Claris Law Legal Blogging Community

Name:

E-mail:

Phone Number:

Zip Code:

Your Question:

Editor: Jamie Sheller
Profession: Attorney at Law

Category: Actiq News

Actiq is a powerful narcotic painkiller approved for use in cancer patients who suffer pain that other, milder narcotics don't relieve. Unfortunately, only about one percent of Actiq prescriptions are written by cancer doctors. The drug comes as a flavored lozenge on the end of a stick much like a lollipop, and while marketing prescription drugs for off-label use is illegal, Actiq's maker - Cephalon - admittedly markets the drug to doctors besides oncologists, saying that many cancer patients get treated for their pain by physicians besides their cancer doctors.

While she wasn't prescribed Actiq for off-label use, Alicia R. Parlette of San Francisco talks about her Actiq addiction while dealing with cancer pain.

For almost six months I had been using Actiq, a powerful opioid painkiller shaped like a lollipop. The fast-acting lollipops helped me with breakthrough pain: the pain, often sharp, that pops up despite twice-daily doses of OxyContin. My pain doctor had told me three a day was the highest I should go. At the end of September, I was using four to six.

Or seven. Or eight. I can't remember because my mind was so foggy. I couldn't think of words I knew. I forgot most conversations as soon as I had them. As far as I can remember, I spent 12 of the 14 hours I was awake with a lollipop in my mouth (and often 10 of the 10 spent sleeping because I'd fall asleep with it).

Click to read Alicia's entire Actiq addiction story.