First of a four part series on the opioid epidemic affecting Western Monroe County
You are raising a great kid. Your teen comes from a loving home, achieves good grades, and is involved in sports or extracurricular programs. Of course, all teens sometimes experience moodiness or agitation. Maybe the behavior worsens, maybe they become more detached. But you’re not alarmed until you suddenly wake up to the nightmare that your child has a drug problem. What seemed impossible yesterday becomes a reality today. This is the face of “Generation Rx.”
“Good kids” are the growing segment of the opioid epidemic. More now than ever these kids are dying from addiction. Drug overdose continues to be the leading cause of accidental death in the United States, and the key driver is opioids.
Opioids are a class of drugs that include the illicit drug heroin, as well as the licit prescription pain relievers Oxycodone, Hydrocodone, Codeine, Morphine, Fentanyl and others. Opioids are chemically related and interact with opioid receptors on nerve cells in the brain and nervous system to produce pleasurable effects and relieve pain.
According to the American Society of Addictive Medicine, “Addiction is a primary, chronic and relapsing brain disease characterized by an individual pathologically pursuing reward and/or relief by substance use and other behaviors.” Over two million Americans 12 years and older have a substance use disorder involving prescription pain relievers.
ASAM reported in 2015 that over 275,000 children aged 12 through 17 were illegal users of pain relievers, 122,000 kids were classified as having an addiction to them, and an estimated 21,000 kids were using heroin. Many of these cases began with kids taking family members or friends unused pain relievers. They are naïve and unaware of the dangers of opioid use.
Is America in more pain than any other country? A whopping 80 percent of worldwide opioid consumption is in America. According to Express Scripts, Americans consume 99 percent of the global consumption of the specific opioid Vicodin, (Hydrocodone). In 2015 over 300 million prescriptions for opioids were issued in the United States, which was more than enough to provide every single American their own bottle of pain pills.
As this problem grew, laws eventually began to change and the way doctors prescribe pain pills has tightened, still the ramifications of this addiction is at epidemic proportions. According to the CDC, drug overdose deaths, especially opioid-involved deaths, continue to increase in the United States. CDC reports that a startling 91 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose. The death rates from opioids reached 72 percent in 2015.
Statistics show that four out of five new heroin users started out by the misuse of prescription painkillers. Surveys of people in treatment for opioid addiction said they eventually turned to heroin because prescription opioids were “far more expensive and harder to obtain.”
The majority of the deaths are from synthetic opioids including Fentanyl. Fentanyl is a pain reliever often used for cancer patients. Another high potency opioid is Carfentanil (elephant tranquilizer); it is 10,000 times stronger than morphine. When an overdose occurs, a person loses consciousness and stops breathing. Opioids affect the part of the brain that regulates breathing. Combining these drugs with alcohol or other drugs such as Xanax can increase risk to overdose.
The opioid epidemic continues to grip local communities. This summer, New York State was cited as “outpacing the nation in heroin deaths.” According to the NYS Comptroller, the death rate from these dangerous drugs surpassed national trends. The trend is even more apparent locally. Monroe County is heavily impacted by the heroin and opioid epidemic. According to the NYS Department of Health, Monroe County saw a huge increase in heroin overdoses in 2016. Although the county has not released its official 2016 statistics, it is expected to show a significant increase.
Prescription drug monitoring programs have helped control and limit opioid prescription abuse. At the same time, it has driven the street value of pain pills up and addicts are turning to cheaper drugs like heroin.
Lori, a suburban mom from the Churchville-Chili area has a son who is currently battling a heroin addiction. He began using marijuana and misusing Adderall in his early teens. It eventually led to his full-blown heroin addiction by the time he was in his 20’s. Lori said the street cost of an OxyContin can go for as much as $80 a pill and the kids can get heroin for as little as $5 a hit.
Lori recently lived through one of her worst nightmares, she and her husband found their son Ricky overdosed. He was in his bedroom, not breathing and foaming at the mouth. Thanks to their training, they were able to administer Narcan, the opiate overdose antidote, and saved their son’s life. Ricky still struggles with his recovery journey.
Using opioid drugs just a few times is highly addictive and extremely dangerous. Although temporary, it gives the user a calm euphoric sensation of escape from reality. Often with just two uses of heroin the user finds themselves imprisoned by the drug.
Heroin addiction is in one of the most deadly and debilitating addictions. Laurie Polatas of Hilton said her 18-year-old daughter was addicted after two days of heroin use. After a few months of hiding her use and growing addiction to heroin, Michelle told her Mom about her addiction. The news blindsided the Polatas family. Their daughter was always a good kid on her way to a nursing career and she never showed any indication that made her family feel she would ever use drugs.
After the destructive addiction took hold, Michelle’s recovery was not easy, it came about after her incarceration. When released, she had a lot of hard work to do in recovery. She is now 16 months clean and rebuilding her life with the help and support of her family and loved ones.
Craig Johnson, a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Addiction Therapist from Heuther Doyle Chemical Dependency Program, has been actively helping area addicts for over 25 years. Craig calls opioid addiction “the hijacking of the brain.” After working at Park Ridge Chemical Dependency, Craig spent the bulk of his career working in the chemical dependency program at the Monroe County Jail.
In 1994 he was instrumental in setting up the Monroe County jail chemical dependency program under Sheriff Andrew Meloni. This was a critical program based on the fact that the criminal justice system finds 85 percent of crime is based on substance abuse issues. Craig left the county jail a few months ago and is now Director at the Huether Doyle.
In Craig’s 25 plus years of experience he finds that substance abuse addiction is often a “Pediatric Illness.” Many opioid addicts begin using drugs and alcohol in middle school or early high school. According to Craig, “Young minds can progress with their addictions quickly and drug addiction can morph from one to another rapidly. The brain becomes dependent on the drug to feel good and it needs more and more of the drug to achieve the same result. Addiction often takes hold of these young lives by 18 years of age.”
He also said, “This opioid epidemic doesn’t have socioeconomic borders. Parents desperately want to believe their child is not at risk for this kind of a problem. Kids make it their full time job to fool their parents. Often they don’t tell the truth on social situations like sleepovers.” He strongly encourages parents to educate themselves on this drug epidemic, and to have open, ongoing discussions with their kids about it. He says, “Allow the child to share what they are facing and have both understanding and patience with them.”
According to addiction experts, preventing teens from abusing all drugs and alcohol means getting them through one of the most vulnerable times of their life. One of the early goals of prevention is to postpone their first drink until the teen’s brain has developed enough to enable responsible decision making skills. Statistics have identified certain teenagers are at a higher risk of developing a substance abuse problems. Recognizing risk factors can help families to implement important preventative help for the kids that need it the most. Common risk factors include:
•Children undergoing periods of transition: Switching schools, moving, middle school to high school give teens added pressures to fit in to older crowds and new social circles.
•Emotional/Mental health issues: Those suffering from mental health issues such as depression, anxiety and other mental health concerns have much higher risk. More kids than ever are suffering from anxiety with the ever-growing pressures of society.
•Lack of positive adult role models: Teens from broken homes or abusive homes are rarely educated on the consequences of drug abuse. Additionally, teens that grow up in a family with adults who abuse drug or alcohol are far more likely to abuse substances themselves.
To help keep your family safe, start by discussing all substance abuse concerns with your children. Keep communication open and be actively involved with their day-to-day life. A helpful link for parents and caregivers on how to talk to kids about opioid abuse is https://combatheroin.ny.gov/kitchen-table-toolkit.
Read more about the opioid epidemic in next week’s Suburban News, Hamlin Clarkson Herald and online at www.westsidenewsny.com to hear from local families in western Monroe county who have suffered from this addiction, tips on prevention, and finding local resources to help with addiction.
