish in the barrel. When we teach the course, we will dose testing subjects at various levels including having one with no alcohol in their system but we will have them swish Jack in their mouth so they have an odor of alcoholic beverage upon them. It is shocking the number of false arrests that occur.

Be careful with the portable breath testers (PBT) as they are not completely accurate. It is smart stopping way below the limit as you do as your BAC could be rising as you drive home. Also, always drink on a full stomach....it will keep your BAC lower. If taking a breath test....hyperventilate as it will lower the score a little if your are borderline. Finally....always request a blood test after taking their test and tell them you will pay for it. It is more accurate and is your right. (not intended as legal advice as many factors may effect the situation)