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Column: The Opioid Epidemic: A Wakeup Call for Everyone

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The panel for the Nantucket Project program “Addiction: A Conversation on Connecticut’s Opioid Addiction.” Left to right is Gary Mendell, founder of Shatterproof, Debroah Morgan LSCW from Rye, Tessandra Person, executive director of Family & Children’s Service of Nantucket County, Frank Reynolds, CEO of PixarBio, and Dr. Richard Lipton, Edwin S. Lowe Professor and vice chair of neurology, professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. (Anne. W. Semmes photo)
The panel for the Nantucket Project program “Addiction: A Conversation on Connecticut’s Opioid Addiction.” Left to right is Gary Mendell, founder of Shatterproof, Debroah Morgan LSCW from Rye, Tessandra Person, executive director of Family & Children’s Service of Nantucket County, Frank Reynolds, CEO of PixarBio, and Dr. Richard Lipton, Edwin S. Lowe Professor and vice chair of neurology, professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. (Anne. W. Semmes photo)

By Anne W. Semmes
Sentinel Columnist

Imagine the national outrage if 400 dolphins were to wash up on the shore in a single day,” is how Tom Scott, the cofounder of The Nantucket Project (TNP) chose to frame the tragic opioid and heroin epidemic that is happening in our state. He spoke before 100 people crowded into the TNP “town hall” meeting space on Mason Street recently to learn about “The Face of Addiction: A Conversation on Connecticut’s Opioid Addiction.”

There to help us learn were five hands-on people dealing with the effects of this epidemic: a neurologist/psychiatrist Dr. Richard Lipton from New York’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine; an addiction therapist, Deborah Morgan from Rye; a treatment center director from Nantucket, Tessandra Pearson; Frank Reynolds, the Boston-based CEO of a biotech company called PixarBio about to produce a non-opiate, non-addictive post-surgical pain treatment; and Gary Mendell, an Easton native and the CEO of the New York-based nonprofit Shatterproof he created after his son’s loss to addiction that is dedicated to educating people on “prevention, treatment and rescue.”

Tom Scott’s gathering beat the headlines the next day, when The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and National Public Radio featured the FDA issuing its most severe warning yet about the “potentially life-threatening risks of combining anti-anxiety or sleep medications with prescription opioids (pain killers),” and how this mix could cause “sleepiness, respiratory depression, coma and death.”

But the meeting came a week too late for my best friend, who had been suffering from chronic pain for a number of years after an injury and had taken pain pills. She had booked to attend the meeting with me, but passed away in her sleep three days before it.

Henceforth I share some of the shocking realities heard that night: “Based on data from 2014, drug overdose is now the leading cause of accidental death in the U.S. Of a total of nearly 48,000 lethal drug overdoses, nearly 19,000 overdose deaths are from prescription pain relievers. “The CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain,” which was released in March was said to be influential in getting these facts published. “Opioid addiction is driving this epidemic.” “Prescription pain killers are the feeders for heroin.”

“Pills are 10,000 times stronger… The drugs kids are taking today include tranquilizers for elephants. You don’t know what you’re getting.” “There needs to be black warning labels on opiate prescriptions.” A “total knee operation,” said to have the most painful recovery “has a 50 percent addiction rate from pain killers.” “Eighty percent of addiction starts with pain.” And yes, more people are dying from prescription drug overdoses than in car accidents.

The pertinent question is, “Before the doctor prescribes, is he or she checking the state database of what the patient has been prescribed?” Are patients “doc shopping” to obtain additional prescriptions? If so: “Doc shoppers are seven times more likely to overdose.”

(Regarding the importance of our state database as a watchdog over doctors’ overprescribing painkillers, the Wall Street Journal reports that “State prescription databases are playing an increasingly useful role in the battle against the U.S. opioid epidemic.” Doctors who are overprescribing could stand to lose their medical licenses.)

For the addicted, the panel contributed: “There’s a need to develop a sober support system.” Those opioid addicted need to know there is “no stigma.” “These are human beings with a brain disease.” “They need behavioral treatment.” “There is an amazing Addiction Recovery Center at Greenwich Hospital.” “Taking the pills down will reduce a lot of their problems.” When those addicted to pain killers get treated, “they get their life back.”

“We need to encourage families to be a part of their kid’s treatment,” came from attendee Dennis, who works with the addicted in Greenwich High School. “Programs involving families are more successful.”

It took this second and most sobering and eye-opening meeting, courtesy of The Nantucket Project, to show how I could have served as an educated advocate for my dear friend in her need for medication to treat her chronic pain.

Surely, this wakeup call is for all of us with loved ones in chronic pain or coming out of surgery, to be watchful and aware for those we love.

For more information on The Nantucket Project, visit www.nantucketproject.com.

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