10-03-2007, 02:47 PM
The Cherokee Scout
A Senior Moment
Drug abuse big problem in county By RON MACK
Tuesday, October 2, 2007 8:02 PM CDT Last week, I wrote about the hard drug abuse situation in Cherokee County, but in my interview with Sheriff Keith Lovin, I learned that prescription drug abuse was really the major substance abuse problem in Cherokee County.
How, you may ask, can that be? Remember the gateway drugs Lovin mentioned that start users on their way to the hard drugs? Well, prescription drugs are some of those gateway drugs. Prescription drugs such as Zanex, Methadone and the legal amphetamines that give an energy boost start the abuser down the path to hard drugs.
I asked the sheriff if there was much evidence of seniors abusing prescription drugs. He said no, that was not the problem. The issue with seniors is that they do have a real need for the drugs, but unfortunately their need is the abuser’s opportunity. Family members and other abusers know they can find the drugs in the senior’s medicine cabinet so they are easy targets for prescription drug theft.
But even more critical is Medicaid abuse by people purchasing prescription drugs not for medical use, but for the experience or feeling they cause. In other words the highs and lows they get. Lovin estimated that half of the county’s Medicaid expense was the result of illegal prescription drug purchases. In a report from the Addiction Technology Transfer Center Network, the common pain-killer prescription drugs Percocet, Percodan and Vicodin, and calming drugs such as Valium and Ativan, are among the drugs abused most.
These are drugs we see in TV commercials and magazine ads, and the drug companies never attach anything evil to them. Yet emergency room visits involving non-medical use of pharmaceuticals are horrific and usually involve multiple drugs as well as alcohol. The combination is a deadly one, and the worst abusers are young adult males who are the husbands and fathers producing dysfunctional families because of their drug abuse. It’s no wonder so many children are considered at risk with their family.
Lovin told me that the Drug Task Force, which has been in existence for several years, is now a partnership of Cherokee, Clay, and Graham counties with each county supplying two deputies. Their mission is to interdict and eliminate drug trafficking in the tri-county area. One deputy also is on the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Task Force, which provides liaison between the national and local level. Controlling prescription drug abuse is one of their toughest issues.
Drug abuse in Cherokee County is serious, but its affects go far beyond the user. It impacts each of us whether it’s being involved in an auto accident with a drug or alcohol-impaired driver, paying the cost of caring for children affected by their drug using parents, seeing the tragedy of addiction caused broken homes, or being the victim of a violent or property-related crime perpetrated by an abuser to finance their addiction.
Lovin and his deputies are in a difficult battle fighting on many substance abuse fronts while rendering their other necessary protective and enforcing services.
Cherokee County is a big county, one of the largest, if not the largest in North Carolina. Citizens can do their part to help combat the growing drug problem by being alert to behavioral changes in family members and friends, by reporting unusual and suspicious activities they might see, and by setting good examples for the young people in their family or others with whom they may interact. Su Diev!
http://www.thecherokeescout.com/article ... 782869.prt (http://www.thecherokeescout.com/articles/2007/10/02/community/doc470271b46a7fe984782869.prt)
A Senior Moment
Drug abuse big problem in county By RON MACK
Tuesday, October 2, 2007 8:02 PM CDT Last week, I wrote about the hard drug abuse situation in Cherokee County, but in my interview with Sheriff Keith Lovin, I learned that prescription drug abuse was really the major substance abuse problem in Cherokee County.
How, you may ask, can that be? Remember the gateway drugs Lovin mentioned that start users on their way to the hard drugs? Well, prescription drugs are some of those gateway drugs. Prescription drugs such as Zanex, Methadone and the legal amphetamines that give an energy boost start the abuser down the path to hard drugs.
I asked the sheriff if there was much evidence of seniors abusing prescription drugs. He said no, that was not the problem. The issue with seniors is that they do have a real need for the drugs, but unfortunately their need is the abuser’s opportunity. Family members and other abusers know they can find the drugs in the senior’s medicine cabinet so they are easy targets for prescription drug theft.
But even more critical is Medicaid abuse by people purchasing prescription drugs not for medical use, but for the experience or feeling they cause. In other words the highs and lows they get. Lovin estimated that half of the county’s Medicaid expense was the result of illegal prescription drug purchases. In a report from the Addiction Technology Transfer Center Network, the common pain-killer prescription drugs Percocet, Percodan and Vicodin, and calming drugs such as Valium and Ativan, are among the drugs abused most.
These are drugs we see in TV commercials and magazine ads, and the drug companies never attach anything evil to them. Yet emergency room visits involving non-medical use of pharmaceuticals are horrific and usually involve multiple drugs as well as alcohol. The combination is a deadly one, and the worst abusers are young adult males who are the husbands and fathers producing dysfunctional families because of their drug abuse. It’s no wonder so many children are considered at risk with their family.
Lovin told me that the Drug Task Force, which has been in existence for several years, is now a partnership of Cherokee, Clay, and Graham counties with each county supplying two deputies. Their mission is to interdict and eliminate drug trafficking in the tri-county area. One deputy also is on the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Task Force, which provides liaison between the national and local level. Controlling prescription drug abuse is one of their toughest issues.
Drug abuse in Cherokee County is serious, but its affects go far beyond the user. It impacts each of us whether it’s being involved in an auto accident with a drug or alcohol-impaired driver, paying the cost of caring for children affected by their drug using parents, seeing the tragedy of addiction caused broken homes, or being the victim of a violent or property-related crime perpetrated by an abuser to finance their addiction.
Lovin and his deputies are in a difficult battle fighting on many substance abuse fronts while rendering their other necessary protective and enforcing services.
Cherokee County is a big county, one of the largest, if not the largest in North Carolina. Citizens can do their part to help combat the growing drug problem by being alert to behavioral changes in family members and friends, by reporting unusual and suspicious activities they might see, and by setting good examples for the young people in their family or others with whom they may interact. Su Diev!
http://www.thecherokeescout.com/article ... 782869.prt (http://www.thecherokeescout.com/articles/2007/10/02/community/doc470271b46a7fe984782869.prt)