heroin

Learn How YOU Can Be a Life Saving Hero – Cape Optional!

Posted on by Michelle Fritsch, Pharm.D.
Be a hero to prevent opioid overdose deaths
Be a super hero and save a life! Save opioid overdose deaths.

We need a hero! People are dying at alarming rates. Who is your favorite superhero? Have you ever dreamed of being a superhero? Can you picture yourself as a hero? [I’m curious, in your vision, are you wearing a superhero cape? What color?]

The need for a hero

The rate of overdose and overdose deaths is rising rapidly. It is hard to even fathom this epidemic. In particular, overdose rates with opiates are skyrocketing. Opiates are pain medications such as oxycodone, Percocet®, Oxycontin®, hydrocodone, Vicodin®, methadone, Fentanyl®, and more. An illegal opiate that is readily available is heroin. Now there are batches of heroin that are ‘cut’ with other drugs such as fentanyl and carfentanyl (used to sedate elephants). These mixtures are getting more and more dangerous.

The way these drugs are fatal are that they stop the breathing process. At low doses, for the treatment of pain, most people take prescription opiates and are fine. As the pain lessens, the use of the opiate should lesson. However, for some people the brain starts to beg for more and more. As the brain gets huge amounts of excitement through neurotransmitters such as dopamine, the rest of the body says, ‘Whoa, that is way too much!’ The body stops making its own supply of these neurotransmitters and it shuts down the receptors that move them along. So, it takes bigger and bigger doses to get the same effect. And, if someone suddenly stops taking the drug, withdrawal starts. This is a terrible feeling with nausea, vomiting, chills, agitation, anxiety, muscle aches, yawning, and more.

Not everyone who takes an opiate for their pain will ever feel this rush of excitement and have their brain demand more. One of the many problems right now, is there is no way to know who will get this rush of excitement that can lead to addiction and who won’t. People with a risk for addiction some in every age, gender, size, race, financial pattern, level of education, and geographic area.

There are many available statistics. Here are some from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC):

  • In 2014, almost 2 million Americans abused or were dependent on prescription opioids.
  • As many as 1 in 4 people who receive prescription opioids long term for noncancer pain in primary care settings struggles with addiction.
  • Every day, over 1,000 people are treated in emergency departments for misusing prescription opioids.

How you can be a hero

To be a hero, you just need to carry and know –

  • When
  • Why
  • How

to give Narcan® to someone who has overdosed on an opiate.

Naloxone is a medication that can block the receptors to opiates. When given, it puts the person is immediate withdrawal. If someone has overdosed and is either sound asleep and can’t be woken or has stopped breathing, naloxone can block those receptors and wake them up. If the overdose very recently occurred, it can help breathing start again. Naloxone can save the life of someone who has overdosed!

Outside of a healthcare setting, there are two products regular people are likely to use to save a life.

If you suspect an overdose, try to wake the person. When they don’t respond to shaking and talking to them, try rubbing their breastbone with your knuckles. If no response, TREAT!

  • Narcan® is a nasal spray
    • Put index and middle finger on either side of the nozzle
    • Put the nozzle in the nose
    • Push the plunger
  • Evzio® is an injection that goes into the thigh
    • The device tell you what to do
    • Remove the red cap
    • Put the device against the thigh
    • Push the button
    • Hold until the 5 second countdown is complete

The sudden withdrawal from the medication might cause the person to vomit or two be very surprised and angry. It does not feel good to be in sudden withdrawal.

It DOES feel good to be alive!

Call 911 to continue the person’s care and to help them into rehabilitation.

Note, depending on the opiate dose that was taken, after 2-3 minutes the person might need another dose if they go back to sleep. This is SUCH a brief description. Call us to talk about this in more detail at 410-472-5078, or e-mail me at michelle@medsmash.com, or contact us at www.medsmash.com/contact.

BIBLICAL APPLICATION

What is our role in this sad, alarming epidemic? Why is this happening? What are so many people struggling with addiction?

Are addicts bad people? Are they being punished? Are they ‘those people’? Before the addiction, were they different from you and your family?

I know many have these opinions about ‘them’.

I challenge you to respond with compassion and love for all people. Until a discovery is made of the ‘addiction gene’ or addiction identifier, each and every person prescribed an opiate beyond the time or dose needed for their pain or experimenting with an opiate could find him/herself instantly struggling with addiction.

I know some of you will disagree with the following, and I would love to hear from you.

I wonder how much of the current opiate addiction overdose epidemic is a sign of our stressed out time and how much is a challenge for us to demonstrate the length we will go to be compassionate and care for each other.

Ephesians 4:32 ESV

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Galatians 6:2 ESV

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Matthew 7:12 ESV

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Zechariah 7:8-10 ESV

And the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.”

I encourage you to rise to the occasion to show compassion, learn more, and save lives. You can contact me at michelle@medsmash.com

Blessings,

Michelle

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Narcotic Addiction – the epidemic and new strategies

Posted on by Michelle Fritsch, Pharm.D.
Meds bathroom
Prolonged use at higher than necessary doses can lead to opioid (narcotic) addiction

Narcotic addiction is now at epidemic proportions. Drug abuse has been with us for all of recorded time. The specifics of the drug(s) most commonly abused change over time. Sometimes the most abused drugs fall out of favor for a while and then reemerge. Common examples from the past few decades include LSD, cocaine, crack cocaine, and inhalants.

Right now, prescription opioid pain medicines (narcotics) are being abused at an alarming rate.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 2 million people abused or were dependent on opioid analgesics in 2014.

Refer back to last week’s blog. Terms are very important here. Dependence is a physiologic response to these medications. Anyone who takes them over time will have some changes in how their body handles pain signals. The body’s normal response takes a backseat to the medication. In order for the body to take over again, the medication needs to be titrated off slowly. If you stop the medication all of a sudden, the body goes through withdrawal. It can’t take back over the pain control that quickly. It needs time to gear up. NOTE, this type of dependence and withdrawal is different than ADDICTION.

Addiction

Genetic, psychosocial, and environmental factors all play a role in the creation of an addiction.

Addiction usually occurs when the opioid medication is continued after the pain has gotten better. Sometimes people keep taking the medication for the effects beyond the pain relief. Some people feel a euphoria or high while others are very laid back.   If they keep continuing the medication for this purpose, then addiction can occur. Not only are the body’s receptors letting the medication handle pain it is seeking these other effects. Over time it takes a higher dose more frequently to get the same amount of desired effect. So, doses keep going up and desire to take the medication is very strong.

The FBI and the DEA created a documentary about this addiction. If you would like to know more, I highly encourage you to watch this video. You can find it at this link: https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2016/february/raising-awareness-of-opioid-addiction/video/chasing-the-dragon-the-life-of-an-opiate-addict.

In March of this year (2016), the CDC released new guidelines for prescribing of these medications. If you would like to read them, you can find it at this link: http://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/prescribing/guideline.html . These guidelines are emphasizing less use.  Use only for moderate to severe pain.  Use at the lowest possible dose for the shortest time possible. There are other, non-addictive options for lesser pain.

When people addicted to prescribed opioid pain medications can’t get more prescriptions, they often turn to heroin. This is another opioid substance that is illegal but sadly, easier to get ‘on the street’. This allows the addicted person to keep getting the effects they are seeking. Note, at this point, addicted people realize this is a miserable, horrifying state. But the demands for more drugs override common sense. Again, I highly recommend watching the video created by the FBI and DEA.

So overcoming this epidemic is being addressed from the prevention side by the new prescribing guidelines. It is also being addressed through new medications and techniques to help people escape the addiction. So, there is hope for the future with this addiction!

If you would like to know more about narcotic addiction, new steps to address it, or similar topics, contact us at www.medsmash.com.

BIBLICAL APPLICATION

Temptation has been part of our world since Adam and Eve, the very first people. It did not take mankind long at all to prove how difficult resistance to temptation can be.

I first want to send a loud, clear message that love, compassion, forgiveness, and constant support are key elements of walking away from addiction. Rather than avoid, isolate, and punish those who find themselves addicted, we have a calling to reach out in love and be part of that crucial support network.

Proverbs 17:17 TLB

A true friend is always loyal, and a brother is born to help in time of need.

1 Peter 4:8 NIV

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

I want to write about temptation and the fact that it is a fact of life. God knows all about the temptations in our path. He is also there to help us through. And when we are entangled in a temptation that we did not resist, He is there to bring us back away from it.

1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

1 Peter 5:8 ESV

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

James 1:12-15 ESV

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

1 John 2:16 ESV

For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world.

I pray you are always aware of the temptation around you and the help available to you at all times from God. I also hope you find opportunities to reach out to those who have fallen into temptation and love them back out of that snare. That love might be tough love, but the Bible is full of examples of that too. Check out Luke 6:27-49.

Blessings,

Michelle