RALPH BAILEY: We must wake up to our prescription drug problem
| Friday, Jul 02 2010 05:18 PM
Last Updated Friday, Jul 02 2010 05:22 PM
When most Americans think of a "drug addict," they envision a junkie in a Harlem alley, a rubber band around his bicep and a needle sticking out of his arm. Or perhaps we see a 5'11, 135 pound "tweaker" in an Oildale parking lot chewing on his teeth from the methamphetamine high.
But rarely do the words drug addict conjure images of a middle class businessman who suffered a serious back injury in a water skiing accident 18 months ago but who is now still popping pain killers like Flintstone chewable tablets.
Experts insist the latter is slowly becoming the norm. Several high profile cases involving folks we never imagined could get caught up in such a dependency have begun to open our collective eyes.
Folks like Rush Limbaugh, arguably the greatest talk radio host in the nation, the then-wife of Kern County District Attorney Ed Jagels and Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre, who needed rehab to salvage his career, all seemingly willing to throw away everything ... to get high on pills.
"It's just so easy," said Lisa Faast, owner and operator of Faast Pharmacy here. "Pills are so prevalent in today's society, it's nothing to see someone go in their purse or pocket and pop a few pills."
And the side effects, Faast said, are not as obvious as drinking or being high on other controlled substances. "You can act fairly normal on pills. It's not until you totally bottom out and are seriously involved with the addiction until you do something to raise attention to yourself."
Yet, adults ruining their lives due to substance abuse is certainly nothing new. But what may surprise you is the growing crush school kids have on legitimate drugs.
"Kids today participate in what's called 'pill parties,'" Faast said. "Each child is asked to bring some pills and they all put them in a bowl and at the party kids go to the bowl and pick out pills and pop them.
"It totally amazes me that kids could be so reckless. I would have never thought of doing something like that when I was a kid."
Faast adds doctors rarely prescribe strong pain killers to children, so it's presumed they begin through recreational use or peer pressure.
And what's most frightening could be the fact experts agree that at least initially, YOU could be your child's pusher!
"Most kids begin by stealing from their parents," Faast said. But if they truly are addicted, ultimately the parents' supply isn't enough and kids resort to breaking the law like stealing, doctor shopping or forging prescriptions.
The problem extends into law enforcement.
There's the conviction of an Anaheim officer stopped three times high on prescription drugs.
Authorities convicted Kevin Noel Schlueter, 37, in Westminster of three separate cases. Initially police stopped Schlueter in his vehicle after driving erratically and weaving on the 405 freeway. Authorities discovered him under the influence of hydrocodone, hydromorphone, phenmetrazine and carisoprodol.
A second time officers found Schlueter slumped over in his car after slamming his personal vehicle through a backyard fence of a resident in Huntington Beach.
And in a third incident he slammed his car into three vehicles at about 1:30 p.m. in March. He then put the car in reverse and hit someone else. Finally, an ambulance driver placed him in the back of his rig until the cops arrived. His drugs of choice this time: phentermine, carisoprodol and oxycodone.
We don't yet know what was in his system but a Bakersfield police officer, 30-year-old Aaron Stringer, was arrested last Saturday by the BPD on suspicion of driving under the influence of a drug while in a patrol car. The results of chemical tests are still pending.
Faast said it's nearly impossible to determine if the officer merely made a mistake or if the arrest is the result of an addict bottoming out.
"Many people, particularly men, don't understand the power of prescription drugs and think they're big and strong and they can handle it when they really can't," Faast said.
While we try to figure out how to wean our kids off pills, many adult users have yet another fear factor.
Most of the muscle relaxers or hydrocodone, like Norco and Vicadin, are respiratory depressants, bad news for folks suffering from sleep apnea, according to physicians.
"About 70 percent of my patients with sleep apnea are men," said Dr. Hemmal Kothary, CEO of Highgrove Medical Center.
"The patient literally stops breathing for segments during the night. Hyrodocodone certainly puts even greater pressure on their ability to breathe and yes it can lead to death."
We can't fix a problem until we concede one exists. Kern County, America, we have a serious problem and for all our talk of protecting our children, we're passing this dilemma along to them like DNA or the federal deficit!
Ralph Bailey, who hosts a talk show on AM 1560 KNZR, is one of four conservative community columnists whose work appears here every Saturday. These are the opinions of Bailey, not necessarily The Californian. You can e-mail him at rbailey@bakersfield. com. Next week: Heather Ijames.
